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Story by Mark Aiken/Photos by Carolyn Bates

Small WondersBurlington’s Tiny Homes: A social movement, Queen City style

GROWING UP IN BURLING-ton’s South End, Al Longe passed a small, square, cream-

color building on Howard Street across from his father’s Longe Brothers grocery store thousands of times. “I never really thought much about it,” Al says. “It was just a small house.” This was before the recent explosion in interest and popularity of tiny hous-es—and before Al’s father Ed purchased the Howard Street house (along with the commercial building in front of it) in 1968. “We’ve all seen the shows,” says Al. “You take a limited amount of space and make it work. It’s exciting.” Tiny houses are just that—living spaces often on wheels, always smaller than 500 square feet, and sometimes as small as 100 square feet—and interest has never been

higher. Al Longe has owned and rented out the tiny house on Howard Street for 35 years. The house is certainly nothing special—a square and a flat roof. Is it a livable space? Consider this: in 35 years, Al has rented to just four tenants—one of which was a family of four. Move about Burlington, and you will find plenty of tiny structures. Many of them are just garden shacks and tool sheds, but some—such as Maggie Sher-man’s Carpe Diem cottage on Lakeview Terrace—have been renovated as unique living spaces. Examine a few of Burling-ton’s tiny houses and you learn. You learn about the tiny house movement and what has caused the sharp increase in interest. You learn about Burlington, its commu-nity, and what is important to those who live here. And you learn about the times

we live in, because the tiny house move-ment is as much a reaction to the times as it is an architectural trend.

Tiny Homes as Means of ExpressionIf the tiny house on Howard Street is a blue-collar sample, the next stop on our tour of tiny homes in Burlington—Mag-gie Sherman’s One of a Kind Bed and Breakfast on Lakeview Terrace—is a tourist stop. The B&B actually includes two spaces, the first of which is an up-stairs room in Maggie’s Victorian home, circa 1904. The second space, however, is the tiniest purple-and-blue cottage you’ve ever considered spending the night in. Formerly the detached garage next to the Victorian, Maggie renovated the 18-by-13½-foot structure eight years ago. Tiny homes, says architect and local

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houses is a reaction to society’s inability to deal with challenges that face human-kind, for example, climate change and sustainable living. “We realize our car-bon footprint is destroying us,” he says. “One’s house becomes a fundamental way to express concern about the direc-tion we’re headed.” The idea that her tiny house, her busi-ness, and her home are forms of expres-sion resonates with Maggie. “I love tiny spaces,” she enthuses. “I love their effi-ciency.” One of her B&B’s first guests, she says, compared her tiny cottage to a cabin on a sailboat. “Art and the environment are visceral, not just visual,” she contin-ues. “I appreciate how a well-designed boat works.” In furnishing and decorat-ing her tiny space, she also appreciates the domino effect that every decision can have. For example, using a full-size bed in the tiny house instead of a queen—al-though this only represents a few small inches—affects how the space functions. And this minute cause-and-effect re-lationship is the same as the decisions of a few tiny home owners—and how they might affect the world.

Tiny Homes Are Big DecisionsAndy Simon and Ruby Perry had a pretty good idea they were cut out for tiny house life in Burlington. After selling their con-ventional home in Jericho, they rented a couple of apartments in Burlington (dis-covering that Queen City life appealed to them). Then they bought an old school bus. They traveled and lived in their bus for two years, during which time, says

Andy, they learned that they could in fact tolerate one another while inhabiting a confined space. Andy and Ruby asked themselves what they wanted in their lives and how they wanted to live. “We wanted to be close to our daughter and our soon-to-be grand-son,” says Andy. Their daughter and son-in-law closed on a home in the Five Sisters neighborhood of Burlington, and Andy and Ruby soon pitched their idea: to build a tiny house in the backyard. The project included learning every-thing there is to know about a city’s zon-ing regulations, but once the necessary permitting was behind them, the tiny house immediately became a means of self-expression. First off, their street cor-ner is a heavily traveled bike and foot route, so their construction project be-came almost a form of performance art, as seemingly every passerby had a friend-ly greeting. Passerby: “You building a shed?” Andy: “No, it’s our house.” Inevitable and incredulous passerby response: “Really?” Although not artists by trade, they constructed a beautiful tile mosaic in the bathroom that includes shards from Ruby’s favorite tea mug. But the home is mostly an expression of the couple’s ap-proach to living—a commentary on how they think it should be done. Their home’s footprint is small—just 500 square feet on the outside—but they made the con-scious decision to build walls that were a foot thick and filled with foam. That’s right: they gave up 100 square feet (or

magazine publisher Mannie Lionni of Burlington, are simultaneously steeped in history and a product of the times. For historical perspective, think of Henry David Thoreau living in his 10-by-15-foot cabin in the woods near Walden Pond. More recently (but not that recently), E.F. Schumacher celebrated simple ap-proaches to living in his 1973 collection of essays, Small Is Beautiful. The desire to live simply, to down scale and downsize, and to economize is not new. So why the newfound interest? Maggie is an artist whose work cel-ebrates people and community, and one gets the sense that her work and her life blend into one. Her tiny house, then, is another form of expression—like one of her pieces of artwork. “I’m selling an experience,” she says. Her experience includes a naturally lit space combining sitting area, bedroom, and kitchen. It in-cludes being surrounded by a beautiful garden and by breathtaking views of Lake Champlain. And it includes a combina-tion of furnishings found at garage sales, second-hand places, and IKEA. Her B&B’s website includes alternative modes of transportation, attractions in her city, and a link to a site that calculates your carbon footprint. The “breakfast” part of her B&B is simple and healthy, and it features whole foods and hormone-free milk and yogurt. The fact that her renovation used green methods is impor-tant to her. The tiny house movement is a social movement. For Mannie Lionni, the modern upsurge in interest for tiny

Al Longe has owned and rented out this basic, boxy but eminently functional tiny house on Howard Street for the past 35 years, and it has served as home for a total of four tenants (one, a family of four) during that time span.

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Artist Maggie Sherman (below) owns One of a Kind Bed & Breakfast. One of the B&B’s two spaces is this charming little purple-and-blue cottage named Carpe Diem that has it all: a bathroom, bedroom/living room, and kitchen all unbelievably packed into an 18-by-131/2-foot, fully renovated garage.

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20 percent of their living space) in order to build the most energy-efficient house possible. Meanwhile, their south-facing house has plenty of windows to net a very posi-tive solar gain. “We know that inefficient houses are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and waste,” explains Andy. “This is our personal gesture toward turning around climate change. We hope this would be a model for others in Burl-ington.” Isn’t this how performance art is supposed to work?

Communities of Tiny HousesLiving in a tiny home forces you into cer-tain things. “It requires that you don’t accumulate a lot of stuff,” says Andy. For everything he buys, he must ask: will it fit? Does he really need it? What can he get rid of to make room? “You also learn respect,” he adds. For example, if your partner lives in the same tiny space, you need to take care not to make noise if that person is asleep. Or, in Andy and Ruby’s case, if one lives in the backyard of one’s daughter and son-in-law, respect for each other’s space is crucial. “It would get old fast, I’m sure, if we just barged in without first sending a text,” he says. Andy, Ruby, and their family, however, get to take advantage of some communal

living principles: shared labor and equip-ment for yard, home, and gardening proj-ects. There is just one car between them. And Ruby and Andy also provide a valu-able service: childcare for their grandson. Ibnar Avilix doesn’t live in a tiny house, but he has a tiny house vision: commu-nal tiny house villages. Known as Brian Goblick until just a few months ago, Ib-nar rearranged and changed a few letters in his name to symbolize a change in his approach and lifestyle: “I’m devoted to ac-tivism and community service,” he says. Most agree that Burlington faces a housing crisis, but few agree on the best solution. Ibnar has his opinion: a com-munity of tiny homes. Thirty years ago, the city used federal funds to start a com-muter highway project that was never completed. The Southern Connector still sits, a slab of concrete next to the exit of Interstate connector 189. Shuffling pa-pers, Ibnar pulls out a sketch of neighbor-hoods of tiny houses. “Four houses could share a bathroom and kitchen,” he says. “Communal living and sensible decisions are the way forward.” He sees space for 200 tiny homes on the slab. Who knows if a community of tiny houses solves Burlington’s housing crunch? “We need to be creative and imaginative in regard to the housing cri-sis,” says Andy Simon, but Ibnar is a big

thinker when it comes to tiny living. His ideal tiny house would be constructed of locally harvested cedar branches shaped like a pom-pom. “I call it ‘Le petit maison de Pom-Pom,’” he says. Like some tiny houses, his would be mobile, but not on a traditional trailer mount or float. It would be unconventional, and of its siting…you might say the sky is the limit: “I imagine this livable pom-pom being hoisted into the blue sky by a traditional hot-air bal-loon and brought to a mountain to nestle on its morning slope beside a creek,” he says. If you are thinking of changing your lifestyle to fit into a tiny house, you can’t be afraid to dream big. Tiny houses are not new in Burlington or anywhere else. In 2016, however, there is something new: a feeling that somehow this is the last chance to make things right. Al Longe, Maggie Sherman, Andy Simon, and Ibnar Avilix understand that time may be short. They understand that small can be—and indeed is—beautiful.

Mark Aiken is a ski instructor and freelance writer who lives in Richmond, VT with his wife Alison. Marathoners and triathletes, they are fully involved in a grueling new up-and-coming endurance sport: parenting. Carolyn Bates is a professional photographer who lives and works in Burlington, VT. To see more of her work, visit carolynbates.com.

Ibnar Avilix (left) is a big thinker and certainly not bound by convention when it comes to his visionary approach to tiny living. Here, he sketches a concept drawing of a tiny house constructed of locally harvested cedar branches shaped like…a pom-pom.

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Andy Simon and Ruby Perry’s tiny, energy-efficient house, sited with passive solar in mind, is just 400 square feet on the inside and was built with thick, super-insulated walls. They built it in the backyard of their daughter and son-in-law’s house in Burlington’s Five Sisters neighborhood.