Sonoma County Home and Garden Show presents good designs in a small package

One was to amend the zoning code to allow for temporary housing in emergency, transportable housing units, including tiny homes, as defined by the California building code.

“What we’re really doing is adding standards to allow temporary units in advance of building an ADU (accessory dwelling unit, or what used to be called a granny unit or guesthouse),” said Bradley Dunn, policy manager for Permit Sonoma. “If you’re going to build an ADU, you can have a tiny unit,” Dunn said.

Previously, temporary units were allowed only to facilitate a caregiver, if a homeowner was undertaking a remodel of a main home or for wildfire victims waiting to rebuild.

These units can be up to 400 square feet. They have to be on wheels and meet the same codes as RVs for road safety, Dunn said. People can apply for a one-year permit that must be renewed annually.

Another major impediment to tiny house placement was a requirement that they connect to sewer or septic, which can be prohibitively expensive. Now with the new changes, the owner of a tiny home can have a “hold and haul contract” with a state-licensed toxic waste hauler in lieu of connecting to an existing septic system.

Sonoma County also may now allow composting toilets, subject to staff review and approval of the plans and equipment needed.

Dunn said the changes provide “a framework” to satisfy health and safety concerns of the community and the people living on the property, while also recognizing other health and safety problems are inherent in people simply not having a home.

Tasteful and not tacky

Consultants like Lindsay are trying to raise the standards of tiny homes while also helping to shift any public perception that they are like trashy trailers. There are luxury tiny homes now allowed in some high-end motor coach resorts, Wood said, with heated pools and hot tubs.

A growing number of people are intrigued by tiny homes, as a path to homeownership, an affordable housing alternative or to commit to live more lightly on the Earth. And the tiny house industry is evolving.

“The tiny-home industry is nimble. It’s unique. It’s innovative with modern design and demands for smaller home living. But these do not have to be micro-homes of 100 to 200 square feet,” Lindsay said.

Visitors to the home show this weekend can walk through several model tiny homes from two different manufacturers, including a $120,000, 28-foot-long luxury tiny home by Mendo Tiny Homes. It comes complete with full-size appliances, quartz countertops, a full bathroom with tub and a spiral staircase leading from an open floor plan living room to a two-bedroom loft above.

“But a lot of people don’t want lofts. They want a downstairs bedroom. That’s why we have a sign that says, ‘If you can imagine it, we can build it,’” said John Johnson, who just launched the Ukiah-based company after installing a few tiny homes on his own property.

The model he built to take to home shows is certified to go into mobile home or RV parks. It has lots of bells and whistles packed into 359 square feet, Johnson said, including radiant-heat flooring, a full-size sink and vanity, a five-burner stove and a full-size farmhouse-style porcelain sink.

“The entire interior finish is all solid pine and painted white. There is no particle board in the entire house,” he said.

Although it’s perhaps a quarter of the size of the average 1,625-square-foot home in California, a luxury tiny home is built to feel roomy. Johnson said his master bedroom of 72 square feet could accommodate a king-size bed.

Room for privacy

Lindsay said she and her husband both work out of their tiny home, which they wound up finishing themselves after the Texas builder they contracted with to built it went bankrupt. Eric works in the open living area while Lindsay works in her office.

So why not just buy an RV? Lindsay said tiny homes are built to higher standards than RVs, with better-insulated walls for year-round living.

Three things make a tiny house feel bigger: height, light and white.

When it’s built on a trailer, a tiny house can’t be taller than 13.6 feet, to fit under highway overpasses. But the Woods still managed to have 10-foot ceilings in their home and 11 windows, including upper clerestory windows that are good for ventilation.

The Woods lived for a while in Sebastopol, on a piece of private land they rented, without permits, until COVID-19 hit. Then they moved in with her parents in Ukiah during the pandemic. Now they’re set up in an upscale luxury RV park with water and sewer hookups in Prescott, Arizona. They’re in the process of trying to launch a 250-home tiny-home village.

Lindsay is an outspoken advocate for creating more places for tiny homes to settle and be a reasonable and reasonably easy housing alternative.

The finance industry is responding to the growing interest in tiny homes by offering more loans for tiny homes to make them even more affordable, although the interest rates tend to be higher than for standard single-family homes.

The Woods’ home is 32 feet long by 8 ½ feet wide, yet it’s big enough to suit their needs. For Lindsay, that meant, among other things, a full bathtub for soaking.

Lindsay’s credo for happiness in a tiny home? “If you’re going to decrease the space you live in, increase the luxuries and amenities.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.