Distinctly Montana Magazine

M Y M O N T A N A H O M E 8 8 T HE REAL ESTATE MARKET IN MONTANA TODAY POSES CHALLENGES THAT WE'VE NEVER HAD TO FACE BEFORE. Despite the abundance of wide-open space, houses and property are at more of a premium than ever. For many, owning a house seems out of reach, an unaffordable extravagance. Others, conscious of their environmental footprint, are looking to disrupt the traditional home-building paradigm in different ways. And then there are folks who, after spending a year or more working from home, are just looking to maximize their space in the most efficient way possible. The tiny house looks, increasingly, to offer unexpected and innovative solutions for folks in any of those camps while hearkening, in a way, back to the ultimate small, energy-efficient houses: Montana's traditional tipis and first homesteads. After all, there was a time not so long ago that energy-efficient housing wasn't just a wise choice, but a necessary part of an often rough life. Small family dwellings were made of sod and dirt. Native Americans made small and centrally heated homes out of animal skins and sticks. In the last century, however, the importance of ingenuity and conservation in the construction of our homes has taken on a new urgency. The rising price of energy and the increasing scarcity (and again, cost) of materials make us reconsider how we live. In the past, scarcity made waste an unaffordable luxury, while today's price makes it an unforgivable profligacy. Nano houses (that's "nano" for small, of course) originated as an idea in Sweden. They are very small, usually made out of new or alternative building materials and feature small but intelligently utilized spaces. The world is fast getting hip to the versatility of small, free-standing structures such as these, and Montana's not far behind. A few years ago, I was standing in Paul House's yard (behind the historic Bozeman Cottage) on a sunny day on the cusp of summer. Rain overnight had softened the ground, and a pair of robins plucked worms while a hen clucked enviously from the other side of a fence. "And there you can see the spot where my old Airstream was for nine years until yesterday," laughed Paul, a picture of good old-fashioned health, much the same as his yard. He was showing me the nano house that he built. A small self-sufficient structure that aimed for energy efficiency, it was part of the housing revolution at work. Paul's was small and stylish ("I wanted it to look nice, but not as if it was assembled by Ikea," he said), with windows de- signed for optimum sun and a roof that sloped gently forward. At 161 square feet, it was cozy, and served as Paul's office. Even in vast Big Sky country, small structures like the nano house offer myriad benefits. As Paul pointed out, "The free-standing aspect of the studio or house or office adds privacy and is simpler than attaching an addition to an existing home." And since he only used a wood stove and about 20 amps of electricity, it was beyond green. As I inspected the rustic landscaping he put around the spot, it seemed even the decorations were green, made from the bottom halves of reclaimed and literally green-tinted glass bottles. For Paul, and the many pioneers of sustainable housing in Montana, the available building materials include things that would have boggled the imaginations of early Montanans, like How Tiny Houses Look Back to the Future Modern Homesteads by JOSEPH SHELTON Cottage made from concrete and other reclaimed materials by Terry Davenport When remodeling, Mark Weirich sometimes takes the house back to studs, joists, and rafters before adding high-efficency aspects.

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