Carpenter Peter King serves as a model of commitment to a life of simplicity where less is actually more.

King is devoted to constructing tiny houses that average 10 feet by 10 feet in size and cost $1,500 without labor and windows. His goal is to have communities of tiny houses surrounding a shared garden and kitchen. In the current economic crisis, it’s a great goal for the future.

A communal dream

King's vision of a community of small homes has been slowly grabbing attention. (Photo by Kayla Sibilia)

“It is my dream to have a community of these homes around a garden and that sounds a little radical, but if things continue to get bad, it might not seem so radical,” King said.

King hopes for a day when a dozen tiny houses can each live off of one-eighth of an acre of land on a year-round vegetarian diet and share one communal kitchen, he said.

“In a tiny house, you can work less, spend less and in turn worry less,” he said.

He realizes that his dream of tiny houses might be viewed as far-fetched, but still hopes to spread awareness about simple living, he said.

“The best thing about living in a tiny house is the free time,” King said. “Why would you want to spend more than three days a week working?”

Simple instructions for a simple house  

King instructs people on how to build 10 foot by 10 foot houses in a single day. (Photo by Kayla Sibilia)

On March 28, King conducted one of his tiny house workshops in Burlington that have gained popularity within the last year. King, a gentle and soft-spoken man, dressed in plain slacks and a tattered blue cotton shirt, stood before a group of 12 people who were ready to learn the basics of building a tiny house.

It was a great opportunity to learn some basic carpentry skills, said one of the workshop’s attendants, Dan Donnelly of Williston.

Most attendees see the tiny houses as a chance to build extra bedrooms, guesthouses or teen-hangout places on their own properties. Not everyone wanted a cookie-cutter version of King’s tiny house vision, but they all shared an interest in small homes and their role in the sustainability movement.

Jane Butler of Maryland owns a summer camp in Charlotte and traveled to the workshop to learn about tiny houses as an opportunity to build extra cabins, she said.

“There seems to be a lot of interest and it’s great because tiny houses are scalable,” said Chris Gordon, of Efficiency Vermont.  “The principles of building a structure in one day is useful for any project. It’s a good foundation for anyone,” he said.

St. Michael’s activists believe King’s vision is attainable

Cecilia Leibovitz had been checking out the tiny house blogs and video when she and her husband, Michael Secore, decided to build a tiny home on their property in Craftsbury.

King is hopefull that his idea of communal living will catch on. (Photo by Kayla Sibilia)

King recommended Secore’s house be built according to the golden mean symmetry proportions of nature, which is 12 feet by 12 feet by 19.5 feet long, Secore said.

The couple live in a large Victorian-style home in Montpelier with four children and a high mortgage, which they are excited to no longer pay when they move to the tiny home, Secore said.

Secore hopes to build more tiny houses and make a couple of interconnected buildings.

“If I had known a fraction of what I now know two years ago, I would have been on that land in Craftsbury already,” he said. “These houses from a hundred years ago are beautiful but horribly inefficient,” he said.

King calls on a shift in consumer culture that involves reconnecting with nature. The “corporate consumer carnivore capitalism” that exists in America needs to change, he said.

Senior Green Up member Dan Sandberg thinks King’s vision is extreme but believes he serves as a good role model to work toward because people don’t need all the gadgets to live a happy life, Sandberg said.

“We need these types of people. They are the Gandhis of the environmental movement. While most people aren’t going to be them, perhaps they represent something to strive toward,” he said.

The traditional lifestyle is a disaster because people aren’t able to share, King said.

“We have all these toys and we still aren’t happy,” King said. “Eventually all of your toys begin to own you, instead of you owning them.”