Who’s Next? – Help Me Win with a Tiny House Design

The other day I posted news of a design competition hosted by FreeGreen.com that’s called Who’s Next? If you’ve been reading Tiny House Design for a while you know that from time to time I present design concepts and ask for reader feedback and make refinements to the design.

I’ve decided to take this iterative design approach to the next level and develop a tiny house design for the Who’s Next? competition publicly. Over the next two months I’ll be periodically ask readers to help point me in the right direction.

The first question I want to ask you is which fictitious client profile should I choose to design a small home for? I have two choices, a young couple and a retired couple. To help answer the question here are the detailed descriptions of the two client profiles from the FreeGree.com website.

Profile 1: The Starter House

This is the story of Mark and Julie Maroney. Mark and Julie are young urban professionals beginning to plan a family and transitioning to the nearby suburbs. Mark is an Information Technology Director at a large firm, and Maria has been working as a nurse for various local hospitals. Maria and Mark love the open floor plan and style of the urban loft that they currently live in, but they both know that to get access to the public schools, small yard, and square footage they will need for their growing family a small, efficient, single family home is the answer.

Profile 2: The Not So Empty Nest

This is the story of Charles and Barbara Parker. The Parker’s both recently retired and are looking to downsize from their current home. Barbara and Charles currently live in a 4,000 sq. ft. colonial built in 1973. This structure has been their home for over 20+ years, but with their 2 kids gone and on their own, more than half of the home is rarely used. Unfortunately, Charles has recently gone through knee surgery (due to his years of involvement in Athletics) and he is very worried about his current and future ability to navigate stairs.

Charles spent his life working in the engineering department of a large auto company, while Barbara spent her life dedicated to promoting the arts working a various state programs and initiatives. The Parker’s plan to use their social security, retirement savings, and pensions as their source of fixed income during retirement. With the recent stock market crash both are aware of the dangers of fixed income living and both want their new home to be affordable with low maintenance costs.

Please point me in the right direction by helping me choose which client to design a tiny home for. Thanks!

[poll id=”11″]

Update: Readers voted 83 to 50 in favor of The Not So Empty Nest.

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