DCHS Students to Resume Work on Tiny House

August 30, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

Are you interested in purchasing a Tiny House?

Students in the DCHS Construction Technology (building trades) program began work last fall during school hours building their first Tiny House and it will be put up for sale to the public once it is completed later this year.

The 8’ x 24’ Tiny House stands up to 13 feet and 6 inches and sets on a modified trailer that can be anchored or moved from place to place.

Living accommodations in the Tiny House, although compact will include adequate living room, kitchenette, bathroom, and sleeping space.

Gary Caplinger, Construction Teacher at DCHS, said he had hoped to have the project finished before school was out for the summer but those plans didn’t pan out. Now that school is back in session, work will resume on the Tiny House after students finish a storage building currently under construction for a customer.

“The Tiny House is dried in and all the windows and doors are set. We haven’t started on the electrical yet but we have got the plumbing roughed in and it has been air tested. The next step is to get the siding on the outside, rough the electrical in, and then we will put some kind of heating and cooling system in it. Then its just a matter of putting the interior finish on it including whatever we put on the walls, the cabinetry, and that sort of thing. We’re hoping to build the cabinets here in the shop,” said Caplinger

“It has a sleeping loft and a living room/great room which opens to the kitchen where the sink is on one side and the cooking range will be on the other side. In the very back are the restrooms with a full three foot shower in it which should be comfortable and convenient to use. For space saving, we have a pocket door roughed in that doesn’t swing into the kitchen or restroom. It slides back into the wall. We build everything for space saving in a Tiny House,” added Caplinger

Once the Tiny House is completed, Caplinger said he would like to take it on the road to show it off at Tiny House venues before it is sold

“We’ve had a lot of interest in it. A lot of people have asked about it. We’re hoping this is something that catches on because if this one sells we would like to do another one,” said Caplinger.

Something that has caught on is storage buildings.

“We do a lot of storage buildings. We could stay busy all the time doing that. There’s always people wanting them. We’re real competitive in that. In fact we’re cheaper than you can go out and buy one. We just do a 10% mark up on materials,” Caplinger said.

“We have also done some furniture on rare occasions such as cabinet doors but we don’t do a lot of that because it is time consuming,” added Caplinger

If you are interested or would like more information about the Tiny House or a storage building contact Caplinger or Brad Leach, Career and Technical Education Director at DeKalb County High School.

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