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Tiny Wish House
by Gillian Wilson
When our nearly 6 year old son was diagnosed with Leukemia last year time stopped, waiting for our brains to catch up. As I lay in hospital beds, and then at home with my son, we looked at books about tree houses. We had wanted to build one.
Children with cancer are all given a wish from the “Make a Wish” foundation. Right away, Eli wished for a tree house. MAW does not do tree houses any longer due to liability. So he regrouped, and asked for a fairy tale cottage in our yard, like in Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. As a paranoid mom, I realized the scale of his wish was greater than MAW could provide. I did not want a kid-sized playhouse that would be forgotten in just a few years.
I envisioned a functional tiny house that could serve our family for all our lives here in many ways. I was really concerned that the structure be safe for him since a big enemy of this cancer is fungus and molds. I wanted double paned windows, insulation, electricity so we could heat and HEPA filter, and water. We withdrew our wish, and I calculated up what we might have spent on vacations and restaurants over the next 3 ½ years. We did a little re-fi, and hired two local builder friends. Over the course of the worst part of his treatment he and I scoured every entry on Tiny house blog looking for ideas. I drew, and planned and got input from Eli over every aspect of the design.
It transformed from a very elaborate (unaffordable) curved roof Bavarian style cottage…to a simple 16 x 16 foot cabin. A feature I would not give up was a full staircase into the loft sleeping area. This is why I went with 16 x 16 rather than a smaller footprint. The builder talked me into a full upstairs since cost was about the same either way. The original set of drawings I also included a small bathroom with composting toilet. I nixed that during construction due to budget and opted for a sawdust toilet concealed in a chest upstairs.
Eli is into the much easier maintenance chemo now and has just over 2 more years left on therapy. Thankfully, the cure rate for childhood Leukemia is very high. Our tiny house has brought distraction, joy, and hope. The house provides a place for our friends to come visit which brings even more joy.
I had a friend tell me it is like entering their own childhoods againwhen they enter the house. I love our tiny house, more than our big house…and could easily live in it full time. Thanks for reading our story.
Gillian in Oregon
Site for cabin
Area leveled, trenched for electric/water/phone and 4 inches of rock layer down.
Post and beam floor structure
First floor going up and very curious dogs assisting the builders. At this point, the dogs still believe we are making this for them.
Second floor, roof and shed dormer. The downstairs plywood subfloor will get a layer of foam insulation and framework built for 2″x6″ douglas fir planks to go down on top making a very stout “floor sandwich”. The upstairs is the same douglas fir decking flipped upside down giving the downstairs an exposed beam ceiling. This was more cost efficient than other flooring options I looked at.
Getting reading for roofing. Starting to look like a cabin. The front of roof has a 3′ overhang so there is a dry place to sit. All eaves are 24″ to further protect the structure from the ridiculous amount of rain we get.
Yeah – steel roofing is up, and siding/windows on. One of our builders is a local timber framer. He has a mill and milled all of the cedar siding for the board/bat. He used live edge cedar to trim out the windows, and later would use live edge of various species to do the interior window trim.
Here you can see the live edge window trim, and also the lovely sweeping arches supporting the roof. I used copper chain as down spouts on the gutters.
Here you can see the live edge window trim, and also the lovely sweeping arches supporting the roof. I used copper chain as down spouts on the gutters.
Finally – a door! Another feature we did not want to give up on was having an arched top dutch door. This was worth the wait. Adirondack Naturals in new York made the door and gave Eli the gift of the great door knocker you see there. Cabin is finished in Eco-fin by sun frog. All of the external and internal finishes used are no VOC, or as low as I could find. Our timber framing friend found this great clear cedar lap siding at a clearance warehouse and did the soffits in cedar too.
Panel in. We did our own electric with the help of neighbor friend who tied it into our shop power.
Done! Want to see inside?
My favorite part of the house is this newel post made by a local Chainsaw carver (gallery at Alder Creek). He also made a lot of the cabin furniture. i found the quote from Christopher Robin, and it sums up the reason for building this cabin.
Dining area
Kitchen. I found damaged Hickory cabinets ½ off at big box store. and Oak counter from Ikea…world cheapest kitchen! I splurged on a copper sink for its anti-microbial properties.
Living room area
Upstairs bedroom with Hemlock ceiling. I wanted a skylight over the bed so our 2 sons could watch the stars in winter.
Other view of upstairs. Cedar tree used as support for pony wall.
The coveted dutch door. If I could do this again – I would have had this made in anything other than pine…It swells like crazy and is either loose, or stuck shut.
and finally a close up of the shelves in kitchen. Black walnut shelves – again from our timber frame friend and wood packrat. I love these!
