With the feverish pace of tragic events in this world and the condition it is in, it can become easy to go "numb inside". Almost to the point of losing empathy for the victims, and loved ones of these near daily heinous acts.
Sometimes we need to "put a face" on such tragedies to personalize them, rather than think of them as far, far away from our own little bubble.
From left, Mo, Otis and Evie Norris, who died along with grandfather Nick Morris
The tales of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 cover the emotional spectrum — from the heart-wrenching tragedies of those who boarded to the fortunate few whom fate kept away.
They included a family that lost two loved ones in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 last March — and then lost two more in Thursday’s disaster.
All told, 298 people — including 80 children — fell from the sky in the missile strike, their bodies scattered over a war-torn patch of Ukraine.
‘Gentle, clever and beautiful kids’
They are the most innocent victims of Flight 17.
Some 80 children — including siblings Mo, Otis and Evie Maslin — were killed when a missile struck the flight over Ukraine.
“Anything that leads to innocent children being shot out of the sky is not where we should be heading,” the Australian siblings’ aunt, Natalia Gemmell, told the Perth Now news site.
‘ANYTHING THAT LEADS TO INNOCENT CHILDREN BEING SHOT OUT OF THE SKY IS NOT WHERE WE SHOULD BE HEADING.’
- Natalia Gemmell, Victims' Aunt
Mo, 12, Otis, 8, and Evie, 10, were flying back to Perth, Australia, with their grandfather, Nick Norris, 68, after a vacation.
Norris had joked to relatives before about how eerie it was to be taking Malaysia Airlines, which lost a jetliner in March.
The kids were headed back for the start of school, while their parents, Rin Norris and Anthony Maslin, stayed in Amsterdam for a little alone time.
Gemmell recalled Nick Norris, her father, as “a great man” and her nephews and nieces as “gentle, clever, beautiful kids.”
She said she felt fortunate she got to tell her father “I love you” one last time.
“I spoke to him just before he caught the plane to find out when he was leaving and told him I loved him and told him I’d see him when he got back,” she told Perth Now.
Karlijn Keijzer, 25, was a star member of the Indiana University rowing team.Photo: Indiana University
Dutch-born Indiana University student Karlijn Keijzer was “a bright star” at her school who wanted to “make the world better through science,” her dean said Friday.
The 25-year-old member of the rowing team just finished her fourth year at IU.
“Karlijn was, by all accounts, a bright star in the IU constellation, a gifted student and athlete, and a talented researcher with a passion for making the world better through science,” said Larry Singell, dean of IU’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Just before leaving for a short summer vacation, Keijzer was working on a computer simulation of an anti-cancer drug she hoped would also be able to help treat people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Keijzer taught an introductory organic chemistry class as well as a higher-level course on biochemistry and biosynthesis.
The researcher was also “unquestionably the leader of the best boat we had that year,” said her rowing coach, Steve Peterson.
Humanitarian was heading on vacation with family
Globe-trotting humanitarian Tessa van der Sande was taking a break from her goodwill work to spend some quality time with her family in Indonesia.
But they never made it.
She and her parents went down with Flight 17 — and friends of the 27-year-old Amnesty International worker from the Netherlands said her loss will be felt far and wide.
Tessa van der Sande, 27, was a member of Amnesty International.
“Our thoughts go out to all who lost loved ones to flight #MH17, including friends & family of Tessa van der Sande, an @amnestynlcolleague,” Amnesty UK tweeted Friday.
The hazel-eyed brunette was a seasoned traveler who had lived abroad in Sudan and France.
She also took her activism to social media — posting a picture with a huge white banner saying “Free Pussy Riot,” the feminist punk-rock group based out of Moscow.
Her hobbies included snorkeling, and she posted a picture online of herself with a giant sea turtle.
Pilot texted wife right before takeoff
The pilot of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight texted his wife before takeoff to tell her he’d be home soon.
Capt. Wan Amran Wan Hussin, 49, who had been with the airline for 25 years, sent the message to Meriam Yusoff via the messaging app WhatsUp before takeoff from Amsterdam on Thursday.
A few hours later, his wife got a call from a local TV station and learned of the crash.
She immediately put on the news reports and realized that it was her husband’s flight home.
The couple have two young boys, 8 and 10 years old.
Quinta, a dog belonging to Nicole Nootebos, was in the cargo hold of Flight MH17.
Human lives weren’t the only ones lost in the tragic Malaysia Airlines shoot-down Thursday.
Two dogs — including a black and white English shepherd named Quinta— and nine birds were stored in Flight 17’s cargo area.
“We will miss our dog terribly,” Quinta’s owners — members of a Dutch family that recently relocated to Kuala Lumpur — posted on their blog.
Quinta was caged and riding in the cargo hold, according to the jet’s cargo manifest revealed on Friday.
The other canine, which weighed 44 pounds, belonged to a German-shepherd kennel in the Netherlands. Its ultimate destination was Manila in the Philippines.
Four pigeons and five other types of birds also perished aboard the doomed plane.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of thousands of federal inmates serving time for drug crimes may be eligible for early release under a cost-cutting proposal adopted Friday that would dramatically reduce the nation's prison population over time.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which earlier this year voted to substantially lower recommended sentences for drug-dealing felons, voted unanimously to retroactively apply that change to prisoners now behind bars.
More than 46,000 inmates, including many who have already served a decade or longer in prison, would be eligible to seek early release under the commission's decision. A judge would review the case of each prisoner seeking to get out early to decide if the release would jeopardize public safety. The releases would start in November 2015 and be phased in over a period of years.
The commission, an independent panel that sets sentencing policy, estimates sentences would be cut by an average of 25 months.
"The magnitude of the change, both collectively and for individual offenders, is significant," said commission chairwoman Patti Saris, a federal judge in Massachusetts.
Advocates of the early-release plan say it would cut prison costs — nearly one-half of the federal prison population is locked up for drug crimes — and scale back some of the harsh sentences imposed during the country's war on drugs. Prisoner advocacy groups immediately trumpeted the change, calling it a matter of fundamental fairness.
"This vote will change the lives of tens of thousands of families whose loved ones were given overly long drug sentences," Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said in a statement.
The sentencing change comes amid a broader rethinking of criminal justice policy that the Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder, has embraced.
With an eye toward addressing sentencing disparities rooted in the 1980's-era fight against crack cocaine, and cutting a prison population that's roughly 32 percent above capacity, the Justice Department has issued new clemency criteria designed to encourage thousands of additional inmates to seek an early release. Last year, Holder directed federal prosecutors to avoid seeking mandatory minimum sentences — which limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter sentences — for nonviolent drug offenders.
"This is a milestone in the effort to make more efficient use of our law enforcement resources and to ease the burden on our overcrowded prison system," Holder said in a statement.
The proposal adopted Friday is actually more expansive than one advanced by Holder last month, which would have applied to roughly 20,000 drug inmates who have limited criminal pasts and who did not use a weapon during their crime.
Though sentencing guidelines are advisory rather than mandatory, judges still rely heavily on them in deciding on prison sentences. The guidelines recommend sentences that factor in the types and quantities of the drugs. The commission in April voted to lower recommended sentences across all drug types, meaning, for instance, that a cocaine package of a given size would now be linked to a shorter range of punishment than before.
Congress has until November to voice opposition to the commission's plan, though advocates consider that unlikely. Courts at that point could begin considering petitions from prisoners seeking to get out of prison. Early releases wouldn't begin until a year later.
This is not the first time the sentencing commission has supported an early release for drug offenders. In 2011, the commission voted to retroactively apply a law that reduced the sentencing disparity for crack versus powder cocaine.
Commission members said they believe they have taken steps to ensure public safety, such as requiring a judge to sign off on a defendant's early release. They also voted to delay the release until next year to give judges enough time to consider whether defendants are good candidates to be let out early.
Among those attending Friday's hearing was Adrienne Willis of Camp Springs, Md., who said her 47-year-old son, Bernard Gibson, might be among those who benefit. She said he's already spent 18 years at a federal prison in Virginia for a drug-dealing conspiracy and still has more time to serve.
"I thought that prison was supposed to rehabilitate people," she said. "If someone's been in prison for 18 years and they're not rehabilitated, whose fault is that?"
Some, though not all, judges have joined advocacy groups in championing the change.
"Even though retroactivity and individualized assessment for all eligible persons is time intensive and administratively burdensome, it is the right thing to do so that we can again ensure that our criminal justice system is fair to all concerned," U.S District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island wrote in a letter to the commission.
But some prosecutors, including some within the Justice Department, have raised public safety concerns. A group of federal prosecutors, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, said the move would lead to higher crime and give defendants little incentive to resolve their cases through plea deals.
"The strong sentencing scheme that has been in place in place over the last 25 years in our country has contributed to the lowest crime rates in more than a generation," the organization wrote.
A New York gun range has been forced to close its doors after more than 70 years in business, following a bitter dispute with its neighbors over noise and safety issues.
The Westchester Police Revolver and Rifle League, in Greenburgh, a nonprofit open-air range dating to the 1940s, was targeted by neighbors who wanted the facility closed, CBS New York reported.
The fight between the range, which is nestled into an old rock quarry, and local residents moved from the neighborhood to town hall last week, when both sides had their say on the matter.
"Con Ed has made purely a political decision.”
- Westchester Police Revolver and Rifle League attorney
Those opposed, the station reported, got their wish when Con Edison, which owns the land used by the shooting range, said it is terminating the nonprofit’s lease. The land, according to WCBS 880 radio, sits in an old quarry and was once relatively isolated, but new homes sit a few hundred feet away on the other side of a 30-foot tall sheer rock wall.
An attorney for the range said the decision was politically motivated.
“The range has a 73-year record of safety. If this truly was a public safety issue, it’s one we could have easily resolved. Con Ed has made purely a political decision,” the attorney said, according to CBS.
The push to close the range gained new momentum after a woman was grazed by a metal fragment while walking in her backyard last month.
The owners of the range say the steep angle of the old quarry and the position of the shooting stations make it impossible for bullets to reach homes. Ballistics testing is under way to see whether the fragment is from a bullet, CBS reported.
Cartels suspected as high-caliber gunfire sends Border Patrol scrambling on Rio Grande
EXCLUSIVE: RINCON PENINSULA, Texas -- U.S. Border Patrol agents on the American side of the Rio Grande were forced to take cover Friday night when high-caliber weaponry was fired at them from the Mexican side of the river, sources told FoxNews.com.
The weapons were fired at the U.S. side of the riverbank in the area of the Rincon Peninsula across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, at about 8:30 p.m., sources said. Bullets ricocheted into an area where Border Patrol agents were positioned, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told FoxNews.com.
Border Patrol sources confirmed Gohmert's account, and said the shots may have been fired by .50-caliber weapons.
"We don't have any armor that can stop a .50-caliber round, so our Border Patrol agents had to take cover when the rounds were richocheting around them," said Gohmert, who has been in the area for the last week to get a first-hand look at the border situation.
"When the shooting stopped, about 40 to 50 people came out on the U.S. side and turned themselves in. So clearly the rounds were being fired to suppress every effort to stop anybody intervening with anyone or anything coming across," Gohmert added. "We have no idea what or how many or whom came across with the other illegal immigrants."
Sources said they believe the gunfire came from members of Mexican drug cartels, which include former military members trained in shooting that type of weaponry.
Border Patrol sources said the rounds were clearly identifiable because .50- caliber weapons make a distinctive noise when fired. Sources said they also believe this is the first time that Border Patrol agents have taken direct fire from the Mexican side of the river in this area.
"I don't know why we're out here like sitting ducks," one Border Patrol source said. "We need help."
As of Saturday evening, a Border Patrol spokesman did not immediately return FoxNews.com's request for comment.
The Rio Grande sector has been the busiest part of the 2,000-mile border with Texas in recent months as a surge of illegal immigrants, many from Central America, has poured in to the U.S. in the mistaken belief that U.S. policy allows for them to remain in America once they make it in. More than 60,000 unaccompanied children had crossed in the last nine months. But Border Patrol officials have warned that the deluge has left the border largely unattended, and vulnerable to cartel infiltration.
How would you feel if you sent your son or daughter to an Anti-Defamation League summer camp only to find out that the camp’s youth coordinators are supporters of a convicted Al Qaeda terrorist?Brothers Bilal and Ammaar Mirza have been involved with Anti-Defamation League's (ADL's) Camp Interfaith in beautiful Andover, New Hampshire since they were teenagers, first as campers and then as staffers. Yet at the very same time, they have also been active in a Boston area extremist Islamist movement that is viciously anti-American and tinged with anti-Semitism, a movement that has coalesced around the cause of a local jihadist celebrity, Tarek Mehanna.
7/20/2014 A HEADLINE IN ITSELF!!!: Local paper actually legitimizes Gov. Corbett's pension reform concerns!!!
The pension problem.
We’ve heard about it from school boards, legislators and Governor Corbett. But exactly how much are public school pension costs rising, and what does it mean for taxpayer pockets?
With another budget season over, and no changes to the Public School Employees Retirement System, Lancaster Newspapers examined the numbers.
Pensions costs are scheduled to keep increasing before leveling off in 2019. By that time, expenses at local districts and IU13 are projected to be five to nine times as high as they were in 2009.
That leaves school boards with more unpleasant choices about cutting programs or raising taxes, or both.
The graphic below shows what tax hike would be needed to cover just pension cost increases by 2019. The numbers range from $98 to $301 for median homesteads in Lancaster County school districts.
And that’s only one piece of a school budget, says Penn Manor Business Manager Chris Johnston.
“(The pension increase) does not buy supplies, equipment, utilities, maintenance of buildings, transportation or support learning in the classroom.”
Community & Southern Bank, Atlanta, Georgia, Assumes All of the Deposits of Eastside Commercial Bank, Conyers, Georgia WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eastside Commercial Bank, Conyers, Georgia, was closed Friday by the Georgia Department of Banking & Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Community & Southern Bank, Atlanta, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of Eastside Commercial Bank.
The two branches of Eastside Commercial Bank will reopen as branches of Community & Southern Bank during their normal business hours. Depositors of Eastside Commercial Bank will automatically become depositors of Community & Southern Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to applicable limits. Customers of Eastside Commercial Bank should continue to use their current branch until they receive notice from Community & Southern Bank that systems conversions have been completed to allow full-service banking at all branches of Community & Southern Bank.
Depositors of Eastside Commercial Bank can continue to access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.
As of March 31, 2014, Eastside Commercial Bank had approximately $169.0 million in total assets and $161.6 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of Eastside Commercial Bank, Community & Southern Bank agreed to purchase approximately $104.7 million of the failed bank's assets. In a separate transaction, the FDIC will enter into an agreement with State Bank and Trust Company, Macon, Georgia, to purchase $42.6 million of Eastside Commercial Bank's loans. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.
Customers with questions about the transaction should call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-894-5183. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m.; Eastern Daylight Time (EDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EDT; on Monday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EDT; and thereafter from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., EDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/eastside.html.
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $33.9 million. Compared to other alternatives, Community & Southern Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Eastside Commercial Bank is the 13th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Sunrise Bank, Valdosta, on May 10, 2013.
Congress created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 1933 to restore public confidence in the nation's banking system. The FDIC insures deposits at the nation's banks and savings associations, 6,730 as of March 31, 2014. It promotes the safety and soundness of these institutions by identifying, monitoring and addressing risks to which they are exposed. source
Suspended for three games, required to undergo diversity sensitivity program
The Minnesota Vikings announced Friday that they have suspended special teams coordinator Mike Priefer for making what an independent investigation determined was a homophobic remark during the 2012 season. Priefer will be suspended for three games this season and required to complete workplace training which will emphasize diversity and sexual orientation sensitivity. For the offense, the Vikings also donated$100,000 to LGBT rights advocacy groups.
In the statement released Friday, Vikings president Mark Wilf and owner Zygi Wilf explained the team’s response to news of Priefer’s offensive remarks:
In this instance, Coach Priefer fell short of what is expected. Accordingly, we have decided to suspend Coach Priefer without pay for the first three games of the 2014 regular season. In addition, he will be required to satisfactorily complete specialized workplace training that will include an emphasis on the managing of diversity and sexual orientation.
If Coach Priefer completes this training and conducts himself in accordance with our workplace policies, we will consider reducing the length of his suspension by one game.
The Wilfs also stressed that going forward the Vikings will hold all team members accountable and “take the outlined critical steps to further educate everyone within our organization both individually and collectively.”
In the statement, Priefer apologized to the organization, fans, family, the LGBT community and former punter Chris Kluwe, who blew the whistle on Priefer after being released from the team.
I owe an apology to many people -- the Wilf family, the Minnesota Vikings organization and fans, my family, the LGBT community, Chris Kluwe and anyone else that I offended with my insensitive remark. I regret what has occurred and what I said. I am extremely sorry but I will learn from this situation and will work on educating others to create more tolerance and respect.
Article stops short of suggesting a bio-degradable cardboard residence..
Will tiny homes be Asheville’s next big thing?
Teal Brown, (pictured right) recently started the Wishbone Tiny Homes construction business with his father, Gerry Brown (left). They're also forming a group that will push for changes in local and state rules to accommodate “implementing tiny homes in Asheville." Photo by Carrie Eidson.
The blogosphere is abuzz these days with romantic visions of picturesque miniature dwellings and the cost savings and lifestyle simplification they make possible. A growing number of local advocates say the tiny home movement could help achieve a wealth of positive outcomes, from reduced environmental impact to enhanced affordability.
In fact, several local builders now specialize in such structures, hoping to find business success that fits with their environmental values.
Amid the swelling interest, however, many hurdles remain. In addition to financial and legal barriers, the mainstream culture continues to trumpet the message that bigger is inherently better. And at the moment, there seem to be more people curious about tiny homes than folks willing to actually live in one. Still, if some of the ideas being kicked around now come to fruition, they could have a substantial local impact.
Natalie Pollard is downsizing into a 260-square-foot house, hoping the change helps her simplify her life, cut costs and reduce her environmental footprint. Photo by Carrie Eidson.
Upside of downsizing
Natalie Pollard has made her home in studio apartments, a trailer and even a tent cabin over the years. But Pollard, who owns the Villagers homesteading supply shop in West Asheville, has never lived any place as mini as the new 260-square-foot dwelling she’s preparing to move into.
There are several reasons for the move, says Pollard, who’s more recently been renting conventional houses in the neighborhood.
“Looking back, I realized I felt the most content and least burdened living in really small spaces,” she explains. “There’s less maintenance, less to worry about, less to fill. … A lot of it has to do with simplifying and ridding of extraneous responsibilities, so I have more time and, ironically, space in my life to do other things.” And then, she continues, “There’s the economical and practical side of things, as far as not wanting to be burdened with debt. … There’s the sustainable aspect of it too: less waste, less footprint.”
So Pollard commissioned Nanostead, a new Madison County-based business, to build her pint-sized residence. This is the company’s first foray into creating a mobile tiny home, but staffer Tony Beurskens hopes it won’t be the last. “We have dreams of building an assembly line for tiny homes,” he reveals. Pollard’s is taking shape on a 24-foot trailer in a vacant lot along Main Street in downtown Marshall, where its unusual size and shape have attracted plenty of attention. When it’s finished, perhaps next month, Pollard plans to display it outside her shop to help grow interest in the idea.
Nanostead is currently constructing Pollard’s tiny home. When complete, she plans to display it along Haywood Road in West Asheville. Photo courtesy of Pollard.
She’s also been blogging about the project throughout the design and construction phases. “It seems like every other customer is asking me about it,” she reports. “It’s sparking people’s interest, like, ‘Oh, is that something I might want to do?’”
But Pollard won’t be able to park her new quarters in West Asheville for long. Because she opted to have the home built on a trailer bed — a common practice — state law classifies it as a recreational vehicle, not a legal residence. As such, it’s licensed by the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles; both Asheville and Buncombe County prohibit living in such vehicles, except in places like campgrounds and RV parks.
Give-and-take
Definitions of the tiny home vary, but the consensus seems to be that they’re livable structures under 400 square feet. According to CNN, the average new home built in the U.S. last year was 2,598 square feet — up from 2,330 square feet 10 years ago. The smallest tiny homes, on the other hand, range from 120 to 275 square feet, and they’re often built on trailers for convenience and ease of movement. But as Pollard learned, that places them in tricky legal territory.
“When I originally committed to this, I envisioned being in town, because I don’t like driving; I don’t like commuting,” she explains. Now, however, she’s planning to occupy a rural plot in Candler. There, she’s less likely to run afoul of the ban on permanently living in an RV, since cases are investigated only if someone complains.
Teal Brown, who co-founded Wishbone Tiny Homes earlier this year with his father, Gerry Brown, says quality is what sets their product apart. RVs, he explains, are typically sparsely insulated plastic-and-metal structures designed for travel, whereas Wishbone’s offerings come complete “with all the features of a traditional home,” only on a much smaller scale. A tour of their first model reveals well-insulated wooden walls and windows, custom handcrafted trim, intricately carved cabinets, modern kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures, and a loft bed over the mostly open, 170-square-foot space. “They’re not fantastic travelers, but they are fantastic to live in, because you feel like you’re in a home,” notes Brown.
The view inside Wishbone’s first tiny home. Photo courtesy of Chris Tack.
That craftsmanship has already attracted attention. The model home was featured at this spring’s Tiny House Conference in Charlotte, billed as the largest such gathering in the country so far, and the Downtown Raleigh Home Show has commissioned Wishbone to display the model there this fall. The business recently moved into the former Steebo Sculptures studio on Haywood Road and is hiring workers to help complete three more homes for clients.
Local interest, says Brown, has been overwhelming.
“The people that come to us range from college age all the way through retirement,” he reports. “For some, tiny houses represent an opportunity to downsize their lives, simplify and get away from what Western culture has encouraged for many years, which is acquiring more and more things and putting them in a bigger house.”
For others, affordability is the prime concern. Depending on size and features, Wishbone’s homes cost anywhere from $25,000 to $75,000, and Nanostead’s range from about $28,000 to $47,000, not including land and utility hookups. According to a report from Keller Williams Realty, the average home sale price in Buncombe County from December through May of this year was $258,391 (including land). Tiny home dwellers also have substantially lower utility bills.
For the local industry to reach its full potential, though, “There’s a social and political paradigm that needs to shift,” says Brown. Accordingly, he and others have begun organizing an as-yet-unnamed group that will push for changes in local and state rules to accommodate “implementing tiny homes in Asheville,” he explains. Meanwhile, theAsheville Tiny Home Association, launched last year to provide educational opportunities for do-it-yourselfers and to “let people know there’s another option,” now has 297 members, says founder Kristen Salvatore.
And though Brown’s group hasn’t yet formulated specific requests, he says, “We’re really looking forward to making ourselves known to the city. We don’t look at it as a battle but as a discussion, a give-and-take.”
Building a foundation
For those willing to place their small home on a permanent foundation, the law is already more forgiving. If care is taken to meet minimum state standards for kitchen, bathroom and living spaces, it’s possible to legally inhabit a home in Asheville that’s less than 250 square feet.
Marcus Barksdale, for example, has occupied the 240-square-foot dwelling he built in West Asheville since 2012. “It’s been fantastic. If you’re careful about how you design it, you can create a space that’s really fun and exciting to be in and won’t feel oppressive,” he maintains. “A lot of people think it means you live in a cramped little room, but that doesn’t have to be the case.” During construction, Barksdale recalls, more than 100 people came around to ask him about it, and now, he says, folks driving by often “stop, turn their heads and point. … I think people are surprised to see such a small building in town.” Barksdale’s home was also featured in the national Tiny House Blog.
Marcus Barksdale’s 240-square-foot home in West Asheville. Take a video tour here. Photo courtesy of Barksdale.
Neighbors “have been super supportive,” he reports. But if the trend catches on and other city residents start becoming concerned about property values and related issues, notes Barksdale, he won’t be sympathetic. “As long as it meets all the rules, then it’s no one else’s business. Everyone has a right to build what they want where they want it.” Downsizing from a 1,600-square-foot house in Montford enabled Barksdale to save money that had previously gone to pay a “huge mortgage,” he says. But having recently married, he’s now devoting much of those savings to renovating a 750-square-foot residence that will give the newlyweds a home office and the ability “to entertain guests a little easier.”
Changing circumstances
Green builder Barry Bialik says Barksdale’s need for more space is typical of what he hears from clients.
A pioneer in the local tiny home movement, Bialik says he built his first mobile unit about six years ago, but it ended up being his last, as he couldn’t find any buyers. Inspired by a previous stint living on a small houseboat in Seattle, “I thought there’d be more of a market for that, but I realized that there really wasn’t,” says Bialik, who also owns the Thirsty Monk Pub & Brewery.
Seeking greater market appeal and fewer legal barriers, Bialik went on to found The Compact Cottage Co., which now specializes in building bigger, “condo-size houses,” he explains. The most popular models run from about 1,000 to 1,400 square feet and range from around $100,000 to $150,000, not including land. Bialik says he’s having no problem selling them, either: The company typically has about five houses under construction at any given time, he reports.
And while he’s happy to see the buzz about tiny homes, Bialik says he’s confident that the houses he builds will continue to be a more practical option for most folks. Longtime local builder Boone Guyton, a founding member of the WNC Green Building Council, agrees.
“There’s a lot of demand for smaller homes — around 1,000 to 1,200 square feet — but people still really like three bedrooms. It’s hard to get that in less and have any kind of reasonable size for each room,” Guyton explains. “I can’t imagine living in a 400-square-foot house for a long time. I see them as a beginning or something you add on to.”
Don’t tell that to Laura LaVoie, however. She and her husband say they have no plans to leave the 120-square-foot house in Madison County that they moved into in 2012. They both work out of their solar-powered home, and “The downscaling allowed me to quit my corporate job in Atlanta and pursue freelance writing, which is something I’d always wanted to do,” she explains. A keynote speaker at the Charlotte conference, LaVoie continues to document the experience in her blog, “Life in 120 Square Feet”; she’s also written a book titled 120 Ideas for Tiny Living.
Laura LaVoie’s 120-square-foot house in Madison County. Photo courtesy of LaVoie.
“Everything I do for the tiny house community is really a labor of love,” says LaVoie. “It was the catalyst that changed my life, so I like to be able to share that with people.”
Welcome to the neighborhood?
Locals wanting to give tiny home living a try may soon have more options. Nanostead, says Beurskens, is exploring ways to partner with local campgrounds and RV parks to offer vacation rentals with the option of buying either a mobile or a fixed-foundation model afterward.
The idea is a spinoff of the concept pioneered byCaravan – The Tiny House Hotel in Portland, Oregon, a city often cited as a hotbed of tiny home enthusiasm.
And down in South Asheville, Sarah Gilgen hopes to erect four tiny homes on a half-acre plot she owns in the Shiloh neighborhood, creating a mini community of long-term renters.
Inspired by the documentary film TINY: A Story About Living Small, Gilgen says: “I wanted to be part of it in some way. … In America, it seems like the more stuff you have, the better. The cars should be big; you should own this and have that, and I am not about that.” Instead, she continues, “I would like to build up a little family, people that are like-minded — obviously they are, or else they wouldn’t be living in a tiny home — people that love the earth.” There’s a bus stop nearby, she says, and it’s less than a mile walk to the bars, restaurants and shops of Biltmore Village.
Gilgen has recruited Brown to help her with the project. More and more, he predicts, “You’re going to see tiny homes on foundations in infill areas and single-family lots.”
Meanwhile, although purists wouldn’t consider them “tiny,” plans for the proposed 169-acre Coggins Farm development in Riceville do include 12 to 24 homes in the 400- to 600-square-foot range. “We’ve been surprised by the appeal they have across a diverse swath of people,” says Nathan Taylor, a partner in the project. “The most common interests are as second/vacation homes or as a detached ‘in-law suite’ which could also be used as a … [vacation] type rental when not occupied by the owner. We don’t see much demand for tiny homes to replace regular single-family homes, though they could be an alternative to small apartments and condos.”
Tough nut to crack
But while tiny homes are significantly cheaper than traditional houses, the cost is still prohibitive for many residents — particularly since banks are often loath to provide financing.
“A lot of people who are interested in this don’t necessarily have $40,000 in the bank,” Beurskens points out. He previously worked for Green Opportunities, an Asheville nonprofit that helps people in poverty find environmentally friendly jobs. Beurskens and Brown both say they’d eventually like to partner with nonprofits to get people in need into their companies’ homes, but that will have to wait till their respective businesses are more established. In the meantime, Wishbone makes a $1,000 donation to either Green Opportunities or Habitat for Humanity, buyer’s choice, for every home it sells.
Tony Beurskens (left) and Jeramy Stauffer (right) of Nanostead as they build their first tiny home. Photo courtesy of Natalie Pollard.
Another national trend is building tiny home villages to house the homeless — often at a fraction of the cost of conventional affordable-housing complexes. And in Alabama, notes Guyton, Auburn University’s 20K House project made national waves recently, developing several models that a contractor could build for $20,000.
In Asheville, however, it’s hard to find a buildable lot for less than $40,000, notes Bialik, and hooking up water and sewer lines costs about $8,000, regardless of the home’s size. There’s no easy answer, Guyton maintains, saying,“Market-based affordable housing is really a tough nut to crack.”
Brown agrees. “Rent, as we all know, is insane in this town, and so is buying houses,” he says, adding that in the long term, he hopes Wishbone can be part of the solution.
LaVoie, too, believes increased tiny home living could be an important component of a broader answer to the puzzle of how we can improve local quality of life economically, environmentally and culturally. “So it seems like a good idea to get the subject on the table and try to figure out ways we can make it viable within our community,” she says. “Asheville’s really progressive, and if there’s anywhere in the Southeast that would be a good place to start this movement and get them legitimized, this is it.”
Next month, the Villagers shop in West Asheville plans to screen the documentary TINY: A Story About Living Small and host a forum on tiny home living. Shop owner Natalie Pollard will also display her own new tiny home. At this time, the date and details are still being finalized. This post will be updated with the details when they’re available.
