A Big Vision Leads to a Tiny Home: A GRANTS IN PLACE UPDATE from Meadows Valley, Idaho

Devon Barker-Hicks’ “Tiny Home Project” at Meadows Valley School received a $1,000 Grants in Place award for a project that features eighth graders working with the high school shop class and building an 8 x 24 foot tiny home. During this place-based project, students will study housing in their region and around the world. Students will also be studying green living, grant writing, the trades, construction, and re-purposing. The students will sell the tiny home in a silent bid. The proceeds will go towards projects they choose to support in their Meadows Valley community.

This Grants in Place award was made in collaboration with our Northern Rockies Hub, Teton Science Schools, and the Place Schools Network.

We are pleased to provide the following update from Ms. Barker-Hicks:

“For October, we have made a great amount of progress toward our goal of building and selling our Mountaineer Tiny Home. We will use the profits to help the City of New Meadows purchase new playground equipment for our city park. We finished framing and insulating the floor. Then we put the plywood flooring down. Our walls are almost finished too. We taped the interior dimensions of our tiny home on our classroom floor. We worked hard on our plans for our kitchen as well.

We have had many donations starting with Treasure Valley Steel. Windows and trim were donated by Megan Fitzmaurice and Jamie Laidlaw, construction materials donated by Rick and Deb Fereday, cash donations from Kim Johnson and from Brandon Lever who also built a tiny home in our valley. We also received a donation from Betty Jones and Associates for our kitchen cabinets from MasterBrand Cabinets. Special thanks as well to Mr. Foster for helping us put new tires on our trailer. We would also like to thank C&M Lumber for always having just what we need so we can continue building each day. People have been very generous which makes us really excited about building and working to help make our community a better place.

This month, we have seen two presentations from the community. The first presentation was from Mike Maciaszek. He is a realtor who is helped us with the selling aspect of our project. The second and last presentation this month was by Andrew Mentzer. It was very informative. Andrew is the director of the West Central Mountains Economic Council and knows about our housing situation. He knows about housing and construction in our valley and was very supportive of our project. Our class enjoyed his presentation, so we took him to see our tiny home.

In the classroom, our place-based study is looking at housing around the world. Each student is researching housing around the globe. We are studying, writing an essay, and creating presentations to share with the community. We are studying the world through the homes people live in. Then we will have a community presentation night this winter.

To strengthen our writing skills, we are updating spreadsheets, writing multi-paragraph reflections, updating work logs, applying for grants, and working hard to get the word out about our project. In addition, students will be giving updates at the Parks & Recreation committee meeting Nov. 26 5:30 PM at city hall. We will also be speaking at the School Board meetings at 7pm on Nov.13 and Dec.11 in the school library. Please join to hear about our project in person.

We are looking forward to work with Bill Shipley and Robert Hines as we move toward working on the electrical and plumbing. We are also going to set a work day for community members who would like to help with construction. Stay tuned. We are also in need of firewood for the stove in the shop. Please contact Brett Carpenter for firewood donations.

Currently, we are requesting donations for all appliances, wood interior, lighting, and cash. We want to keep our project green and welcome used materials in good condition. In addition, we would like visit with more community members. Please let us know if you could come and speak to our class about housing near or far!

Tax deductible donations can be brought to 500 N. Miller or mailed to Drawer F. New Meadows, ID 83654. Please note “Mountaineer Tiny Home” on your donation. Please contact us with any questions or to arrange a drop off of donated materials. Thanks for helping us build the ripple.

8th Grade & Shop Class”

Thanks again to Teton Science Schools for supporting our Idaho Grants in Place.

We invite you to learn more about our 2018-19 Grants in Place program! Also, we encourage you to check out our web section on the value of place-based education.