S PAC E S
Living Small
KAREN MCCOY MARRIES MINIMALISM AND COMMUNITY IN HER TINY HOME VENTURE AT BURLEIGH PLANTATION Story by Jonathan Olivier • Photos by Paul Kieu y Jordan LaHaye • Photos by Olivia Perillo
K
aren McCoy had always loved her home in Bunkie. She raised her children in the spacious nineteenth century house, and the memories made there will always be held dearly. But when the children grew and left home one by one, the modest structure began to feel oversized. “It felt like a mansion,” said McCoy, now sixty-one. For McCoy, living alone in the large home started to make less and less sense. But she didn’t quite have plans to move until one evening 32
when she was watching HGTV and learned about the architectural and social phenomenon of the Tiny House Movement. Almost immediately, she said, she was drawn to the idea of not only downsizing, but of having a home on wheels that she could take with her wherever she wanted to go. Tiny houses are small dwellings, typically less than 120 square feet and situated on a trailer, making them mobile. McCoy started following groups dedicated to showcasing these small homes on social media, on YouTube videos, and she scoured the web to find cool diminutive dwelling
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designs. The pastime evolved into research as she started to plan her own tiny home. “I had the intention to take the tiny house and put it where I wanted to live,” she said. “But if something should occur or change, I liked the idea that all I had to do was hook it up and move it. Turns out I had a minimalist spirit but just hadn’t realized it.” About four years ago, McCoy contacted Tiny House Chattanooga, an award-winning construction company, to turn her dream into a reality. After months of collecting ideas, designer and builder Mike
Bedsole helped bring her conception to life—drawing up plans and discussing how her home might look. McCoy decided she wanted only the shell on a trailer and that she would finish the interior herself. “My aunt and godmother—who is seventy-five—she and I worked on it for two years,” she said. “We did the insulation, wiring, plumbing, put in the walls. It was a great journey.” McCoy had the finished tiny home parked in Bunkie, but she had a desire to go somewhere else. Since she worked in Carencro, she looked toward Lafayette, but local ordinances
