Suicide Awareness Pg. 5
“The News The Students Choose.”
Pensacola State College
Tiny Houses
Sonia Manzano speaks on career, inspirtations
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By Rebecca Peters & Sean Williams
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magine living in an entire house that’s roughly the size of your bedroom. In it, you share your bed, kitchen and bathroom all in the same small space. These houses can be small enough to haul on a trailer, or versatile enough to build nearly anywhere. For a growing number of people, these homes are becoming the only way to live. Tiny houses can pack a potentially useful punch for their size and are drastically cheaper to build than a normal home. According to HomeAdvisor.com, the average cost to build a new home is around $200,000, as contrasted to an average price of a tiny home which is $70,000. These houses can also boast a lower environmental footprint. Usually being little more than 200 square feet, a tiny house can output around 2,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year, contrasted again to a whopping 28,000 pounds per year in your average home. A lower need for building materials such as lumber and a lower dependence on electricity goes a long way at keeping that environmental diet tiny houses are known for. What’s more, tiny houses are relatively
September 2016
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easy to get a hold of. Startup companies have begun offering standard blueprints alongside custom designs. One is also able to find blueprints online with full guides on how to build the houses. The cost of construction itself can be relatively cheap as well. One such start up company is ArchTech Housing Solutions. Based out of Georgia, this company allows the buyer to purchase a tiny home kit that is able to be built in a considerably short amount of time and is shipped right to the buyer’s door. These houses’ unique design makes them hurricane and rough weather resistant and economically sustainable. Not only is this a typical 12X16 size tiny home, but these houses are designed as such that if you would like to add on another ArchTech tiny home, you can attach it like a lego block. The best thing about these tiny homes is that they start at as little as 5,000 dollars. Perhaps the most expensive part of building a tiny house would be the cost of the land to build it on. Of course, all of this comes at anoth-
er cost. A tiny house is just that: tiny. Living space is incredibly limited and, unsurprisingly, cramped for more than one person. Beds, storage, and the common amenities of a house all have to share the small space making it an ideal situation for a certain type of person. There are plenty of people who have chosen this way of living over the typical housing of the common American family. They are popular among retirees, single adults, and new single mothers. They are the choice of vagabond couples who prefer a home that can be put on wheels and swept away to a new place, fulfilling their thirst for travel, as well as providing a consistent living space. Indoor plumbing and electrical wiring can be a bit more difficult, but not an impossible task to accomplish. Many tiny homes have what is called a sawdust toilet that works kind of like a human litter box, which can sound very off putting. Consider this, though. If properly maintained, they don’t stink. There are many different types of these toilets, and if you consider purchasing one, be an informed consumer. Poop is still poop, and it might be important to have a tiny home that doesn’t smell like poop. Running water is not an issue either as long as you can equip your tiny home to receive water from and outside water source such as a hose or well. These homes can be so uniquely designed that the sky’s the limit when it comes to windows and the minor details. These home are easily modifiable to anyone who had the time and money to invest in building one of these small habitats. If building is not something that you are into, consider buying a tiny home. There has been such a surge in the market that now tiny homes are available to purchase like you would a regular sized home. Tiny homes offer so many benefits and are easily accessible with a little dedication. Pensacola State College’s carpentry department has recently teamed up with Tumbleweed Tiny House Company to create a program that teaches students how to build their own homes. If this sounds like something you would be interested in learning to do, or maybe you just want to find out more information contact the Carpentry Department at PSC. Continued on Page 3
By Kelli Green & Jasmine Britt If you were born between the years 1971 and 2015 and spent the first five years of your life in front of a television like a lot of other kids in the world, then you know Maria from “Sesame Street. Someone you may not know is Sonia Manzano. Sonia Manzano came to “Sesame Street” during the show’s second year and recognizes a great amount of cognitive change in kids that are five years old and younger due to the shows success. The show’s original mission was to prepare preschoolers for kindergarten.When the show started, children began school at five and mostly played and then learned their ABC’s in the first grade. “We were very surprised, shocked and thrilled that kids were picking up the information much younger” Manzano recalled. Even children as young as two were picking up the information very quickly. Manzano says that before 9/11, the main focus of the show was teaching children cognitive skills. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, they turned more toward teaching children social skills. They talked about things like bullying, dealing with loss and even prejudice in a simple way. Continued on Page 5
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SONIAMANZANO.COM