A Look Inside a Tiny Home that's BIG on Reuse
Last Updated: Feb 3, 2025Jessie Litven relaxes on the bench seat in the living room of her house and points to the stairway. The stairs have magnificent, dark hardwood treads. These stairs, and most of the houses we see around us, were made from reused and salvaged wood.
Table of Contents
- The Home
- Great use of space
- Sustainable materials
- Energy systems
- Details
- Why we love it
And like a travel trailer, this home is on wheels. It’s built on a dual-axle utility trailer frame so that it can be easily moved. It’s parked in a backyard garden in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Great use of space
The house has a kitchen, open concept dining/living room, office, bathroom, and sleeping loft. It’s easy to get to every part of the space, and it feels comfortable, functional, and inspiring.
“It was satisfying to start with a design and work to see it through to reality. Every inch and detail has been thought through and worked out, and adjusted. It’s come out pretty close to what I had in mind.” Jessie Litven.
Sustainable materials
Jessie took care to source used, surplus, or salvaged materials from a variety of sources. The stair treads are made from an old bookcase, and the post supporting the corner of the loft is a Douglas fir piece from a centuries-old building.
The hardwood floor is jatoba, a Brazilian cherry hardwood. While this is not a local tree, she got the flooring as a surplus left over from another project, saving both resources and money. The countertop is a beautiful piece of salvaged live-edge wood. Much of the other lumber, the cupboard doors, and cabinet framing were also salvaged.
Wayne Groszko
Wayne Groszko is a consultant, researcher, and teacher in Energy Sustainability with 13 years of experience. He has taught at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Community College, in the Faculties of Engineering, Environmental Science, and Energy Sustainability Engineering Technology. Wayne is also President of the Community Energy Cooperative of New Brunswick, and has worked as Renewable Energy Coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre in Nova Scotia. He holds a B.Sc. (Hon.) from the University of Calgary, and a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University.
