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Start Up Group at Harvard Designing and Building Tiny Houses


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This Harvard start up for tiny house living is a guest post by Pete Davis – share yours

I am Pete Davis, one of the co-founders of Getaway, the first and only tiny house startup to come out of Harvard University’s Innovation Lab.

We build tiny houses, place them on beautiful rural land and rent them by the night to city dwellers looking to escape the digital grind and test-drive tiny house living.

We just launched our first Getaway house in the Boston area. We call it The Ovida.

“Ovida was dear to us; the Grandmother of any kid’s dreams. She loved without limit and doled out snacks to help us sit still in church. It was by her side that we first learned to play solitaire and how to cross-stitch. She carried us to her own bed when we fell asleep on the couch, and she cooked up the meanest lefse in the Midwest. Ovida’s house was our Getaway growing up, just as we hope The Ovida can be your Getaway now.” – Getaway

Please enjoy, learn more and re-share below. Thank you!

Harvard Tiny House Lets You Experience Tiny Living

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Images © Getaway House

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Images © Getaway House

Learn more: http://getaway.house/ovida/

You can share this tiny cabin with your friends and family for free using the e-mail and social media re-share buttons below. Thanks.

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Andrea is a contributor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the Tiny House Newsletter! She has a passion for sharing tiny and small house stories and introducing you to new people, ideas, and homes.
{ 18 comments… add one }
  • Mary
    July 30, 2015, 3:38 pm

    I don’t understand why almost all tiny homes have open shelving which means absolutely everything would have to be boxed and stowed before one could move the tiny house.

  • Jesse
    July 30, 2015, 4:04 pm

    Mary, I understand your comment, but tiny houses aren’t meant to be moved around a lot like a camping trailer. They are built on wheels so that we can “call” them trailers instead of houses. The fact of the matter is that most tiny house on wheels are way to big and way too heavy to pull around like a trailer. That being said, I think having to secure anything in the trailer before moving it is a secondary concern to functionality and openness in a small space.

  • Glema
    July 30, 2015, 4:43 pm

    Thank you for sharing your place with us and thanks Alex for including it in your article. One safety nudge if you please, move that wood pile to another location, that way if anything did happen, your home wouldn’t be gone as well as your fire supply. Even a little $20.00 gazebo could cover the firewood if need be and be just as portable as the house. Just a thought. God bless you so you stay safe!

    • Jacqueline nevel
      July 30, 2015, 6:14 pm

      What is the cost?
      ?wifi
      . Sq feet
      Thanks so much

  • Riley
    July 30, 2015, 7:12 pm

    I don’t understand the stairs but having a landing, you have to start opening tbe door midway, in order to seeing it open.

  • Rich
    July 30, 2015, 7:39 pm

    Glad to see this fine product being done in the great NE in the spirit of HDT. Congrats to all!

  • alice h
    July 30, 2015, 9:31 pm

    I really like the interior, the exterior is a bit too boxy for me. The thing that’s really missing is some sort of canopy above the door. Perhaps since it’s staying put for a while somebody could put up a little entryway with overhead protection from the elements for the door. Or some kind of flip up covering.

  • Anne
    July 31, 2015, 9:17 am

    What’s the square footage of this? Thank you ?

  • allin
    July 31, 2015, 5:45 pm

    This is outstanding. Good work well planned. I’ve seen two others in this class. Need to do a bit more research. And I’m going to be down for one.

  • Kristina H Nadreau
    July 31, 2015, 9:54 pm

    the interior floor plan is one of the best I have seen. The stairway actually looks manageable. The minor flaws like the worthless shower cube for the ultra thin person and laugable kitchen can be easily improved. I like the bunk bed, seating area. These tiny rolling houses have never been meant to compete with full size & real baths and kitchens. the students did a good job. I notice that the designs of the tiny and small houses are heavily influenced by the age of the designers. Esthetics and functions are both considered differently.

  • Mary J
    July 31, 2015, 10:52 pm

    gorgeous! the house – I mean :)) anyway, this really is an exciting tiny house, love the simplicity in use of the wood and then the windows, all adds up to a great package. using the dark and light colours on exterior really adds to it’s appeal. I like the windowseat/bed and shelving at one end with the loft above and then there’s the loft over the kitchen, etc which looks a really good size and the stairs up to this loft is great for ease of use. Another to add to my list of possibilities.

  • Shelly
    August 1, 2015, 12:38 am

    Hey Harvard guys! So build a few of those for us schmucks who are trying to make a living and would love a chance to own our own tiny piece of the dream! Maybe develop a financial company that will actually give a loan to someone who doesn’t already own a home? I know those city folks love to slum it in a tiny home but for some of us, it would be a dream come true.

    • Sharon Fried
      October 7, 2015, 5:16 pm

      I second Shelly’s motion!

  • Susanne
    August 1, 2015, 12:48 am

    Since it’s Harvard hopefully the publicity will help!

  • Mary- Lynn
    August 2, 2015, 4:45 pm

    Thank you for sharing your Tiny House adventure and background. I am a single mom living in a Tiny house without wheels and I own one in Cape Cod, I decided to rent until I can move there myself year-round. I like the built in Futon with a loft bed idea. And my loft is a similar size. We have a Murphy Bed built into a great room that is very open for a kitchen and living room space but the Murphy Bed is large when open and takes up too much space. Tiny living takes getting used to when you can’t stand up when you wake in the morning from your loft room, or you have to go down a ladder to go to the bathroom at night especially as you get older.

    I would like some specs on your stair design. We could use that in our home. I built my son a bedroom in the living room in the one we live in now. Once you live in a smaller space you become more creative and resourceful. It is a good lesson to experience at your age given the state our job market is in now. This Tiny House idea may be the way of the future for many of us.

    I used to train on your track at Harvard and hope to be able to visit your school for my son who is becoming a Junior in High School this year. He is a great student and has real life experience living in a Tiny house with me and surviving with very little income. Maybe you could build some for the Olympics in Boston for the athletes or spectators and use the funds from your sale of these houses to create a scholarship fund for students that don’t have much money but are deserving of a college education there and they could be excellent Habitat for Humanity projects to really help homeless people in the community, like I did with my own tiny home in Cape Cod this year. Experience truly is the greatest teacher!

  • Brian
    October 7, 2015, 5:37 pm

    Where did all the homophobic comments come from. I don’t think these pages are appropriate for this type of genda bashing. Cheers from Australia but don’t come here with that attitude.

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