few blocks from downtown Gainesville sits a small, 675-square-foot house bordered by a white picket fence.
The house, which is the first new home built in southeast Gainesville after more than 20 years, will be featured on FYI network’s “Tiny House Nation” in the Fall.
Construction took place in Spring, and owners Lonie Carpenter and Danny Mckibbin became the first gay couple featured on the show.
The couple has been together for eight years and owns five businesses in Gainesville, including Mode Salon East, situated a block from their new home.
Carpenter said one of their goals was to do something positive for the gay community.
“We were on the cusp of that non-acceptance period, so we still have our baggage,” he said. “It just helped us tell the world who we are.”
Monday, the couple finished each other’s sentences and gestured to the home’s features, which are confidential until the show airs.
“We wanted the aesthetic to match the Bed & Breakfast District,” said Carpenter.
For 14 days, teams built the home from a concrete base and filled it with amenities as film crews documented their work.
Mckibbin said Gainesville is their life — it’s where they built several businesses and a relationship.
“People forget this side of town, and if builders and investors would start putting money in this area, it would become fantastic,” he said.
Mary Alford, a principal engineer at Sustainable Design Group, said there is a difference between small homes and tiny houses.
Tiny houses, she said, are usually 500 to 600 square feet, making them illegal under the city’s lawful definition of a “livable space.”
Until the city changes some of its codes, people will continue to build illegal, unsafe houses, she said.
Mckibbin and Carpenter said they hope others are inspired to downsize in the future.
“A lot of people were shocked that the city let us do it, but urban sprawl is a problem,” Mckibbin said. “People have to keep going further and further from the center of a city to live.”
Contact Molly Donovan at mdonovan@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @Mollyidonovan.
Danny Mckibbin, a UF alumnus and co-owner of several Gainesville businesses, poses for a photo with his husband and business co-owner, Lonie Carpenter, at their house. Their home was the set of an episode of “Tiny Houses,” where they filmed for seven days.
