Living Ind

Humble Abodes

If Lafayette is the next Austin, then Arnaudville is the next Marfa. The attention Houses will eventually produce a line of five different opportunity, according to Marks, for artisanal fixtures.

Photo by Robin May

If Lafayette is the next Austin, then Arnaudville is the next Marfa. The attention deficit of George Marks, founder of the NuNu Arts & Culture Collective, has made the one-light St. Landry Parish town into a regional arts mecca, drawing free spirits from Acadiana and beyond. Next up for Marks is Tee Tiny Houses, a construction and concept venture that’s producing a fleet of mobile, miniaturized homes, which Marks called “little yachts on wheels” in a recent “Out To Lunch” interview on KRVS.

Housed in an old lumber yard, the family business of Marks’ partner in the venture, Cherie Hebert, Tee Tiny Houses will eventually produce a line of five different home models, each designed by a different architect and bearing that visonary’s name.

Tee Tiny’s first model — the Zaunbrecher, named for creators Gil and Tanya Zaunbrecher — boasts a full-size fridge, a stacked washer and dryer, a full bathroom, a TV and an AC unit. It sleeps two in a loft space at the top of what one can only assume are tiny stairs — for that farmhouse-meets-camping-meets-Williamsburg flop kind of vibe. All told, the truly humble abode accounts for 240 square feet and will retail for between $50,000 and $70,000.

Each structure is hand built to code and leaves ample opportunity, according to Marks, for artisanal fixtures.

Hebert, who daylights as a partner/founder at BBR Creative, has watched the market for tiny homes emerge nationally, linked to a cross-generational trend toward simplifying life and paring down possessions. Boomers and millennials alike will take interest in the chance to be mobile and monastic in their choice of where to live.

These babies can go off the grid with ease. With a tiny house hitched to their Suburus, Thoreaus of any age can find Walden Ponds anywhere.

Tee Tiny Houses expects to produce 12 units in its first year of operation — a big step for tiny homes.

View a photo gallery of the Humble Abodes here.