Home fit for a driveway sprouts up in front of Everett couple’s home

A flat utility trailer in a driveway is nothing unusual.

But when walls start springing up on it, that stirs some curiosity.

“Pretty much every one of our neighbors has come over and said, ‘What are you guys doing?’ ” said Devon Yeager.

What’s up with this is a tiny house in the making.

Yeager and her boyfriend Jason Heintz started building it in mid-May in this quiet Eastmont neighborhood of 1960s homes near the Everett Costco.

The tiny house is going to be a mini-mansion, with double French doors, kitchen bar, airy bedroom loft, flat-screen TV, roomy shower and oven big enough to perfectly cook frozen pizzas.

All inside a space about 26 feet long and 8 feet wide — and for less than the cost of a new car.

This couple thought of everything.

There’s a pet door for Hercules, Cinnamon and Sugar, their two wiener dogs and chihuahua. The tiny dogs came first, long before the tiny house idea.

The walls are framed so doors and windows can be moved or added to maximize the views when it becomes their permanent vacation pad near the Columbia River Gorge.

It’s a total DIY project for the couple, who gutted and remodeled their main home.

This is a smaller yet grander project.

“We’ve never been inside a tiny house,” said Yeager, 35, a material planner who makes airplane parts. “We watched the shows and saw it on the Internet and I said, ‘That would be awesome.’ ”

They were ready for an upgrade from their cozy 11-foot camper on rented property in Sunbird near the gorge.

“We were going to buy a small trailer to tow behind the Jeep,” said Heintz, 36, a Snohomish County PUD apprentice lineman. “They’re all about between $20,000 and $30,000. We’re hoping to get this under $20,000.”

Umm, she’s not so sure about that.

“With the fancy stuff that I want to put in, like the nice cabinets and countertops, it’s not going to be $20,000,” she said, “but we’ll be pretty close.”

With nothing spared. “I wanted windows. A big huge window in the front and a bigger shower,” she said.

Done.

“She wanted a real oven,” Heintz said “We have a camper that has an oven, but if you put in a frozen pizza you burn the bottom but the top is still frozen, so we wanted a real oven to bake cookies or french fries or pizza without burning it.”

One thing it might lack: “No junk drawer,” she said.

He’s not so sure on that one. “Gotta have a junk drawer,” he said. “Where do you keep your zip ties and screwdrivers?”

The couple have been together 11 years. They had mutual friends at Mariner High School, but never talked. “We ended up in the same driver’s ed car,” he said, “and still didn’t really talk.”

That changed when they met up again when they were 24.

For the tiny house, they splurged on some things and saved money on others by shopping Craigslist and Second Use Building Materials store in Seattle.

The blueprints didn’t cost a dime. “It’s all in my head,” he said.

She uses pictures from Excel to map it out.

“I used to work in new construction homes and built a couple sheds and stuff like that so I used that knowledge and kind of built it piece by piece,” he said. “Put in a window here, door here, window there.”

Yeager is his right-hand woman. “I’m a little bit of muscle and a go-fer. I do what I can, but I’m not that strong or savvy with construction, but I try,” she said.

There was only one near mishap.

“We put the walls up, just me and her. We had one come crashing down. We both ran out of the way,” he said.

“I was waiting for someone to come out and ask if we were OK. No one did, so I was like, ‘Whew, no one saw,’ ” she said.

Lane Erickson, who lives down the block, missed that episode of the live tiny house show.

“It’s kind of cool to have it in our neighborhood,” Erickson said. “We see it out the front window so it is interesting to watch them make progress. The other day they put the windows in.”

Soon, Erickson’s entertainment will roll away into the sunset.

The couple hope to move the tiny house to the gorge later this summer.

See it on Instagram: #indulgetinyhouse

Send What’s Up With That? suggestions to Andrea Brown at 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown. Read more What’s Up With That? at www.heraldnet.com/whatsup.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Sarah Jean Muncey-Gordon puts on some BITCHSTIX lip oil at Bandbox Beauty Supply on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Langley, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Bandbox Beauty was made for Whidbey Island locals, by an island local

Founder Sarah Muncey-Gordon said Langley is in a renaissance, and she’s proud to be a part of it.

A stroll on Rome's ancient Appian Way is a kind of time travel. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves on the Appian Way, Rome’s ancient superhighway

Twenty-nine highways fanned out from Rome, but this one was the first and remains the most legendary.

Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn, seen here in 2013, will perform April 20 in Edmonds. (Associated Press)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

R0ck ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn, frontman of The Byrds, plans a gig in Edmonds in April.

Mother giving in to the manipulation her daughter fake crying for candy
Can children be bribed into good behavior?

Only in the short term. What we want to do is promote good habits over the course of the child’s life.

Speech Bubble Puzzle and Discussion
When conflict flares, keep calm and stand your ground

Most adults don’t like dissension. They avoid it, try to get around it, under it, or over it.

The colorful Nyhavn neighborhood is the place to moor on a sunny day in Copenhagen. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves: Embrace hygge and save cash in Copenhagen

Where else would Hans Christian Andersen, a mermaid statue and lovingly decorated open-face sandwiches be the icons of a major capital?

Last Call is a festured artist at the 2024 DeMiero Jazz Festival: in Edmonds. (Photo provided by DeMiero Jazz Festival)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Jazz ensemble Last Call is one of the featured artists at the DeMiero Jazz Festival on March 7-9 in Edmonds.

Kim Helleren
Local children’s author to read at Edmonds Bookshop

Kim Helleren will read from one of her books for kids at the next monthly Story Time at Edmonds Bookshop on March 29.

Chris Elliott
Lyft surprises traveler with a $150 cleaning charge

Jared Hakimi finds a $150 charge on his credit card after a Lyft ride. Is that allowed? And will the charge stick?

Inside Elle Marie Hair Studio in Smokey Point. (Provided by Acacia Delzer)
The best hair salon in Snohomish County

You voted, we tallied. Here are the results.

The 2024 Kia EV9 electric SUV has room for up to six or seven passengers, depending on seat configuration. (Photo provided by Kia)
Kia’s all-new EV9 electric SUV occupies rarified air

Roomy three-row electric SUVs priced below 60 grand are scarce.

2023 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE Premium AWD (Photo provided by Toyota)
2023 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE Premium AWD

The compact SUV electric vehicle offers customers the ultimate flexibility for getting around town in zero emission EV mode or road-tripping in hybrid mode with a range of 440 miles and 42 mile per gallon fuel economy.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.