For alum, sustainable life means ‘tiny house’ is home

Peter Simon believes everything he needs in life will easily and harmoniously fit into roughly 300 square feet.

Not a storage container mind you.

A house.

A 300-square-foot, 32-foot-long home.

The Fond du Lac resident, 2008 University of Wisconsin Oshkosh radio-TV-film and theater graduate and current Moraine Park Technical College instructional technology specialist, is planning to move into his new “tiny house” later this summer with his wife Abby ’10, and the couple’s year-old son, Elliot.

In June, as it sat parked in the driveway of the Simons’ Fond du Lac neighborhood home, Simon said the 32-foot-long house will be completed this year – the ultimate demonstration of the family’s commitment to living simply and, obviously, smaller.

The house project was built in partnership with Moraine Park students in a building trades construction course. The class needed a project. Simon had a passion for the burgeoning “tiny house” movement. So, the two parties collaborated.

The Simons’ tiny house project has been featured in regional and state media reports over the past several months.

Peter Simon said his UW Oshkosh experience and alma mater’s commitment to sustainability helped strengthen his growing interest in lessening his impact on the Earth.

“College is so forming, and you get to explore different ideals and things like that, and that is definitely the point at which I decided that I’m of age when I can actually start making a difference,” he said, standing in the small living room space of his tiny home on a hot June afternoon.

Simon said his family isn’t exactly sure where they will permanently plant the tiny house. They look forward to, when settled in, using it as an educational tool to show others how easy and efficient it is to make a radical home-downsizing happen.

Hear more from Simon and take a tour of his tiny house in development in this UW Oshkosh Today video:

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