This Berkeley tiny house has been getting a fair amount of attention recently. Built by New Avenue, Inc., the 420 square-foot backyard cottage is spacious enough to include a living room, kitchen, dining area, loft, and bathroom. It was built for $98,000, which includes all the bells and whistles one could ask for in any home regardless of size.

The owner is Karen Chapple, an associate professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. She powers the home with a 1.67 kW solar array on the main house that is leased through Sungevity.

Karen’s Cottage has an insulated concrete slab, 2×6-construction walls, R19 recycled denim insulation, insulated hot water pipes, an on-demand (gas) water heater, and Marvin Integrity windows with low-E insulated glass. Chapple also installed IKEA kitchen cabinets, an induction cooktop, and an Energy Star dishwasher.

The structure is what many call a “backyard” cottage or accessory dwelling unit. I understand Chapple will lease the cottage when not in use by relatives and other visitors – providing an income stream to help pay for the mortgage.

New Avenue sees the future in these ADU-type buildings. The start-up can do everything start to finish as a one-stop shop for design, engineering, construction, and financing. Kevin Casey, founder and CEO of New Avenue, told me in an email that his company has four other homes in the works and expects to build about 10 or more this year.

Credits: New Avenue Homes.