Couple who want to bring tiny home to Annapolis featured on A&E show
The same day a couple received a 60-day notice to leave their Annapolis home, they also received a phone call from the producers of the television show “Tiny House Nation.”
Karen and Phil Ashford had an interest in tiny homes and saw the phone call and their former landlord’s decision to sell their rental as an opportunity to finally build a tiny home.
“We got a call from producers that day, saying we are interested in your story and we would like to talk to you,” said Karen Ashford, who applied to be part of the show last summer after seeing a Facebook ad.
Once they accepted, the couple had to find a tiny home company and builder to help with the project, which was featured on A&E’s show last Wednesday. After Phil Ashford looked online, he found ZeroSquared in Canada and a model that could expand from 8.5 feet wide to nearly double the size. They then discovered
“We gave them oodles of pictures and they were able to distill that down into an internal design,” explained Phil Ashford. The producers of the show told the Ashfords to dream big because they wanted a challenge, Phil Ashford went on to say.
So they asked for a finished kitchen, a fireplace, a place for Phil to work comfortably from home and a space for their grandchildren.
Through the process, the couple encountered challenges like focusing on what they wanted to bring from their apartment-styled home to the tiny home, and more importantly, the legal limitations.
Anne Arundel zoning laws do not allow for tiny homes. They can’t choose to park it on land because the home has wheels and is considered a mobile home in the county’s zoning law, meaning it can only be used as a dwelling if in a licensed mobile home park.
Despite the legal challenges, the couple hopes tiny homes can become an affordable housing opportunity for people interested in the city.
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