Small Wonders: B&B Micro Manufacturing
As tiny houses have gained popularity, more options have become available, and a small business located in North Adams, Massachusetts is at the forefront of this booming industry. B&B Micro Manufacturing, located in the Windsor Mill, has, in two-and-a-half year’s time, become the largest producer of tiny houses in the Northeast.
Although the business hasn’t been around long, the three co-owners, Chris St. Cyr, Mitch Bresett and Jason Koperniak, have decades of combined experience. Koperniak says the company began, in 2016, as a builder of normal-sized homes. “Then we got a request for a tiny house,” he says, “and now… 112 tiny houses later.”
They named their company B&B in honor of Mitch’s dad, the late Mike Bresett and his own longtime carpentry business. The elder Bresett was a mentor to his son and to St. Cyr. All three co-owners grew up in Adams, Mass., attended school and returned to take on titles in their current business, Bresett heading up production, Koperniak in business development, and St. Cyr in finance/management.
“We make everything from short-term rentals to ski houses, beach houses, and show models,” Koperniak says. “We’ve legitimized and diversified the tiny home market.”
They’ve also employed local workers, a core group of 30 experts in their fields, with an additional 5 to 12 ready to be called in for support. When I visited the site, which is set up to construct six tiny houses at a time, the crew was hard at work on a handful of identical pitch black buildings. When all are completed, they’ll be transported, along with the eight or so finished ones waiting in the parking lot, to a brand-new campground to be used as rental cabins. Another company called Try It Tiny uses B&B's tiny houses as a traveling fleet of weekend rentals that follow IndyCar races around the country.
One particular building, at the front of the warehouse, was high priority. It was a show model for Resideo, a brand-new Honeywell spinoff, which was to debut at the New York Stock Exchange in four day’s time.
B&B currently offers 14 types of tiny homes on wheels. Prices start at $39,000 for the Hudson model or the Brodie, which is a mobile office/studio. The most expensive design is the Taconic, at $77,000, but all models are customizable and additional costs depend on the customer’s wishes. “We love to customize,” says Katie Jackson, the company’s business and community development manager, who also happens to be the Northeast Regional Director of the American Tiny House Association.
When people think “tiny home,” they usually picture a sleeping loft, but B&B also offers one-floor models with separate bedrooms. If you love a loft, but hate a ladder, choose a model with stairs. Wheelchair accessible? They can do that. Don’t want to give up your soak time? Get the shower/bathtub combo. Love to bake? Upgrade your range to add an oven.
Not only a tiny home builder, B&B has also become an advocate for tiny home owners and those who wish to be. They’ve been working to change zoning laws in their home state, and Massachusetts has just passed a tiny house appendix to the building code, Appendix Q, which pertains to tiny houses on foundations (permanently affixed buildings under 4,000 sq. ft).
Although micro homes are their current focus, the team will soon begin work on a development of slightly larger homes to be built on a former golf course in Clarksburg, Mass. The project will include about 40 modular homes, which will all be solar-powered, meaning they’ll be completely off grid.
They’re also working on a new portable module model, a tiny house that can be attached to another building temporarily. Jackson says to think of it as on-demand space for families, in-laws, renters or guests, that can be moved somewhere else when it’s no longer needed.
Whether you’re downsizing, just starting out, love to travel, are looking for a low-cost second home or would just rather invest more of your money in land than in shelter, a tiny home might be the perfect home for you.
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