Tiny house, big dreams for Irwin man

Got to get back to the land

And get my soul free

… And we got to get ourselves

Back to the garden

— “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell

Benjamin D’Amico of Irwin is going on a life-changing venture and getting back to the land, at least for the foreseeable future, by living in a tiny house he built in a North Huntingdon barn and hauled to a farm in central Ohio’s Amish country.

“I’m actually thrilled to go out there,” D’Amico, 31, said of his plans last week to use his 1990s truck to haul his 28-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, 8,300-pound house some 125 miles to Berlin, Ohio, about 30 miles southwest of Canton.

Like so many other Americans, D’Amico said the changes during the covid pandemic caused him to reevaluate his life and set off on a different path. He had been working as a draftsman for an architectural firm but wanted a change.

“It’s been a journey, looking for something new,” said D’Amico, who wants to be a designer.

He has been promised a small plot of land on the Ohio farm where he will set down his home, with space enough for his own garden.

“It will take some adapting” to having less space for all of his belongings, D’Amico said. Although he describes himself as a “minimalist,” he said he will leave behind boxes of stuff at his parents’ home.

When D’Amico settles in Berlin, he will be working on renovations to houses owned by his landlord. He honed his woodworking skills in building the tiny house with his father, Nicholas, and has the satisfaction of constructing his own residence.

Using the skills he learned as a draftsman, he designed the house and has the drawings to prove it.

“I’m a perfectionist,” D’Amico said, pointing to slight flaws — two boards misaligned by about one-sixteenth of an inch — in some of the woodwork of his minuscule abode. It was built on a steel-frame trailer that once held a camper and features comfy, if not close, space.

The bed consists of a mattress on a raised platform built of white birch wood, as is most of the woodwork in his house — walls and cabinets — contrasted by black shelves. Seating space is a long plank next to the bed and what could serve as a table abuts the bed.

Water captured from rain runoff will be processed through four filters designed to remove impurities. In the event that rainwater is not sufficient, D’Amico can hook up the water system to a hose.

He can get electrical power from an extension cord connected to electricity or from a fuel-powered generator he plans to install. A skylight and two windows provide some natural light.

There is a four-burner stove and small refrigerator, one that was inside the camper when D’Amico acquired it.

He has electric heat and a small heater that pumps warm air into the structure. Unfortunately, D’Amico said, he learned the hard way during the recent cold snap that the heater lacked enough punch to keep the space warm on subzero nights.

A 40-gallon water heater is neatly tucked under the wooden bench.

A corner shower has been installed, along with a composting toilet with a vent. The holding tank for the composted waste can be emptied periodically, D’Amico said.

Vertical aluminum sheets for the exterior and white trim help reflect the sun’s heat.

While he wants to make the tiny house his home, D’Amico said the landowner has offered him the option of staying in the farmhouse.

The tiny house was not tiny in price. D’Amico said he invested between $80,000 and $90,000 in it.

He has visions of using the tiny house to generate revenue by renting it as a “glamping” venture, similar to an Airbnb, for tourists who want the feel of camping without overly rustic accommodations.

“It can evolve into a business,” D’Amico said.

Wandering man

D’Amico, a 2009 Norwin High School graduate, did not follow the well-worn path of taking a college diploma and moving into the working world.

He studied music technology and recording engineering at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. He said he started several companies, which ended up failing.

Instead of being ensconced in a recording studio, D’Amico wanted to experience the country, so he drove across the nation by himself in 2013, traveling 8,500 miles and criss-crossing the states. During that time, he said in a YouTube video, he had no specific destination. He camped in the Toyota SUV he had converted into living space and spent 72 days staying with the homeless, going broke, meeting Buddhist monks and benefiting from the kindness of strangers.

Through the experience, he said, he learned that he could “escape the confined box that we are all trained by society to spend our lives in.”