[ad_1]
Only missing bricks and wooden planks were left where Meghan Panu's house used to be.
It was strange because there was no fire. Or an earthquake. No, the young woman's house had been taken on a trailer where she was sitting in front of a supply store for remodeling the house in St. Louis.
It was not an ordinary house, with foundations anchoring it in the ground. It was a small house. And he disappeared over the weekend.
For two years, the recent graduate of Webster University worked in minimalist housing. She had drawn a map, laid sheep wool insulation, and discovered water and electricity sources. The house has grown 12 feet tall, with green windows, a tin roof and a tinted cedar cladding. The construction cost him about $ 20,000.
Next spring, Panu planned to move into a small apartment, taking part in the small house move. Architectural and social experience has gained popularity as an alternative way of life and, in some areas, as a quick fix to homelessness. This provoked negative reactions from traditional homeowners who fear that the trend will drive down prices, as well as from experts who warned that tiny mobile homes – typically between 100 and 400 square feet – were not sufficient shelter for the most vulnerable.
Building a miniature house was a sustainable living experience. "My hope would be to participate in the creation of a small ecological village," she wrote on Facebook in March.
"It is very important to be able to move into my small house and reduce my consumption to the maximum. me, "Panu told the Webster Journal last year. She claimed to have had the idea of a documentary on Netflix
The process began in early 2017 with pencil sketches. In February, she acquired a trailer. Panu has launched a call on Facebook to get a warehouse space, but much of the construction has taken place outside. The house was built last winter. In March, the roof was in place. She was proud to use recycled materials and did most of the building work herself, recruiting volunteers where she could find them, including friends and even her father on at least one occasion.
"Blood, sweat and tears," she wrote in February, uploading a photo of her bloody hand. "But mostly blood."
This week, Panu was facing a situation far worse than an injury at work: a stolen home.
By the time it took shape, the house had shuttled between St. Louis and Webster Groves. where is the University of Panu. But Saturday morning, she received a call from the owner of the supply warehouse who had invited her to park near her business, Refab.
"He asked if I had moved the tiny house during the night and when I said no, it was it's a regrettable news that they did not happen and that they were probably taken, "Panu told WTHR, a subsidiary of NBC.
She went to the public for help, calling on social media. "I NEED YOUR HELP," she writes on her Instagram page, "St. Louis Tiny Living. "Between 22:30 She explained that the little house had been stolen Friday and eleven o'clock Saturday.
"I'm lost," she continued. "Please, if you see it around the city, call it and report it."
His supporters came to his defense. "I'm really sorry dude!" Writes one of them, swearing to "keep your eyes open. Another commented, "I'm livid for you." One person simply proclaimed, "WHAT".
And then, there was the devoted disciple who said that she would search the entire Midwest for unusual contraband. She was driving from Iowa to Florida, she said, and had taken a screenshot of Panu's house "to keep an eye on us during our trip".
In the days that followed, Panu gathered the full powers of Internet search, tips on crowdsourcing on social media and passed them on to his subscribers as she was pressuring companies to obtain security images. "Keep looking, you need a village," she told her army of amateur detectives, reporting that the house had been seen Saturday morning "heading north near Russell." On Sunday, two reports were reported to place the house on I-70 heading west to Kansas City.
The tracks have arrived on Panu's Facebook page. A motorist using Highway 54, about 100 km west of St. Louis, said he had spotted what appeared to be his home towed by a light gray diesel Dodge truck 3500. When Panu was posted a screenshot of the message, someone commented that he had seen the same truck parked near the house, parked near an Iron Skillet restaurant in Kingdom City, in Missouri.
On Monday, local media joined the lawsuit. "There are car thieves, packet thieves and air conditioner thieves," reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "But St. Louis' larceny took a new step on Saturday, when the burglars left with an entire house."
Panu announced Monday that two men were driving a truck with the horse drawn behind. "Maybe traveling to Nebraska," she speculated. On Tuesday, clues seemed to indicate that they were heading towards California.
But still no decisive conclusion.
Without much more to say about the robbery, she published photos of the house, such as it had taken shape during the summer. reminder of what she had once. "In case of confusion, we still have not recovered the tiny home," she confirmed.
Meghan Panu's tiny home took shape during the summer and then disappeared over the weekend. (Meghan Panu / Facebook)
On Wednesday, the detectives located the home 30 miles from the Mississippi River in House Springs, Missouri, the Jefferson County Sheriff announced on Twitter. The Associated Press reported that an anonymous tip had led them to the stolen residence. According to Post-Dispatch, the suspects were unknown.
It took little time for the authorities to go to Panu, who was anxious to take her home. The forces of order were holding other good news for him. A towing company has announced that it would make the house free – "an early Christmas present," said Sheriff Dave Marshak.
"TINY HOUSE FOUND", writes Panu on Facebook. She plans to finish the interior before moving in next year.
When Panu settles in her tiny home, she will join a movement that has its roots in Henry David Thoreau, who wrote in "Walden," published in 1854, his desire "to live deliberately, to to present only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could learn what he should teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. " , the writer and abolitionist had to settle in Walden Pond, Massachusetts
The tiny movement of houses today also seeks to distance itself from the 39 economy of consumption, but its expansion in the United States is also born of the need. small houses have become an "architectural and cultural phenomenon" as a result of the collapse of the housing market between 2007 and 2009. From now on, from San Jose to Philadelphia, tiny home communities are becoming a solution possible to insoluble homelessness.
at the same time, the mid Nimalist housing has gained some success as a fashion lifestyle choice. Some occupy them full time, others place mobile structures adjacent to a more complete residence and rent miniature homes on Airbnb.
"Five impressive little houses that you can order now," Curbed said. The first offer is a fashionable all-black stunner, which measures 357 square feet but costs $ 139,000. HGTV's "Tiny House Hunters" television series follows buyers "with a view to drastically downsizing".
These are the contradictions that define the movement, said Nancy C. Unger, historian at the University of Santa Clara. "Tendency, trying to live more simply and" it's all that I have between me and roaming "- they're part of it," she told The Washington Post. A title on the ArchDaily blog had this sinister interpretation: "Tiny Houses: Reducing the American Dream."
As a serious solution to the lack of affordable housing, the movement faces problems due to the often lack of support from local homeowners, who fear that an influx of tiny homes will lower the prices of traditional homes. There are also risks for the occupants, especially since someone can "take off with the thing you have invested everything in," she said.
Of course, no one is immune from disaster, said the historian. Disaster is always the last word, as Meghan Panu learned in St. Louis.
But it's a precarious way of life.
"I live in a house, it can burn or all kinds of things that could happen," Unger said. But nobody can steal it. "
[ad_2]
Source link
