Nearly two-thirds of Americans have smartphones, which means most of us are always plugged in. Throw in the ever ubiquitous wi-fi signal, and it’s a greater challenge to disconnect than ever before. A local start-up wants to make that a little easier by sending us out to the middle of nowhere.
It’s called Getaway. As in literally, get away from it all. Set deep in the woods of New England are cabins so tiny that they’re almost easy to miss. And that’s kind of the point.
“The idea is that you go to a Getaway and you do nothing at all. People write to us and ask us what’s nearby, what can we do? So we tell them, we could tell you but we won’t. So we say, ‘Instead, why don’t you get there and see what you want to do and see what you feel like,’” said Jon Staff, CEO of Getaway.
Staff started Getaway with the over-worked urban dweller in mind who needs to escape the city for a night or two without the hassle of planning and spending a lot of money to do it. They also want to evoke a sense of adventure on these trips. The cost? $99 a night.
“We don’t reveal where you are going until 24 hours before you go. And the idea behind that is that we want to actively prevent you from going online and planning your weekend minute-by-minute.” Staff said.
And true to form, I didn’t know where I was going until the day before, and in keeping with the spirit of adventure, I won’t tell you either. What I can tell you is that it took a little over 2 hours with traffic to get to this small, idyllic town. I can assure you that it is in the middle of nowhere but abundant with the kind of scenery that’s synonymous with quintessential small-town New England, sheep grazing on pastures, a town general store, and even a village schoolhouse.
After navigating my way through the woods’ dirt road and passing a handful of small homes surrounding a picturesque pond, I spot the sign for The Clara, nailed to a tree. It’s Getaway’s newest addition to their growing enclave of tiny cabins, and had it not been for the sign, I would have missed the black rectangular structure concealed by closely banded pine trees.
Location manager Tess Ash greets me at the door. “Hi! Welcome to one of our tiny cabins!”
She’s not kidding. It’s 160 square feet of pine construction, replete with new pine smell, and immediately, the first thing I notice is the view outside the window that takes up the entire opposite end of the cabin. More pine trees with a glimpse of the pond reflecting off in the distance. It’s tranquil, and I can’t help but think of Thoreau’s Walden and how he may have been onto something.
Tess gives me the tour, which is brief. The tiny cabin is fit to sleep four, though the bunk bed above the bathroom is pretty tight to get in and out of for this reporter of 5’7’’. Not a square inch of space is wasted in this cabin, but it has everything you need to live pretty comfortably for a couple days. A tiny propane stove, sink with hot and cold running water, a cooler, a tiny shower and arguably the world’s tiniest fireplace. They also want our footprint to be as tiny as possible, hence the composting toilet with instructions. What is missing is an internet connection and a strong cell phone signal. But that’s the point.
Back at the Harvard Innovation Lab, CEO Jon Staff tells me how guests have told him that it was hard for the first few hours to unplug. “To be away from the e-mail, from wi-fi, but after a few hours, they said, “I started to feel different and felt recharged.”’ Staff said.
Getaway plans on branching out beyond New England, and the woods. They want to take these tiny homes into cities.
“We have a dream that we can bring tiny houses into the city and capture some of this idea that we should be living our lives experientially rather than around stuff.” Staff said. “You already have billions more people moving into cities over the coming decades and we need to react to that. There’s a density and an affordability problem.”
With 1-bedroom apartments renting for upwards of $1,900 a month in Boston, population density and affordability could be the strongest argument made for living in 160 square feet. The average cost of materials to build a tiny house is $23,000, and Staff is convinced that millennials like himself don't want a 5-bedroom 2-garage home in the suburbs.
“You could imagine where a Boston triple-decker would normally be built, and putting 4 or 6 tiny houses on that plot. But giving everyone their own 4 walls with no footsteps above or below them without keeping you up at night.” Staff said.
“I think it would entirely be a new form of housing. Houses would be designed to the neighborhood, and integrated into the community. It would be a different lifestyle that is maximized around experiences instead of things.”
Changing the city landscape one tiny house at a time. Something to think about while walking in the woods.
