Vermont’s Peter King, a self-described “pretty good carpenter” and “excellent teacher” will be leading a a group of six on a journey of small house construction this spring. The two-day program will be held on a wooded patch of land in northern Saugerties that’s already home to one such structure, and several associated out buildings.

The workshop was the brainchild of Carin DeNat, a small house enthusiast, who has worked on two such structures to date and has designed the ten-foot by 14-foot house that will be built during the weekend event.

“I am a Buddhist, and read a lot about how people go to the mountains and have a little hut, sit there and meditate,” says DeNat. “Especially monks from Thailand. They have this tradition called forest monks. They are the ones who inspired me. They sit in little huts, generally eight feet by eight feet. That’s where they live.”

For most Americans, that’s too rustic, she says. But there is an American tradition of small houses. “I’m American now,” says DeNat, who was born in China, grew up in Hong Kong, and attended college here, settling first in Brooklyn, then moving to Westchester, and eventually the Hudson Valley where the weekend house the family bought in 2002 was so frequent a destination that the move was made full time a year later. “Henry David Thoreau lived in a 10 foot by 14 foot house at Walden Pond he wrote about. My buildings are based on that, about that size,” she says. “I went to visit Japan when my husband (Mark) was working there,” she adds. “It totally changed my aesthetics and appreciation of architecture … very efficient use of space, very compact … now in cooperation with green architecture.” Smaller houses are about owning fewer things, having more time, more life and more energy to cherish personal relationships between people, she says.

Small houses can sometimes eliminate some of the headache of building permits, but there are still rules to be followed. “A lot of towns have different rules,” says DeNat. “If you build something not bigger than 140 square feet, they do not require … you to take out a building permit. You can kind of go under the radar. Of course it varies by town. If you put in something with a sink, running water, a septic system—even if it’s small, you still need a permit,” she says.

Her first small house was built on a 97-acre parcel the couple calls “Awakening Garden,” in Saugerties. It’s rustic, not insulated—and drafty. There’s electricity, but no running water or septic system, but due to it’s size, it’s just big enough to be regulated. There’s a full loft, accessed via a ladder. The cabin is rented out for weekend visitors who leave their comments and thoughts in a journal for DeNat and future visitors. “Nobody mentions … being cramped, not a one,” says DeNat. Last year, there were guests in the cabin nearly every weekend from April through November.

DeNat’s second cabin is across the road from the DeNat’s main house in Palenville, and is used as an extension of the home. “When I have children or friends visiting, they go over there,” she says. “It’s an extra room.” Small house number two includes indoor plumbing, so permits were required here too.

There’s no sleeping loft in this more refined small house, and although there’s ample floor space for sleeping bags in the elegant small structure, there’s a more traditional bed for DeNat’s second small house located in an adjacent yurt.

The small house is insulated and paneled in splayed maple purchased secondhand. There are also recycled fixtures, like the sleek glass bathroom sink purchased at a Greene Demolitions, a renovation and overstock salvage shop with stores in Honesdale, PA, Norwalk, CT, and Bethel, NY. The Door Jamb, on Route 28 in the Ulster County town of Shokan, is another popular source for parts.

Through her interest in small houses, and a conversation with another party interested in having a small building built, DeNat found small house architect Peter King on the Internet. She has spoken with him a couple of times on the telephone, but the two are not scheduled to meet until the workshop. “He sounds very down to earth,” she said. “He describes himself as a pretty good carpenter, an excellent teacher. He believes in back to the Earth. He grows a big garden for his family.”

DeNat’s plan for the house to be constructed at the workshop includes a seven-foot by ten-foot loft creating a second story over half of the main floor. It will be stick-built construction, and eventually insulated. “I’ve been collecting old windows and doors from antique shops and flea markets and I kind of incorporate what I have,” says DeNat. “I’m partial to stained glass and try to use that.”

“It’s going to be called Twin Oaks,” she adds. “This will be a shell, with a big window looking out to a red oak and a monster white oak. My image is to make this little cabin sitting among gardens. The other side will (lead) out into a garden. When the elements are good, you are mostly living outside.” All of DeNat’s designs include extensive use of glass, and King’s own aesthetic also seems to include windows that bring the outside in—while inviting those inside to go out. “I plan a small wood stove in there, but no plumbing,”she says, of Twin Oaks.

To speed the building process and help ensure the weekend of two eight-hour days concludes with a completed shell, about 90 percent of the lumber will be cut ahead of time. This lumber will be softwood from their own property, where 60 pine logs are already on the ground awaiting milling. “There’s a guy with a portable saw mill, Richard Curry, he’s an old-timer,” says DeNat. “He mills the boards chewing tobacco. He’s retired. He loves working with wood. He takes his time, works with the land owner. He’s very accommodating. He respects the trees, respects his own work. My husband, Mark, will work along with him and they form a camaraderie.”

DeNat remarks: “Think about it: (Mark) is a guy from Wall Street, with four computer screens and a phone in each ear and now he’s up here in his jeans with a man chewing tobacco, and they work together and talk. It’s two men forming a relationship. Folks were a little apprehensive when we first came, but they have come to understand that we are neighbors and we help each other,” she says.

A gravel foundation will be put down in advance of the weekend’s construction workshop, though DeNat’s first small house at the Saugerties site is built on a concrete slab. “A lot of Japanese buildings are built on gravel without basements,” says DeNat. “Water drains naturally. If the building shifts a little, it’s easily adjusted.”

“I think it’s wonderful that many architectural firms have (discovered) that some people have this need, or desire, to have little houses,” says DeNat. “Some are manufactured—what they call cabanas or small houses. They tend to be modular buildings, built on site and shipped out. They tend to be on the expensive side, from $40,000 plus shipping.”

“This workshop will show people they can make one in their back yard—whether they make one for the kids as a castle, or a workshop, or for meditation,” she says.

The total cost will be an estimated $10,000—though as with any building project, overruns are common. For the first small house they built, for example, the DeNats thought salvaged materials would keep the costs close to null, but the dollars still added up.

“I’m learning to do different things,” says DeNat. “The two I’ve built are both post and beam and I’ve had people work with me—one a contractor and one a friend, an artist who is very handy … also Mark and some neighbors have worked on both of these.” Although she has a number of books on the subject, DeNat says she hasn’t seen too many other small houses.

Most discussions involving King’s construction efforts (over a dozen small houses to date) refer to “tiny” houses but DeNat prefers the term “small.” “Little, to me, has a negative connotation,” she says. “Small is more factual. Tiny is ‘cute,’ (and) I don’t generally like cute things. If somebody says ‘you’ve got to come and see it, it’s cute,’ I think I don’t want to waste my time. Time is precious. These words have gradations of size or feeling or intensity. All those have to be learned.”

Space is extremely limited for the workshop, scheduled for May 16 and 17. All tools will be provided. The fee is $250 per person and includes dinner. Call 802 933 6103 to reserve your space. For site information, call Carin DeNat at 518 678 0287. In the event of insufficient enrollment, the workshop may be rescheduled to June.