Upgrading by downsizing

Builder believes tiny homes have large variety of uses

- Susan Lagsdin

If 2020 was the year of staying home more than we ever intended, then 2021 might be the year of more intentionally choosing what we want our home to be.

Attention has turned to tiny houses (defined broadly as a habitable residence from 120 to 400 square feet in area) as singles and seniors, couples and families are calculating what’s nice versus what’s necessary.

Cosme Hernandez is the CEO of Wenatchee’s Tiny House Cribs and a strong advocate of upgrading by downsizing.

In the past three years, with other Washington builders, he’s testified to state legislators and helped determine laws to guide the industry, and he’s still laboring to keep tiny houses affordable within the latest 2019 zoning and building code regulations.

Coming from migrant roots, Cosme was an ambitious student but left college his senior year to scope out the world of work and find mentors. “Choosing role models when you’re looking at a career is like going to the gym,” said Cosme. “You see the guy who’s ripped and ask him what he did to get there….”

He settled on housing and said his two strongest motivators are to provide homes for people, in any form, and to help his family both here and back in California.

An agile entrepreneur at 28, Cosme collaborates on projects that range from fabricating trailer chassis to full-scale home construction. Currently he’s planning a small home (1,250 square foot) development in East Wenatchee in which some of the 13 main houses would have a tiny home as an accessory development unit (ADU) on the site.