They broke ground in April, but then it rained for days, and then weeks. Then it flooded, then a bridge went out, and then it became impossible to find licensed and bonded building contractors willing to take on the work of building four tiny homes in Nicodemus.
“We’ve had one setback after another,” said JohnElla Holmes, leader of the Nicodemus Tiny Homes Project in Graham County. “But now we’re back on track.”
With dirt leveled, footings dug, and some concrete poured, it looks now like four people longing to move back home to the tiny town on U.S. Highway 24 will be able to do so by March 2019 to new 500-square-foot homes.
As Holmes explains it, the Tiny Homes Project helps people come home to the historic town that is beloved by its residents and their families. “It just blows my mind how many people want to come home but were discouraged by the cost and the difficulty,” said Holmes, who moved back recently after a career as a college professor at Kansas State University, Manhattan. Stumbling blocks include dead-end roads, badly platted lots, costly regulatory issues related to septic systems, and outdated and insufficient waterline designed and installed in 1979. Holmes and her helpers have had to work around the problems, like trading around lots to build in the most accessible spots.
“I do this so that Nicodemus will live on forever,” Holmes said, noting a population trend unusual for rural Kansas: The number of people in Nicodemus has increased from 15 in 2015 to 47 today.
(Read more: News – The Hays Daily News)