Jeremy Messersmith doesn't like accumulating stuff.
It's one of the reasons he bought his 411-square-foot house in south Minneapolis.
"This is the least amount of house that you can buy, and it also seems like if I have a house this small then accumulating the stuff ... maybe won't happen, like a forced minimalism," he said. "I saw an article that this was the smallest square by square foot in Minneapolis and thought that's funny, and it seemed like a fun thing to do."
Four years later, the musician behind "A Girl, a Boy and a Graveyard," "Ghost" and "666″ is married and feels he's outgrown the one-bedroom, one-bath home he's come to love. While the couple are moving to a larger space, they aren't moving far: from the Nokomis community to the Cooper neighborhood, also in south Minneapolis.
"I'm a little heartbroken. I planned on keeping that place forever and becoming an art hermit and dying in it — that's not going to happen now," he said. "This house is absolutely perfect for one person, but for two people — especially two who work from home — it ends up being a little snug."
Sauna slash recording studio
When Messersmith moved into the house, built in 1900, he knew what project he wanted to tackle first — build a sauna in "the creepy room in the basement."
"It was just a 4-by-5-[foot] concrete room," he said. Messersmith said he's not traditionally a handy person, but after watching enough YouTube videos and reading SaunaTimes with Glenn, a local blog about saunas, "I got through it. I'm most proud of that."
Like the house, the sauna is tiny and comfortably fits two. But it can fit three as long as you're OK being that close to everyone involved, he said. "It's like a little sauna closet, and it's quite delightful," he said.
And in case you're wondering, yes, he also carved out space to make music while living there. Messersmith, who describes his music as "a white guy with an acoustic guitar," would sometimes run a mic down to the basement sauna room and use it as a recording studio. After all, it was part of the way there.
"If you want to do a soundproof room, you basically build a room within a room, and that's what a sauna is," he said.
Another project he took on was renovating the kitchen, a big task since it would dictate how big or small the place would feel. The focus was to keep the center as clear as possible, so Messersmith opted to place appliances and build counters against the walls of the home. Then there are all the drawers that store items from plain sight, he said.
When he shopped at IKEA for a sink, the only one that would fit into the tiny space was a round one. But the best purchase for the kitchen project?
"The most fun thing was figuring out the dishrack situation. ... I really wanted a dishwasher, but there wasn't room for it," he said. "So I found these things — I'm not sure what you call them — but they are like dishracks right above the sink and it drips down right into it."
As a bonus, it doubles as a storage place for the dishes too.
"That's a thing that I really, really loved and now miss," Messersmith said.
Tiny house with a big yard
While hosting inside such a tiny house was a squeeze, the outdoor space includes spacious front and back yards.
With that in mind, Messersmith built a patio, which turned out to be in the shape of a piano, and also installed a slat fence made out of scrap hardwood pickets given to him by a friend.
"We can have two people over at the small round table, but once I built the patio then we could have larger get-togethers," he said.
A highlight is all the trees and greenery in the backyard. Plus the front has native plants and a few raised planters that Messersmith installed to grow vegetables.
"The yard has a very kind of cabin-like feel with the big spruce and the cedars. It has a North Woods feel," he said, adding that he spends a lot of time on Minnesota's North Shore, where he writes some of his songs.
"It felt like I had a spiritual connection and I was like, 'Ah, this is a place where I can do that same thing and it feels good to be hearing nature.'"
As of publication this home has an offer with contingency. Barb Palmer (612-877-0530, barbpalmerrealtor@gmail.com) of Lakes Area Realty has the $195,000 listing.
