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Rusty Pedal Studio Design + Build

A Toolshed that wanted to be a Tiny Home

By High Altitude Finishes

May 8^th, 2020

The Toolshed that... Never came alive.

We have owned and operated a construction company for almost 20 years. In the process of doing so, we have accumulated a number of tools that have been screaming for a garage. We decided to finally build a toolshed to acknowledge the voice of compressors, nail guns, saws, cordless drills, craw bars, tile saws and our most recent acquisition: A planer...

We began business as usual, drawing a floor plan, planning the roof pitch and gathering our recycled materials. Once we framed the space, we began loving the sound of our creek, watching the sunrises and sunsets, hearing the carpenter birds and just being able to walk away from it all. While playing Elephant Revival, Alison Krauss and Johnny Cash, we forgot the secret voices of our tools and morphed the space into yet another livable space. Based on Adriana's rusty mood at the time, she decided to name the space The Rusty Pedal. The name seemed appropriate for someone who once upon a time just rode bikes with a rusty soul. Not to mention Adriana had bought long time ago a stained glass piece with a flower on it... Pedal and Petal, it all sounds the same she said.

Both the kitchen cabinet and the butcher block came from a kitchen remodel that we did last year. Our customer thought her kitchen was "outdated" and looked "old". Adriana could not dismantle the kitchen soon enough. She has a special eye for things that look old and outdated. She always says that old things are well made, resilient and beautiful, just like old people. They have a story to tell... We both salvaged every cabinet and every piece of butcher block.

Amy decided to add some curvature to an otherwise square butcher block piece just so that the space feels more organic. For about five years, we worked for a Princeton trained architect who taught us the value and beauty of round. All her projects were inspired on Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

The small opening window came from a woman from whom we bought climbing rope and a few carabiners. In 2018 we had a friend fall 30 ft from a roof while building his house. When the page came, we rushed to put our fire gear on desperately grabbing our medical bag. Upon arrival, we immediately loaded our already pale and diaphoretic friend in the ambulance. Time slowed down as time does on surreal experiences. Adriana rode the AMR ambulance all the way down to Boulder. Despite our efforts, our friend died a week later. After his death, when we take roofing projects, we act as though we are climbing El Capitan. After all, Adriana was once an amateur climber in Joshua Tree, CA. We decided to buy a second climbing rope for a steep roofing project we had going on at the time. The rope came from a girl who attempted climbing once. She was scared from just looking at the wall. Deciding to never give climbing a chance, she rushed to Craiglist instead. When we told our story to her, she decided to give us a couple of windows and a door she had been storing on her garage after breaking up with her boyfriend. We wondered if her boyfriend was a climber. Probably. That little window now allows us to hear the magic sound of water that flows through the creek.

We wanted to make the space resonate with the landscape. Given that the Rusty Pedal lives in an aspen forest, nothing more appropriate than adding aspen to the walls. Aspen is a soft wood that adds light and crisp to any space. It feels almost translucent.

Much like in all of our designs, we decided to incorporate items that we had laying around in our construction materials boneyard. Our iron windows made it to the Top Ten List as the design element we love the most. Cedar fencing was used to add a rustic feeling to the space. We think cedar fencing adds contrast to the crisp feeling of aspen.

We decided to heat the space with a small wood-stove. Given that most wood-stoves designed to heat small spaces are very expensive and given the budget for our project, we decided to creatively adapt an affordable hunting wood-stove for our needs. The trouble shooting required was extensive. Wood-stove location is something that you have to plan from the very beginning of any project. Unlike windows, which you can always add one if need be, wood-stove location has to be carefully planned.

We began to notice that our wood-stove was not drawing properly. Amy creatively discovered that the exterior pipe was not long enough for proper venting. She then designed a roof system with heating pipe in order to make our set up be fire proof. With our frequent 120 mph winds, the anchoring system had to be sturdy.

Being an out of the box thinker is critical in life. Most hunters want perfect skulls. Most people want trendy designs. The less traveled road is that of untrendy things and incomplete skulls. It is our belief that interesting stories lie in the most obscure unimaginable corners. We rather have deformed skulls. At least we know they come from a creature who probably fought a good battle... worth dying for.