Kristie Wolfe spent over a year touring the U.S. with a giant potato to promote Idaho’s spud industry and dreaming about turning the 28-foot-long tuber into a tiny home. Seven years later when the tater was finally retired, her wish came true.
Kristie transformed the interior of the concrete, plaster and steel structure into a light-filled (for something with no windows) and cozy shelter, using whimsical furnishings like a DIY antler chandelier above the bed and a wine refrigerator for the kitchen.
Not wanting to add on to the potato for more space, she transformed a 14-foot-diameter grain silo into a bathroom. She turned an over-sized steel tub into a bathtub and created her own water-recycling sink/toilet combo.
To obtain permitting for guests, the city required Kristie to build a separate home and consider the potato an accessory unit (or ADU). With rooms already booked, she wanted to build the quickest and cheapest structure possible so she bought plans for a “Walden” tiny home and left it bare-bones minimum for permitting purposes.
The property, which she bought for $5000, is a 20-minute drive to Boise and in wintertime surrounded by fields of dirt so to add more activity for guests at her potato hotel, she bought a cow. Dolly turned out to be more of a. pet than her dog and a love of her life. Now she’s adapting her own tiny house on the property with windows that open up for Dolly’s visits.