ST. GEORGE —An entrepreneur with deep ties to the community has invented a small home concept that will be affordable and easy to assemble, with future goals to include water conservation for the livelihood of their communities.
Inventor Mike Taggett has a lifetime of business experience that stems from the variety of inventions he has created.
“The biggest challenge is getting your ideas out there and getting somebody interested enough to come and spend time and learn,” Taggett said. I think we need to give individual inventors more time to tell their stories and hopefully, I get to do that.”
Taggett said he originally worked construction through college, then moved on to be a river guide in Moab. He then was hired as a guide in Hurricane to lead wooden boat rowing trips down the Grand Canyon. In the offseason, Taggett said he bought a sewing machine and started to make different styles of eyeglass cords. He came up with his own personal design and turned that into a successful, full-time business.
“They just took off,” Taggett said of Chums, his eyewear retainer business. “I got a big order from Swatch watch. The owner of the company loved them and wanted to add them to their line.”
Taggett said Swatch placed a test order of 10,000 pieces, then placed an order for 290,000. He grew the company to 60 employees and made around 30 eyeglass cords over the course of 18 years. He later sold the company, which still operates in Hurricane to this day.
“I’m a pretty resourceful, entrepreneurial-spirited person, and I’ve always been self-employed,” Taggett said.
Taggett said he moved to Detroit, Michigan, for a few years and learned metalworking, casting and precision machining. He developed his own steam engine, with a focus on alternative energy and waste heat recovery.
The market never developed for that niche product, and he moved on to other things, including the exercise machine called “Human Dynamo”, which he invented in 2010. The exercise machines were designed to generate electricity, including a model with a desktop that charged a laptop just by pedaling. As he worked in a competitive business with liability issues and breakdown of equipment, he had to put that project on the back burner.
Over the last few years, Taggett worked on various projects such as biodegradable coffee cups made out of pine-based coatings and the “Arica Toilet,” a small urinal hybrid that only uses 12 ounces of water per flush.
“My job as an inventor and entrepreneur is to get a big developer to go, ‘this is a really cool idea, we’re doing 10,000 homes next year in phoenix with the toilets’ and, ‘I have a guy at American Standard that would look at this thing,’” Taggett said. “That’s sort of the premise as an inventor with various projects.”
With the current housing market and the price of even tiny homes being expensive on a square foot basis, Taggett said many hopeful homeowners have limited options. That’s what led him to his newest project – the building of unique and resourceful small homes.
With his background in construction, Taggett has spent time planning and making cardboard models for what he calls the Rambler House. With a square footage of 750 plus 250 square feet in the loft, these 1,000-square-foot homes would feel roomier than a standard tiny home at a far less cost.
As for the preservation of water, Taggett said the average person uses around 150 gallons of water per day and hopes to get this usage down to 30 gallons with the Ramber Homes. While most areas do not currently allow rainwater to be repurposed, he hopes to change that.
“They don’t let you take your shower water or washing machine water and store that in a tank and use it on the garden or trees, either, which is ridiculous because we’re in a drought,” Taggett said.
Along with the preservation of water, the plan for the Rambler Homes includes reduced cost of ownership by using wall modules that bolt into steel frames, making it simple for the carpenters and laborers to put them together. While the cost of materials will be about the same as other homes, the labor will be substantially less, due to the time it takes to construct them.
“It’s really about the methodology. A crew of four could get the frame up and the modules created within a week, whereas conventional framing has so many bits and pieces and busywork,” Taggett said.
With the design and engineering for the homes already laid out, including drawings of the framework completed by a mechanical engineer, Taggett’s goal is to create a village of 30 Rambler Homes at a sale price of $275,000 each, with a mixed-use community that will include a few retail shops open to the general public.
“I’m looking for like-minded people to collaborate. I would be the designer and lead the architect and put the whole vision together, then be a minority partner,” Taggett said.
For more information on Rambler Homes, contact Mike Taggett through his website.
An image of Mike Taggett's eyewear retainer for Chums is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes shows the home's exterior | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes shows the home's interior | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes shows the home's exterior | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News Mike Taggett's exercise bike invention, the "Human Dynamo" is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News The Arica Toilet invention by Mike Taggett is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News A photo shows the details of the planned Rambler Home community | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News Inventor Mike Taggett stands inside his shop, July 17, 2022, Hurricane, Utah | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News A photo shows plans for a Rambler Home community | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
An image of Mike Taggett's eyewear retainer for Chums is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes shows the home's exterior | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes shows the home's interior | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
A drawn-up concept for the Rambler Homes shows the home's exterior | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
Mike Taggett's exercise bike invention, the "Human Dynamo" is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
The Arica Toilet invention by Mike Taggett is shown | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
A photo shows the details of the planned Rambler Home community | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
Inventor Mike Taggett stands inside his shop, July 17, 2022, Hurricane, Utah | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
A photo shows plans for a Rambler Home community | Photo courtesy of Mike Taggett, St. George News
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
Jessi Bang was born and raised in Utah and has a passion for nature and the great outdoors. She graduated from Kaplan University in California with a degree in criminal justice. She has extensive experience in marketing, content creation, photography and copywriting. You can find her showcasing outdoor adventures through her blog, “The Rambling Raccoon.” In her free time, she enjoys climbing mountains, trail running, working out and cuddling her two lovable pups.
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