Her $63K Tiny House & $200 Lot Rent

For me and for many other people that you will meet in our communities, this wasn't only something that they wanted to go tiny, but they needed to go tiny. It's a challenge, but it's also a journey. I didn't have a place to go to. I sold my home. I needed a place to go. And this place fulfilled everything. Hi, I'm Melody. Welcome to my home. Come on in and take a tour. This is a Dalton. It's a 10 by 20. I love the layout of this house because as soon as you enter through the door, you are in my living space. Originally, when I first moved in, I had my bed upstairs and that just wasn't working out great for me. I wanted more storage for clothing. So I did put my bed down here and honestly, I worried about it at first, but it's just the perfect space for me. Yes, a tiny home is a tiny home, but it does not prevent you from having lots of company. I have company over all the time. Jump up there, watch TV, we can take the cushions off, sit on the floor. We've played bingo in here. We've done all kinds of stuff. The community is wonderful. We help each other tremendously. In my living room, you will see that I did use a lot of pieces for storage. When you go tiny, you do have to be kind of inventful a little bit, but the suitcases I put legs on and made those into storage pieces. Picnic baskets are great for storage. This platform bed is all storage underneath that I can keep additional items under there as well. I brought all these pieces from Indiana. This piece I found on Facebook Marketplace. I found the bat from Marketplace as well for $25. It's a great source to find items to fill your tiny home. As far as the decorating goes, I always say go with what your heart, and I chose a lot of white just because I wanted the space to be very open. I love the farmhouse, kind of shabby chic decorating, and it just makes me feel warm and cozy, and I absolutely love it. This is one of my other favorite things in the home, my entertainment center. I have my fireplace, my mantel, my TV, and just a quick little tip to cover your cords is to use some twine and wrap the twine around there, and then I hot glued it to the wall right there, and you can't really see the cord. Welcome to my kitchen. I absolutely love my little kitchen. My hot plate here is perfect for me, absolutely does wonders, heats up really great. As little as this range hood is, it does a great job, and it's the perfect combination with the insert here of the stove top, and then I have my Cuisinart, which is an air fryer, a baker, a toaster, an oven. It does perfect on absolutely everything. One of my other newest favorite things that I purchased is my refrigerator. It is a 12 cubic foot, I believe, 11.1, 12, somewhere in there. Holds everything I could possibly need and more, and this is my favorite thing in the kitchen, which is my farmhouse sink. Who would have thought you could have this size of a farmhouse sink in a tiny home? It's perfect. You can have your big pots in here washing those, and lots of dishes, and it's just the perfect addition. I have ample storage. There's five drawers here, there's three cabinets, and they hold absolutely everything that I need to accomplish my goals in the kitchen, and I still have room left over. As far as the decor goes, the kitchen thing came from Hobby Lobby, and I chose this little lamp here, and I have another little lamp in the back because I don't always like the overhead lighting, so it makes it just warm and cozy and the perfect little lighting for my kitchen. The overall feel of my kitchen is perfect. My countertop stays clean all the time, and it's the perfect addition. So my journey to GoTiny really started when my husband passed away. It'll be four years next month. I just didn't feel like I could stay in the home that we built, and I needed a fresh start. So I looked into tiny homes. I have a friend that lived next door to me for 25 years. She moved to Kentucky. My daughter's in South Carolina going to school, and so I started searching about halfway and thought, well, let's just go look and see if it's something that I can do. And my daughter was like, oh, mom, I don't think you can do this, and I was like, let's just go look, you know, and I knew as soon as I got here that this is where I was supposed to be. I wasn't sure why, sometimes still unsure why, but I do know that this is home. This is my forever home. I have met wonderful people. We have a wonderful community. It's just a great place to live, and of course I work here as well. I'm very fortunate to have my position here, and I just love it. My Dalton cost me $63,000 at the time, and my rent is $200 a month. When I purchased my home, I had recently just sold my home in Indiana and was able to pay for this outright. The lot rent being $200 a month is incredible because everybody around is far more than that. My utility bill has never been over $73, I believe. Water is $25 a month. You get so much for so little in return. Welcome to my tiny bathroom. It's the perfect setup with having the washer and dryer and a shower. The shower is a 32-inch. It doesn't sound big, but it's plenty of space. I actually have a little tub in there that I can take a bath in, and I absolutely love it. It's perfect. As far as the toilet goes, it is a normal standard household toilet. We do not ever have any issues. All the plumbing works wonderfully. This is probably my most favorite thing. You could almost take my refrigerator before you take my washer and dryer. It beats going to the laundromat. It is a combo washer and dryer. You do have to be careful with your load size. It needs to be not a full-size load, a regular size little load, but it's the perfect addition in here, and I would not get rid of it for anything. This is all storage that I have. These just come from Walmart. As far as my bathroom goes, it's perfect. Full shower, full toilet, washer and dryer, storage. I don't know what else you could want. Welcome to my closet. This used to be my bedroom, but I did move that downstairs, as we talked about earlier, and I decided to make this a closet. I put a rod across here that holds all my hanging clothes. I have a ton of storage right there, a little seating area where I can come up here and read a book and just relax, and I had it all carpeted. It's the perfect little space. I think for me, having a place for everything, it's calming, it's soothing. If I had too many things, I think you can become a little overwhelmed, so you do have to put some thought into what you want to keep. What are the most important things to you? It just makes me feel organized, and it takes the stress away of just knowing where everything is at all times. For me and for many other people that you will meet in our communities, this wasn't only something that they wanted to go tiny, but they needed to go tiny. Apartment living is horribly expensive right now, and we're able to provide a home and the lot rent very affordable, and also give you that sense of community that so many people desire these days. It's a challenge, but it's also a journey. It's a journey where you find your place. I came here, I didn't know anybody. I didn't have a place to go to. I sold my home. I needed a place to go, and this place fulfilled everything as far as community, budget, the friendliness. We're safe, we're warm, we're comfortable. I wouldn't absolutely trade it for anything. Welcome to the outside of my tiny home. Again, this is a Dalton, and I did add in the small deck over there. I specifically drew out what kind of stairs I wanted, which I absolutely love. I wanted to keep it very simple, very easy for me to maintain. I don't want to cut grass. I don't want to do a lot of yard work, so we did all this mulch. We set in all the gravel, all the rocks. So for me, these homes need so little maintenance. I just wanted to keep it super simple, easy. It's just perfect. I just absolutely love my tiny home. Thanks for stopping by.