Her Tiny Home Made Retirement Affordable

This is a great option for me in retirement, but I think this is a great option for anyone at any stage in their life. My house is 10 feet wide by 28 feet long, so 280 square feet. This piece of furniture was a major consideration when I was designing the house. I remember when I first came to see it being built, I was like, I would encourage anybody to do it because it's just been a great thing for me. Hi, I'm Luann. Come on in for a tour of my house. So when I was planning the house, thankfully I got to design this however I wanted to because they were doing custom homes at that point. So laying it out, I wanted to have the kitchen at one end so it can open into the living room, which would give more open space and just kind of free flow. I wanted to have as much storage as possible without it feeling overwhelming. And it just it works out well for me, but I really love the open shelving. And I love carrying it across the window because it just felt like it'd be a waste to not do that. I hadn't really planned it, but it came with this little loft up here, which is handy because the light fixtures go there. But above it, I can put decor. I've got baskets with photos and photo storage. The mini split is up there. So it comes in really handy just for a little bit of extra storage. I'm not a gourmet chef, so I didn't need anything special as far as appliances, that type of thing. So I have a cooktop, a microwave, and then this little magical piece here that it's an air fryer. It's an oven. It's a toaster. It does a number of things, but mainly I just use it as an oven. My sink, it's not a large sink. It's not tiny, but it's not large. So I got this little divider from Dollar Tree to just sit in there to kind of separate things out, which is really handy. And the refrigerator, it's a 10 cubic foot refrigerator. So it's not tiny, but it's not huge, but it works out great for what I need. I do love the simplicity of the kitchen. And when I come down in the morning and I love looking out the window at our cute little community here, and it's just a great way to start the morning. This is my office space. I eat here. I work on my computer here. I do craft things. I do them here. So it's a little bit of everything, which is really fun. I was looking for a table for this area. I had come with a little drop-leaf table, but knew I wanted something larger and something that had a little bit of history to it or just had a weathered look to it. And I found this on Facebook Marketplace, which was miraculous. It's not exactly even, but it's really beautiful and I love it. And what's really handy is right behind me are some drawers. So a couple of them I use for office supplies, that type of thing. So I can just spin around, grab it. It's right here. So that's kind of handy. I love this space because I'm here first thing in the morning, take some time to be quiet, do a Bible study, to pray. This is kind of my spot to start the day, which is why it's one of my favorite places. Three years ago when I bought this house, it was a little over $78,000. And right now, this lot that I'm on, it's $200 a month. It was probably about 15 years ago that I saw my first, I think it was a video, I don't even remember, but I saw something about tiny homes. And I was fascinated by the thought of simplifying, getting down to just what you need in life, not all the extras. And from that point on, I did everything I could to find out more about tiny homes. So while watching all those videos, I saw Randy and Amanda's videos about incredible tiny homes. I decided this is who I wanted to build my house. And then he developed this land here because it's so hard to find places to put tiny homes, or at least it was at that point. So yeah, I'm just kind of blessed to have gotten a spot here and had them build my house. And I could not be happier. My house is 10 foot wide by 28 feet long, so 280 square feet. But that extra two feet from an eight foot wide house provides the room for an extra chair. It just like rounds out the living space so much more. The whole idea was for it to be like a little cottage. I feel like this room kind of embodies that the most. And I love the fireplace. It's so cozy. So as you know, in a tiny house, storage is really important. Thankfully, I could bring this little bookcase along from home. Then I also have this storage, which is all art supplies and then books. I needed a place for books. And when I was talking to my builder, we were trying to figure out what to do with the books. And he had built little cubbies like this for all of his tools. So I was like, that would be perfect. So he built all those little cubbies for me. And it's turned out to be the perfect place to keep my books. I had this little table back in Washington. Got it at a garage sale, but I love it. And then a gentleman, a local gentleman here built the little cabinet underneath. And it matches perfectly that I can put all my shoes in there. So instead of a sofa, I brought this daybed that I had had in my condo back in Washington. And it works out great to kind of curl up and watch a movie or, you know, have friends over and there's plenty of seating. But it's very comfy. It's very cozy. And there's extra storage underneath, which is really good. And I just like the way this room feels. So often I'll be sitting here just looking at my tiny and I can't believe that I'm here. Like it was on paper and now I'm living in it. And it's just pretty amazing. So when I was researching tiny houses and what to be sure to include in your tiny house, one thing that kept coming up was an air exchanger. So this is my air exchanger. So it constantly feeds air in and out. And what it does is it keeps condensation from building up in the house, you know, preventing mold. Because tiny houses are so airtight that just with you breathing, you're giving off moisture molecules that can build up. So anyway, that's been awesome. We are now in the hallway that leads to the bathroom and to the stairs up to the loft. This piece of furniture was a major consideration when I was designing the house. So this is just one of the IKEA pieces. It's five by five as far as cubes. It's probably about six foot high. But I knew it would be tons of storage and I knew I would need tons of storage. It takes up some of the hall space, but I have plenty of space to walk by. And the storage is just so important. Like, I don't feel like I'm losing anything by having this big piece of furniture. I feel like I'm just gaining because it's so useful. Having a barn door to the bathroom is perfect because that way I don't have a door that swings open that's going to come out into this area. It just slides out of the way. And I actually have a really large entrance to my bathroom. Come on in. It's kind of amazing how much space I have in here. I remember when I first came to see it being built, I was like, whoa. So anyway, it's nice. Got a sink with cabinets, plenty of storage. Got a 38 inch shower. So probably the only thing missing is a bathtub, but I'm fine with that. And yeah, it just works really, really well. Then over here, on demand hot water, which is great for long showers. And then the propane tanks right outside where that feeds this. And then I didn't know they were putting this archway in. The carpenter did it on his own, but I love it. It's just a nice added feature. But this little corner was problematic the first couple of times. Went to flush and kind of whacked my head on it. So you learn really quickly to be careful of that. But I love the design of it. And then this washer-dryer combo. I love it. It's so handy to have it right here. Throw in little loads, maybe once a day, maybe twice a day. But to not have to run out to the laundromat. It all works out great. So besides being fascinated with tiny homes, I knew this was probably the direction I wanted to go for retirement. Because it would be more affordable and I wouldn't need all the stuff that I had before. So it would be transforming my life into this phase. And so it just made sense. Everything made sense. And moving to a new destination, kind of an adventure, which is kind of exciting. Although I miss my friends back in Seattle. But it's, yeah, it's been a great journey. Like, this is a great option for me in retirement. But I think this is a great option for anyone at any stage in their life. If you just want to cut back on expenses, make your life simpler. You know, if you want to save up for a normal house. It just makes sense to me. Like, I don't need any more space than what I have. I would encourage anybody to do it. Because it's just been a great thing for me. We are up in my loft now, which is the coziest of all spaces in this house. So I love it up here. It's just fun to go to bed at night and come up here. I know a lot of people have put big mattresses in their lofts. I just have a four inch piece of foam that's cut to the size of a queen size bed, which gives more headroom. I've had this for three years and this foam is still great and intact. So I highly recommend it. It's a very comfortable space. I've got my bed, got some storage over here for some books and a little bit extra storage. And it works out great. And I love having the windows on both sides. So you get the cross breeze and Bentley can bark at other dogs out both windows. So it works out really well for him. So I love it up here. When you're living in a tiny house, you're not limited to just this space. You've got the outdoors to enjoy or something lovely like my new porch. Come see. So I always knew that I wanted to have a screen porch on my house. But when I looked at this lot and I pictured it going along the length of the house, but it wasn't going to work here. The stairs would end up going out into the driveway. It just didn't work out. And I was laying in bed one night and I thought, what if I take it out perpendicular to the house? I was so excited when I came down the next morning and it would fit between the trees that were already here. There's a gentleman from my church who's a contractor. And I heard him and he came over, built this little walkway that connects the house to the porch. And this is way beyond my dreams of what I wanted out here. And some friends had some outdoor furniture similar to this. I'm like, I want chairs that rock and swivel. And I knew I wanted a place if I wanted to take a nap out here. It's a really comfy couch. So it's just, it's worked out incredibly well. So this is still like a new toy to me, but I'm loving it. This is my shed, which comes in very handy for all those extra things that you need to store. It's priceless because you don't want to store that kind of stuff in your house. You don't have room for it. So yeah, this has been wonderful. So living in a community like this, it's a very comfortable setting, feeling like people are watching out for you and care for you. And people do take care of each other when there's a need. It's like, you know, there's always somebody there that will have your back. I could not be happier that I moved here. It was kind of an adventure. I didn't really know anyone here. I didn't know what I was getting into. I knew I would love the house. And I've been more than blessed to be here and just thrilled with the friendships I've made here. I'm so thankful and grateful that I get to be living this life and that it's all come together. It's my little dream house. Sometimes I just pinch myself that I'm here now. This has been a great journey and I expect it to continue to. Thank you so much for stopping by and touring my home. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed having you. Bye.