Retiring Comfortably on SSI in a Shipping Container Tiny Home

I'm not struggling, and I only have my social security to live off of, and I don't worry about things. That's one of the main reasons I went with a shipping container. Everything on one floor, it was open enough, a little bit narrow, but if you work out your floor plan, you can work it. I definitely wanted a washing machine and dryer. I was going to fit it in here no matter what. And here is one sacrifice I do not regret making. I don't have to spend my entire weekend or every minute that I have free time cleaning and organizing, you know, just relaxing, and that's what retirement should be. Hi, my name is Brenda, and I live in an 8x40 shipping container, and come in, take a look. Welcome to the inside of my home. When you go to the right, I have my kitchen and bathroom. When you go to the left, you have my living room and the bedroom. This is my kitchen, and being as I do have a little bit larger tiny home, I was able to go with a 14 cubic refrigerator freezer. Even though I'm one person, I like a bigger fridge, and I just have a little regular microwave. But this, even though it was a little pricey, I love it. It is a conventional convection oven, so I can do both. And it is 24 inch, but it really is a godsend. A lot of times in a house, you have just a, you know, regular conventional oven, but this actually you can flip it over to conventional or convectional. And I didn't even know I had that feature until my son pointed out to me. It's really nice to have. I mean, you can cook anything. Now with my build, what was included was this. All of this. I know a lot of people like farm style. I wanted double drop-in. I had shelves. I took them down. I don't like to dust dishes, so I like to hide things. So I added these cabinets, and then down the road, I added this. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a matching countertop, but it's counter space. So I added these drawers and these cabinets, and I love having them because I've got a lot of stuff hidden in there. A lot. They only gave me two shelves here and two shelves here. With this option, now I have one, two, three, and actually four. So it doubled it. Plus, I don't have to look at it, which I love. In the cabinets, it was supplied by the builder. This, I love. A place to hide the trash can. And also, I have my little step ladder and a few other little things in there. And here is one sacrifice I do not regret making. I asked them to put my water heater in the cabinet. It's hidden. If I need to work on it, it's there. But I had to sacrifice the entire cabinet. But that is a very good sacrifice. Usually, when you have a cabinet over your refrigerator, it's some stuff you want to put in there that you don't want to use very often. Well, I found it perfect for me to put my paint in here because in the shed, my paint was getting ruined because of changes in temperature. And it works perfect because how often do I need that? Maybe once every few months. And over here, I have dry goods. Down here is where I keep all my bulk canned goods, heavy things, you know. There's a few stores in the area that give good prices on, but you have to buy the case. So I really needed a spot to hide bulk canned goods. Well, the last house that I lived in was in Denver, Colorado. And it was a 900 square foot townhouse, all one level. And I actually had a detached garage, which was awesome for me. But the cost of living in Denver was ridiculous. And it came to the point where I discovered that I can't support this house by myself. So that's how I ended up here. And I'm very comfortable with the cost of living here. I'm not struggling. And I only have my Social Security to live off of. And I don't worry about things. This is my bathroom. It's small, but big enough for everything I need. I have my washer and dryer. I did not want to have to slip laundry to the laundromat. So I definitely wanted a washing machine and dryer. I was going to fit it in here no matter what. I have my broom closet on this wall where I hang mop and broom. But I discovered my little girl can get back there and hide. So I built this little contraption and it just goes back there and she can't get back there because I'm a little bit older and I don't want to be fishing a cat out of there. Now the vanity, I installed it. It's 30 inches. I love that it has so much storage in it. And I did a little tiling. I was lucky enough to find this tile at Habitat. I love how it turned out. And it also gave some color. And this mirror I found at a thrift shop. It was the ugliest rusty brown you could imagine. Someone suggested take a sanding block. So I sanded it out and I loved it. My shower is 36 inches. I love it because when I stayed in my son's house, I think it was a 32. Four inches. How can four inches make that much difference? It makes a difference. Because when I was taking a shower, if you turn around you would bump the faucet and it would either go hot or cold. 36, perfect. I do have a small problem in the winter with heating the bathroom. One of these inexpensive little plug-ins and it works. Fantastic. And it doesn't do a whole lot to your electric bill. Now we're in my living room which is actually to the left of the door. This is an entertainment center. I know people like to hang their TV on the wall. I don't. My entertainment center is stuffed to the hilt. It's basically my office and anything else I can shove in it. You need storage in a tiny house. So this I found on Amazon which is fantastic. It's modular. It was a little bit more than I wanted to spend but what it can do is worth it. You can change it into a chair, a love seat, a twin bed. It's fantastic. But it also has storage. This is where I hide my teepee. And the other side is where I hide my tissue and my paper towel. I sit here. I put my feet up. I watch my movies and I enjoy it. This spinny split, when they asked me where do you want it, I said I have no idea. I have no experience even though I'm HVAC certified. So I told them put it where you think is best. Well this is good but it blows this way so there's nothing blowing this way. So sitting on the sofa I'm either freezing or baking. So a friend of mine suggested I get a diverter. So I added the fans and I added the diverter and it has helped a lot with the distribution of the airflow. And it's very inexpensive even though it did come from I don't know where. It took a while. 10 bucks. I have a I looked at some of the other homes that they had built, shipping containers, and I really didn't like the idea of how the layout was. So I'm like okay what's gonna work for me? And actually I played with grafting paper for like almost three years. I wanted this to be a cabin. Actually this house has a name. It's called Wabado. My brothers and sisters and I were raised by my grandparents and they had friends that had cabins up in Minnesota on Lake Wabado. So that's where I always remember where you know I had the most fun. You know the summers at Lake Wabado. So I named my house Wabado. Right off my living room I have my bedroom. I wanted a designated bedroom. I did not want to live my life in my bed. That's one of the main reasons I went with a shipping container. Everything on one floor. It was open enough. A little bit narrow but if you work out your floor plan you can you can work it. I went with a full size bed. Put it right in the middle so I can walk around and make the bed. They asked me if I wanted a closet. Okay I live in jeans, t-shirts, shorts. Didn't make sense to me to have a closet. I had this dresser and what I did to make sure I could do it is like about six months before I moved I'm like can I go with just a dresser for my clothes? And it worked for me. And I have a little heater that was given to me by a good friend. Perfect. I love it because it has a thermostat. I can set it. I don't have to mess with it. But one option they came to me and says where do you want your circuit box? I hid it behind the picture. You know you have to have a circuit box. You have to have a water heater and I'm like but do I have to look at them? So it worked for me. The porch. I decided I wanted it covered because I wanted to be able to sit out and I definitely wanted it screened because bugs love me and I don't love them. With the help of a neighbor of mine and my son we built an 8 by 12 deck. Now originally it was going to be 8 by 8 but we drew it out on chalk on the concrete and it was just too small. So we went with 8 by 12 and I'm very happy with the size. I will admit I built my house for me and no one else. I didn't build it for people to come and visit or you know in case of this that and the other thing. I just love the compactness and it's like everything you need but it's not overload. Simple living you know it's like I don't have to spend my entire weekend or every minute that I have free time cleaning and organizing and doing this and that. You know just relaxing and that's what retirement should be. You shouldn't have to worry about oh I have this $200 bill because you know my house is like 2400 you know square feet or whatever. I mean you don't need three bedrooms and two bathrooms because I'm one person. Thank you for visiting my tiny home and I love living tiny and I hope maybe you might do it too.