Gorgeous Expanding Tiny Home Opens Doors for Solo Mom & Teen

Hi, I'm Reggie. I live in Northern California and this is my tiny house. I was inspired to live in a tiny home by seeing the movement on TV and then just the need for it personally. It fit the need that I had at the time in life, needing to find a place for my daughter and I since my marriage had ended and things had changed. So I was looking for a home and I did not want to go into the rental market. So I wanted to own something. Parking is always the big thing with a tiny house, isn't it? Of where you can park it, where you want to park it, and that has a lot to do with, you know, what you can afford. So for me, I lived in this same town and I wanted to continue living here so that my daughter could continue going to her same school and keep a lot of things as regular, so to speak, as possible. Because when you're in transition, I don't want a lot of changes, don't want a lot of changes. So this situation for me, I happen to be able to live on family land. Because of its acreage size, I was able to park it and the county permitted was okay with that. And my parents are elderly and I've come in under a permit that allows me to be a caretaker for them, which has been helpful not only in COVID, but just, you know, they're getting older. Like I said, I can take my mom, who no longer drives, to doctor's appointments and things like that. My tiny house sits on a 36-foot trailer and is eight and a half feet wide, which is standard for road use. I chose a farmhouse style. I liked that, the clean look of it, so I went with white and then I did some board and batting siding here. Again, I've got the Dutch door, which was one of my favorite things. What you can't see maybe up top is a black metal roof and then I went with the black surround windows just to kind of continue that farmhouse style. Let me show you the inside of my tiny house. Come on in. Welcome inside my living room. It's one of my favorite spaces in part because of this bump out here. It really adds a lot of extra space to have a full-size couch. One of my favorite things about living in a tiny house is the amount of volume I have. So I have like 13 and a half foot ceilings here, which allows me to put in my fun stuff into photography. So I have canvases that I've done there and then my dining room, which is again, in a tiny house, having that ability to have dual purpose things. So this is a drop leaf. I can put that down. I can bring it out. And for Christmas, I had eight people in here and we were tight, but we worked. I do have an air conditioning unit, which does heat and cool. It's a split unit there and it's pretty effective and energy efficient actually. So I do enjoy that. Thanks to Mercari for sponsoring this video. Mercari is an online marketplace that is the perfect place to declutter and discover items that are uniquely you. Back when we were planning our tiny house build seven and a half years ago, we went through an extensive downsizing process and we ended up selling many of our top shelf belongings at a local flea market. While we made quite a chunk of change to help pay for our tiny home, it was very time consuming and labor intensive to set up our booth each weekend. And like super sweaty. I don't like sweaty. So sweaty. So sweaty. And that's what we love about Mercari. It makes the entire selling process much, much easier. Yeah. And way less sweaty. Simply list and sell your downsized belongings, ship them and get paid. You can sell anything new or used by creating a free listing with your laptop or smartphone. Step one, create a listing by taking a few photos, add a description and set your price. After selling your downsized stuff to a new home, simply ship it within three days. Once the buyer gets the package and confirms that, yes, it is what you said it was, you get to rate the buyer and get paid. Easy peasy, mac and cheesy. Very cheesy. And if you need a just right something for your future tiny home, browse the millions of listings on Mercari. See the link in the description to get started today. So this is the living room pop out and it is four feet deep by eight feet wide. These pop outs are semi-permanent. They will need to be uninstalled when I move it. So when it came, this unit was actually inside the house to make it roadworthy at that eight and a half feet size. So that is also why I didn't go with an extra wide unit, like a 10 foot, because that's extra cost. And when it came, I had a contractor help me install it so that it was done one to code and two done well so that there wasn't any leaks or any draft spots because there is gapping around where these are here. Behind these plates, there is a gap that allows for the unit to slide in and out. It is on hydraulics, so I'm not physically doing it, which is nice because they're pretty heavy. But again, you need to have your insulation behind there. And then where the roof line comes down, that needs to be sealed also. It's something that I could have done, but I chose in this instance to hire a professional because I wanted to make sure that everything was sealed and there wasn't going to be any drips inside my house or wind. But having the pop out has added so much space. Again, there is an added cost, but for me, the cost was well worth it because it extended my living space. So I did have the space with the pop out to allow a full size couch, which was important for when I hang out and watch TV with my daughter or movies. We're able to lay down and relax. Added storage is always important in a tiny house. So I did just have this ottoman, which has some space there, and sometimes I move it to the middle and make it like a makeshift coffee table. One of my favorite parts of my house and why I call my house the blue door house is my front door. It's also a Dutch door, which was a must on my list. Living here in California, we've got great weather most of the year. So I like to be able to open it up, pull it back, and then let the outside in. Let some air flow, which is really important in a tiny house also. Allowing the air to come through dries the house out and helps those mold issues that I haven't experienced, but could be a problem. Yeah, and I just love that I can sit on my full size couch and look outside. It's like nature's TV. I've got stairs up to my daughter's loft, and with the stairs, I've got storage underneath, which is nice. I made a pantry in this section here, and then there's a storage unit here for a vacuum cleaner, brooms, things like that. But the great thing about the stairs is that I've got storage built in here for shoes. And then up here, I did a double wide stair so that my daughter can have extra storage for her clothes, which is part of her closet. Because this is my daughter's loft, I wanted to give her a space that was just her own. So we worked together to have a wall for privacy, but also give it dual purpose like you need in tiny homes to be kind of like a closet. So she has buckets here, baskets that can slide in and out on both sides, more for her clothes. And she was kind enough to give me one shelf for books, and the rest is hers. My daughter's loft, we worked together, so that was kind of exciting and a bonding time for the two of us. I wanted to make sure that not only a bed could fit up there, but she could have some floor space too. She likes to entertain and have her girlfriends over. So although she can't stand in this loft space, she can sit up and then there's plenty of floor too for beanbags or whatever so that they can have not only her sleeping space, but an entertaining space. Her friends love the tiny house and it is unique. So everybody wants to come over to the tiny house. They want to take pictures in it. They want to hang out in it. They want to have sleepovers. So it's been very good for her. And also they see these shows. Everyone's talked about a tiny house and it's funny because a lot of times the response is, but I've never seen one. And so to actually see one in reality, so to speak, has been good. And they can see that living in a house that looks different as your neighbors isn't a bad thing. That there are choices out there. I think that's important for the next generation to know what they can do. One of my favorite places in the house is my kitchen. I love that it's white and open. So it gives the illusion of more space, even though I am under the loft here. I was able to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving in my oven. So it's nice to have that too. And that's also propane. The countertops are a quartz blend. Clean really well. I don't have any problems with staining. The drawers, open and close, soft close. And that's just IKEA. But the wonderful thing about going with that, which was my house builder's suggestion, is that if something breaks, I have a place I can go that's still in business and has parts readily available. I have a fridge. It's electrical. I have it up on a base here so that it helps with height and reaching in and out of it. A must for me was having a dishwasher. I know the realities of living with a teenage daughter who has friends over and myself and we go through dishes a lot. So I do have a drawer dishwasher here. It actually is super effective and efficient and nice that I don't have to always do the dishes by hand. Another thing that was a must for me was that apron sink. I was going for a farmhouse style and it has a deep basin, allows me to do the pots and pans that don't fit in the dishwasher, and then just, you know, your standard pull-out faucet here. So initially when I designed the kitchen, I did not want to have upper cabinets because I wanted some space. But once I've moved in, I've realized that I have the ability to put in shelves if I like to free up some drawers that I currently have my dishes in. The biggest obstacle was getting the permit process through. But as a resident who's coming to the county to become legal, to do things the right way, because that was really important to me, I was going by the information that they had out there themselves and it wasn't correct. So just through this process, they changed their guidelines also. So it was an overall good experience, but there were times where it was definitely a roller coaster. Yeah, the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. In my bathroom, I have all the usual features including a stackable washer and dryer. I wanted to have a full-size shower that was very important to me not to feel cramped, and with the glass it gives the illusion of a bigger space also. One of the fun things that I did spurge on was I have heated flooring underneath my tiles, which is incredibly nice in the wintertime. Not only does it heat the tiles, which then heats the room, but it feels good on your feet. It was very important for me to find the right toilet, and that might sound funny, but having a home that can be movable was a point on figuring out if I wanted to hook up to septic or if I wanted to go with a composting toilet. In the end, I wanted to go with a composting toilet for a number of reasons. Living in a drought-ridden state was very important for me not to literally be flushing water away, so I went with a separate toilet, which is a Swedish company. They've been around for a long time, and I like that. I read lots of reviews online, which I would suggest anybody do when they're looking for what they want to go with. Talk to other people and find out the pros and cons of it. In the end, I went with that one. No water's wasted, and it's comfortable and looks like a real toilet, which was important to me too. Again, the sink area is something that I found through Ikea. Went with black hardware again, kind of for that farmhouse feel, and I do have an illuminated mirror. Having a full-size sink and vanity area was really important for me because I have a teenage daughter and myself, we like to put our makeup on, be able to put things down. So with help from my builders, I was able to make the vanity look like a normal vanity from the front, but because it's on the wheel wells, they customized the back, cut those legs off, and put them on the wheel wells there. But from the front, it looks perfectly normal. My bathroom was laid out in a galley style due to having the loft overhead, and where I moved it in the house next to the kitchen and my bedroom allows for me to access it from my bedroom and guests from the kitchen. What may be one con to it is that I don't have a back wall, which would allow a different configuration of the bathroom. However, I got the large size shower that I wanted and I am able to have lots of room in here. I went with Mint Tiny Homes and they're out of British Columbia, Canada. So not only am I talking about a company that's far away, but they're out of the country. So we're talking about taking the tiny house and bringing it over the border. Documentation was needed for that, and then there are fees involved. I was basically importing my home from Canada. So fortunately for me, the company took care of that. They had all the paperwork for me, so it was just a cost, and that cost was about six thousand dollars, I believe, to bring it over the border, which is based on weight. So my home is 36 feet long, eight and a half feet wide, with the two pop-outs that go to 12 when they're there. When you go to the design portion, working with them, that's where the costs come in and can add up. So like with any home, I chose where I wanted to put my money. It was important for me to have certain things, important for me to have a loft, important for me to have light, and then I wanted certain finishes, just like everybody does. Grand total, and this is a fluctuating rate because it took about six months, and we're on an exchange rate, which that's another thing, because we're dealing with another country. So I like to round it to $135,000, which is not on the light side, I know, but I got what I wanted, and I was able to customize it to what I wanted, and I think that's really important. If you think about a home for that, that's pretty good. And then the financing portion, I did have a healthy amount to put down for cash, and then I financed the rest. But I have a plan to pay off the home in 10 years, which if you think about that as a home compared to a traditional 30-year loan or mortgage, that's like a fraction of the time. So I was very happy about that. So here's the other pop-out I have in my bedroom. Again, it's four feet deep by eight feet wide. It really allows me to have a full-size bed in here, and then lots of room. Again, I can't talk enough about how it's a great feature to have. Because I'm able to push my bed back into the niche that's made here by the pop-out, I can get a full-size freestanding closet in here, which was important for storage. In my bedroom, I want it to be full height, and here is the back of the loft, so my daughter does have a full wall there. And ironically, I don't hear her, which is really nice in a tiny house. And it gives me the ability, if I wanted to, to put some sort of storage up there, too, to have that wall. I chose to have a set of French doors in the tiny house, not only because it gives me access to the outside, but it also lets in a lot of natural light, which I really like. This outdoor space extends my living area and is like a whole other room to my house. It is part of the family land, so it's been here for a while. So with this parking spot, I kind of inherited this space, which was nice. It is grape-covered, and I've got a water feature out here, which is nice for relaxation. And then entertainment, I can have several people around this table and have a barbecue or just enjoy the outdoors. I had to downsize from a 3,000 square foot home, so finding out what I actually had in that home and deciding to take it with me or get rid of it was a long process, a good process, though. I would encourage anybody to purge and go through your stuff. We are collectors. Living in a tiny home is realizing that it's more about experiences than things. I know it sounds so cliche, but it's so true. I would much rather be able to have the time, which is part of being an affordable home. I'm able to take vacations. I'm able to be outdoors or be outside and not have to deal with stuff. Overall, it's been a good experience downsizing from all the things I didn't realize I had or didn't realize I actually didn't need. Thank you for watching our video and for stopping by Tiny House Expedition, I'm Alexis. And I'm Christian. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. And for more tiny home tours and stories, click the videos below. And join us on Patreon for bonus content, including face-to-face conversations with us. We hope to see you there. All right. Thanks, guys. Have a good one.