20-yr-old living in a 12 x 40 shed converted to tiny home

I've always dreamed of having my little farmhouse. It is pretty obvious to me that it is a shed conversion. This was just kind of perfect. Hi, my name is Ella. I'm 20 years old and this is my tiny farmhouse. I wanted to live in a tiny house because after I decided not to go to school anymore, I wanted to look for a cost-effective way for me to be able to live independently. Since I came from a college apartment, a lot of the stuff that I already had was meant for a small space, so I was already used to having to kind of downsize and not have a lot of stuff. I immediately fell in love. I love the character. It is pretty obvious to me that it is a shed conversion. I've always dreamed of having my little farmhouse. This was just kind of perfect. So this tiny house actually shares a driveway with my parents' house. The owners of the tiny home are technically my family's neighbors. All this property over here is my family's property. The reason why I like the kind of secluded space is because I do live so close to my family. It offers a little bit of privacy between us and them, which they know that and they like it too. My rent includes all of my utilities, all of my wi-fi, my water, my electric. It all goes into one bill. So I just have one fixed expense every month and that's it. I actually only spend about $2,000 in order to live in the tiny house comfortably. That includes groceries, everything that I need to live. So I'm able to work in the service industry and afford this place. The best part of living in a tiny house has probably been the effect that it's had on my mental health. I was somebody who really struggled with being alone. I hated being alone and living in a tiny house has really made me feel independent. It allows me to make my own schedule and allows me to kind of live how I want. Welcome outside everybody. This is my dog, Mocha Bean. Now he is more of an inside dog, but I'm outside all the time. So whenever I'm outside, he likes to be outside and look at him being such a good boy. I'm so proud of you. All right. So my favorite part about this house and honestly, if nothing else inside was amazing, the porch alone would sell me, is this porch. So I have lots and lots and lots of room here. I have a covered section of my porch, which has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. One day I want to get just like a cute little bench or something here, right over here. This is where Mocha actually hangs out quite a bit. And whenever I have friends or family over and I'm hosting, this is pretty much where we hang out. This little gate here is wonderful. So I never have to worry about Mocha being able to get out when I'm not out here with him. And that leads on to my very, very spacious back porch area. This doesn't span across the entire length of the house, but it provides plenty of space for hosting. And I never feel like I don't have enough space for people whenever they come over just because I have this massive back porch. I really like that this side of it isn't uncovered because it allows me to sit out here and tan, get some sun. So none of them have came home yet, but I do live right next to a cow pasture. And that's probably also one of my favorite parts about living here is when the sun is setting, all of the cows will come and mosey their way up here and they all just kind of hang out along the fence line at night. And so in the evenings I get to hang out with the cows. This little plant here, I'm growing a palm tree in the middle of the mountains. I just thought it was an oxymoron. All right guys, welcome in. Starting off over here, this is my little kitchen area. It kind of looks small, but for one person, I genuinely have all of the space I need. I've lived in smaller apartments than this with smaller kitchens than in my tiny house. That's pretty cool. I do have a in-unit dishwasher, which is amazing. I didn't even think I was going to have one of these until I came up here. So this is awesome. And then I have plenty of counter space here. This sink right here is pretty big. I love the stainless steel. It makes it really easy for cleaning. I work in the restaurant industry, so I really appreciate a sink like this. Over on this side, I do have open shelving here as storage. Originally, I didn't know how I was going to like it, but I have ADHD and you know, whenever things aren't sitting out in front of me, I tend to forget about them. So these shelves are actually perfect and they hold all of my dishes beautifully. And I honestly kind of like having them on display. Over here, I have plenty of counter space. I never feel cramped. I make sourdough weekly and I have room to do all of that in here. It's pretty awesome. I make casseroles. I love baking and cooking. Full-size oven. This fridge here is, I guess you would say, apartment style fridge. It's not full-size, but for just me, I have plenty of space. This thing's never full. Over here, this actually, this little cabinet came with the place. This is my pantry. I have plenty of room in here. I never have any storage issues with this, honestly. This little ladder here actually goes up into my loft space and we can go up here. I mostly just use it for storage, so it's kind of just organized chaos. But what I love about my loft space up here is, like I said, as a person with ADHD, organization's really hard for me. So having a space where I can just throw stuff so it can be out of sight, out of mind, and I don't have to worry about it is chef's kiss. Coming out of the kitchen is my living room space. I really like the open concept. It really makes it feel way bigger than it actually is and I genuinely feel like if there was walls, it wouldn't feel as huge. But right here is my living room space. I have fit eight people in here. This couch came with the tiny house and I'm not gonna lie, originally I hated it until I took a nap on it one day and it changed my life. So this couch is not going anywhere. I love, love, love thrifting, so a lot of the decor in my house you'll see is thrifted, including both of these blankets. I'm also a big fan of animal print. This little ottoman here is also storage, so it's kind of double whammies. Perfect has all of my other blankets. Mocha's dog bed here. This rug is actually a washable rug and I got it from TJ Maxx for like 80 bucks and there's hate about washable rugs out there and I'm not a part of that because this is awesome. With having a dog, I can just throw it in the washing machine. Eventually I would love to get a cabinet to put right here to hide all of these cords. I haven't gotten there yet but I have this little shelf and with a few other little pieces of decor. I'm a huge fan of One Direction. I have been since I was a little girl. This tattoo on my arm is actually dedicated to them, so One Direction appears a lot in my house. This little shelf I actually thrifted and I used to use it in my college apartment to store my boots and I wanted it to be a focal point in my living room because I love it so much. These are my boots that I've literally had since the seventh grade. They're the only pair of cowgirl boots I have ever owned and they're broken in perfectly. All of this decor right here is kind of just from random places. This is from a record store in Nashville and I'm a little country bumpkin but I'm still a feminist and I have to make it obvious. My favorite part about the living room is honestly probably my TV because it flips out and faces the bed and it's the best thing on this planet. I'm not even kidding. Probably my favorite feature in this house. Now coming into kind of like my bedroom space, this is my dresser here. I love this dresser. Fun fact, it actually came out of my great-grandfather's house that is still original from the 60s and I stole this dresser because I loved it so much. It used to have a big mirror on the back. I personally get a lot of questions on my own social media about the heating and cooling and the power grid and that kind of stuff. This unit here is actually amazing. I've never had an issue keeping the inside heated or cooled just because the space is so small. As long as it's turned on and at the temperature I want it to be, my space will pretty much be at that temperature. It works very quickly. Another cool thing about this house is it is attached to the power grid so I do have full electric, full water which is amazing. I never have to worry about that and fun story, I do live in Western North Carolina and during Hurricane Helene, everybody around us lost power and water but this house had power and water so they actually used it for the people who were doing hurricane relief to stay in during that time. So that's pretty cool. And this is my bedroom space. I love this bed. I love this bed frame. It's really, really cute. It fits perfectly in this space and I like that there's a little bit of room here in between the beds so that way you don't feel as closed in and it gives me a little bit of space here to have my nightstand. Up top here is this little shelf at this window. I'm eventually going to put a plant up there one day when I can reach up there. Need to grow a few inches. Leading over here is into my bathroom space. This is a little sliding barn door and I love this. It's a great use of space so we don't have a swinging door and also I just like the look of the barn door. Adds a lot of hominess to it. This is probably my favorite use of space in the house and the way they built it, I think they did it in a very smart. You have a pretty huge bathroom for a tiny house, a full-size vanity, have plenty of storage space. I'm pretty sure I only have like a few things in that bottom drawer. Over here I found this little like catty corner shelving unit and it's perfect because it also holds the rest of my stuff. Right here next to the shower there's a little shelving unit and with cubby spaces that go pretty deep which allows for a lot more storage and those are also not even full. And in the bathroom because the ceiling's so high it makes the bathroom feel way bigger. You have plenty of space here for your toilet. I have plenty of space here to do my laundry. I have two laundry baskets and this is what I consider my closet space. I actually fit more clothes in this closet space than I did at my bedroom in both of my college apartments and my parents house which is kind of crazy. I think living in a tiny home would be amazing for somebody who's seeking financial freedom especially a young woman like myself because not only is a little bit cheaper but it also provides me my own space and it allows me to independently. I had a few nightmare experiences with some roommates and so being able to make my own rules and afford to live on my own and have my own space is essential for me. Another thing too that I think people don't take into consideration is whenever you have a full-sized house there's a lot more pressure to fill it with things you don't need and so in a tiny home I don't have that pressure because I don't have space for it all so I'm saving money simply because I don't have space to put it. I absolutely would love to build my own tiny house one day. I would probably go with another shed conversion style. The only thing that I would probably do differently is add a second loft space but I do plan on eventually one day building my own dream tiny house and getting to design it to exactly what I want. If you like this week's episode please make sure to like share and subscribe and check back soon because we have new unique home tours publishing all the time and if you'd like to join our team and get access to members only content and unique perks make sure you click on the join button below.