Her "Texas Sized" Two-Bedroom Tiny House

What would my younger self think about me living in a tiny house? She would be saying, you're safe, you're never alone, you're going to make this, and don't ever forget where you come from. Hey y'all, my name is Ann. Come take a tour of my Texas-sized tiny home. As you walk in, you'll be in our living room. Right behind me is the kitchen. Down the hallway is the bedroom. And then right behind here, there is a second bathroom. And then there's a bonus room, which I will show you later. This tiny home is located at Leisure Lane RV Resort. It's an excellent location, and you have lots of great times here. This kitchen is a little smaller than my other kitchen that I had, but I can still maneuver around and do the same home cooking that I did in my previous home that was bigger. I mean, as you see, I have my full-size stove here, full-size refrigerator, and a big sink. So it looks like I don't have a lot of space to prep for cooking. Well, I do. I have a counter over here, I have a counter over here, and then I have this big old stove that I can use and put a cutting board on it and use that. So that is a lot of space. Everything that I had in my old kitchen was able to be brought with me. I put my plates and my cups here. I put all my storage things here. My pots and my pans go in these two cabinets, and then my utensils go there. So it was all able to be put right into this kitchen. Best part of my kitchen that I like the most is that everything is centrally located, and I can go from my refrigerator to my stove and from my stove to my sink. That way, I'm not having to take so many steps and leave my food unattended for very long. So the benefits of being from a 2,000-square-foot home to a 700-square-foot house is that I have more time to enjoy the greater things in life, like spending time with family, like spending more time with my husband when he is home, and I'm not spending that time cleaning so much. Overall, I am just in love with my kitchen. We're in the laundry room, and I had to sacrifice my dryer and my bigger space of my laundry room for something smaller. I only have this washing machine where I have all my pantry area over here. And the reason why that is is there's not enough space because I have a big washer and a big dryer. When I wash my clothes, I literally have to get all my clothes washed, and then I have to take them up to the clubhouse and dry them. That does take up a lot of time, washing and then going up to another area to do it. My suggestion is if you're going to live in a tiny house, to get a stackable washer and dryer or get an all-in-one washer and dryer. When we relocated from Mississippi, we lived in a 2,000-square-foot home, and then we downsized to this 700-square-foot tiny house. That is a lot of downsizing, so we had to do a lot of sacrifices. We had to know what we were going to do with what we needed and what we didn't need. Everything that you see in here is a necessity. When I first walked into this place, I could visualize all the furniture and everything in its place, and I could actually visualize my family being around me and us just having a good time in this tiny home. So, let's talk about reusing things that you have already in your home, because you don't want to go out and spend extra money just because you're in a tiny home. You want to use what you have. Just like this TV stand, I reused it. Our big, comfy loveseat, I reused it. That way, I'm not going out spending any extra money on anything that I didn't necessarily need. Use what you have. We were living in Mississippi, and my husband got relocated here to Texas. My father-in-law was going on the hunt for us. He already knew everything that I wanted in a home, so when he told me that I needed to see these tiny homes, I was so super excited about it. So, we came immediately here, and I toured a one-bedroom tiny home. I did love it. I felt at home. It just was not big enough for me to be able to work at home. So, when the two-bedroom was available and I toured it, when I immediately walked through the door, I was like, this is it. This is home. I'm never leaving ever, ever, ever, ever. I did not want to be hasty in making a decision. I went ahead and did look at traditional places like apartments, townhouses, and homes, and none of those places that I looked at made me feel like I was at home and I could be safe when my husband was away at work. Leisure Lane RV Park was my home. I knew it from the very beginning, but you have to weigh all your options to make a sound decision when you're looking for a tiny house. Most tiny homes are out in rural areas. Well, where I live, probably about 30 minutes out of downtown Houston, it is a bustling, expanding community. I have an HEV, I have a Kroger, and also lots of other amenities. If I had to redo all this all over again and start doing my research on where to live in a tiny home, I would use Google, I would use Facebook groups that are targeted for tiny homes, and I also would watch lots of YouTube videos so I would know how and where I wanted to live. All right, let's talk about the financial part of the tiny house. Right now, we rent. We pay $1,400 a month. That's for the lot and for the utilities except for the lights. That's like $100 a month for that. All right, if we wanted to own it instead of renting, it's $54,000 to buy. Okay, let's do the pros and cons of a traditional house and the tiny house cost. So you're gonna have HOA fees, property tax, and insurance. All I have to pay in additional is only $200, and that's for a storage unit and renter's insurance. Let me talk to you for a real talk for just a minute. So I think tiny homes are for everyone, but truly, if you have a child that is getting out on their own and have never, ever lived on their own before, I think that tiny living would be perfect for them. It teaches them how to cook. It teaches them how to clean, and most importantly, it teaches them how to budget, and you can still come and visit with them. So as you can see from this big old king-size bed, I did not have to sacrifice that at all. Also in my room, words of affirmation is back in here, and I had to do some makeshift closets in the primary room due to the fact that there is no closet in this tiny house. I didn't have any say in the design of when they built this tiny home. I think that they were gonna design the bathroom to be a walk-in closet, but they decided midway through that they were gonna make it a bathroom. My true feeling is it's too cluttered in here because I don't like this being here. I would have liked to have something that was enclosed to where that my clothes did not feel like it was just bam right there at me, but I do really do enjoy having an extra bathroom. My relationship with possessions have changed tremendously. I love things, so I have learned to be a person of just necessity. So let's just say take the closet for instance. I had to sacrifice a closet for a bathroom here, and I'm okay with that. The bathroom is a necessity, especially when you have two people in a home. After a long day of working, I'm so glad that I have this nice big bed to come in to and curl up with my koala bear, and it's time to go to sleep. So as you can tell, we are in the second bathroom. This is a full-size vanity, has some space for the towels, standard toilet, and a fully functioned novel tub with plenty of space for your toiletries. So I'll give you some tips for being a small bathroom. You can get you some little plastic organization bins. You can put them under your vanity, or you can set some up here for extra toiletries that you need for like soap or extra toothbrushes and toothpaste for your guests. I'm so glad that I have a second bathroom. That way when I'm working, I can come in here and use the restroom and get right back to work. This is the magic room. This is where I sit and I do makeup lives to where I speak to people live on Facebook, TikTok, and I help the older generation like myself be able to do tips and tricks with skincare and with makeup. I love to inspire other people. That is my journey with pharmacy. So this is where I do surprise jewelry reveals. We have tons of fun. You can reveal real diamonds. So that's very fun. But all of the surprise jewelries, you're never going to be disappointed. Lots of sparkle, lots of shine. Come join me one day and you'll see how fun it is. So also the magic room is also could be used as a second bedroom, especially if you have a family. If you have a child, you could use this as their bedroom so they could have their own space and you have your own space down the hall. So say you have an at-home office and you need some inspiration. Let me just tell you the inspiration for this. This wall is everything that sparkles, shines, makes you happy. So when I'm over here doing my makeup on a live, people have something that they can see and they can be happy. And then they can ask me questions because that's what you really want to do. You want people to interact with you when you are doing your social lives and stuff. So if you do not do social media like I do, and this is just a workspace for you to have a few moments of time, you could do something like this, but make it yours. Make it your own. Whatever takes you to your happy place when you're at your workspace and you get frustrated or something, you can just turn around and you look at it and you're in your own happy place. Let me talk to you about what the last year being in a tiny home has done for me. It's made me feel peaceful in my whole soul. It's made me feel grounded with the universe. It's just the absolutely best journey that I have ever been on in my whole life. So if you're looking to go tiny and you've been very hesitant about it, my suggestion to you is to go walk in a tiny home. If you can find one in your area that's at an RV park, go to a distributor and just take the tour. Your life will be changed forever. Thank y'all for doing this tour with me. I have had an enjoyable day and I'm very thankful that I can help someone else in this journey of finding themselves a tiny home. If you would like to follow me on any type of social media, all you would have to do is look up Ann Rubino. That's on Facebook, Instagram, and the TikTok. Bye, y'all.