$515 a Month And A StronGer MarRiaGe. Their Tiny StoRy.

It was total chaos when we downsized and moved. There were boxes everywhere. Total chaos. But suddenly living tiny was not that big of a scary factor. It was like, that somewhat felt natural. We decided to go tiny because someone didn't stop watching HGTV tiny home videos. Since then she had her HGTV privileges revoked. Just watching the videos and looking at the financial aspects of it, just really appealed to me and thought it was something that we could do. And simplifying life in the process. Getting rid of things that we don't need. We didn't necessarily want to leave Atlanta or Georgia. For us it was a two-step process. At first we downsized from a regular-sized house, a 2,500 square foot house or so with four bedrooms, three baths, into a one-bedroom condo. We lived there for about three and a half years. When we were ready to take that next step in the downsizing process, we started looking around. We scouted tiny home communities, came here one day and randomly asked one of the neighbors, where are we on this map that we had printed out? And that just happened to be a very friendly neighbor. And the vibe that we got was extremely welcoming. So that sold us on this particular community. So moving from Georgia to South Carolina just happened. It was not the goal. Upon entering the home, we have our open living room kitchen area. And then past the kitchen you have the bathroom to your right and also the pantry and vanity area to your left. And at the far end of the home you have our master bedroom. So the master bedroom was definitely a main focal point in buying this home as well because we did not want to have to climb stairs. I used the restroom a lot. I didn't want to have to keep coming up and down the stairs in the middle of the night. So having a main floor bedroom was very important to us. One of the things I love about this house is once you come in, you come directly into the spacious living room. This is probably for me the heart of the home because we are here relaxing at the end of the day, watching a good movie with the fireplace going. So this space needed to feel warm for me. And this is perfect. This is the perfect size for us. As soon as we walked into this model, you could just feel that this was our home. The windows actually came with the house. We decided we are not going to cover those. For me, it feels like we are looking out to a skylight and it lets in so much natural light. We took pieces from our old apartment and found space for them. We knew that the couch that we had was not going to fit, so we had to get a new couch. But it's great that we were able to bring some pieces from the old home, like the bar stools. So we're mixing a little bit of old and new. We originally talked about having a coffee table here, and I just felt it was going to divide up the space and not give you that flow that you needed. So I opted for the two ottomans that also give seating as well. When we told our family about our decision to go tiny, of course, you know, we got the replies that probably most tiny home dwellers get from their family. Are you guys crazy? You know, they decide to support us, and we appreciated that. The kitchen layout to me wasn't really all that important just because I just wanted to have a breakfast bar area. So having a galley-style kitchen versus the U-shaped, it didn't really matter that much to me because I could find function in both of those. But I am very pleased with what we have. Even though we are in a small space, I still needed the comforts of having the larger appliances. We have a full-size stove, we have a full-size microwave, and the full-size fridge, which is very important to us. We even have a dishwasher that is apartment size. When we decided to go with the dishwasher, we were worried a little bit about losing that storage space, but it just made us pare down more stuff. Looking back now, I don't miss any of it, so it was the perfect decision for us. Paring down was not easy at all. We had some highs and some lows. There was some crying, mostly on my part, because I didn't want to get rid of anything. I wanted to bring everything with me. I had a lot of appliances, and having to pare those down, some of them I was tied to emotionally because they came from my mom, but I didn't use them. And so trying to take out that emotional connection to the item kind of helped me get rid of it quickly. On the backside of the island is another little cubbyhole using all the space that you have. I actually have my big Ninja cooker and my Ninja fryer that I got to keep. When we decided to go with this design, we definitely wanted there to be a space to have seating for my husband and I to sit and have dinner. Oftentimes we will sit on the couch and have dinner that way, but the majority of the time we are here, it is perfect. It is a good space for us to sit, have dinner, and talk about our day. Deciding on what type of fridge we wanted, we wanted to stick with the same type of style and size of what we were accustomed to. And when we found that we could have a full-size fridge in our tiny home, that was just wonderful. So we didn't have to lose any creature comforts because we love to eat. The original staircase that came with the home was a metal ladder-like, very steep to go up and not very functional at all. We needed more storage, so my husband, I always say that he can build just about anything, and he came up with this. Here we have storage with our trash can and dog food. And then here we have a standing closet for our coats, hats, vacuum, and things of that nature. So this has been very good for giving us extra space that we could use in the house. If you wanted to live, and we knew we wanted to live in this community, you pretty much had to use their builder, which worked out great for us because their builder was Clayton Holmes, and the design that we really liked was a Clayton model. And we were able to see some of those models. There's a tiny home dealer in Franklin, North Carolina. They just happened to have these models on their lot. So when we came here and started talking to the community management and kicking around ideas which model, we knew what we were getting into. Yes. We don't own the land, we lease the spot, and right now it is $515 a month. That includes water and property taxes. Obviously we don't own it, so that is on part of the community. Also power. Yes. The only thing utility-wise that we pay on top of the $515 is our propane. Yes. And I just happened to look earlier that gas tank, we are now at 45%, and we are here in the 10th month now. Yeah. So it will last us more than a year, so this is almost negligible. And of course we have to pay for internet, which is how we make our living. We need a good internet connection. In the condo, our HOA alone was pushing $590. Yes. On top of that we had power and water and cable and all of this. So right now our lot lease, including the utilities, is less than we would have otherwise paid just in HOA. And it's not so much that we actually work less, but the stress of having to meet certain minimum goals that has reduced significantly. We haven't dropped any clients, and we're still taking on new clients, but the rat race has gotten less important. Yes. We've been traveling, we love camping, and just finding new places to eat here in the area. We can breathe now. We can live now instead of surviving. We're living. The design of the bathroom, I knew that we wanted to have storage for the medicine cabinet and then also have storage here for towels, some cleaning supplies. Everything that we need, all our essentials, is all in this space. And we don't need anything else. I knew we had to come up with an idea to have a clothes hamper here because there was no other place here in the house for that. And I needed it also to bring out life into the bathroom, just give it a different flair. I've always loved this wood-like texture here. So to get that additional space, and again, this is unused space because, I mean, we walk into the shower this way. So, you know, this space was being unused. And living in a tiny home, every bit of the space counts. I knew we didn't want to have a tub. We were just fine with stand-up shower. Gives us lots of headroom here. And it is, you know, full-size to fit two people in there. When it comes to the bathroom, living in a tiny home has certainly been interesting. I think, you know, for the future, it would be great if they could maybe soundproof these walls because you love your significant other, but you don't need to love your significant other. So we have the full-size washer and dryer, which is great to have so we didn't have to change anything there. And in this area, in the original layout, were bunk beds. And we decided to turn that into a pantry and then a vanity area for me so I can, you know, have a space to get ready. And this is more functional for us. Working with Clayton was very easy when it came to changes. If you didn't want to do the bunk beds, this was the other option. Here you would have normally had like an office desk because you could have used this space as an office as well. But since we have the office shed, I thought this would make a perfect spot for me to have my vanity. And back here we have our bedroom. Another thing we loved about this model was the fact that our king-size bed was going to fit in here. As you can see, it can be a little tight around the edges, but this queen needed a king. The bed is an adjustable bed, so the bottom part raises up and then we have storage underneath the full length of the bed. So on this side, we have his and her closets and then we have in the middle, we have three drawers that we kind of divide equally. So the downsizing process wasn't very hard at all. It was pretty easy. We had already started taking seasonal things out, so when it was time to pare down, that was fairly easy for me. And because we have still tons of storage under the bed and here and then the overflow in the office. Having a loft was very important to us, not just for having a sleeping space for guests, but also to have that separation. Sometimes I go up and I'll just sit and, you know, read. It's just another space to get away and get a little bit of separation. And also for my husband when he's snoring. It was important for us to have a front porch because with already having a small space to live in, you know, every extra space is appreciated. Being in the South, we can use this basically three out of four seasons and we spend quite a bit of time here in the mornings having a coffee. And you cannot sit out here without neighbors coming by and stopping for a chat and saying hello. So, yeah, this is definitely a space that we enjoy tremendously. Welcome to our backyard. And since we moved in about a year ago, we added a couple of things. One, the gravel pathway going to the front. When we first came here, all of that was just mud. We also had a shed installed that we finished out on the inside with installation and paneling to function as our office. So what you see here from our back door to here, this is our commute. And we enjoy it. It's great. We both work from home as self-employed accountants and we used to work in the living room and in the hallway of our condo. And now we actually have a separation between private life, if you will, and work. And at the end of our workday, we can shut our computers down, close the door and we have our living space. It is a difference for us to have that separation between work and free time. So you don't open up your laptop and just try to answer one email and before you know it, half the evening is gone. What I find funny is after living here for about a year now, you don't realize that that is a tiny home. I mean, I'm aware of it, but you don't look at it as, oh, it's so small. You kind of forget that it is a small house. And then when you see other people living in regular size houses, you wonder, what would we do with all this space? At first, it was difficult to imagine downsizing. Now it would be difficult for me to imagine upsizing again. Tiny living has been a blessing for us. It's helped us not only financially, but emotionally. Having that connection, living tiny has helped us grow as a couple also. And it made life easier, more peaceful. And I wonder why, because we still have the same spaces. We still go to work. We still got to go shopping. We're still living our life. But you hear the birds outside, you hear the fountain, and you open the door and you're right there in the sunshine. It is just great. I think this was the piece that we didn't know we needed. Thank you for coming and touring our tiny home with us. We enjoyed having you. If you need any help with accounting, bookkeeping, or payroll, please visit us at ussaccounting.com.