In demand Tiny Home Community in North Carolina - phase 3 open soon!

I'm Mark Brooks and I'm John Monroe and we're the partners of Coney Bell Tiny Home Village. We're located in beautiful Mills River kind of in between Asheville, Brevard and Hendersonville, North Carolina. We are a tiny home community on 58 acres right beside the Pisgah National Forest and we've been here since 2017. My name is Ashley. I've been living here for almost two years now and what I love about Coney Bell is how cool everybody is in the community. Like I don't think I've ever lived in a place where I've known my neighbors so well and have befriended them and like talked to them and it's just a really it's a close-knit community and everybody has like an interesting story and an interesting house and some people have built their houses and so I've really enjoyed getting to know the people here and also being able to provide a service to people in the community because I make vegan meals for people and I also do dog walking and so that's allowed me to like to get to know my neighbors even more. I'm not vegan yet. They're trying to convert me. It's not happening. I am going to be a carnivore as long as there's maple wood bacon I will eat meat. I am Regina Osborne and I live here at Coney Bell and I've been here for two years. You don't have to lock your doors here. I don't advise not locking your doors but you really don't. It really is a beautiful place to live. It's safe. It's clean and you can do what you want with your little area. You know he just wants you to keep it clean and keep it neat and everybody's house has a personality. First of all the most important thing about the layout is spaces between homes. That is absolutely incredible just to have that space to do what you need. Tiny living is about living outside. Decks, chairs, horseshoe pits, fire pits. Everybody puts their own little twist on their little area. You know we've got a couple homes that have decks on top of them so I think that's the number one important thing. Second of all is trying to not make everything look like marine barracks. You know you don't want that straight lined up. We try to put a skew on the homes to kind of break them up so it doesn't look like home after home after home but these homes are all different builders and so that creates the you know to the eclecticity of the village and that just makes it really cute and a great place to be because of that. We do try to have landscaping between all the homes. You can see them today. Another thing that a lot of people don't understand we're flat but we really aren't and you'll see all through the place what we call dry riverbed creeks. Right now they're dry but after a good three inch those river storm they'll be full but it moves the water on out and that helps keep the area nice drained and beautiful. Now for a brief message from our sponsor Merge Gardens. You know I can be one heck of a busy bee. Being a filmmaker I'm buzzing around all of the time but I always try and find time to unwind and Merge Gardens helps me do that. Merge Gardens is a combination of Merge and Match 3 puzzle games. Tend your mysterious garden and play fun puzzle levels. Are you a weirdo like me who enjoys organizing? Well Merge Gardens really scratches that itch. It's satisfying to tidy up the garden, merge elements like dandelions to create something new and beautiful. 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We're certainly close to our neighbors but we have a little bit more space to stretch out. It allows us to have you know like a nice deck on the side, we're able to walk our dogs further, we have the community fire pits, there's community gardens, there's a community house. So there's definitely a lot of thought that was put into the preparation of the actual community itself and I think that that creates an environment where people can really flourish. And be proud of where they live and I feel like everyone puts a lot of time into their homes and the community and connections and I think it's really special. I'm an engineer, a civil engineer and we do a lot of residential type stuff and house developments do a lot of RV parks and mobile home parks and things like that. We're a civil engineer, we just do the land side, we don't do anything with buildings or anything. It's just the you know grading water or sewer or storm water that paving and that kind of stuff. I've done it for 20 some years, 25 years. It was about 2015 when I probably contacted you about it and I was and John was in real estate and I said I was doing property management at that point. Yeah I said man you know we need to find some acreage and it was John's idea. He said man why don't you think about tiny homes. I was like oh those are cool yeah I've seen the shows and that sounds like fun and so we went to a couple festivals. We went to the one in South Georgia, that was a lot of fun. Florida. It was really eye-opening. I mean it was you know we were exploring the reasons as to why people would do this. You know the reasons that people were doing this, want to reduce my carbon footprint, more mobile now, I'm not tied to an office or a job, and cost of housing. You know those issues are tenfold more on the forefront now than they were back then. And when we first started I mean people thought we were crazy. I mean we were we were mortgaging buildings. I sold a home that we had, moved to a much smaller home, and begged everybody we knew and finally got enough capital up. Well that was it. We basically had to approach friends to raise the capital to do it. It's one of the reasons it ended up being developed in phases. I think it surprised people in the community. People in the community were very hesitant about accepting and were not necessarily on the front end like oh boy a tiny home community's moving in. Because it went from what the hell them hippies doing down there to um it's so cute John. I just love what you've done with this place. Thank you. When we purchased the property this was all tomato and pepper fields that was you know actively farmed. This is Boylston Creek right here that runs through the middle of the property. A good portion of the property was all on the flood plain, a hundred year flood plain. It flooded fairly regularly. So part of what we had to do was we excavated some of the the dirt from the front portion of the property up by the highway where there was kind of a big mound and we used that dirt to fill into here to raise the elevation. We had to raise pretty much everything about three and a half feet to get above the the base flood elevation and it's it's paid off. 2017-16 we had 100 year rain events and water came right up to to about where they said it was going to come up and it went back down so we were real lucky and glad we put the time and the investment in to do that. We're not on city water sewer here so we have to have our own on-site wastewater system and on-site community water supply system. They're fairly highly regulated here in North Carolina. We have to have licensed operators to come out and look at everything and take samples and submit reports to the state on a regular basis which is great. It provides people the assurance that the water's clean and you know meets all the state requirements and everything. Same thing with the with the on-site wastewater. We actually have some fairly high-tech sophisticated systems. It's not just a standard septic system. It all gets aerobically pre-treated. We have a drip system up on that hillside there that the water then gets irrigated out on the landscape, some reuse involved there. You know all of that takes some some time, engineering, permitting to get done and and we've luckily gotten all that squared away. One right now. So we do have a chicken club and everybody in it gets to participate one day a week. So you come, you let them out in the morning, you feed them and then you get that day's eggs. So it's self-managed by the community. That's one of the things I really like is there's not a lot of intensive management for me. They do this, do that, they run it. You know we're just when they need food, we get food. When they need straw, they get straw. If the chicken club member wants to let them out, because we do have hawks, we don't let them free range, but we let them out and then they come do their thing and then you say girls come on time to get back in and they fall and come back in. And just the ability to have you know fresh garden eggs is just huge right now. You know we try to work toward a sense of permaculture. We're not perfect, no one's perfect, but at the same time there's something to say about sustainability. So this is the community garden. Same thing, you know we have a garden club. So people have their own plots and we till it and we fertilize it and we just planted a cover crop of rye and Australian winter peas. And so then next spring people come out and start planting. The others will start with onions and then we'll move over to tomatoes and squash and zucchinis and you know there's always a lot of extra food. So the extra food ends up on the table at the end. So if you have some extras for the rest of the community, you just put it over there at the table. I don't know if you noticed, but the compost bins all over the location. This is for the chicken poop and the manure and everything. So it's being composted right now and be reapplied back to the garden this spring. And it's probably the best organic fertilizer you could ever have. Hi, I'm Stephanie Monroe. I'm John's wife of Oconee Bell Tiny Home Village and I manage all the rentals here at Oconee Bell. One thing I really like about our rental homes is that people get to come in and try a tiny home for their first visit and they come back. They love it here. They feel very safe in our community and they love the area we are at because you can be in Asheville, but you can also go on a beautiful hike on Pisgah National Forest through DuPont. We're here at Tiny Magnolia and this is one of our more popular rentals and it was built by Liberation Tiny Home. Why don't you come in and take a look? Welcome to Tiny Magnolia. This is a beautiful farmhouse tiny home. So a lot of our guests love Magnolia. It has a king bed in the loft which is accessed by steps and there's also a queen bedroom right on the main floor. As you can see we're tucked here in the back of the community right before the trails. So at Oconee Bell you're allowed to go about 15 feet from the house which is great so we have a ton of space to add our deck, our pergola, and walkway. On the inside lots we pay $5.50 each. On the very outside perimeter of these they pay $6.25. What is included? You've got garbage, you've got water, if you want internet you can go up to the clubhouse and you can have free wi-fi up there. At the community house they have a washer and dryer, they have a big screen, flat tv, they got a piano, there's a nice big couch, a fireplace, a big dining table where we've had potlucks before which is really nice. There's a separate room in there. I know some people in the community like offer yoga or massages so like you can like book with them and essentially just like go up to the clubhouse which is nice. So phase one and two have two big fire pits that they stock the firewood for us and so they encourage like they want everyone to just like go there and gather and use the firewood you know like whenever you want. There's a Facebook group that people like post like hey we're starting to fire in phase phase two back of phase two come join us so yeah that's really cool. The national average three years ago was $5.75 for an RV spot and when I came here and moved here and said it was $600 what do you mean $600 and people were just so irate and I was like the national average is $5.75 and not for nothing but have you seen this place? It's beautiful and they put money into the infrastructure and you have to appreciate that and they have to recoup that money and if you think you're going to get an apartment in Asheville for $600 good luck sis it's not happening. So if you're coming from a city a large city and rents are $2,000 easy for a one bedroom for a house you own to pay $600 are you mad? I'm not mad at all and I appreciate the attention to detail here the beauty here the upkeep and the maintenance of the landscaping. So phase three we had an area that had an old hemlock forest the eastern hemlocks are dying off from woolly adelgid and we cut down the hemlocks and we made a nice little area up on the knob up here that will have 14 houses up here basically tying the community center to the rest of the community. We planned out another seven down here at the front entrance then we're planning green giants Arbor Vitae all around it and we will be finished but we're really never finished we've always got stuff to do. I'd say probably 100 to 110 people live here I think that's a good good estimate and then we you know we tried to keep the lot affordable and you know that is all relative to where you live. You know the infrastructure is expensive and I tell you the cost in the last two years has gone through the roof and you know the power to run the pumps and you know we're constantly dealing with well issues and it's expensive to run and I'm sure a lot of people would love to have five acres of their own and there's a fair amount of expense in a building it and b in maintaining it. You know the cost to do it's about the same as a residential housing development on a per lot basis. The biggest I think comment we had when we first opened was where's the pool and we were like nah we got a creek. I gotta pick up the phone and pick up my ex and said well man we get hot around here we just kind of jump in the creek. You know there's every different communities have different tastes and for different people yeah and if you love the outdoors you love laid-back people that look after each other it's great but you know if you're looking for a more structured type place country club with pickleball and pools and stuff that's not us. You know we made this place fun that was the idea of this project we're going to do a project together it's going to be fun. The residents it's amazing the different backgrounds you know the young couples the nesting couples the girlfriend boyfriend the middle-aged you know retirees it's everyone. I enjoy living here and I know maybe there's been some knocks here that we're more homogenized than the rest of the world and but we are a microcosm of where we are. Number one you have to want to live outside of Asheville North Carolina. Number two you have to have a tiny house. Number three John has to have an open lot and then you want to be a person of color like there's a lot of things that have to fall into place and timing is everything in tiny houses whether it's your builder getting your house to you whether it being transported to you once it's built it's just so many things that have to fall into place to come and live here. I don't feel out of place here I don't care if there's no other single black woman over 50. The community here at Acme Bell has been absolutely wonderful I think it's probably the best living situation we've ever had. We've been in a lot of apartment living so smaller and it was kind of very secluded and then when we were out on the farm in Marshall it was the same thing it was kind of just us by ourself on the hill which was beautiful but as soon as we moved in here we were surrounded by really wonderful people there was a whole welcoming crew Joellen out on her porch over there was like yay and it was just so nice and instantly everyone was like if you need anything let us know we're here to help. There's a wide range of people and like us being a gay couple you know I never ever felt any sort of like discrimination or anything like that like people have just been like very welcoming there are quite a few people in the neighborhood in the LGBTQ community so like that's been super cool. Our tinies aren't like as close as I think I've seen some other tiny home communities so we do have a lot more room but even with that like people try not to walk in each other's yards and give the space you know that everyone should have. It's been really nice like everyone is just super friendly and understanding and welcoming. I was a little nervous at first like when having people come up and like introduce themselves like the first day we were here because the house was placed and we hadn't even really moved in and I was like oh it's like you know. It's how it's gonna be like am I just gonna knock on our door? Yeah I was like am I ever gonna like not have to talk to somebody but it doesn't feel that way I can walk outside and just like do my own thing or like sit outside on my little patio and like don't feel like I have to like you know be having some sort of interaction with somebody but it's also great too that like what I can walk outside and I can just like have a conversation with somebody if I want to so. Well so far one of the things that we really like about being at Oconee Bell is that it's kind of like camping with your friends you know you get to live with your friends as neighbors you get to have fire pits together you can walk down the road and knock on someone's door everyone walks their dogs together so there's definitely a lot going on. Three or four different residents have come to me over the years and you know John I'm so sorry but we bought land. I'm so ecstatic for them I'm so happy you know that's the dream god to have you know 10 acres of land with a tiny home on it oh my god I'm so happy for them I'm not disappointed you know that just it's great that this was kind of a stepping stone for them it's just it's really turned into a good sense of community these people all know each other you know you're talking about living in a small town of 2,000 they're in a small town of 120 people and they know each other and you know there's not a lot of look after each other there is a lot of looking after and I think a lot of people that are here they hadn't gone and gotten that acre in the woods because they know that there's others here looking after them yes yeah you know John Quinn with people tell us what are the rules there and it was like you know be kind don't be a jerk that's it after that it's pretty easy yeah keep it cute keep it cute keep it cute don't be a jerk and it is cute yeah you know we know we do have some rules and regulations that kind of keep it from not you know getting run down you know but at the same time it's it's cute and there's no better word to describe it and you know great people that's I think that's the key to it's nothing about us you know it's great people the question I get a lot is do they appreciate or do they depreciate well that's a good question I'm always exactly and I'm always you know talking to Henderson County because you know their RVs in North Carolina you've got an RV depreciation schedule which takes like a 30 hit on the first year but yes they're appreciating even resales in here I mean they go in about a week people want to be in here and it's you know at least the home setups you're getting you know a little bit of equity out of that but at the same time you know it's definitely getting premium for resales because you can't get a tiny home I mean a quality one two years yeah good guys like we're just talking about liberation I mean god bless those guys but they're a year and a half out right now and people won't want to be here and we don't have any spots you know and always get the end of the wait list you know there are currently three houses here for sale people do sell people do move and lots do become available but you have to jump on it I love it here I really do and every time there's a house for sale I'm like who wants to be my neighbor you know I work in probably 20 different counties in North Carolina and even with those counties there's you know towns and municipalities and their attitudes and rules regulations with regard to doing this kind of thing are so different I mean it varies wildly from one little bird to the next and a lot of times their you know regulations and whatnot are formed by maybe one or two people within the local government or maybe on the council or whatever's attitudes opinions and and possibly even prejudices I just wish that they would take the time to come and investigate places like Coney Bell and other good communities like this and look at it and ask some questions and go how does this work and I think they would come up with a different set of rules and regulations and I've heard ever since I moved here to Asheville 27 years ago about affordable housing we have got to provide affordable housing and every time I bring up something like this I just get shut down because of the closed mindedness about the whole thing and I'm like you don't know anything about it you know this is a great solution I mean it limits sprawl even though we're pretty fairly rural here and a lot of positives I just think it's something that's got to be part of the solution in the future yeah and it's you know like I said trial and error yeah and you know we're getting somewhere and that's that's just the best part and there's ways to do it wrong don't get me wrong I think we you know we could have screwed this up pretty good we could have you know we could have jammed 500 units in here easily you know and turn it into not a very nice place to live but that can all be resolved you know at a municipal and local ordinance level 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 Instagram for bonus content including face-to-face conversations with us we hope to see you there all right thanks guys have a good one