This is My Tiny Paradise! 63-Year-Old's Dream Tiny House

Every time I pull up to my tiny house, I'm like, oh, what a beautiful house because I love it. I'm always happy in here, you know. Sometimes I'll just get happy and I'll put music on and I'll just dance in my house, you know. I love it. My cat, she loves it. You know, she runs up and down the stairs. It's hilarious. It's a perfect size for me. I don't feel small in it. And every day brings me joy. It's my tiny paradise. Hi, my name is Diana Lynn, and I live in Riverview, Florida, and this is my tiny paradise. October 15th will be four years that I've been in my tiny house. My house was built by Pacifica Tiny Homes in California. The dimensions are, it's 24 by 8 1⁄2. I'm parked at Hidden River. It's located in Riverview, Florida. And I pay $684 a month for lot rent, which you have a lot of amenities here that's included. It's definitely worth it. You do pay for your water, your sewer, and utilities, which is really not a lot when you live tiny. I enjoy the community. The community is really nice. It's a really nice area. Everybody's, like, really helpful around here. It's so nice. It's pleasant. You know, it's peaceful. All right, why don't you come on in and visit my tiny paradise? Welcome to my home, my tiny paradise. It's total 269 square feet, and I live here with my little cat, Misty. The model I chose was the tiny Victorian because it was the 24 footer and it was perfect size for me. This is my storage steps which I love. The best part about my storage steps is each part has a place it seemed that it was made for it in a way. You know like I didn't know where I was gonna put my cat food and I found a place to put my cat food and the cat litter because I was thinking what would I do with that you're in a tiny space but I feel like everything was meant for that space and that's what I like about it was perfect here I have all my cat litter I have my cat food which I love and then I have my closet there that's where my dresses hang and then here I have shirts my skirts and some pants and I have a little tote bag that keep it in here this is just miscellaneous stuff a beautiful place to put my cat litter so no one could see it which I love and then two more little storage places here you have you have the little drawer here I love my storage steps they're so convenient actually my friend gave me inspiration because I didn't have a lot of wall space here and I didn't want it to be too much so my friend gave me an idea and it's memories you know of my son growing up different times and pictures of my mom, little memories and yeah so I get to look at it every time I go up the steps which gives me joy and walk into my kitchen my tiny kitchen to me it's perfect I used to have a big kitchen in my 1100 square foot house and I never really cooked in the kitchen, but this kitchen, I've cooked in more and baked more than I have in my house. My friends can't believe that I do that, but I do. I love it. This oven, it's a Furrion oven. It's an RV oven. It's a three burner stove and it's gas, which I love. I like the glass on it because if my cat walks on the counter, I don't have to worry about anything being turned on, which is a safety for me. That was my main thing too. And this is the oven. I make biscotti cookies, I make lasagna, ziti. I love this oven. I love to bake in it and I love to cook in it. I don't regret spending extra to get an oven. As you see I don't have a lot of storage but the storage I have I utilize it the best. This is a junk drawer which everybody needs a junk drawer. On this side this has all my pots and pans in there. That's what I have there. This is where I put my George Foreman grill, some of the other big pans that I can't put there. the storage I have here I think it's perfect for me because you're downsizing you don't have a lot of stuff and I love my kitchen I really love my kitchen I did have a deep sink put in which I picked the farmer's sink I think it's nine and a half inches deep I love it and it's just perfect it's nice and big you know I still don't like to leave a lot of dishes in there but I enjoy doing the dishes because I have this beautiful window here in front of me which I loved so much I wanted some shelves because i needed a place to put glasses and my son took the spice rack up which is really good i do have more spices but these are the main ones that i'd leave which is out here so that made really good sense there this is my retro refrigerator i always wanted one so i like it it has a lot of room in here you have a freezer i can pack this stuff really good it's 10 cubic feet so i think that's considered apartment size fridge and the washer and dryer work great I didn't want to get a combo one. This is by Splendid and it works really good. Here you have a good size. You just can't like wash quilts and stuff like that. So I like it. It's perfect for me. I came up with creative solutions for storage. I bought some wicker baskets. Here I have my, the stuff that you need, Reynolds wrap, you know, stuff to cook with, little baggies and so forth like that. On the washer and dryer, I have more space. So I didn't want it to look cluttered I wanted it to look neat and organized and then moving over here this was my challenging part because I didn't know how much space I had between here and here so what I did was this is probably the fourth one I bought this was the best one I got this from Bath and Beyond and it slides out then this is a little extra for my pantry and up here is like for you know sheets and up here is just like general stuff I'm 63 years old I'm originally from New York and I've been in Florida for 31 years. My son was born here. I moved down to Florida because my mother was here and she has a lot of medical issues, so that's what brought me to Florida. You know, I'm a single parent, and I was proud that I was able to at least have a house with my son, Edward, and I lived there for 17 years. I wanted to make it important for me and my son because as a single parent, it's really hard, so I was proud of myself that I was able to do that for him. I like to spend time outside. I'm a triathlete. I've accomplished two full Ironmans when I first started. That was back in 2000 and then I did my second one in 2002 and that was fun. You know I got into triathlons when I actually came to Florida because I just used to do run bike run and I loved it. That's my enjoyment. If I'm outside and I'm riding or I'm at the gym working out that's what makes me happy. I'm a very spiritual person. I'm a Jehovah Witness so I definitely believe in simplifying your life, you know, and that's, you know, something that I enjoy doing, making things simple and easier. I used to watch Zach and John on Tiny House Nation, so I was like, that'd be really cool to live in a tiny house, so I was looking to see if there was any tiny house, you know, like festivals around here, but there weren't any in Florida, so I found one in Georgia, Atlanta Tiny House Festival, I think it was. It was in 2018, and I drove up there, and I was amazed. there were so many different tiny houses there was a speaker there and he says do you really utilize every space in your house I never really thought about that because you're not thinking about it when you're living in a regular sized house so I said to my friend I'm gonna do it she says what I go I'm gonna sell my house and I'm gonna move into a tiny house and she thought I was crazy but it was calling me or something I don't know how to explain it but it was just so fun seeing all the different builds and seeing how creative they can be and I was like this is fun I can do this I downsized from 1100 square feet which I had a big yard I had three bedrooms two bathrooms a lot of land as a single parent and my son moved out it was just so much to clean it was easy for me to downsize I was actually like a kid just in a candy store just getting rid of stuff it was like it was fun it made me think you know like what do I need you know and have I used this recently but that's when you realize that you have so much stuff that you really didn't use and I was like wow I had this where was this at you know so I got rid of a lot of clothes a lot of shoes I sold my furniture it was a process I think I felt like somebody was taking weight off my shoulder is how it felt and it was great you know people still thought I was crazy and didn't believe that I was going to downsize but that was my decision you guys know well a hot sleeper that's why i switched to SweetNight's CoolNest Ultra memory foam mattress SweetNight is a modern sleep brand dedicated to making high quality smart sleep solutions accessible to everyday families just look at this so sleek so cool featuring the advanced CoolNest Ultra system that provides instant cooling and all-night comfort with a five-stage cooling system and its refined seven zone design delivers tailored support across key areas of the body while helping to maintain natural spinal alignment there's nothing i hate more than waking up sweaty the CoolNest mattress has made that problem disappear thanks in part to its continuous air circulation the 3D breathable design promotes airflow and reduces heat and moisture so i don't wake up sticky talk about refreshing sleep cooler rest better with the CoolNest Ultra memory foam mattress use our exclusive code THE20 for up to 20% off and behind here is my bathroom this is my barn door and in here you have my toilet which is a regular toilet some people like RV toilets but i needed a real toilet so i'm very happy with it and when you have a tiny bathroom for me it doesn't seem tiny. It seems like it's a perfect space. This was the sink I had replaced about two years ago and I like it because I like this. I love the waterfall thing. That's like my favorite part of it and it's a bigger sink so I have a small head so I can actually wash my hair in here if I wanted to. I could wash my face and it's perfect and I just wanted something bigger plus it has more storage here. I got little baskets to put stuff in it and this is my shower. I love it. It has plenty of storage space. I don't know if females can relate, but there's a lot of stuff. So you have a shelf for everything. This was perfect. And the shower's a 36 by 36 shower. It's perfect size. Yeah, and I have on-demand water heater. Unit's outside, but it comes on really fast, even in the kitchen. So I love my on-demand water heater. Welcome to my tiny living room. Actually, my perfect space is what I call it. The builders originally have an L-shaped couch that you can have with storage underneath. And I didn't want an L-shaped couch. To me, it would be too big for the tiny house. This is my personal thing. So I wanted to actually buy a couch that would fit my needs. And plus I could switch around the living room. And this is a full-size couch, which I love. It's perfect space for it. I love this big picture window, which is wonderful. I love this window. And then you have your other window here. What I like it too, is you have your TV and it swivels. So if I'm in the kitchen cooking I can not miss a show Turn it if I'm on the couch, I can turn it towards me and it came with the build which was wonderful I got this from Ikea and needed a place to put my weights when I'm working out at home. I put them here This was a perfect space because I wanted a controller with the radio and this is a controller with the radio and again wicker baskets Just for stuff and then I think where am I gonna put my bike right? I'm gonna put my tri bike so I did a lot of research and it's called core c-o-r and it's like a shelf like a bookshelf and it holds my bike and my bike's only like 19 and a half pounds so you just step on here pick it up and take it off and it's perfect and then I get to see it every time I walk in which brings me joy but I love how everything is and my mini split I'll dance in here I'll do walking squats in here because I have enough room so to me it's perfect I mean I love this living area it's perfect and I've had people over I think I had the most so far five people over and everybody had a place to sit so I love it this bends down I use this for eating and if I'm on my laptop or something this was a phone I had in my house it actually works if you have a landline but now I just keep it for like my keys there and this was my phone it actually did work so I wanted to keep momentum for my house and I love it let's go check out the upstairs welcome to my loft I had my loft extended a little bit because I was working from home full-time at the time and I needed a place to put my computer so I have my computer place and I didn't choose to get a big bed. I know most people did. I wanted something that I can feel comfortable in. This is a single bed. I got it again at IKEA. You can buy those little roll-out things that also come with the bed and I didn't buy a comforter. I actually had a lot of t-shirts from being a competitive runner and a lot of triathlon t-shirts. So I wanted to remember them. A sister from my congregation, she went ahead and she made this for me. The windows, I didn't want to buy any blinds because my cats have a tendency to break them. I don't know if anybody had that issue, but I did. So I made these. When I'm here, I'm just like content in my little clubhouse. I'm perfect. I started to look into financing. I saw 21st Mortgage and I was like, this is perfect. So I called them up and they're like, yeah, we finance tiny homes. So 21st Mortgage gave me a list of builders. And one was, she says, oh, it's Pacifica Tiny Homes, but they're located in California. I was like, cool. So I looked them up. And what I originally wanted was cathedral ceiling. That's the kind of house I wanted. And I went on their website and I saw their homes. And it was like, I was brought to them by a miracle. I was like, I get emotional because it was perfect. You know, it was like, this is what I wanted. I wanted the storage steps. So I wanted everything. So I was so ecstatic about it. 21st Mortgage, I really liked how they did things because you didn't have to put a lot of money down. This tiny house was within my budget. I did put a down payment of $7,000 down. So it was 76 after the down payment, but that also included the delivery because they were coming from California, delivering it all the way to Florida. And they even hooked it up. A lot of companies don't do that so definitely you would want to research that tiny house living was perfect you know it was like everything's small so yeah you have some obstacles that may happen even in a tiny home it's just smaller but you know it's going to be less expensive and to me it was like weight off my shoulder I don't have debt the only thing I have is my mortgage that's it and that was all I wanted. You know, I paid off everything from the proceeds of my house. My mortgage includes my insurance and I have to have flood insurance. So my mortgage is $683. So to me, that's affordable because it was so much more when I had my house. So much more. You know, your home insurance, we're not even going to go there. That's expensive. The current lot rent is $684 and that doesn't include your water or your sewer and your utilities. You got to pay that. But when you have a big house, your utilities are so much high. My utilities may be $30 a month. You know, my water and my sewer is not that much. So you're saving so much money. So overall, my bills may be about $1,400, maybe $1,450, sometimes $1,500. That's actually cheaper than actually having a house. When you figure in all that other stuff that you have in a big house, it's actually cheaper. Plus, it's your house. You can take it anywhere you want to go. My friend, who also has tiny house said why don't you try Hidden River it's in River View so i said great i came here she showed me around and i thought it was perfect i love this community it's really nice i mean they have a clubhouse they have a pool it's just it's so comfortable here and everybody's there helping you it's really nice i really appreciate the help that you get and i get to be with my tiny house friend which when i first met her it was really nice and it's nice that now we're actually neighbors because that's what we always plan to be thanks for stopping by Tiny House Expedition i'm Alexis and i'm Christian and this is our DIY tiny house on our homestead in Oregon looking for more tiny inspiration watch these videos but if you're looking for something specific visit our channel homepage to browse tiny homes by category and don't forget to subscribe hope to see you soon