Family Downsizes To Tiny House

From 2000 Sq. Ft. To 207 Sq. Ft. House

We hear about this more often these days than ever before. A single person, a couple and even a family downsizes their house to tiny and live life in a big way.

I love reading about all the success stories. How people have gone from a life full of problems to happiness and freedom. Or maybe there wasn’t any problems but they just wanted to simplify their life. Either way, the majority of people that make the decision to downsize have found that their life is much improved.

From one of the blogs that I read, I found out about another family of four that has moved from a large house into a very small house. The entire family is loving it.

In their case, they wanted to make life easier and less stressful with the ultimate goal of reducing debt and to make the future for themselves and their kids much better.

Taking a look at the pictures that came with the article, they are making great use of little space. Their house is absolutely lovely.

In this particular case, their kids are school age but need teenagers. I get the impression that even the kids realize how much better their life is now. This is not a surprise to me – the same happened to us.

We started out with a small goal in mind and the decision to go small has snowballed into so much more.

We often get the question or comments about how a family can live in such a small space. I always say that it is a personal decision – one that you have to make for yourself but it is possible if that is what you really want. There are many families that do it and do it successfully.

You have to decide if you can live comfortably in a tiny space.

And if you can live comfortably with three other people in the small place.

The decision to downsize your house to tiny is something that needs to be well thought out and in the best interest of the family.

Source

http://affordablehousingdesigns.com/the-latest/family-downsizes-to-tiny-house/ Joanne

Gifts for a Tiny Home

It’s Tiny House Party Time

Scenario:

You are shopping for that special gift for a special friend. It could be for Christmas, a birthday, house warming – whatever the occasion when you want to give a gift.

The problem?

There is so much to choose from. Usually anything goes, unless that person lives in a small home. If that’s the case, the decision may be a little more difficult as there is limited space. Someone that lives in a little place doesn’t want or like to have things that aren’t necessary. There just isn’t the room for extra stuff.

So, what can you give?

Consumables are always welcome. These are gifts that will be used up. Something that doesn’t take up a lot of space and won’t hang around for months, taking up precious space.

Things like:

Food or drink. Something that you know the person or persons love. Something that they can enjoy on their own or with company.

Tickets to a special event you know they would like.

An ebook they have been talking about or along the lines of what they enjoy to read about.

A subscription to an online magazine. There are so many to choose from you’ll have no trouble finding something that they are interested in.

A gift certificate to a place or an event for something that have a keen interest in.

A gift card or prepaid mastercard that they can spend on anywhere – their choice.

Maybe you would prefer to give something that is a little more personal? Something unexpected?

Here are some ideas for things you could get for their home.

We know that a small kitchen can only accommodate small appliances. These days it is quite easy to find common appliances that fit into a tiny home.

In many cases, combining appliances into one is a good idea. An unusual but useful combination is a three in one breakfast station . It is a coffeemaker, oven and griddle all in one. You can make coffee and cook breakfast all at once. This all in one machine takes up less room than these three separated. It even has a retro look to it.

If the cooking preparation area in their kitchen is at a premium, any extra space would be appreciated. You could give the gift of a cutting board with food prep storage containers tucked under the surface of the board. The drawers slide out so that you can scoop the prepared food into the drawer to keep it fresh and out of the way while you prepare the rest. Honestly, anyone would love this item.

Everyone has some very special photos that they would love to keep and put on display. When you live in a small home, it’s almost impossible to find a place to show of your pictures. There isn’t a lot of wall space or counter space. One solution is a digital picture frame – there are many types to choose from but this one is very versatile. These have been around for awhile but not many people actually put them to good use. Your photos will be on a continual video showcase for everyone to enjoy.

The following are some more common and easy to find ideas. Almost any big department store will carry many versions of these items.

Anyone cooking in a small kitchen tries very hard not to have leftovers. No matter how hard you try, there are times when leftovers just happen. For those times, you could give them collapsible food containers. They take very little storage room when not in use.

Staying organized in a tiny house is extremely important but can also be a challenge. I don’t know about you, but some items that seem to get misplaced or in the way are keys and mail. A small basket with key hooks on the side is a great idea. It can be placed by the door and as soon as you get home, put the mail and keys in the basket where they’ll be ready when you need them again. Plus baskets always look great and keep things neat and in their place.

Bath items are always a problem to store and be ready to use at the same time. You use most of these items on a daily basis so you want them to be easily accessible. That’s where a bath caddy that hangs in your shower is handy. The shampoo, soap, conditioner, puffs, and other items would all have there own place. No more searching for a place to put them out of the way but easy to reach while you shower.

How about the idea of some living art. A combination of a really nice wall planter where some herbs can be grown – fresh herbs available when you need them. What a great idea.

A few other suggestions that don’t take up any space are gifting them maid service once, for a few weeks, or a few months. If they love to dance, you could give the gift of dance lessons. A healthy living advocate would love to have the opportunity to enjoy a yoga class, or a massage. These would definitely put a smile to someone’s face.

When you really think about it, choosing that special gift for a tiny house owner and maybe one for yourself is really not that difficult.

http://affordablehousingdesigns.com/the-latest/gifts-for-a-tiny-home/

A Simple Artistic Small House

The Simple Life

We have been living in our RV and traveling for the past two years. We've loved every single minute of our new life - the small place, the simplicity of our life, the fact that there is little to no stress, and that we get to see many of the places that we've always wanted to see.

How we do it?

We work from home, wherever home happens to be. Our usual day starts with working during the mornings, finishing at about one or two pm. The rest of the day is ours to do as we please.

Our decision to simplify our life was one of the best decisions we ever made in our life. We have seen so many beautiful places and met so many wonderful people.

Although we love being nomads, we find that we are now craving a little consistency. We miss having a garden, having a yard to putter around in, a place that we can decorate a little more, and a little privacy.

For the past few months, we have been looking for a suitable place for us to rent for awhile - a year or two. We think we may have finally found a place that would be perfect for us. It is a small artistic cottage set on a working farm/winery. The house was built with the purpose of renting however it has been sitting empty for awhile.

We've thought about it and talked about it for a few days. We are both of the same mind - that it would be perfect for us so we are going to talk to the owners. We want to take another look at it, have a few questions answered and discuss our options with them. If the price is right and the situation is right, we'll have a place to settle for awhile. If it works out, it will be a win-win situation for all of us.

The very small house plans and designs could not be any more perfect for what we love in a place to live.

A Medical Diagnosis Leads To A Better Life

Our Story - From Big House To Very Small House

It's unfortunate that it took a serious medical issue to make us realize that we needed to live a better, healthier lifestyle. It's unfortunate that we are not the only ones that waited until something happened before making the decision to create a better lifestyle.

Making the change to from our big home to a very small house was the catalyst for all the other positive changes that have come into our lives in the past few years.

I would like to explain however it would be an extremely long article if I were to do it all at once. For that reason, I'm going to break it down into a few more manageable articles, published over a few days.

A little history:

2010 - In March, my husband was told that the job that he was on contract with would end within six months. He immediately started looking for a new job and by May, he had secured one. Problem was, it was in another city that was seven hours away.

My job had not been treating me well for a long time and I was thinking of leaving it so we made the decision to sell our house and move. There was nothing that was holding us there.

By June, he was gone and our house was up for sale. We lived in a small country town. Add to that the fact that we were in the middle of the recession. Needless to say, interest in our house was minimal. We hadn't expected that...

For the next 18 months, my husband would travel home every second weekend.

The situation was exhausting and stressful for both of us - emotionally and financially. Our expenses were high - he was paying rent in the new city, the cost of travelling every few weeks was expensive, and we still had all the expenses from the house.

The longer this went on, the more we were feeling the strain.

September 2011 - we finally got an offer on the house however it was much lower than what we were asking, and slightly lower than what we had paid for it when we bought. After carefully weighing our options, we decided to go for it. Within a few days, we had confirmed the sale at a price slightly higher than what was offered but it was still a huge loss for us.

We made this decision because it was costing us more to live two separate lives.

But that wasn't the end of the bad news. We still had one year left on our mortgage. We weren't planning to buy another house at the other end because we were very discouraged after what we had just gone through.

The bank (Royal Bank of Canada) was not very helpful with our predicament. In fact, they wouldn't even look at any other option except to charge us a penalty of approximately $10,000.00. They simply asked us why we hadn't looked at any other option such as renting our house or lease to own. We were insulted and angry - of course we had tried those options...

So, instead of trying to help us in our time of need - they simply charged us with a huge penalty (our lawyer told us he had never seen anyone have a penalty so high in his entire career!).

The penalty in combination with the loss on the sale of the house just about wiped out all the money that we had invested in housing. And the past year or so had just about wiped out our savings.

We were depressed, discouraged and angry.

And we had some more difficult decisions to make especially when it came to affordable housing options.