A Tiny House for A Tiny Life

I have been absent for a while in order to gain my bearings after some not so great changes to my family that were out of my control. When your world is out of kilter, you either let it knock you down or you fight back and make a plan. After eating a quart of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy and lots of hugs from some very good friends, I have formulated a plan.

I have become fascinated with the tiny house movement. Born from this fascination is a desire to build my own tiny home. I am looking at a living space of 400-875 square feet for me and the boys. We don't need much space. The hard part will be saving up to buy the land to build it on. I'm looking at maybe an acre of land southeast of town, somewhere I can keep some chickens, put in some raised bed vegetable gardens, and live a sustainable life with my boys. In time, maybe I can build a tiny studio for my photography as well.

Here are some of my favorite tiny house designs:

The Betty Lu Lu, by Goodfit Cottages and Small Houses, is by far my favorite design so far. The layout is great and the design is just super cute and cozy. You could still have guests over and not feel like they were invading your bedroom. It has a small footprint of 875 square feet, two bedrooms (bunk beds, boys?), one bathroom, a great room, dining alcove, and a tiny laundry room. Just a perfect little house. And the little porch out front, I so can picture myself curled up with a good book and a glass of iced tea while sitting out on that little porch.

At 404 square feet this tiny house, by Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, makes the Betty Lu Lu look like a mansion. It is a sweet little house with a sleeping loft and the option of a bedroom extension. If I am going for a smaller footprint, this just might be the one for me and the boys.

This little number is the work of Tiny Texas Houses. The houses are built using reclaimed building supplies and green building techniques. I am hoping to get out to Luling, Texas to visit Tiny Texas Houses soon. While I am leaning toward more of a cottage design, this tiny house looks like it walked right out of a Texas history book. I am also loving the idea of building my tiny house out of reclaimed/salvaged building supplies.

I am already thinking along the lines of tiny house living and have begun to look around at all of the things that I would need to get rid of to live the tiny house lifestyle. Oh, baby, am I ready to downsize! The hardest will be getting rid of books and getting the boys to let go of some of their stuff. Maybe I can use the money from the sale of some of this stuff to put toward saving for a little plot of land. I really see this as the best way for me to own a home someday while maintaining a simple, sustainable lifestyle.