4 Years in a Tiny Home - Part 2

Feb. 16, 2023, 2:49 p.m.

Continued from part 1...

"As I grew up, I started to realize what my father had years prior - it’s a LOT more work to DIY a Tiny Home as an unskilled teenager than I thought. Of course, I realized it would be hard work and I’d have a lot of trades to familiarize myself with if I wanted to be hands-on at all. However, the logistics of balancing work with time to build a Tiny Home slowly became evident to me, and I began to understand reaching my goal would be significantly more difficult than I originally thought. 

I was okay with that prospect, but that’s when I started considering hiring a builder. Ever since I was little, I’ve always been an “I can do it myself” type of person- but the rose-colored glasses were coming off, and it was becoming apparent that I would need to compromise somewhere. 

Over the next few years, I decided to start saving money towards my eventual Tiny Home, and begin traveling while I waited. The lifestyle of traveling the world solidified my desire for simplicity and a cost-effective lifestyle. While visiting Japan for two months, I stayed with a family of 4 in a tiny two-bedroom apartment and it really never felt cramped. When I rented a duplex with a friend in Canada, I learned I really didn’t need THAT much space - especially if I was going to live on my own. Living out of my backpack while my best friend and I made our way around Europe taught me that I could get by with very few belongings and not miss anything. I continued learning lessons about simplicity, costs of living, and learning who I wanted to become as I grew into a full-fledged adult. While I always kept my dream of living Tiny in my heart, I began to open up to other forms of simple living.

A few years passed and I began dating the man who would later become my husband. When I eventually brought up the idea of living in a Tiny Home, he was initially skeptical. He did agree to keep an open mind, but asked that we first get a simple one-bedroom house or apartment, so that felt like a fair compromise at the time. A few months after we were married (due to multiple construction delays), we finally secured our very first apartment together. It was an adorable, brand-new one bedroom apartment sitting around 700 square feet. It felt huge to me, with about the same amount of space as the Japanese two-bedroom apartment I stayed in with the family of four. We soon adopted two cats and settled into our adorable apartment. 

Sadly, within a year, the area we lived in was rapidly becoming unaffordable to a young couple like us, and our rent was going up in a few months. It had us looking into other options, and I brought up Tiny Homes again. My husband was still skeptical, but agreed to reach out to a local builder that I had found online. This is when we met the wonderful people at Tiny Idahomes.

We scheduled a tour of their warehouse, and a couple of days later, we toured their adorable Cascade model, Clear Creek, and a couple of other units that were still under construction. My husband had originally thought “Tiny Home” meant something like a small backyard shed - he was incredibly impressed with the craftsmanship, design, and space that was offered with Tiny Idahomes’ builds. He quickly had a change of heart, and later that day, agreed that we should absolutely go Tiny. I was absolutely thrilled that a dream I had held close to my heart for years was coming true; we were going to live in a Tiny Home!"