Don’t Downsize Until You See This Custom Tiny House

Hey guys, Christy here. I am excited today to tell you about how I gave myself a $3,000 a month raise. I have financial freedom and I'm having the best time tiny home living. Can't wait to show you all about it. Come with me. All right, well, welcome to the kitchen. You are actually in my favorite room in the tiny home. It's where I love to spend a lot of time. It's my therapy, it's my practicality. Living on my mom's property, one of the main reasons I wanted to be on her property is to make sure she was well fed and taken care of. The blessing has been just being so close to her, I literally on my lunch break when I'm working from home can make her a hot meal and take it in. I loved to cook before, but I didn't always have the time just trying to deal with work and commuting and all of that. One of the advantages of when you simplify your life, you have more time. Zen is great. I went with the Alpine model and basically I worked with a designer to figure out what the layout was gonna be. I had total ownership of that process. Some people had traditionally put the kitchen in the middle. I knew I wanted the kitchen to be on the end, I wanted the bathroom to be on the other end, and then I wanted the living space to be in the center. So really got to work with the designer to figure out what would work for me, and it works out really nice. The drawers over here, this is like one of my favorite things. They're deep drawers, so it's like pantry on rollers. Here is a great little cubby hole where I get to keep all my cooking oils, all that good stuff. Got more shelving space over here, which I love because they're very deep. They go all the way back, and so you can get a lot of stuff in here. So I put all the pretty stuff in front, and then the stuff that maybe is a little older and a little more chipped goes in the back. Originally, I was gonna do cabinets up here, like the upper cabinets above the hood, and the more I thought about it, I thought, you know, I really like this open space. We've got windows here, and I wanted to keep that open airy feel, but I knew I needed a little more space to put things on, so I went ahead and did the shelves instead. Those turned out really, really nice, and it allows the functionality of putting a few more dishes out, but at the same time, not stealing my space from me. So this has worked out really, really well. I would be a mess if I did not talk about my favorite sink here. Who knew one could be so attached to a sink? It's a deep sink, and one of my favorite things was when I was waiting for my washer-dryer unit to be hooked up, this served as an incredible place to do laundry, so it's very functional. I don't have a dishwasher. That was something I made the decision to do without. Needed a refrigerator, needed an oven, but this is also my dishwasher, so one of my favorite things is just looking outside while I'm doing the dishes. You got a great view here, so it's the best of both. Almost a little bit like glamping, where you have the practicalities that you need in a home, but you also feel like you're outside as well. When I knew I was gonna be going into tiny living, I knew that I was gonna have to get rid of some stuff. I'm happy to report that I was so excited to go tiny that I literally hired a truck, said, come take it all away, so I gave it all away. There were a few heirlooms that I transferred into my mom's home, and she acquired those, but everything else, I just smiled as the truck was driving away. I was ready for a fresh start. I was ready to go simple. It's amazing when you're dealing with that sort of choice. There's that freedom that comes with just getting rid of it. There's so many things we hold onto, maybe because we have the space to keep it in, but it's really not essential. It's really not being used. There were things I hadn't even touched in two years, so it's, I don't know, it's just been really nice to simplify, give it away, fresh start, simple living. It's the best. This is probably my next favorite room in the tiny home, and this is the area where I eat. It's the area where I work. It's the area where sometimes I read, I journal, and a lot of times, it's the area that I just look outside, love looking out to the back. I love watching the birds fly in the trees. I knew that living tiny, I had to think about space, so I did make the counter where it folds down if I need to. One of my favorite things about the tiny home is I went with the push-out window, so I wanted to kind of feel a little bit like I was living on a food truck. That's a joke, but seriously, I love the idea if I wanted to entertain. I could have people come right up to the window. I could just hand them the food, but more than that, it really brings me outside, so one of the reasons why I designed the home the way I did and lots of windows and with the double French doors is I wanted to really take advantage of the outdoor. It's beautiful back here, but this has been such a great space. Imagine doing nonstop Teams or Zoom calls all throughout the day, but doing them from here and looking outside. It's just been such a blessing because so often, we're glued to our computers. We're having a busy day at work, but just the simple pleasure of being able to do it while you're looking outside or hearing the birds sing, it has really added a lot of quality to everyday living. Wow, tiny, big jump, big jump, but tiny was definitely on the radar. I had been watching a lot of fun YouTube videos, kind of just listening to everybody's story. I was fascinated by how they used small spaces and got creative, and then one day, my sister was talking about, oh, we should try and do a tiny home on our property for her daughter, my niece, and my mom and I kind of laughed, and I'd been coming out to my mom's house. She's older, she's 83. We joked, and we said, well, maybe we should do a tiny home on the property, and it was just a joke, but then all of a sudden, it was like an epiphany, and I started doing a little research and seeing, you know, what is this tiny home thing all about? You know, what are the costs? What are the things to consider? And before you knew it, we went from laughing about it to being very serious about it, and that's when I started looking at different tiny home companies in the San Diego County area and discovered Bennett's and tiny homes, and the rest is kind of history, but that's how I got here. It definitely went from a dream to a bit of a challenge in the sense of, you have to live in a real world, you have to look into all the logistics. I would say overall, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't quite as complex of a process as I thought. You know, you definitely have to ask a lot of questions. One of the great things was in tiny homes is they actually, before you make the decision to do the actual purchase, they'll come out to the place you're thinking to put your tiny home, and they'll look over the county's zoning requirements and things of that nature and say, thumbs up or thumbs down, will it work? And fortunately, I got the thumbs up and then started working to lay the cement for the foundation. I was given my little checklist by Ben, and he told me these are the things you need to knock out first, and then we worked on getting the electrical box permitted with the county, and the rest kind of started falling into place after that. Those were probably the biggest lifts as far as just getting everything underway so that we could actually get it out here. The cost of the home was total, including the solar panels, about $108,000. I was very fortunate because I had a investment that I'd already paid taxes on, and so I was able to liquidate that, and I'm very blessed to say that I was able to pay cash for the home. So the financial freedom of this place is amazing. I went from paying a little under three grand for a rental condo, a nice area, a beautiful area in Rancho Bernardo. However, I gave myself a $3,000 raise because now I have no rent, no mortgage, so it's been incredible, and it gives me options to have a little more discretionary and to be able to share more freely and just live simple, but live big at the same time, so it's been great. I am a big proponent of tiny home living. There's so many reasons to consider it. The whole reason why I wanted to share about my tiny home is I'm hoping to inspire others because I was that person that thought, oh, it's fun to watch a YouTube video on it. It's amazing to hear people's stories, but it was the last thing on my mind, and now that I have done it and I am a tiny home owner, I am wanting to shout to the world, please at least take a time out and consider it because it will bring you so much joy. Just to scale it back, I know I've talked to people who have actually downsized and sold their homes and have gone tiny, so it's not just for the people that think they can never afford a home. There is just something about when you scale it back a little bit, you get to thrive. You get to get back to experience what it should be all about and not just working for a mortgage. So I couldn't encourage people more. If you're not ready to take that jump or that leap, at least take a few minutes to consider it. Big proponent of it. Welcome to the living area of the tiny home. This is a place where I spend a lot of my time. The chair actually makes out into a bed, so if I ever get lazy and don't wanna go up the ladder, I have options. The basket with the pillow, while it's nice in decor, it also serves a purpose. It's my laundry basket. We just keep the clothes hidden under the pillow. So when I was thinking about the living space and what had to be in it, definitely what did not have to be in it is a TV. I'm anti-TV. I'm not judging people who enjoy their occasional TV use. So I much prefer journaling, getting out, going for a walk. That simplified, not having to figure out what TV to go with. What I did need that was non-negotiable is I needed two double French doors, and there's a story with these doors. I actually had the doors delivered on site where they were building it, and there was a little accident. I'm not blaming anybody, but the doors got a little damaged. So I got a call from the builders, and they're like, here's the deal. The doors, we can get them. We can take care of it, no problem, but they're on back order. So it's gonna delay the delivery of the home by another two months. Why don't we give you the slider doors, and we'll give you money back? And I said, no, no, no, no. We're gonna delay the delivery for two months because I want those two double French doors. So the non-negotiable was for me was the doors. So that's a very important part. Everything else, it worked out. It's great. It's open. It's airy. I have extra space if I need to bring in another chair because I'm entertaining in the tiny home. I can, but for living every day, we kept it simple, and it gives me extra room, but still have a place to land if I wanna read a book. So it's been great. That leads me to my ladder. It's so funny because when I was thinking about tiny home living and knew I would be sleeping in a loft, I was like, definitely wanna get the chair as a backup plan because we may be staying in this chair every single night and not looking at climbing up the ladder, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is one of my greatest joys. Every night when I go to climb up the ladder, and praise God that I'm able to still climb up the ladder, it's so fun because when I was a little kid, we would go camping and I would always sleep up above, and it kind of brings back those childhood memories of just feeling cozy and getting up there. The bed's super comfy and just love it because then I have my own space. My dog's down here, but I have the privacy of the loft. So this has actually been a really fun, meaningful room for me. As far as storage, I have a closet that I had built out in the bathroom. There's a water heater in there, but there's also a coat hanger. So I have room for coats. We do have a closet inside, but on the outside is where I had an additional closet built. So we made it work. Maybe if I would have had a little bit more foreknowledge of how important space is in a tiny home, I would have spent a little more time on the closet design, but hey, we've made it work. It's been great. So if that's the worst of my experience in tiny home living, I'll take it. So welcome to the bathroom, a very important room of the house. I wanted to make sure I had the feel of a regular size bathroom. We spend, unfortunately, we spend a lot of our time in the bathroom. So you didn't wanna just feel like you're cramped up. I was gonna do a little bit larger of a shower, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the laundry in here. And so we went with a smaller shower. It meets the need. You can see it's pretty simple, pretty basic, but helps get me clean every day. And then on the washer dryer, originally I just put in an order. I said, hey guys, make sure I have a washer dryer. That's my one request. I kept waiting for the dryer to arrive and I pleasantly was surprised to find out washer dryer combos exist. So it takes up less space. It's been great. And it leaves me a little room up here for extra storage. On the bathroom, there were some considerations. I wanted to make sure that I had a toilet flush, number one. I know there's a few options out there for tiny homes, including, I forget the exact term, but it basically does combustion once you have used the toilet. That intimidated me. I didn't wanna blow up while I was on the toilet. So I went with a traditional plumbing and I looked into tying into my mom's sewer, but her main line is on the other side of the property. And I thought, you know, I really don't wanna start doing that. What if we have issues? It could get messy, literally. And so I went with a subsurface tank. I have about a 300 gallon tank and it's underneath the tiny home. I tried to put some pots and plants around it. So it's a more visually appealing and you're not staring at a septic tank, but I get it pumped probably like every three to four weeks. It's worked out great, actually. You know, some people tease me and call it a glorified porta potty, but hey, I have a regular toilet. It works just like your toilet. And yet it's super functional and that way it allows that mobility in case I ever wanted to move the tiny home to another space later down the road. I can just take that subservice with me and it gives me freedom, but also functionality. So it's been great. A lot of the design, after I gave my initial input, I kept using phrases like, just go and pick it and surprise me. And the vanity was one of those where I said, go pick it and surprise me. And I was pleasantly surprised. They did a really good job. They bought a vanity that actually gives a lot of space. You can see I've got all sorts of goodies tucked away in here. It goes pretty deep. And then I've got shelving on the bottom as well. I've got some things tucked away there. So I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out that it's small. It doesn't take up a lot of space, but at the same time I can put a lot of my goodies in there. So it's been great. So one word that I would use to describe tiny home living, it would be sweet. Because I've entered a new time in my life where it's sweet to be near my mom who's aging, but still got lots of life in her, to enjoy this season with her, to sit out in the gazebo in the evening. It's sweet to be out in a quiet place. Just a really sweet time in my life, not to have the financial burdens that come along with either rent or mortgage. It's just a simple time. And definitely one word, it would be sweet. I just wanna give you some takeaway thoughts for consideration. First of all, don't just watch this video and think, that's nice for her, but not for me. Give it a consideration. I'm telling you, I've told you throughout my story, how much it's added to my life, how much it's given me extra time to really spend on what matters. The one thing I do suggest though, is if you decide and you have that epiphany, yes, tiny home living is for me. When you start looking into it, make sure you ask a lot of questions. Make sure you do your research on the zoning laws, the permitting process. Make sure you ask the right questions, even in the design. Make sure you don't hesitate to ask questions, share your feedback and really own the process. Because at the end of the day, when you get into that tiny home, those things are really gonna matter. So I really appreciate you guys letting me to share a little bit about my life, my story and my tiny home. And I hope I see you out in tiny home land.