She Built a Tiny Home for Less Than One Year of Rent

Hey, my name is Bree. Two years ago, I wanted to make a change in my life. A crazy opportunity to live off grid with my friends came up, so I took them up on their offer and me and my buddy built this cabin. The dimensions of my tiny home are 16 by nine, so it's 144 square feet. But it feels very spacious with the high ceilings. And there are different little sections that make it feel spacious and very livable and comfy. When I built this cabin, I had three things in mind. I wanted to be able to bake. I wanted to be able to work out. And I also just wanted a place where I could zen out. And I feel like I accomplished those three things. This is my beautiful kitchen. I love the stove because it was propane ready and we're off grid here. So that was super convenient. I also used to work in a bakery. I didn't want to miss out on that because it's an important aspect. I like to give people cookies. I like to bake cookies for myself when I have a huge sweet tooth. So that's important. It also is very thin. It needed to fit into this space because I didn't want the stove underneath any windows. So it had to be 20 inches. And this fit perfectly. Another thing that I love about this kitchen is this under mount sink. And my buddy built this for me. And it took such a long time. And I'm so happy we did it because now whenever I have scraps, I get to scrape them in. Nothing gets stuck underneath there. And it's super convenient. And here at Little Village, we don't have running water or we're not hooked up to the grid. We don't use solar on top of anything to connect to any battery. So I use a Jackery to power all my lights. I also use rechargeable batteries for the sconces in here. And then for the water situation, we have a hand pump well. And then I store water under here and I can press this and have running water, which is super convenient because I don't want to dump water myself. I like having running water to do dishes. It makes everything super easy. When I came to this kitchen, the one thing I had in mind is like how quickly I can put it together. I didn't want to build my own cabinet, so I got them preassembled, which is super handy because all I need to do is screw them into the wall and make sure that they were level. I also went with butcher block countertops just because they were easier to cut myself. I can make them whatever length I wanted. And I knew I wanted the kitchen to be this big just so I could have room for a nice little couch. And it still felt really spacious. Butcher block was also a very cheap option, which I love. And it looks really beautiful. And I wanted I love wood and I love being surrounded by wood. So I feel like butcher block went with the aesthetic. And then over here I have my open shelving, which is super cool because it's easy access. And whenever I have friends over, I can just pop up a bowl, fill it with some soup and then host. And it's really cozy in here. And then when it comes to food storage, I'm pretty lucky because I'm vegan. So I don't really have to worry about storing cheese or meats. And I have a lot of canned goods, which is pretty good for me. But if I wanted to get a fridge, which may be in my future, there are propane fridges, which is really cool. I've never used one, but seemed pretty handy. But for me, I keep it really simple. And I'm glad I don't have to use a fridge in this scenario just because it would take up space in this tiny home that I have. So we are in Maine and the winters are long. They are long and they are cold. So this is my best friend and I love it so much. It's very efficient. And we chop all of our own wood here. And I really love that. I love the saying wood keeps you warm more than once. Like when you're cutting, it keeps you warm. When you're stacking, it keeps you warm. When you're moving it to where it needs to be, it keeps keeping you warm. And then when I'm cozy in my cabin, it's also keeping me warm. I didn't like winter until I started living off grid. Like it's just so cozy and it feels like a snow globe. And it's just fun. And I love it so much. So this is my living room, and I love it because I have space for this couch. This couch also has storage. This pulls up. And then if I ever have guests, this also pulls out to a bed, which I love. And I wanted this couch to be this way just so I could see the stove during the wintertime. I can have a nice little book and look at the stove and I can just have a nice cozy vibe, which I like. Obviously, my living room isn't the biggest, and I feel like a lot of times people think that I may be like lacking in things, living off grid and living in a tiny home. But even though it's scaled down, I really do have everything I need. I have access to Wi-Fi and I can still watch movies on my computer if I want to. Maybe I could even get a projector and watch movies that way. But I really feel like I have everything I need. There's never been a time where I've been living off grid in this tiny home where I felt like I'm lacking something. I just feel like I'm really all set and it feels so good and cozy and wonderful. So two years ago, I got a nine to five and I thought I had landed. I thought I was good. I thought everything was set. And then I quickly realized this, my life was just not feeling like me. And in order to change that, I was presented a crazy opportunity. My friend offered me to live on their land off grid. And at first I was a little hesitant for like a day. And I was just like, this cannot be passed up. Like, I have to give this a shot. And I feel like once I moved out here, the whole trajectory of my life changed. I feel like this has truly made my life feel more like me. I feel very engaged with my surroundings. I feel like I love living simpler. And it's been so much fun. Before I had this, I was living in a camper. So while I was living in that camper, I saved up as much as I could. And then once I felt ready and once Alex had the time, we finally just went for it full send and started building this cabin. So to build this cabin, the deck is what took us over 10K. So altogether, it cost ten thousand seven hundred dollars to build this, which is pretty good considering I won't have to make any rent payments. That's less than a whole year's worth of rent, which is super wonderful. And I'm so grateful. All the land that I live on has been with Alex for a bit. So in order to contribute financially, I help pay the property taxes, which has been really wonderful. I'm glad I can contribute in that way, just because living this way has really changed my life. And I'm so happy I can give that to them to help out. My name is Alex. My grandfather had this land and he passed it down to my father who passed it down to me, got 40 acres of land here. And so I decided as everybody was in lockdown, I'd spend some time developing this land. And I found out pretty early on that there's no building code for any building under 150 square feet. I wanted to build buildings. So I made them all, you know, 148.5 square feet. I have a great relationship with the town assessor. I made sure that that was something I did right at the beginning. Go talk to them, figure out what you can and can't do. They said the state has a lot of issues with water management and so on. And so once there's a pipe that goes out of that building, that's what kicks in all of the legal framework. That's no problem. No pipes come in and out of that building. Everybody's getting squeezed. You know, you're desperately trying to hang on to your $2,000 apartment, you know, all of your expensive bills and everything like that. You don't need any of that. You can it takes about a week to adjust to a new life and then all the stress goes away. And it's just a happy, wonderful moment. And you're free. And that is much better than whatever bill you were going to pay. The perks to living this way is that I can save a lot more money each month. And I really cut down on so much. And my monthly bills, I think, come out to three to four hundred a month. And it's so nice because I don't feel trapped at my job anymore. Like, I feel like there's like a tunnel at the end of the road. If I ever want to go out, I know I'll have everything I need and I won't have to worry. I really cannot wait until I can, you know, like tip the scale a little more in my favor just so that I can work less, because I love being in the day and just experiencing life and not being behind a screen for 40 hours a week. So that's a plus to living this way for sure. We wanted the loft just because I wanted to be able to host people, which is really important to me. So now I can have me sleep down there and when I have a guest, I can have the lovely loft and it feels really cozy up there. It's a full sized bed, so enough space for two people. And I also wanted it to be a full sized bed because I wanted to maintain the height of the ceiling. I didn't want this to feel like too intrusive when you walked in, which I felt was like very important for me. It's really nice going up there at the end of the day and being able to climb up that ladder and just being able to relax and have the view of everything in the wood stove is really nice. So it's very cozy. I've definitely got the question of, aren't you afraid of rolling off? And I've never rolled off my bed in my life. So I hope it doesn't happen here, but I don't think it will. So I think we're all good. But another good thing about this loft are these steps, which is very important because I need my cats with me when I'm sleeping. So I can just go boop, boop, boop, boop. And then they can sleep with me in the loft, which I really like. So obviously, there's not too much space in here with 140 square feet. But I kind of like it because I only have exactly what I need when it comes to clothing. Like I wear the same variation of an outfit here and there. And I feel like it also keeps me focused on the right things. Like I'm not constantly trying to like buy things that I don't necessarily need or I won't wear that often. So I really have all the clothes that like are very necessary. And I think I'm grateful for that just because I feel like it keeps my head like focused on the right things. So that's a plus for me for living off grid. So one question I get asked a lot is, what do we do for our bathroom set up at Little Village? And we're in nature, so we can do that anywhere we want. We also have a composting toilet and we use pine shavings to cover all of our business when it's time for that. For showers, some of us shower outside. I personally like nice long showers. So I have a Planet Fitness membership and I go to the gym and I can also work out while I'm there. So it's kind of a win win situation for me. There have definitely been times in the middle of the night where I have to get up to go to the bathroom and I have to go outside. And I'm just like, this is so ridiculous. It's so cold. But there is one time where I had to do that in the middle of the night and I saw a shooting star and I was like, wow, this is exactly why I live this way. So it's all worth it. Now that this project is all done, I have a couple of more things I'd like to do, like I'd like to have a mirror. I'd like to add a little more storage and add like a little more artwork and a little bit more of me into it. But it's just so rewarding to know that I built this with one of my friends and that it's going to save me so much money in rent. It's going to give me a lifestyle that keeps me active and keeps me living simply and keeps me engaged with nature. And I'm super proud of the work that we did and how consistent we were with showing up and just how we, even though there are mess ups along the way, we kept sticking it out and we had such a good time together. So I'm really happy with how it turned out. I would say to trust yourself and be confident in yourself and know that even if you do make mistakes, like you just like figure out one problem at a time and that most of the problems in hindsight are very funny. Like everything makes a funny story after the fact. I would also say, don't be afraid to ask for help. Like I, this lifestyle has made me like ask for help as much as I need. And I really love that because it brings you closer to people and you have like funny bonding experiences with people. And yeah, just ask for help. Keep it light, be confident and trust your gut. Those are my guidelines. So thanks for hanging out with me at Little Village. I love sharing this lifestyle. I love sharing what my friend created and allowed me to shift my lifestyle. I make TikToks about it all the time because I'm so passionate about this lifestyle. So if you want to check me out, you can go on TikTok and search for OG Brie and you'll find me there. But thanks for sticking around and see ya!