When the City Broke Her Heart She Built a Better Life in a Tiny Home Living Big In A Tiny House

So many of us have learned to be comfortable with discomfort, but making a change that we need in our lives can sometimes take a really big catalyst. And today we're about to meet an incredible woman who, after a pretty big health scare, made a huge shift, leaving her hectic life in the city behind for a quiet country life in a beautiful tiny home. Hi Nancy, it's wonderful to meet you. Yeah, likewise. Really happy you're here. What an absolutely enchanting place you've got here. This view, it's like looking out onto the shire or something, isn't it? I know, it boggles my brain that I have got the privilege of living here. I love it, love it. And how was it that you came to be here? Well, I was actually looking for somewhere to park the tiny north of Sydney, and I sort of reached out to that website, Park My Tiny, spoke with a few people, and as it turns out, a really good friend of mine owns this property, and she just said, why don't you just park it down on the farm? And I thought, oh, it's not an area I was familiar with, but in the end I did, I parked here, and I'm eternally grateful because it's the best. I couldn't have asked for a better place to park. Yeah, this really is a very special place, and what a great friend. I know, I love her. And especially, I think one of my favourite things about your outlook is looking out onto cows grazing. For me, there is nothing more relaxing than looking at a cow. I tell you what, that is one of my favourite pastimes now. I could literally just stand here and stare at the cows because it's like watching episodes of Days of Our Lives. You get to see all their little interactions, their relationships. You know, like Big Will is going out with little Maggie, and then whose baby belongs to who, I love it. I mean, they're not my cows, but they're the best neighbours ever. They're such peaceful animals, so when you just zone in on them, you actually feel a lot calmer too. It's like therapy. None of them have ever even had to have a conversation with an accountant. No, it's just free. And tell me about your journey into the tiny house. How did you come to be in the tiny home? Oh boy. Okay, so just prior to COVID, so prior to 2020, I was just going through a series of moments where I thought I needed to change something in my life, and it was the end of a relationship. I had to find a rental property with two dogs in Sydney that's affordable for just one person. Work was stressful. I also had a heart attack right through lockdown, but by this stage, I'd already reached out to looking at tiny houses because I was actually looking for granny flats at first to rent. And then when you're doing a search on tiny homes, led me to your station. Oh wow. I was reading lots of different stories of how people made that change and that move, and that's what started the ball rolling. So it was in 2023 that tiny Tina Turner, because she's simply the best, came to be built. Yeah. Wow, what a journey. Yeah. And I'm so sorry to hear about the heart attack as well. Have you fully recovered from that now? Yes. It was pretty scary. And then when you do have such a life or a health life-changing situation, the little stuff kind of doesn't matter. The funny thing is, I didn't really have the budget at the time. I didn't know where I was going to park, but I just knew that this is the road I had to go on. If I was just to have some sort of peace in my life, yeah. And now you're in the tiny house. How's that life shift been for you? I get really emotional because it changes you. Oh sorry, I didn't want to cry. You're all right. But it's, I don't know, I thought I was living, like we are conditioned to believe we should live. I had a decent job, friends, and living life, and doing all the things that people do. But when living here, it is a change of mindset. You realize you don't need as much stuff. I learned how to detach because when I was living in Sydney, I had moved 16 times. You've got to detach from stuff and it's quite liberating. You can still own things. You sort of make do with what you have. If I need to move again, essentially this is like my suitcase. It comes with me. I think it just made me find peace within myself and it just made everything simpler. It changed me on so many different levels. I can't even find the words to be honest, but all for the positive, yeah. I feel like in our society, we have normalized so many abnormal things that it's not until you can create some distance between yourself and a situation that you really actually can take stock of your life and realize just what that base level of stress and pressure that you were existing in was doing to you physically and emotionally. I can see that being here, it sounds like you've just completely changed your life. Totally. How can I worry when I can see kangaroos bouncing around, the wombats, the kookaburras, the cows, no words. Yeah, massive life shift. And your home is absolutely beautiful. This is gorgeous. First of all, what size is it? Eight meters long, 2.4 wide and 4.3 high. Great. And tell me about the design. Yeah, I wanted to have a lighter color to reflect heat and I just like that it had a cedar trim around the entry door and I did want the black trim because I saw a model on your channel that had the black trim. And you are off the grid in this home as well. Yeah, I decided to get a solar panel trailer. I wanted to sort of park under dappled shade but have the solar trailer in full sun. It's got two batteries and a generator so if the batteries run down, the generator charges them back up. But I haven't needed to do that yet. So yeah, it's great. Absolutely. And when you moved into this tiny house, you weren't just sort of downsizing your home. You were also making a really big shift from living in the heart of Sydney to now living in the country. What was that transition like for you? Yeah, I thought it might be a bit challenging but I think I needed to just cut the cord. I used to live 12 kilometers away from work but I'd be driving through 32 sets of traffic lights and it would take me almost 50 minutes. Here, I'm driving the same distance and it's 17 minutes and one set of traffic lights. I love it. I don't ever want to go back to that sort of hectic city life. I was born in a little village in Croatia and we lived very simply. We were pulling water from a well and a big family living in this tiny space. So I think that simple life must be somewhere in my genetics because the transition wasn't as challenging as I thought. Yeah. And making this shift, it's also allowed you to cut down on your working hours. Yeah, there's less overheads. So I thought, why am I going to be working five, six, seven days a week? There's no need. It makes me really feel like time is currency. When you've got time, that changes everything. Well said. Well, I think your tiny home is absolutely spectacular. Already, I am obsessed with your cow soap opera out there, but I cannot wait to see inside your home. Can we have a look? Of course you can. Come on in. All right. Thank you. I absolutely love your style in here. Plants, books, and crystals. The grand trinity of design. That's it. It's like a trilogy. I remember when the designing was in place, I specifically wanted room for those three items. Everything else was like secondary, but I did want to have enough space for my plants. That was very important. Yeah. And wonderful colours in here as well. You've got the white really brightening up the space, this lovely greeny blue colour, and then all the timber just warms it all up so much. Yeah. I knew I wanted a darker type of timber. The colour, it's difficult because I wanted something that's relaxing and calming to look at, but that I'm not going to get sick of. And even with the bench tops, I wanted it to sort of all blend in. But I love this because even though it's Lamin-x, it's made up of a percentage of recycled paper. Really? Yeah. Which is really unusual, but I love it. Yeah, that's very cool. I like that. And the views from here are just exceptional as well. All of these windows are perfectly placed to just flood your home with this vista. Yeah, I love it. I usually sit there to eat of a morning. I have my coffee and it's fantastic. And the windows in my bedroom, I place them there specifically so when I open my eyes in the morning, I can see straight out into the cows and see what they're up to. Check in on the TV show. Of course. Absolutely. And I love that coming into the house, we're immediately in your kitchen as well. Such a practical design when you come home with shopping and things like this. But it also really becomes the central heart of your home as well, doesn't it? Yeah, it is. I sort of played around with having kitchen on one end, but I knew I wanted a bedroom on the ground floor. Yeah. With my aging dog, I didn't see it boding well for me to carry him up a ladder to a loft area. So I knew I wanted the bedroom on the floor and the bathroom. So there was only one place to put the kitchen really and that's in between the both of them. Yeah. So yeah, that's how that came about. Fair enough. And your dog is absolutely adorable. Doesn't he have the most wonderful spot down there? That's his spot. That ladder was designed to be able to be pushed in, but I thought, no, that's his little man cave. So he's really comfortable there. And when I keep the ladder out, it actually lets me use it as a little shelf. Great. So the loft is actually more of a storage facility. I designed it for me and people say, oh, is that your second bedroom? I thought, no, I don't want people staying here. That's for, you know, change of season clothes, hairdresser by trades. I've got tools of the trade up there and that's my main lot of storage. So I didn't need to go overboard with storage in the main area. Yeah. So everything gets popped up there if I'm not using it daily. I think it's important in any home to have a sort of a miscellaneous space to tuck things away like that. Yeah, because not everything fits into a little drawer or a little cupboard. Yeah. And also I've got this thing about storage too, because the more storage you have, the more you accumulate to put in it. And that's one thing I was trying not to do is just keep things minimal, keep the things I need. And if it doesn't fit anywhere, then it leaves. Yeah. In botany, there's that saying that nature abhors a vacuum. And I think it's the same for human nature as well. If we have a vacuum, we'll fill it with something. It's hard to go against that. Yeah. And the kitchen design, tell me about this. Yeah. I, again, was on a really tight budget when I was getting this built. So I couldn't afford at the time to get a stove top. And I was using a little portable induction stove and I've continued to use it. I love cooking and I cook a lot, but I can do so much just on a little portable stove top, which I love. And I did have this space allowed for a dishwasher, but again, I don't need it. So it's just got my basket with the dog food and things in there. But I don't know, maybe one day I'll have a dishwasher, but up until now, I haven't needed it. Yeah. So it's interesting once you live in it and you do realise, yeah, what you actually don't need to use. Yeah. And if at any time in the future, you do want to add those things, it would be very simple to do. Yeah. But you do actually have quite a bit of storage in your home as well, don't you? Yeah, I think so. It's enough for me. The steps have storage in them, drawers for my clothes. There's two cupboards on either side of my bed, which store my clothes as well. With that storage loft, yeah, I think I've got plenty. What's this that you've got above the door here? That's a little clothes hanger dryer. The sides open up and the rack pulls out, so it's really good when it's raining. I can hang my bits and pieces up there and if I've got the heating on, it dries it quicker. And beautiful light fittings up there as well. Yeah, I found them on Facebook Marketplace and they also remind me of the bottles that they use in Croatia when they're making their wine and ferments and stuff like that. I really like them. They blend in nicely, I think. Yeah. Gotta love those Marketplace finds. I know, right? I really like that you've chosen in your home to have the downstairs bedroom as well. I think that's such a practical design. Yeah, I wanted to be able to be upright before I plump onto my bed and also having Geoffrey, my dog, it's just easier for me to get up and down during the night because he's elderly and he needs the bathroom at night, so as he does his mother. So it's just easier. Easy access. Yeah, I love it. I'm glad I did it that way. Yeah. How old is Geoff? He's 14. No way. Oh, cute. He's 14. I love him. So yeah, my priority is just looking after him, making sure, you know, I still have to carry him up to the lounge loft. That's one of his favorite spaces. Yes, I wanted to have the bedroom downstairs, but it also allowed me enough space in the lounge that I could walk up to the lounge and stand up and then just sit on my lounge. And it's a great view from upstairs because then I can look out and see the cows, of course. Yeah, forget about the television up there. No, no, no. It's really hard. I'm looking at the TV and then I'll find myself like gazing outside and then watching the shenanigans. And I really love that lounge design. That is very nice. Wait till you see the couch. I made a mistake in the measurement and the lounge comes over the recess by about 20 centimeters. So I had to get a builder to make a long leg to balance out the couch. Yeah, it's funny. I've got a long leg on one side of the lounge and a short leg on the other. Really nice position for the skylight up there too. Yeah, that was my bit of a splurge. Yes, I didn't want the dishwasher. I didn't want a stove top, but I wanted the skylight. This sounds a little bit weird, but I am actually quite claustrophobic. And everybody was like, you're going to live in a tiny house. What's wrong with you? But living in a space like this, if it was just an apartment, I'd probably have an anxiety attack for sure. But because I've got that expansive outdoor area, plus the skylight, just absolutely no claustrophobic feelings. I love it. That's so true. And this home, everywhere your eyes move, you're pulled somewhere into the distance, aren't you? That was the plan. So wherever I'm standing, whether it's in the storage loft, when I'm sitting upstairs in the lounge, I get a view to the left, to the right, above the kitchen, over in the spare loft. That's what I really like about it. And the bathroom is behind me. Can we have a look in there? Yeah, sure. Let's go. All right. Oh, this is a lovely design. I especially like what you've done with the washing machine in here. The way that that's been raised up is very clever. Yeah, I purposely wanted it lifted off the floor. It's just easier to access, like getting clothes in and out. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. And great size shower in here too. Yeah, I thought of my bathroom as probably a space that I wasn't in the most. So I didn't want it to be pokey, but I just wanted there to be enough size. I didn't want to overdo the shower. There's enough space for me to kind of have a bit of a dance in if I want to. And I didn't want it to look too bathroom-y. So I still had some nice pictures and a plant that my mother grew like 30 years ago. Oh, wow. I made this little towel rack. I just thought it's a nice little decorative look as well. Yeah, I'm really pleased with it. Yeah, I like that towel rack a lot, actually. It looks really good. And it adds a lot of color to the room as well. Yeah, so towels can be decorative. You just get all the different shades of blues and greens and things. Yeah. Nicely done. Nice vanity here as well. Yeah, decent size. Although that wasn't the original sink I wanted. I wanted something a little bit longer and flatter, but I don't know what happened. I ended up with this round. So maybe in the future, I might look into a different sink. There's nothing missing. I have everything.