Downsizing to Happiness A Single Woman s Tiny Home

If I can do this as a single woman in two months' time, anybody can do it. My old house needed a new roof, new HVAC, tons of maintenance. I decided to move to Maggie Valley, North Carolina and buy a tiny home. Welcome to the inside of my tiny home that I call the lily pad. So right inside the French doors, you walk in, we've got the den, we've got my fireplace, my sitting area, kitchen, and beyond that, the bathroom, and up the stairs is my loft where I sleep at night. My tiny home is 24 feet long, 280 square feet, built by Daniel Kilmer with Sherwood Innovations. My style is, I guess I would say, eclectic. I like the farmhouse. I have a lot of Asian-inspired Buddhists. There's a lot of Buddhists around here. I do love my lighting. I have a lot of lighting in here. I sit here and literally just stare at my home sometimes because I love it so much. I love all the little things I've added to it. I get my inspiration off Facebook, and also my son, he has a great eye for decorating, so I've gotten a lot of inspiration from that. It's been easier on me to create these spaces in a smaller space. You just create little corners of ambiance, and I'll take pictures of it to make sure it doesn't look cluttered, and I'll ask other people, you know, do you think it looks cluttered? Does it look nice? But I think it looks good. I think it blends. I think I did a good job. Living in a smaller space is definitely, I wouldn't say a challenge. It's very cozy. Also, cleaning it is a lot easier. You clean it in 30 minutes to an hour, and your tiny home's clean. You don't have to worry about a lot of maintenance, and I love that. Originally, the tiny home came with a futon, which was not very comfortable to me, so I purchased a smaller couch, which ended up not being a very good lounging couch, so I do have a larger couch here to lounge on, and it's comfortable, and I can sleep here when I have guests, and I give them my bed. This is where I love to relax, so I turn on my music. I love the fireplace in the winter, of course. It creates a lot of ambiance. I do sit here and typically eat my dinner instead of the booth. I kind of use that for showing off some of the things that I love, and I have a table outside that I eat at when it's nice out. One thing that I would never get rid of that's one of my favorite items is this Degas ballerina that was given to me by my ex-husband. She's gone everywhere with me, and probably my favorite thing, along with my children's portraits and little things that my kids have made. Those were the most important things to me, and I've just kind of added things as I came to create the space that I wanted. Overall, I just love my living space here where I relax on the couch and enjoy my fire when the weather gets cooler, and coming back, you'll see the kitchen. Moving into a tiny space is definitely an adjustment. You learn there are many things you don't need. All the pots and pans and the casserole dishes and the pitchers and the utensils, you learn to live with the minimum, and it's fine, it works. This is storage under the sink. I had just this space for the cupboard, so I made room on the other side of the kitchen. I hung my pots up here, which it works. I did have a dishwasher in my home, and I don't miss having a dishwasher. I have a deep sink where I don't mind washing the dishes. You can get a tiny home with the dishwasher drawers. Some people have those, but a dishwasher would take up space, and it's just one person. I don't have a lot of dirty dishes, so it's easy, it's easy to maintain. I do like having a gas stove, but the full-size stove I probably didn't need, but that's something I've realized as I've moved in. Could have just used maybe two burners and used a smaller stove. I do have an air fryer that I use, a smaller one. That's for a tiny home. That would be one thing I would change. I would have a smaller stove. Over on the other side of the kitchen is my coffee nook that I love with my Keurig and my Nespresso, and I've got my tiny canisters for my tiny home. This is the perfect little spot for me in the morning. This is my favorite place. I have a mid-size fridge, which is, I eventually would love to get one of the vintage refrigerators to put here, but this is perfect size, perfect space in the freezer and the refrigerator. When you're in the tiny kitchen, everything's within reach, so it makes cooking a joy and very easy to do. Yeah, everything's within reach. So here's my closet. I have hanging clothes. I have a shelf here to separate, and I've got baskets that I keep my shoes in. I don't have a whole lot of space for clothing storage, but I don't need it, so this is perfect. I lived in Matthews, North Carolina, in a 1,500-square-foot home. It was getting to where we needed a new roof and a new HVAC, and I did not have the resources for that and started thinking about alternatives. So I started looking on Facebook Marketplace and other avenues for a tiny home, and I found this on Facebook Marketplace. Made the decision and sold my home and moved here in December of 2023. I was a NICU nurse for 30 years. I retired from nursing in 2020 after experiencing a lot of compassion fatigue and just stress from the job. I realized I wanted to live a more simple life with less responsibilities. I wanted to enjoy my life. I'm only three hours from my family, so I get to see them on a regular basis. I live here with my cats, and I'm just as happy as can be. Finding somewhere to put your tiny home is something you have to think about. First of all, there are only so many counties in North Carolina that will allow tiny homes. Of course, that's where I started with the help of my real estate agent, Bridget. Shout out to Bridget. I looked in a community in Burnsville. It was gonna have several homes on it, but not really any amenities, and then I looked at a Coney Bell and Mills River. Almost bought two different homes there. It didn't pan out. So I found Elk Passage on the internet and called Ken and Lisa. Met them that following Saturday. Drove up here, had two lots to pick from, and this was the lot I wanted, and they said, great, send in your application. That was in November, and December 19th, my tiny house was on the way up the hill. So the price of the tiny home was $72,000. I made enough off the sale of my home to buy this outright, so I own it, and I had extra money to get out of debt and to get the things for the tiny home that I needed. I loved it as is. Daniel had built it, it was finished, and I was ready to go. So my expenses here are very low. I pay $600 to live on this beautiful hill here in Elk Passage. That includes water, it includes Wi-Fi, it includes the laundry facilities and the community center, so I didn't have to get a washer and dryer, and I get to have my yard maintenance done by Ken and Lisa and their son Alex, which is wonderful. I just have to pay for my propane tank, and then I also pay for my electricity, which is anywhere from $60 to $100 a month. Welcome to my bathroom. So I've got a nice, beautiful shower in here. I love the copper pipe here. I have shelving I've put up here, and I put up the dispensers for my shampoo and my body wash. I've got plenty of room. I do miss having a full-size tub. I had a garden tub in my home that I used to love to soak in. So I did have a concern with the bathtub being as high as it was here, so I had someone put up a bar for me to help me get in and out of the shower, and I'll definitely need that when I age and have a little more difficulty getting in and out, but that helps a lot. Got a beautiful mirror here. I've got enough space under my sink here to store everything I need, and then I've got some shelves here that I store my other bathroom items in, and I've got lots of jewelry. I do love my jewelry, and it's plenty of space. Over on this side of the bathroom, we have the toilet. I also have an exhaust fan, and I have a window back here, but of course, I need my cat tapestry for privacy. And next, we're gonna head up to the loft. A lot of tiny homes have the ladders, which I knew I was not going to grow well with that as I grew older. So I liked having the sturdy stairs here that Daniel built. I don't have any problems getting up and down. I'm very careful when I come down holding on, and it's perfect for me. So welcome to my sleeping space. I have a full-size bed. I have windows right here on the other side. They both open out and down. I love to have my windows open in the winter. I love to have the cool air up here. I like the lights that Daniel put up here, and then I just added some other lights that I hung. And I've got some storage space over here to my right, and a shelf here that overlooks the living room. The ceiling is low. I would have preferred a higher ceiling. I do have to kind of crawl in and out of bed, but I think as I get older, I may just sleep downstairs. I don't know what will happen, but right now it's a very cozy space to sleep in. What I love about living in a tiny home is that every space is utilized, as you can see. I had several rooms in my former home that wasn't utilized. So that's what I love about living here. So what I love about living in Elk Passage is that Ken and Lisa have provided all of the spaces with a deck, and I love my outdoor deck space. I have chairs and a couch, and I've got my propane fire pit as well. So right outside my French doors, I have a little porch, and I've had stairs built when I first moved here. And I also have my outdoor dining space that I really love when I have my friends here over to visit with me. Over here on the opposite side of the patio, I built a catio. Well, I ordered a catio. Someone else assembled it for me for my two felines. I've got one in here now. This is Dusty. I tried to make their space as outdoorsy as possible. I love that I have this for my cats. I love all my outdoor spaces that I love to come and relax, drink some wine, say hello to my neighbors, and listen to the birds, and live a simple and relaxed life here in the mountains of Maggie Valley. So of course there's been a learning curve from going to living in a home to a tiny home, but I 100% recommend it if you're thinking about it. If I can do this as a single woman in two months' time, anybody can do it. It's so much fun to put together your tiny home and to create the environment that you want and the ambiance that you want in your home. I highly recommend it. It is low maintenance and just wonderful to live in nature. Thanks for coming to see my tiny home, the Lilypad in Maggie Valley. If you have any comments or questions, post them below.