Her Tiny Home on Social Security: No Loft, No Stairs, No Mortgage

In 2023, I had serious open heart surgery that did not go as planned. With some critical issues coming out of that, I decided that I was gonna go forward with some plans I'd already been researching as far as tiny living. I knew that I wanted to come home to my area of friends, my church, my family, my safe place. And so I wanted a home that fit me for that time. And tiny living was it. I'm so glad I chose to go tiny. It's affordable, it's safe, it's comfortable. It's just what I need at this time in my life. When I seen this one, I knew it was it. It was my house. I did some personalization to it, got to pick all my stuff and change things like I wanted them. And it's been the perfect answer for me in this time in my life, in this season. Hi, I'm Sarah. Come take a tour of my tiny home. When I first came into this space, I just stood here like this thinking, okay, can I do this? I think I can. I don't need a lot of stuff. I don't want a lot of stuff anymore. So I could see there was perfect place for my couch. The TV was already set because this was built in. So I didn't have to even think about that. I just had to see if the rest of the room would work for what I needed. And for me, it does. I've had lots of company in this living room. It accommodates whatever I need. I've had four grown grandchildren here and their families for Christmas. So it works. And I just kind of knew I could make it my own, just working with that space. I do like the wideness of this, but what helps is the openness of the upper. I opted not to get a loft because that just opened this room up. It made it feel bigger and look bigger. And whatever it feels like to you, you live in better. It just would work for me. I knew that. I just stood right here and I knew that. You do have to look for your furniture in special places. You have to think outside the box. You're not gonna want big overstuffed furniture in here. Go to a furniture store that has apartment size furniture, something like that, or pick slim line stuff. Think different for your end tables. You know, like I have a file cabinet, which I need for my work, and it just doubles as my end table. So there's different things at work. You just gotta think outside the box. After living here for two years, I still get the same response from people that step in this room. They go, oh, it's so much bigger than I thought it would be. It's open, it's big, it's light, it's airy, it's welcoming. And that's what I always want my home to feel like. It's an open and welcoming house. Welcome to my kitchen area. This is where I live and do everything. This is my very favorite spot. What I liked about this space when I first seen it was all these cabinets. By not having a loft and having stairs, they added all these cabinets in, and storage is so important in tiny living, in any living, but especially in tiny living. So that made a big impression on me. Like I said before, it's open, it's a lot of light for me to do my work, and it's just the perfect space. This island is great. It's for eating, entertaining, sewing, whatever you wanna do. This island was part of the original design, and I liked that. That was an added feature that I really liked because I really didn't want to take up room with a dining table, so this took care of that need for me. This part of my kitchen area is very important. I got a nice sink, more big cabinets up over me, and storage under this island, which is perfect for a lot of things. More storage right here. It just works so well for prepping anything or doing anything I need to do in here. If you're in this season of life, like I am, this design is important. You have security, there's closeness of things where you can hold on to stuff. You don't feel vulnerable, like you're gonna fall out in the middle of the floor. That happens. So, you know, it's just a safety feature for somebody if you're in this stage of life. I love this stove. I wanted an electric stove, and that's what came with it, and the big built-in microwave. I use this a lot. It's just the perfect space from refrigerator right on over to meal prepping and putting in the oven. This provides a lot more storage over this area, but I use it for things that I don't have to have a lot, like Christmas, Easter decorations, and things like that, and you need a spot for things like that always. This area comes in so handy for so many things. Again, all these cabinets. People are amazed at how many cabinets I have, and I'm thrilled with them. I can store everything you can think of in here, groceries, extra supplies, sewing needs. When I'm canning, doing making jelly and things like that, I use this counter for that, and it's so convenient to turn from the stove right here and work between the two. Overall, I love this kitchen. It works well for everything. There's room if I have other people in here, and we're not running over each other. It's just the perfect place. I love it. I was living before a traditional three-bedroom, two-bath subdivision home in a larger area, so I wanted something different, and I had researched before surgery a little bit on tiny living and got the idea, and then when I came out of that surgery with the serious issues, I knew for a fact that this was the plan for me, and I've not regretted it one bit. When I first mentioned tiny living, my biggest supporter was my best friend. She encouraged me. She helped me. She went with me. It took a little while for others in my family to come on board. I think maybe they were concerned that I wasn't acting wisely, but I knew, I knew in my heart that this was the right path for me, and when we found this home, I knew it was this home, just with certain little tweaks for me. My friend and I, I came up every weekend from Temple and stayed with her, and we looked at tiny, a lot of tiny homes all over Fort Worth and surrounding areas. We finally found this company in Mansfield. This one said, this is it, and so I decided if the money was right, it would be mine, and the money was right. They worked very well with me, and I got a lot of upgrades in this home with the appliances, the tile, two porches, the back door. It all came to around $84,000, which was very reasonable for me. I had sold my home. I had cash to purchase. It didn't take all my money from my home sale. I had enough to put back a little bit in my savings and to go forward with finding a place to put it. Then I found this park, and how we found it was, my friend had Googled it. I think now it's very well known, and it's well worth the drive out of Fort Worth. It's a great park. It's a great little community. When I came, I was the first one in here. The owner has worked with everybody in here individually to accommodate each person, and I'm happy with where I'm at. The rent is reasonable. It's $650 a month. It depends, I guess, where you're at in your area as to what rents are, but this is very reasonable for me because I paid for my home. I don't have a mortgage, so I only have lot rent and electric, and that's important on Social Security. So I know every month exactly what my bills are gonna be. They pay for everything else, so it's perfect for me and a lot of other folks. This is the laundry area. I love the stackables. They work great for me. I can reach the dryer okay, and it does a full load just like anything else, so it fits this space, and I love it. This is my bathroom. I love it. I love every room, but for different reasons. I have plenty of storage, and I opted to have this put in extra so this holds all my towels and extra supplies in here, so I don't need anything else to take up room. I like this extended countertop here. These scrub bars, they're very important when you get to this stage of your life. My favorite thing in here is this walk-in shower. It's beautiful. It's functional for me. When you get older, you don't want to have a bathtub most of the time because it's a tripping hazard, trying to step over into it and everything. This house came with this beautiful shower, and I love it. The only thing I did change, it had a short pony wall here, so I just had them remove that and put in the full glass door. I'm happy with it. It's beautiful. I love it. It serves a purpose beautifully. Welcome to my bedroom. This is my peaceful, comfortable haven for me. It just brings me peace to be back here, and that's what I wanted my bedroom to be. I opted to have a bed built. I didn't need a big bed in here. I wanted more room for my chair and other things in here, and to make it my space, that's what I opted to do, so a dear, sweet friend of mine built this bed for me, especially for me, for my height. Works great. Like I said, it's my place of peace and comfort. I feel in this room that I am more comforted than I was in a big house because the space is closer and warmer and cozier, and for me, that's important. This part of the bedroom is functional for me. I have my TV up here. Works great. All my drawers for my clothes. Two closets. I love that part of it. There's plenty of room for all my hanging clothes, my coats, my sweaters, and up above is storage for different things like Christmas decorations, things you don't use a lot, so this is a great area, and I did ask for and wanted these barn doors. I love them. I love them, love them. I have pocket doors in the other part of the house, but I love the barn doors. I also opted, this was a window here. I wanted another exit out of the home, so I had them put in a door going out to my back patio here, and I love that part. I can come out here early mornings just right out of my bedroom and sit there and have my coffee and be relaxed. This is one of our sewn-in grace bags that we make here. They're all handmade. They can be custom ordered to what you want, color-wise, fabric-wise. They all come with leather handles, leather bottoms, interior lining, and big pockets with a little wallet that comes with it, a back pocket for your phone, water bottle, whatever you need. We sell these for $25 each, but the important part is, when we sell two, we donate one, and we donate to a woman who needs to be encouraged, whether that be in pregnancy, in homelessness, in shelter situation, or in a nursing home, whatever the need, and we fill the bag with what might help them in their trials. So not only are you getting a nice bag when you buy, you're contributing to helping some other lady be seen, cared about, and loved. So thank you for sewn-in grace. I love living in this tiny community because I wanted community. I didn't want to be off by myself. I wanted out, but not by myself, so to speak. I wanted people close enough around that I could visit or check on, or they could check on me. It's just something that was within me at the time, and this has been the perfect place. I can sit on my porch, and people walk through here all the time, and I've met more people just walking on their walks. They stop and talk to me, and they become friends through doing that. I have a dear friend that's in the space next to me. She has been a lifesaver more than once. She's been here when I needed an ambulance. She's been here just to share laughs. So that's what this community's about. We have a nice clubhouse where we've had wonderful Bible studies going on down there. They can use it for different things, and you can, if you live here, you can use the community room, and it's perfect for a lot of things in the community, and it's just, you feel this, I don't know, the closeness and the safety of being in a space like this. I think it's great for young people and old people, and everybody in between. Life is what you make it, and if you make it a good day, that's what it's gonna be.