Her gorgeous Tiny House design w/ a stand-up loft!

We have been living in the tiny house for three years now. I came to the realization that we were paying a lot for a house that we weren't always at. We couldn't really justify spending so much money on a mortgage for when we weren't there. This was like where I said we went a little bit over budget. This is the stand-up loft as you can see. I have plenty of space. When my husband comes in here he does have to duck just a teeny tiny bit but it works. When you are working up here there is a little cutout right here. Legs are down there so I don't have to be cramped up with my legs up. Hi my name is Shelby and this is my tiny house in the Redwoods. I live in this tiny house along with my husband, our dog, and our two cats. When the pandemic hit I went down the rabbit hole of YouTube and tiny houses on YouTube and I came to the realization that we were paying a lot for a house that we weren't always at because I was either at work full-time or my husband was doing school full-time. We couldn't really justify spending so much money on a mortgage for when we weren't there. We have been living in the tiny house for three years now. We did not build the house. We are definitely not contractors and so when I found Shea's design I was in love with it. That was the design that I wanted to go with. At the time she had blueprints that you could buy and give them to your builder and so during that time we were trying to find the right builder and we actually came across Tiny Topanga who actually collaborates with Shea's Tiny Homes in New Zealand and they are able to design all of our homes here in North America and so when I found out about them I immediately got into contact with them and from there we started the process of designing and building the house. You don't have to crawl into your loft and it just it seemed like it made a lot more sense for two people to actually live in it and feel like a home and not just a little cramped house. So the cost of the home, the base price was $110,000. We did go a little over budget on the washer and dryer so that way that it fit perfectly in here and then we did take out a loan for it. Thankfully our builders were able to finance us. We did pay $55,000 down ourselves from the money that we had from the house that we sold and so with interest and all that it came closer to $115,000. And it's paid off! We are actually located at Tiny Tranquility Redwoods and it's been really nice. Everybody here is really great. It's all about community base and that's one of the things that I really appreciate about the tiny home communities. It's really rooted in community. Everybody has a similar mindset. We're all downsizing and looking for freedom. So one of the great things about being here is we are actually paying less than $900. Living, you know, in the Redwoods only 15 minutes away from the the coast on the Oregon coast 30-minute drive. And so I don't know how you can beat that because I haven't seen any of those rent prices in a really long time in California. So really, really lucky to be here. Come on inside and I'll give you a tour. Marceline, you're gonna ruin the shots. So let's come into the kitchen because this is, you know, the heart of the home. We spend a lot of a lot of time in here and didn't really think, you know, as an adult, how much time I was gonna spend in the kitchen and thinking about meals. We really wanted this design to make sense for us. Everything in here was obviously custom built for us. I am a petite woman and it is nice to be able to come in here and just grab my stuff instead of having to either get on the counter or get a stool. And I love that we have a lot of storage. We can fit so much into here, all our cups, our glasses, our containers. It is all stored in here. The storage goes all the way back here and even to back here. So again, I have lots more going in. When it came to like the burners and all of that in the original plan, we were going to have a regular stove oven combination, but I didn't want that. Previously, we had been in a studio while we were waiting for the tiny house to be built and we only had two burners and we found out that that actually works really well. So I wanted just a two burner stove top and then we wanted a bigger oven. And I'm not someone who uses a microwave. So I was like, I don't need that. But I would like a little space for my little ninja oven. And so we mostly use this one for like our daily use. But it is nice to have a bigger oven. We can fit a whole 20 pound turkey into here. I don't feel like we're missing anything out of a traditional home. This was the only thing that I wish we would have really talked about more, really kind of thought about it through on what this was going to look like. Because again, I'm short. The fridge is a little shorter than me. We make it work. It's not that big of a problem. We're cutting down on food waste, which is nice. But this is something that in the future we probably will want to customize a fridge because we still have some more room back here. And this way to to try to really utilize the space. So we'll come back into the front entry slash dining room. And so we have all of our meals right here. We will also kind of use this to prep if we're having a lot of stuff going on over here. I will sometimes work over here, take calls here. So it just really depends. It's used for a lot of things. In the future, I actually would like to replace this. I would like to do more of a bench style and have more like a bistro type of setting. So that way we can have more than two people sitting here. We can kind of get maybe like a few more people around, have these chairs and then the table in the middle. I made this little cute little space for my pets because they got to get their moment too. Welcome to the living room now and spend a lot of time here as well. Most of the time we're actually using our projector to play our Nintendo. And every so often we're kind of watching, you know, something on Netflix or watching something on YouTube. But it's mostly used for our Nintendo to just chill. And after a long day of work, too. Here is a Marcy. She's the one who takes up a lot of the space right here. But it was really nice. We can all fit on here for the most part. My husband, myself, her and our two cats. We all get snuggly in here. And we have these windows which look out into the view when we were outside. She really likes that because she can see everybody walking by, who's coming in, who's going out. And so it's just like a really nice cozy space for us to to be in and hang out. So let me take you to our laundry area over here. This was like where I said we went a little bit over budget because the previous ones were too big. And these ones are just right because we have all this storage right here for extra stuff. When I was doing research on tiny homes, one of the things that I found was some of the all in one washer and dryer. Not that it doesn't work great, but sometimes it would have just longer cycles. Drying could take a little bit longer and I didn't really want to be worrying about that. So a stackable washer and dryer was really nice. We got the front loading ones and honestly, never had any issues really like it. And it's nice to just be able to do your laundry here. We do have laundry on site, but you do have to pay for them. Obviously, other people are using them. So it's nice to just be able to pop in a load right here and then get it done. Now we're in the bathroom. So you will see that there is a tub in here. That was the thing that I wanted and requested when it came to designing the house, because I think it was just going to be a regular stand up shower. And so this is one of my favorite features in the house. And then we also do have a regular flushing toilet. It's really nice and slender. So I think it fits really well in here. And then we do have more storage back here in this little cubby. So I kind of use this as a medicine cabinet so we can head up into the loft. But as you can see, as we go up the stairs, we do have storage. So I do use this as shoe storage. And then back here, we actually got quite a bit of decent space. So I put our yoga mats back here and then I actually have some extra blankets and stuff that we're not using all back there. So let's get into the loft now. So this is the loft. When it came to designing the loft, this was intended to be my office space since I work from home. The space didn't work out as I intended. I am someone who struggles with it's called piriformis syndrome. So it just means I have a weak glute. And so I can't sit down in the chair for too long. And so right now, it's just kind of holding all of the office things and being used as an office sometimes. But it's mostly for the cats to be in, as you can tell. And then this is where we had to put the litter box because it didn't work down there, unfortunately. So it's also not fun to work up here while they're using the litter box. But that is just the reality of having cats. And so this is just more of their space. And then you can see right here that there's this other desk. And what I do is actually I use this desk downstairs as my office. So I mostly stand up to do my work. And so that way, I'm not activating my glute, making it worse, making it sore. I do have to take this down. And then on Fridays, I bring it back up. It could be a little annoying. It's really not that bad, though. When you are working up here, I don't know if you can tell, but there is a little cutout right here so that when I am working, I can just put the chair right here. This one doesn't have any legs. And then just sit right here. Legs are down there so I don't have to be cramped up with my legs up. So what I do for work, I have actually been self-employed for the last five or six years now. I work in social media. I mostly do what's called community management, virtual assistant. So I am managing people's social media accounts with the tiny house at work. So whenever we want to move, I don't have to worry about finding a different job. We do got this hallway. It feels like a whole nother level to the house. So now we'll head into the bedroom loft. As you can see right here, this actually houses our projector, our Nintendo, all the electrical outlets right there, too. I don't think this is silly wasted space. It serves a purpose. And then it just, you know, leads into the bedroom. All right. So this is the stand up loft. As you can see, I have plenty of space. So my husband comes in here. He does have to duck just a teeny tiny bit, but it works. This is obviously the big thing that I wanted. I did not want to be crawling into a space. I didn't want to be hitting my head just in case. I already do that in the loft at times. I didn't want to be doing that up here. And the awesome thing, I can bring the laundry from down there, bring it up here, fold it, put it away, and it just works out really nicely. This is able to fit a queen size mattress. That's what we got on here. I think we could probably even do a little bit bigger, but the queen size works out really well. And obviously we all enjoy it here. We have these two large windows. When you come up here and you want to take a nap in the middle of the day, it's just really nice to have all the trees, especially on a rainy day. One of the things that I really appreciate about this house is more storage. So we have enough here. We have drawer storage. You know, I don't have like a dedicated linen or towel closet. So this works out really well to have this stuff here. And then we have our own his and hers closet, which I love. So that way we're not having to share a closet or one of us is having to, you know, get rid of a bunch of clothes in order for one to make space. As a woman, right? We like to have a little bit more clothes. So I really like being able to have my own space. And everything in here, too, in my closet is all of my clothes. I don't have to like seasonally change them out. Everything literally fits in here. And the same for my husband. Our shoes are down here and stuff, too. So because we have the loft bed right here, you know, we don't have like dedicated spaces for a nightstand. So what we did was this little, you know, bookshelf, if you will. So I was able to get little baskets for little things that we need. We're able to put our phones, have chargers, put our glasses down, you know, when we're going to bed. So it's nice to have this little storage up here, too. Welcome to the outside of my tiny house. My house is 30 feet long by eight and a half feet wide. The spot that we have here, we are able to kind of customize it and make it our own within certain parameters, of course. So we were able to add this little deck right here and we actually just got this last year. Before that, we unfortunately had like these little small stairs that just it didn't really help. But, you know, it was one way to get in and out without jumping down from the house or jumping into the house. And because we had leftover wood, we were able to make this planter box and then we were able to have our storage shed that is seven by seven over here. And I consider this our tiny house garage because we have like our hiking gear, camping gear, my holiday decor, things that we're not using on a regular basis. But we still need space for them. So it's really nice to be able to have this space and be able to make it our own and make it feel like a home. When it came to designing the outside of the house, I know I for sure wanted these windows right here because if we didn't have them, it was just going to be one big blank wall on the inside and the outside. I said, no, let's let's keep this window here. I want all the natural light in. And I was looking through Pinterest, you know, doing the inspiration for the tiny. And I remember seeing like a darker brown door like this. And thankfully, our builders were able to find one with even more windows. So again, all that natural light coming in. So we're now on the backside of the house. We're now on the street view. We haven't skirted. It's not necessarily required around here, which is nice, but it is something we plan on doing. Helps with the insulation, helps keep the house a little bit warmer. And we've got our sewer line right here, our water as well. So we are hooked up to all utilities. And then in that rent price that I said, that includes all utilities. So we are on septic. We have 50 amps of electricity. And then obviously hooked up to the water source as well, which all goes through right here. We've got our water hose. And then this is kind of like our little panel. So for the lights, if something does go out, here's the panel switch. So this house has really, I will say, humbled me in so many ways. I now realize that it's not about materialistic things. Everything that I bring into the house has a purpose. I can't just go buy something because I think it's really cute and then I have no space for it. And being in this location that we are at, it makes me more aware of how much of nature we are surrounded by. There's so much beauty. And when, you know, we get caught up in life, I just take a drive down the road, head into the state parks. And I'm reminded how little we really are and how little our problems are compared to the grand scheme of things. That's one of the things that I'm really grateful for, for living tiny, really appreciating life for what it is. Plans for the future, you know, putting out to the universe so we can manifest it is I would love to buy property and put this house on there. California has a lot of funny laws about putting a tiny house on your property, but I would still love to get one, put our house on there and either maybe purchase a new one or the other option through our builders. There is a like an extension you can add on like a pod. And so it's basically adding on an extra room on another small trailer and you can connect it to your tiny. I would love to do that just to have an extra room for an actual office. It does like a better office than what we currently have set up. Then also make it into a guest room so that if we do have family visiting, they have their own private space too. 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