No Clutter. No Compromise. No Going Back. Her Tiny Home Story

When my mother passed away in 2023, being an only child, I was left dealing with her house, her property, obviously everything in it. She was, you would call, an organized hoarder. At that point, I was already starting to scale myself back with the things I had. Going through the process of cleaning out my mother's home and everything really, really made me see that we don't need all the things that we have because right now I could pack up my house and have it in probably about 20 totes and I'm good. Right before I bought my tiny house and I was processing all of my mother's stuff and selling her property and everything like that, I was actually ready to move out of the country at that point and my daughters were like, you know, why don't you stay here for a little bit longer and you can buy something that is all yours, your very own home, your very own place. And that did kind of stir something in me to say, you know what, I've owned homes but I was married when I owned homes. So this is my house, this is my design, this is what I've chosen and that part I wouldn't change for anything. Welcome to my living room. When I was looking at the tiny homes, I looked at lots of them. I worked with Kelly who is with Cowtown Cottages and she really helped me to design this living room. The reason I wanted a designated living area is I like a designated area. I feel like the benefits from having designated spaces is that not everything runs together and you can decorate as a space and it can be a different decoration as another space or you can have it all flow together. Mine does kind of flow together but it's also its own entity. In my living room, I have a full-size couch. I have a table that is actually a dining table with leaves that you can pull it out, open it up and you can set like six or eight people around it. I have my small entertainment center for my little bits and bobs and living tiny means that you do really think about what you need as opposed to what you want and I do collect owls and highland cows so I really have to think about the things that I purchase as opposed to oh let me just buy and bring home. Now I have to make a conscious effort to think about do I really need that. For me, my owls bring me joy, my highland cows that I have on my walls bring me joy so that's very small things for myself. I recommend that if you are deciding to go tiny, look at the dimensions of the house because my house is actually 11.2 wide and 34.5 long. It's almost as if it's like a regular house size. Obviously everybody has their own style and their own thought about it and these are all the things that work for me personally and this is what I've chosen to do. So when I was decorating my tiny home I wanted people to feel comfortable when they walked into my house. I wanted them to feel like they could just take their shoes off, sit on the couch, make themselves at home. I want to feel that way as well when I walk into my house so I chose green for one of the colors because that is my favorite color and just a more cozier vibe in here and that's what I was going for the whole way. Welcome to my kitchen. In its own designated area, I have plenty of counter space. I can cook, I can bake, I have plenty of storage for pots, pans, whatever I need. I have so much storage in here more so than even in a regular size house and storage is really important especially if you cook, if you bake or anything such as that. I did also bring some of my highland cows into my kitchen and some of my own you know decorations and thoughts and it is very cozy in here and as you can see my ceiling is a bit lower and that's because my loft is right above me right here but that's okay because even if you're probably six feet you can still stand up in here easily. Because you can design your own tiny home, you can design your kitchen the way you want, this works best for me and my needs. You can have a larger island but for me personally this size works and everything is in this area that I need. I have my spices, I have my pots, my pans, I can bring everything right here and put it all in the pan and it works great. Another beauty of customizing your own tiny home is so my cabinets are are shorter but if you wanted the taller cabinets and the open area above your cabinets you can take away the loft or you can have it moved to the back of your house. For me I'm kind of short so I prefer the shorter cabinets and I prefer my ceiling being a bit lower and it just works well for myself. This is my coffee station so I'll have all my coffee and stuff in here. I also have my tea kettle because I am a hot tea drinker and then everybody in the world has a junk drawer and this is mine and then over here I have all of my silverware then I have all of my Tupperware type stuff and again because you've gone tiny you don't need all of that extra. You have exactly what you need in the storage and also going tiny you also wash your dishes because if you've noticed I do not have a dishwasher. I chose not to. I live alone so I wash dry and put away my dishes as I go each and every day. So in my kitchen you've probably noticed my refrigerator is a little bit smaller. When I first had my house built I did have the larger refrigerator but because my bathroom comes out the way it does my door was hitting the wall so I opted to go for a smaller refrigerator which is fine because it gives me loads of space up here in case I want to put a plant because you know I have so many and this actually fits all of my needs. You can have a full-size refrigerator in here because like I said I did but again you don't have to because you're designing this for you and your space and for you and for what you need. For me this is what I needed. This is what I've chosen for myself. The cost of my home was $90,000 and that was for delivery, tax, title, license, building, you know everything together. I had skirting put on my house the first time which was $2,500 then it was done incorrectly and I ended up having to have it redone and that was another $1,500 and my stairs were not correct so that was an extra $400 as well so probably a good $5,000 for skirting and stairs. Now my house was built by Platinum and Kelly at Cowtown Cottages was my designer. She's absolutely amazing. I would work with her 210 more times to build as many homes as I could but whenever you're doing your steps and you're skirting that's an independent contractor that you find yourself so make sure you do your research because I didn't do my research the first time, had a lot of issues, had to have it redone so there we are. So about all total probably about $95,000 which I feel like you can't get a better home for that. When I very first started looking into the tiny home I had to learn how everything worked. For your deposit of your tiny home it is $10,000 down and then you can go into all of the designs and depending on all of the extras that you put into your house is going to make your house cost more or cost less just depending on all the extra stuff. If you don't know what you want having somebody like Kelly to help guide you and show you hey you know what about this and then when you're looking at all the processes then in your mind you can say okay I really like this you can also go back and the great thing about designing your house you can go back and change it take away you can add and it's absolutely amazing. I live at Shady Creek RV Park and Tiny Village. They just recently turned part of the park into the tiny home village. I love it. It is a good community. I have really great neighbors. I have great friends here. It is absolutely amazing. Now my lot rent is $9.50 a month which covers all of the maintenance. The only bill I have to pay that's extra is my electricity and where I'm located I'm about an hour from Fort Worth. I'm about an hour from Dallas so it makes it really great because I'm six minutes from my youngest daughter and her family. Welcome to my bathroom. This is obviously a standard bathroom but for a tiny home I have loads of counter space. I have loads of storage. The drawers are just massive. I even have a medicine cabinet and it is from the bottom to the top of the ceiling. My bathroom has a pocket door which I love. I love my little pocket doors because that also gives you space into your bathroom or into your hallway. So there's just so so many different ways you can design this. It's all about you and what your needs are. When I first saw my tiny home after it was built there's always an initial shock of oh my gosh is this what I made? Is this what I designed? But then after you get moved in you start putting your fingerprint on everything. Then you actually start feeling like yes this is exactly what I needed. This is exactly what I wanted. I have a shower curtain because I chose not to have glass because personally myself I don't care for that. I like the curtain. I like having that pop of color in here that just gives it more personality. That is my personality. Welcome to the hallway where my washing machine lives. Where my pantry is. So this is my pantry where I have all my food. Now you can have your pantry further in the kitchen or more in the kitchen but the way I designed my house it's over here which is totally fine because I can get everything I need bring it straight to the kitchen and I'm good. This is where I have my jackets and hats and things like that. I chose just a washing machine because I hang dry most of my clothes so I just I have a hanging rack that I put my clothes on in the living room to dry and it's totally good. Again you can see my ceiling is low because my loft is right above me. That's how I chose it. When you are designing your house make sure to look at all of your options to decide what works best for you. Welcome to my bedroom. It does go along with the rest of the house. It's got the greens the browns and this is one of the most coziest spots. I actually completed decorating my bedroom first because if you're not comfortable in this space where you're sleeping you're not going to get a good night's sleep. So for me making sure that my sanctuary and my my bedroom is my sanctuary is comfortable it is cozy. My cat actually you know he's loving it. It's just such a good space. I chose to have closets on both sides so I have like t-shirts and summer things on this side. I have pants and winter clothes on that side. Loads of storage and as you notice I don't have like the nightstands or things like that but I go on Amazon. I got this really cute little shelf. Very easy to install. This is a queen size bed. Now because of the built-ins on both sides you can't really go bigger than a queen. Now you can also choose to have no storage and you can do whatever you need to do and you can buy your own storage and I really like it because when you're back here you're just kind of cuddled in to your bed and I have my little lights so at night it's very cozy. It's very comfortable. I also have a big mirror that doubles as my jewelry holder. I have a really cool shoe rack that holds all of my shoes. It's got three drawers and I probably have about 30 pairs of shoes in here. When I saw this I was like oh my gosh this is going to be so great because now I don't have to worry about where am I going to hide my shoes at. It's very nice because I can put you know store stuff up here, decorate whatever I need to do. This is my loft and also my office. As you can see I can almost touch the ceiling but I am a little bit shorter which is great. This works so well for me. My computer fits well. My desk is a desk that raises up and down and it's at the lowest setting. My chair is also at the lowest setting so I am able to work here comfortably. When I first moved in I had a house warming and some of my friends set up here and ate and looked out because I had about 10 people in the house and it was a lot of fun. This is a futon that can obviously lay down into make into a bed. This is a very comfortable space. I can look straight out and everybody that has came over and set up here they're like you have such amazing views for outside because I do have the big windows. I love this space. Again I was going for cozy. I was going for comfortable and I feel like I'm achieving that. A lot of people have the loft for grandkids and things like that to come over and stay. If I did not have a loft I would definitely have a second room which would be a much smaller room where I could still fit a futon. I would make sure a futon would fit in there. Also my workspace. I just preferred this so I could have that work and home life balance. Sometimes the stairs are challenging. My cat likes to run in front of me so that's always fun. Right now this time in my life the stairs are great. I don't mind them but if I did again in the next like 10 or 20 years I may not have a loft. I would have a bigger area downstairs. Next month I will have lived in my tiny home and here at Shady Creek for one year and this has been such an amazing journey for myself because I've learned things about myself what I can live with, what I can live without. I've learned how to manage so much better and not having to worry about my yard work, not having to worry about anything like that. I can just work, relax, spend time with family, spend time with friends. I don't have any worries about things like that. It's absolutely an amazing feeling. If you are looking at purchasing a tiny home I suggest you do your research. I suggest you go and look at all of the tiny homes and even if you go and look at tiny houses and you're like you know I like this part of this house and this part of that house any designer can actually put it together for you. The best thing about this is you design your tiny home the way you want it that functions for you. Thank you so much for coming on this tour with me looking at my house. If you have any questions or anything like that just put them in the comments and I will try to answer everybody's questions in a very timely manner. Thank y'all so much and good luck to everybody who's going tiny.