An answer to “DEAR PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN FANCY TINY HOUSES”

Dear Lauren,

[an answer to “DEAR PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN FANCY TINY HOUSES”]

‘Do you love living in a Tinyhouse?’

I grew up in a family of four kids. Pretty average size for the nineties, but nonetheless that’s a lot of kids. As such, we children were often found packed in like adorable sardines wherever we could fit. Our first small bedroom was all three of us sleeping in the top of a mini-winnie. The order: Saralynn, Zachary in the middle, and Me [Sammy was still being made, in the back bedroom of that camper] After Sammy was born my parents decided to move onward to Alaska.

Here my bedroom could be found the same way you find where a cat gave birth to its kittens. Look around for a few blankets, pillows maybe a stack of clothes, anywhere in the house that was low traffic enough, for a while, for me to nest. At one point when we were teens, my sister and I shared an 8 X 4 spot beneath my brothers loft bed.

Later in life I found myself living on the street, in a van, a tent, and an office space in Hollywood that was much smaller than my actual Tinyhouse now.

So, my answer is yes. I actually love living in our Tinyhouse, with Justin and our two cats. It is actually bigger, at 85 sq ft, than most of my past living situations, and it`s actually ours.

‘Do you lie awake at night thinking “I made a terrible mistake”?’

The numbers answer this question even on my weak days. I am an avid sufferer of Disaster thinking, just one part of my very real anxiety, so if anybody might feel this way, it would be me; but we would pay $975 in our apartment [about as cheap as it comes] for one year that is $11,700.

We only pay $200 monthly to rent the land we have our house on. That is $2400 in a year. So $9300 is saved. We are building our house out of pocket while we live in it, and in total to date we have put in about $12,000.

Even if we decided  to leave our tinyhaven and move in to an apartment, we haven’t lost anything. At the bare minimum The trailer we are on, and the appliances we have could be sold to bring us back to square. [not to mention we could fetch a nice price for the full package even unfinished]

I don’t feel we have made a mistake. In about a year and a half we won’t be shelling cash out to finish the house, we will be buying property. 

As someone who had a hard time finding direction in an otherwise confusing world, The Tinyhouse has given me that. More than that, it gave me hope.

‘What the hell happens when your tiny house partner farts Mexican food farts, huh? Where do you escape to?’

Our house doesn’t smell like farts, but that’s pretty funny!

Let’s be honest, when your partner farts [even in a big house] you play victim to the smells. It’s the same in the tiny-house. And we have four opening windows to air out the stank. As well as a privacy screen door that lets in all the fresh air without allowing anyone to see inside.  Worst case scenario, light a match, problem solved.

Having nowhere to run during arguments, means dealing with the problem right then and there. That’s not to be discounted. I am a feeling bottler, so this has helped curb my sulking habits. Justin and I are much stronger as a unit now, then we were when we had all that space to walk around and avoid our problems.

‘Where do you put your shit? You still have some clothing and shoes and towels and all that jazz, right? Or do you just wear overalls now?’  

Justin won’t let me wear overalls… says they make my bum look square. But I would, I love overalls and Birkenstocks! We do have some clothes; Justin has way more than I do. I don’t feel like I lose much, the pure act of being in construction and putting any extra money into the house has led to my wardrobe being a bit haggard, but we will amend that soon enough. 

We have many plans to be completed that allow a ton of space for clothes and even fancy towels. Sure I’ll never have Miley Cyrus`s closet…but look what that got her.

‘Where do we wash our towels or other Laundry?’

We go the Laundry mat most of the time, and laundry mats are a pretty normal thing to use for people in the City [Think ‘Friends’ or ‘uptown girls’]. Having a routine for doing your errands definitely helps. 

Rethinking Laundry

‘And I know your house isn’t that clean all of the time.'

Actually, I try to always keep the house clean, Justin is a neat freak. Everything has a home, and that is the key to having a clean house. It’s all in cleaning up after yourself as you go.

Come on, your mom probably told you to do it your entire childhood! Sure there might be two bowls dirty if you pop in unannounced, but those are in the sink soaking, pretty clean still.

I make the bed in the afternoon, and I try to keep my stove top shiny all the time. We don’t have kids, but the cats make messes sometimes [stealing socks out of the laundry basket and kicking litter out of the box].

A house as small as ours needs to be tidy pretty much all the time, and it’s a great feeling to know everything is where it should be.

‘What if you’re having a shitty day and you just want to be alone?’

Of course we all have bad days. Communication is key, knowing your partner helps to avoid picking at them at the wrong moments. 
If we need space we take space. Sometimes he will watch UFC and I`ll surf the web. Or I`ll garden outside and he`ll do what he does inside. We don't need to have four bedrooms in between us to respect each others space. Just don't talk to each other and do your own thing.

It`s really pretty functional. The only time the Tinyhouse feels tight the way everyone imagines, is when we are doing projects. Other than that it’s really very comfortable.

A few final thoughts:

• We will kick a#$ in the zombie apocalypse, I already rock at foraging. 
• We don’t have kids, but our sexy times works just as good in our tiny-house.
• Again our house doesn’t smell like Mexican food farts.
• I love having guests, and we have fit like 8 firefighters in our 85 square foot house, with us in it too. 

I hope this helps answer a few questions.