My husband and I were living in KCMO (Kansas City, MO) with our 2 kids and 2 pups.
Over-whelmed and not so happy with our high cost of living expenses we decided to look into different solutions.
We considered yurts and earth ships, yurts on earth ships, schoolies, and pretty much any other alternative living solution.
This is a guest post by Jilan Wise of Far Out Tiny Homes
Family Goes from 2500 Sq. Ft. to 200 Sq. Ft. Tiny House: Two Adults, Two Kids, and Two Pups in a THOW
Images © Far Out Tiny Homes
The home that we lived in, in KC, was a bit over 2500 sq ft. So a typical American home size.
We noticed how our family rarely wasn’t all together in one single room. We realized we were heating and cooling rooms and spaces that were rarely in use.
With our utility bills averaging $300 month, we felt like our money that we worked so hard for was just being thrown out the window.
So one night we moved some furniture around in our large living room and taped the outline of our would be tiny home to the floor. We messed around with the configuration for hours, finding hope within this new way of living.
Hours and hours of design work later we had a rough idea of price and a timeline of how we could pull this off. My husband has his masters in design so we truly had the upper hand here as far as space utilization was concerned.
From a 2500 sq. ft. home we downsized all of our belongings into a 5×10’ storage unit.
It was terrifying and amazing all at the same time.
Not only were we spending tons of money on bills and rent but the amount of useless crap we had bought along the way was overwhelming.
We put our 30 days in with our landlord and asked Josh’s parents if we could move in with them and build this tiny home on wheels.
After some contemplation on their end, they reluctantly agreed.
Which was great because in the meantime our house rented out the first week we put it on the market.
So to some degree, we were soon to be homeless.
After we received the news from my husband’s parents we packed up our must-have essentials for life and headed out to the country.
We moved from a thriving city to nowheresville, MO.
For real, the nearest Lowes or Home Depot was a 30 min drive. The town consisted of a church, a gas station, and a dollar general.
The plan was coming together!
But now we had to get serious. We had 3 months to build this home. Luckily Josh’s dad was a certified electrician and an all-around badass that gave us tips and tricks along the way.
Josh’s mom supplied the beer to keep us cool and chill.
Did I mention we built this home during a hot and humid Midwest summer? Yea we did.
Some days were so hot and humid you would literally walk outside at 6 am and be instantly drenched in sweat. It was insane.
So these 3 months were filled with trials and tribulations and mentions of divorce haha but you know what? We got through it! It was hard. Through the build, we laughed and cried A LOT.
What I failed to mention was as we were designing the home, liquidating our stuff, moving to a tiny town, and oh yea actually building our THOW I was putting the pieces of the puzzle together to move us across the county to Las Vegas, NV.
We basically took our life and turned it upside down. But you know what? As everything started to come together it was beautiful watching it all fall into place.
Our build started July 7th and we were on the road to Las Vegas from New Bloomfield, MO on September 15th. Not ever having towed something like this before we slowly traveled across this country.
I followed Josh in my truck as he pulled our home. There were times I was sure we were going to wreck (the crosswinds from semi-trailers when they pass you are no flipping joke!) but we made it.
And now we are the crazy family of 2 adults, 2 kids, and 2 pups living in under 200 sq ft. And you know what?? It totally works.
We paid off the build within a year and we are quickly carving away at other debt. Life is good living tiny. We have more money to actually live life.
We no longer needlessly buy things. We are aware of exactly what we need and the best part is we are teaching our kids, the future, that you absolutely do not need to live outside your means.
They are learning life can be more about living and less about collecting stuff.
We love living tiny. So much so we started Far Out Tiny Homes. Since being in Las Vegas Josh has built 12 tiny homes and we are starting a new project in just a few weeks.
We are in this to get single people, married couples, and any size family in tiny homes.
We believe that less debt and lower living expenses are truly the solution for a happy and experience filled life.
Images © Far Out Tiny Homes
Never Underestimate the Joy
of Owning Less and Experiencing More
Learn more: https://www.farouttinyhomes.com/
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Our big thanks to Jilan Wise of Far Out Tiny Homes for sharing!🙏
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Alex
They gave their landlord the required 30 days notice and it rented (to a new tenant) within a week of being put on the (rental) market.
Two kids with a single bed between them! Or did I miss a bed downstairs somewhere? The cooking facilities have me puzzled as well, huge fridge, small microwave or toaster oven and nothing else. Not even any dog beds
It’s a bit confusing how they told the story but it’s about how they got into tiny living but that evolved into them building tiny houses and they’ve done more than 12… So this isn’t recent and there could be a few years between the before and after photos…
So their situation could have changed a bit… For example, they never mentioned the kids ages. So, for all we know, one of them may be off to college now or has their own separate tiny house…
While they probably just opted to have appliances that can be stored away when not being used in the kitchen to free up the limited counter space.
Electric cook tops, pressure cookers, etc. can just be plugged in when used but then stored away when done, for example…
The before and after photos also shows they’ve done significant landscaping around the house. So, since this may actually be a few years later, the dogs may have grown too big for the house and may be outside in their own dog houses…
Anyway, think the main takeaway is they’re saying they’ve experienced the transition to tiny living and now want to help others do the same with their company, Far Out Tiny Homes in LV, NV…
There is an induction cooker hanging on the wall above the knives.
That’s what that was! I was wondering…
The punishment will be to sleep under … your bed.
@Noreen Still: Your preference… but by knotting the curtains it lets a LOT more light into the tiny home. And really easy to unknot a knotted curtain. My preference? I don’t knot curtains either… but I don’t complain about people who do.