Life in our tiny home the past 6 months has been swell, for the most part. Honestly! There wasn’t too much of a learning curve as we transitioned from condo living to tiny home living. I do want to take some time, though, to go over a few of the challenges (or at least differences) that we have faced living here. There is also a FAQ segment at the bottom of this post.
- Tiny spaces clutter easily. While yes, it is easier/quicker to clean when you have less, the simple act of coming home and unloading your belongings from the day can make your living space look very cluttered. Phone, keys, wallet, coat, and shoes from two people and you have a mess. Same goes for our work– laptop, charger, external hard drives, memory cards, extension cords, etc.– you get the idea. Our staircase also tends to be the one-stop-spot for things to accumulate. So it’s important to have a specific “home” for everything we need, and if we don’t, we get rid of it.
Obviously this is a “first world problem,” but something to be dully noted if messes and clutter give you anxiety. - Can’t have private phone calls. Not that this is a regular occurrence, but when I was asked what I was getting Daniel for his birthday last month, I quickly realized I couldn’t just walk into another room and answer. There are other times when I want to catch up with a friend on the phone and Daniel wants to watch Netflix. I will usually go upstairs to our loft to be less distracting, but the fact that Daniel always chimes in to my conversations leads me to believe that’s not much of a sound barrier…
- Harder to find professionals willing to work on a tiny home. We’ve been having issues with our water pressure in the shower, so we’ve been needing the help of a plumber. Most professionals tend to back away as soon as they hear you are in an RV type home. And after our awful experiences with “professionals” on Craigslist, we’d like to stick with a reputable one.
- Pipes
maywill freeze. We’re pretty much newbs when it comes to home ownership, especially tiny home ownership. This whole “winterizing our home” was foreign to us, and we learned the hard way. We woke up to no water after the first cold night back in November. YouTube and a trip to Lowe’s saved us, but it’s been an ongoing battle all winter long. - Smells travel quickly…which can be a great thing if you’re cooking homemade apple cider like I did for Thanksgiving! But when our cat uses his litter box, everyone in the house knows. And of course the window in that space doesn’t open (ha, we didn’t consider that in the building process). If anyone is considering living in a tiny home with cats or other pets in cages, you must be willing to clean their space more frequently…or be willing to face the consequences. Same goes for dishes, trash, and even burnt popcorn (Daniel!). They need to be taken care of immediately, or your entire home will smell less-than-desirable.
- Finding a place to live!! Our greatest challenge yet. We often get emails from people beginning their tiny home journey, and this is our number one piece of advice– find somewhere to park your home BEFORE you start building! There is just no point in having a tiny home if you have nowhere to put it. We thought we had done just that by preparing ourselves, and we were heartbroken when that opportunity fell through. Maybe we are just too picky, but we have yet to find a permanent place to reside. We’ve advertised on our blog, Facebook, and even Craigslist, but we still haven’t found quite what we’re looking for. We are very fortunate in that our current location offers everything we need for the time-being. But driving 30-45 minutes each way to get where we need to be (multiple times a day) has taken a toll on us and our car.
Hope that didn’t scare anyone away! We don’t regret our decision, and so far the pros have outweighed the cons. But if you are considering building your own tiny home, it is best to go in with your eyes wide open!
Anyways, the past few months have had some great improvements! This isn’t a whole house tour, so if you’d like to see that or get a refresher on the general layout of our home, you can view that HERE.
The Bathroom. If you remember on our last post, the bathroom faucets stuck out about 2 extra inches and the drywall was a bit rough (especially after Daniel tore out half of it to check the pipes, pictured below). We decided to do a diagonal plank wall to enhance the aesthetics. Well… it turns out we’re still not professional DIYers haha. But it looks so much better than what it did! Still searching for the perfect mirror!
(Also, if anyone knows how to get the grout on our floor white again, let a girl know!)
Our closet! Probably my favorite DIY improvement. The closet became such an eye sore once I filled it with clothes. Plus, I don’t think anyone wants their closet visible, right? So Daniel used the same wood and stain that he used for our bathroom vanity and added two of the same knobs from our staircase. I love it!! We also added wallpaper to Carlos’s littler box door :)
We had some wallpaper to spare, so Daniel surprised me with a wallpaper Christmas tree haha. Even added ornaments!
Our catwalk shelves. Daniel loves collecting cameras, so it felt rather fitting to add it to the decor. I also added some firefly string lights during the holidays. Carlos still walks across this daily to get to his food. For the most part he is graceful walking across the shelves, but occasionally he will knock over a picture frame.
Forgot about this box in the garage! Need to try some of these out…
A photo posted by Daniel (@daniel_tireswing_frey) on
#vsco#instacat#carlitosfrey#tinyhome#mybuddy#iphone6
A photo posted by Daniel (@daniel_tireswing_frey) on
One of my most treasured possessions from my great grandmother (aside from her seriously awesome, handmade, “ugly” sweater) is this portrait she created of me when I was 2 or 3 years old. She proudly displayed it in her home for 20 years, and when she passed, I had the honor of giving it a new home.
Window “treatments.” We have a lot of windows which makes for great natural light during the day! But privacy in any home is essential, so we are currently using tapestries throughout the home as window coverings. This window is directly above the desk in the kitchen area. We generally keep it open during the day and closed at night.
New appliances! Laundromats are no fun, so we saved up for and bought a washer/dryer combo in the Fall. It gets a lot of use (as you can see!). This Christmas my parents got us a dishwasher, which as we get back in to eating a whole foods diet (as opposed to our busy-wedding-season-carryout diet), this will get daily use. The above cabinet is where we keep our pantry foods. They were going to be stored in the designated shelving on the other side of the kitchen, but we honestly don’t have that many non-perishables, and the dishware just looks so much prettier :) We plan to add a curtain here as we also use this corner as a utility closet with brooms and such.
A photo posted by Ashley Rockey Frey ♡ (@ashley.tireswing.rockey) on
Our kitchen! Not much has changed here other than we set up our microwave on a shelf and added a “curtain” that hangs from the bedroom loft down to the sink. There’s also a bit more greenery.
The Staircase. When we first moved in, our staircase was mostly occupied with tools and hardware supplies. Now, this space wears many hats. We store our laundry, coats, bath towels (once dried), my jewelry, and basically anything else that hangs. Underneath we store our shoes. Shoe curtain coming soon.
Our bedroom. Our recent addition is this little photo collage. Early 2016 we took an amazing road trip out West. Soon after our road trip we started our wedding season, and these photos were put at the very bottom of our to-do list. Although it took nearly a year to print, I love having a daily reminder of the beauty, love, and friendship that was shared on the road. I definitely needed the reminder that despite some struggles, 2016 was a great year in many ways. 
Again, you can see the “curtains” we have in the bedroom.
FAQ
How big is your tiny house?
The trailer is 30 feet long and 8 feet wide. We have two lofts (our bedroom and guest loft) measuring 11 feet and 6 feet long. So that puts us at 376 square feet! Plenty of room to spare ;)
Will you be traveling in the home?
No. We will move it to wherever we want to reside, but as far as long-term traveling, those are not our plans. We would love to travel sans tiny home! The trailer is quite large making cross country trips a little tedious (and expensive on gas). Once we have a permanent location our little casa, we plan to save and travel without the strain of a mortgage.
Do you have water and electric?
Yes, we do! We are not “glamping” or “roughing it”– this works and looks like a regular home, just on a smaller scale.
Do you have a washer and dryer?
Yes, finally! It is a combo unit, meaning the one machine both washes and dries our clothing. It does take a little longer to run, but many times I am able to turn it on as we’re leaving the house and come home to clean clothes. I do feel like we have all the modern amenities of a new home now!
How do your pets like the new home?
How do they like it? They love it! Carlos has found every nook and cranny in the home to hide/lounge in. His favorites currently include:
- under the bathroom vanity
- bottom stair cubby
- under the kitchen cabinets
- under the couch
- on the shelves, pawing at us as we walk under him
Sweet Pea– she likes anywhere that’s with us, honestly. The windows in our bedroom are the perfect height for her to see and bark at anyone/everything that passes by, which I can tell makes her little dog-heart happy. When one of us arrives home, she speeds up the stairs, switch from window to window barking with excitement, then speeds back down the stairs to greet us at the front door. It’s the cutest. I know that’s a normal thing for dogs to do, but we’ve never lived in a home that had windows low enough for her to see us arrive. There are also lots of ducks for her to chase and a nice trail for us to go on walks in the evenings where we are staying currently.
How do you both get along in such small quarters?
No better and no worse than when we lived in an apartment or when we lived in a condo together. We have already been running a business together for the past 6 years, so we’re practically pros there ;) We’ve created a routine that works for us and gives us a great combination of time out of the home and time alone. During the week Daniel works from home or at a coffee shop while I work for my dad’s business. In the evenings, we might cook together and take our dog for a walk, or we might each find separate activities to do like fishing for Daniel.
Something to consider in the build of your home is the layout. While the open floor plan tiny homes are beautiful with lots of open space, we wanted the separation of rooms. Because lets face it, we don’t want to have to see each other every moment of every day haha. If we are both home and need space, we have the ability to be in different areas of the home that are separate.
Can we visit your tiny home?
Not at this time, sorry! We’d love to answer your questions though or maybe even meet at a local coffee shop. :)
And as always, if you’re new to our blog, welcome! You can check out a full list of our tiny home posts HERE. If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you! Contact us HERE.