Tiny House Living One Year Review

It's been almost a year since we moved into the tiny house (me, my husband, and our dog). My friends always say that they love my tiny house and my family keeps asking to come over. Well it still isn't finished and I really have no idea when it will be done. 

Our only income is from photography, mostly weddings and engagements. Business is picking up and I have been very grateful. We were able to buy a car and some much needed photography equipment. Being a full time photographer isn't cheap.

I've been debating about getting a day job or not. Yes it would help pay the bills and maybe purchase some more equipment but at the same time we built the tiny house so we could focus on our business. And if I had a day job it would mean less time spent on our current clients and marketing to attract new clients. 

Any way as far as living in a tiny house, I think it is romanticized. Yes you save money which is great, but it's just not that practical. I really could only see us being here a short time. We knew that this won't be our forever home when we built it. Maybe a single person would be much more comfortable in a tiny house. 

All I can say is, I am dreaming about living in an apartment and eventually buying a traditional home. After living in 160 sq. ft., 800 sq. ft. would feel gigantic. We still want to keep things small and simple. We also don't want to live beyond our means. 

I think everyone hears about tiny houses and is more interested in the novelty of it. Also not a lot of people talk about actual tiny house living. All you see are these beautiful pictures but no one talks about what it's like day in and day out being there. 

I am noticing that a lot of tiny house people are building a bigger house and using their tiny house as a temporary solution. There are very few that live tiny for life. I see it as a stepping stone to our future. It has served it's purpose and now it's time to move on.

Looking to the future

Hi all! Not much going on as far as tiny house progress. We have been trying to save money for a car so we haven't finished the house. But hopefully it will be all done some time next year.

I am already thinking about the future. I hope that by the time I am 30 (in five years) I will own a more traditional home, but still small (around 1000 sq. ft.). The plan has always been to build the tiny house so we could save money for a down payment.

Many people have built their tiny house knowing they would live there for the rest of their life (or most of it). But everyone has their different reasons. If I knew I would be staying here all my life, I probably would have invested a lot more money into it.

The tiny life has been good to us. Since we don't pay rent or a mortgage, we are able to work full time as wedding photographers. And as our business grows we can put back money for our new home. 

I am looking forward to having different rooms we can go into. Haha!

The Advocate Tiny House

My friend Andrew Odom from Tiny Revolution is starting a new project that involves anyone interested in tiny houses. They will be building a community tiny house that will travel around to spread the word and give people something tangible to look at and walk into. It will be built completely through donations. You can help decide how it is built through voting on the Advocate Tiny House website. Here is the description:

"The Advocate tiny house is a groundbreaking (at least in the tiny house community) multimedia experience based on a very simple idea: You Help Design It, We Build It (and maybe even with your help!), and then We Use It To Advocate.

While we may not be on television or have a huge platform (yet!) we are asking you not just to donate time and money (or even resources) to this project but also to help us design the tiny house. We want you to help us truly make this for the people. The Advocate will then be available for touring, traveling, classroom learning, workshops, rental, etc. We are also planning on pitching the concept to some small, independent television and streaming web channels."

Not much

Not much going on lately with the tiny house. My husband and I have been living here for over a month now and it does not come without challenges. We have internet which is great. We have AC. We can sleep comfortably on our futon mattress in the loft. We have full power finally.

But there is one big thing we still don't have and that is running water. So we have walk up to my inlaws house in order to use the bathroom or shower. We have a big jar of water we keep down here for cooking and drinking. We don't have our kitchen cabinets or countertop installed yet. The bathroom isn't finished. We don't have any flooring. The ceiling isn't finished.

It has rained every day for a couple weeks with no end in sight. Not sure when we will be able to start working again. We need to build up our house funds again. I hope it's soon because I would love to have a functional kitchen and be able to shower here.