Have you ever had one of those dreams that morphed and changed frame by frame? You started out doing one thing and then all of a sudden you were somewhere else and the person you were talking to was now your dog who was responding to you like a human? This is a story of a dream like that, only I am wide awake, truly I am.
About four years ago I was encouraged to watch a Netflix documentary about the tiny house movement. I was skeptical. At the time I had never heard of tiny houses before, but the idea of “going tiny” intrigued me. It reminded me of all of the times we took our family of five to a condo at the beach for a week and lived with very little yet somehow created gigantic memories. I always said that I wished we could get rid of all of our “junk” and just live like we did at the beach, the basic necessities in the kitchen, a few board games, a few changes of clothes, and peace. I have also commented on numerous occasions the wish that I could take the roof off of my house, turn it upside down, and shake everything into the yard then only put back in what we really needed or loved. All of these things seemed to just make sense. I encouraged my husband, Dave, to watch the documentary. I figured he would get a kick out of it and probably roll his eyes at me and say, “Yeah, right!” Boy, was I wrong.
He watched it, and immediately the wheels started turning in his head. He started watching YouTube videos about living tiny and building tiny. The dream struck a chord in him, and before I knew it, it had taken off on a “road less traveled.” Maybe we could do this.
Initially, we talked about buying a large gooseneck trailer, custom built. We bought a truck that could pull it. We were going to build a 40-foot tiny house on the trailer and take it wherever we wanted but maintain a central home port on a little piece of land somewhere. We watched video after video, drew up plans, went to a tiny house expo, and drove down to Alabama to see an actual 40-foot tiny house in progress. We talked about roof lines, fold-up decks, water bladders and filtration systems, marine heaters, library ladders, and composting toilets. Our bedroom would fit into the “gooseneck” over the bed of the truck. Our bathroom would be small but sufficient. We would rely on the outdoor spaces for entertaining purposes. It would require a few steps which we would build on both sides leading to the bedroom area – his and hers steps.
Then our dream took a slight turn. We are in our early 50s. We are not getting any younger. Who is? Thankfully we are both in great health, no heart, BP, or other major health problems. But in another ten years, we may be looking at problems we couldn’t anticipate. Did we really want to be 65 and climbing down a ladder in the middle of the night from our loft bedroom to go to the bathroom…twice, three times? Probably not. I suggested one day, off-hand, that we might consider building a stationary tiny house. I had seen a few articles about “granny pods” which are essentially a tiny house. We really only need a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. I was even willing keep the composting toilet (sort of). After a few days of contemplation, he was on board.
I also suggested that we buy an RV. If we were going to live tiny, we could still have our tiny house to come home to and be able to travel as well. The transition between living in a tiny house and then traveling for a couple of weeks at a time in an RV would be an easy one. Apparently, that was a good suggestion and also reason enough for keeping that truck…which we had already replaced with a second version that had better suspension and didn’t bounce the heck out of my insides when we were on the road. We explored some new fifth-wheel trailers to see what it would be like to live in one for a few weeks. We could do it, just not in a new one!
Dave discovered a metal building company, VersaTube, that makes steel-framed shop buildings rated for our area of Tennessee. We looked at pictures online of shop homes and “barndominiums” which were mostly much much bigger than our “tiny” plans. So, I went to work with graph paper, and started creating our initial 30x30 plan. We would live in 10x30 and he would have 20x30 for a shop. The building also came with 12-foot covered porches on either side. That allowed us to have some outdoor living space. That building grew a bit and became 40x40 pretty quickly. I was granted 12x40 but convinced him we needed to bump out 3 more feet for the kitchen all the way back to the bedroom. Not too many weeks later I had managed to bump out the bedroom another 5 feet to allow for a door into the shop to access the laundry. My initial 300 square feet plus 360 square foot patio had grown to 600 square feet in the house plus a 480 square foot patio. I could live with that.
Then we started to look for land this spring. We wanted at least five acres, private, treed, and the icing on the cake would be a creek. We looked at ads, we drove by a few properties, and then we found a fantastic real estate agent, Jennifer Alston. She took us down all kinds of country roads, pulled on her rubber boots, and walked into the woods, threatening to be back at her car before we even knew it at the first sign of a snake. Thankfully we didn’t see any snakes. We walked through people’s yards, drove out into the middle of nowhere, and saw some amazing and some not-so-amazing properties. We found a gem that we both loved with everything we wanted except for the creek. At the time we were not ready to make an offer. It wasn’t a big deal because this land had been for sale for quite some time with no offers at all. Then about a week before we were going to be in a position to go to the bank for pre-approval, a contract was put on our dream property. So back to the land hunt we went. This time we got pre-approved for a loan before we fell in love with anything else. Again, we poked around, drove around, hiked around, and dreamed. Jennifer is the best. I am convinced she can find anything.
In June I headed to North Carolina to my niece’s wedding. While I was there Dave decided to go look at a piece of property that he saw an ad for online. He texted me pictures. It was just over 8 acres with lots of trees, a big clearing in the middle of the trees…and a creek – two actually. It was perfect, exactly what we were wanting and more, exceedingly abundantly more. There is a large walnut tree at the edge of the clearing. There are trees upon trees upon trees. A beautiful old logging road with trees lining and arched above it. Trees for shade, trees for simply being beautiful, trees for little ones to climb and explore one day. “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”
We started the process. Jennifer went above and beyond working out detail upon detail. It took a while to nail down the contract, and that is where our dream took yet another turn and our “tiny house” was tiny no longer. You see, deeds often have restrictions. Even though our home is well off the road and in the trees and won’t be seen by any neighbor, we would have to abide by the restrictions and have a minimum of 1500 square feet of finished living space if we wanted the land. So, the building grew to 40x50 with 18x50 for the main living space, and the patio will now be enclosed into a finished sunroom, complete with windows, insulation, heating, and cooling. That would give us exactly 1500 square feet of living space: 900 in the house proper and 600 in the sunroom. The silver lining to this is that the sunroom will be livable all year round, not just in the not-so-hot and not-so-cold months. It is going to have a massive fireplace, a hot tub, a dining area, and lots of comfy seating. I can definitely get behind that.
Then it took even longer to get the paperwork together (title companies want everything perfect before they will sign off…imagine that) and nearly two months after having our offer accepted, we have now signed the closing documents, and that little piece of heaven is ours. The first step to fulfilling a dream, transformed though it may be, has finally been completed.
Over the course of the next eighteen months, we are embarking on a journey to put in a road (driveway), power, water, septic, and building our “shop home” complete with solar panels and a flushing toilet thanks to that septic tank I mentioned just a second ago. No stairs, no ladders, just plenty of high ceilings, windows, and minimal “junk” to clutter our lives. Stay tuned for posts as we go through this process. We are continuing the process of de-cluttering, packing, and preparing to sell our current home of nearly twenty years. We hope to be able to tell you about some great vendors supplying products we will use to build this “not quite tiny” dream. We hope to share design plans, projects, and pictures along the way. If you are curious about my style, go check out my Pinterest board “This Is Not That Tiny House.” It is divided by room and will show you what I am drawn to. You can also follow our journey by following us on Instagram @notquitetinytn.
Oh, and that RV? We are going to be buying one in January and making that home for about a year…I thought I said two weeks at a time. Remember that morphing dream? Everything changes. You just have to be flexible and willing to move with the changes.
For now, the mighty woodsman, the tamer of trees will be clearing a driveway and path for the power company. “Into the future. Let what will be, be.”
Ps. Thanks, Robert Frost. You never fail to disappoint.
