Designing a Life & a Tiny Home: Ms Gypsy Soul

I am Jewell Pearson this is my puppy Nazir and we are in the Charlotte North Carolina area in my I had been researching tiny homes for about two years and knew I was going to build and kind of had a plan that I was going to build probably the stages I didn't want to go to the bare basics I still wanted to have home in a tiny house and then I had the bright idea along the way somewhere to apply for HGTV show tiny house big living and so they kind of ramped up my timeline all the things that I kind of had on my wish list that would have made my tiny house spectacular well now we're filming so I have to make all of them happen unfortunately I was able to do that had some great people working with me to help me accomplish that I live in a tiny house but I wasn't giving up everything you know and for and I'm not knocking anybody that does in any by any means but I wasn't giving up you know I wasn't going to have two shirts and four pairs of pants and that was it so my closet had is you know the full walking closet so I could have my clothes that's kind of Who I am and my house might be you know on the bigger size then what somebody might consider a tiny house my intent with the mobile lifestyle initially I plan to move my house more I knew I was building a bigger house so I was thinking probably like every six to nine months it's not one you know to move frequently and now that I've built I still kind of think that but even if I don't move the house I want to have the the freer lifestyle so that at some point I don't have to work as much and it's hard maybe not even in corporate America to finance my lifestyle so that I can still travel even if I'm not traveling without with the house I want to have that lifestyle so that I can you know I have the free to travel right after the build ended I was on a in an RV lot and it was on the lake so everybody was like that's perfect on the lake and it was actually pretty out there but I really wanted to have some place to kind of spread out and have a little more room so I started searching for property I found a couple of good spots one spot was zoned for mobile homes so I would have been the only structure there and had to deal with the city to get permits to allow for electricity initially was trying not to tell them that I had a tiny house and so he said no they had said no like a couple times I was like okay I need to go forward so then I said okay it's a tiny house and so he was like oh I've seen those shows and I'm like I'm not gonna tell him I was on the show I don't I don't know if he's seen my show he might hate my house I'm not giving any any clues but I said I said well that's what I'm trying to do and so he was like well yeah I know those are coming and so he said I'd like to use your house as a prototype for how we'll deal with them so I was all excited he was like them so I need you to prepare a tie-down plan which makes sense and we'll want to review your plans I had a couple of people are going to charge me like $1500 to prepare tie-down plans and so I was like okay no and then I had initially bought the plans for home because that's what I was going to build in the beginning and realize within the plans they have a tight end plan so it would work just fine because I'm still on a 28 foot trailer I had a structural engineer review it to make sure that the plan would work for North Carolina he was like oh yeah because they're in Oregon or wherever they are so he wrote up a letter certifying that it would work and so I took that and my plans and gave it to the city and so when he came back and said it doesn't meet cold I'm confused we we knew going into it that it didn't meet code and you were going to review this and try to look at it with a different eye so I think somebody higher than him shut him down he started saying something about putting it on a foundation and I said I never intended to put it on a foundation we never talked about that and I and if that was the requirement I could have told you from the beginning I'm not putting it on a foundation and he was like well you know I'm trying to work with you if you give me a plan for putting on foundation we might be able to see what we can do and I was like no I don't intend to do that so then there's no use in having this conversation to continue I had even written him an email once I left the office and I said from my understanding this is what I understand the requirements are and I outlined the tie down plan and he never came back to say no foundation or anything like that so I know something happened when I kept on my search and actually had quite a lot of interest some properties that I reviewed and I landed on a great property a guy's backyard of an acre and a quarter of property and it's I've been here a little over a week so getting settled in and in it's perfect he put in some effort which was refreshing because you know somebody that's working just as hard as you I didn't even really have to worry about getting set up here because he was doing so much but then he was like you know I'd like to ask you to at least on a year lease because I'd like to recoup some of our money and I have no problem with that because I don't want to have to keep looking for a place even if I move the house I'd like to have a home base to be able to come back to this was great about the commute the tiny house community is we're vocal crew and it was positive and positive and I think most we got proactive you know and fact is there's a girl in Sigma the population you wants to live like this right I think is the ones that actually are in tiny homes now the difference in us is like you have so many people who are waiting for it to be allowed and they're scared to build I don't have the property and where the people are like I'm building and we'll figure it out so with more the risk risk takers right and we're willing to like you said be a little more vocal because we have a vested interest and we're a little more out there than the people that are just kind of teetering and waiting for somebody to say check the boxes okay yeah I mean I don't everyone can't afford to to build to spend money with a tumbleweed or tiny home builders to have a certified house so you're going to have to rely on some of the this I guess I would say second-tier builders or you know somebody that maybe has not built but you need to be able to yeah you need to be able to do your research you need to check references that kind of stuff don't just look at the house and say oh my god that's a cute house and I'm going to work with this bill to ask for some references ask the people who live in the house and I've never ever built up I've not made any bones about me and my builders didn't get along it didn't impact the quality of my house because but I've researched it for two years so I knew how to think and it was my design in my plans and I had the luxury to be on site almost every day all day so I was able to catch things that work right like he when he first started building he had framed my house and the roof was sloping that way and I'm like on you built it backwards and he was like no it's not backwards and I'm yes it is and so and it was sort of several things like that that I just happened because I lived and breathed in my plans I was able to catch but somebody else who doesn't have that luxury or hasn't been able to do the research isn't going to have that opportunity you know we're all working for acceptance I don't want something that I know has structural problems venting problems to kill somebody and then they shut us all down and that's you know that's the kind of thing that would happen I don't want anybody to lose their life even if it doesn't shut us down but just to know that I could prevent that can I offer you something to drink my home is about 330 square feet on the interior including the two lofts not including the screened porch and balcony initially was looking at a 24 foot trailer and decided to go with the 28 foot trailer just so I could have a larger bathroom space to make my my house at home that was one of the things that I wanted to have some nice bathroom space so I have a combo washer/dryer unit bathroom counter space so I can have all my girly stuff on my bathroom counter a reading nook will you climb up the ladder on the side of the wall to get up to the reading nook and it's a very cool space when the puppy is asleep that I can enjoy otherwise he's like hey can I come up there with you my master loft I love it because out of that window you can access the balcony so now that I'm in my new spot I'm really looking forward to being able to enjoy the balcony more and to see the night sky and then I've got a full walk-in closet Jamie Lawson is one of the designers that work with me on the project in the closet was kind of her baby so she designed it based on how I used my closet space cooking is not my first love but I can cook and so I have a two burner stove microwave convection oven so I can still make a turkey fire it's the feeling hits me well it's more than the work note to eat in work nook in the corner when I was dreaming of my tiny house and wanted a nice big comfortable comfortable couch and so between the bathroom and the wheel well was 81 inches and everybody knew we better end up with 81 inches when this build is done so my couch will fit here I'm a visual person so to look at the plans and and the window sizes it didn't really mean a lot to me until the windows got in is like okay that's perfect and that the round window initially was supposed to be bigger than it is but if it had been any bigger I don't know that I would have had much house house left for a window but that is one of my favorite features home means to me having my favorite things things that make me comfortable I am I can become very off-centered if I don't have my stuff and that's kind of how I designed the house knowing the things that I have to have to kind of make to keep me centered

Channel: Tiny House Expedition

Views: 273,496

Keywords: Tiny house, tiny X, small house, tiny, house, expedition, tiny home, home, charlotte, nc, north carolina, tiny house tour, tiny house community, interview, tiny house movement, tiny house on wheels, tiny house roadtrip, tiny living, simple living, simplicity, freedom, intentional living, minimalism, minimalist, tiny house people, tiny house parking, zoning, tiny life, tiny house big living, ms gypsy soul, jewel pearson, tiny house expedition, alternative living, alternative housing

Id: v5n7Nck8lS4

Length: 11min 39sec (699 seconds)

Published: Mon May 02 2016