Her Adorable DIY Tiny Home for Retirement - Divorce To Living Simple

my name's allison i'm 64. i'm going to be retiring in a year hopefully if i can afford to i live in my tiny home daisy with my dog tucker who's five and we are just beyond happy with the choice to live tiny [Music] so welcome to daisy this is my couch my guest bed and since i'm almost 64 and retiring in a year or so planning ahead for the future this will be my downstairs bed so it's made out of ikea shopping units there's two shelving units laid on their sides and they're open all the way through there are shelves sorry baskets that get pulled out and they're full of this is tucker's basket full of his things i have hobbies in here as shoes at the end and so on but it's two levels deep so i have eight baskets so on top of the bed is a six inch or maybe it's eight inch thick tempur-pedic foam mattress which is extremely comfortable it's actually better than the one in my bedroom and we have regular pillows for backrest and of course my stereo system is at the back there the windows open wide with screens i made all the curtains in here and that's a souvenir from one of our trips to bali on this side of the living room i have a bookcase that has got over 150 books in it that i have not yet read that are going to be what i most enjoy about retirement i'm sure though i did read 100 books last year and i have so a source of heat is a oil-filled radiator and my son sanded up and colored that piece of wood so i have a little coffee station place to put my coffee and then my favorite piece of furniture this is my leather scan design chair with a pull out flip up foot stool and the back goes down there's a dial at the side you can turn it down and also the headrest moves so it's ideal for having a nap so i had nine windows in here and as a way of saving money at the beginning i started collecting windows so when i'd see one on sale on facebook marketplace or the local use goods store i would pick them up and that saved me a tremendous amount of money and when i i had the general idea building the home in my head and when it came time to actually plan it out we just made sure that the windows uh were incorporated into the design that i had made up so this picture i inherited from my dad and it was it's a drawing color in drawing that was made of victoria back in 1859 for some reason my dad had it that we always lived in vancouver and when he passed on i inherited it so it's almost seems like telling the future that i have this and i now live in victoria this is something i made in a woman's woodworking class when i wanted to learn how to use the tools that i would need to build the house and so that was my first attempt at anything to do with building and then this is my office it's got stapler and paperclips and pens everything that i need to do with paperwork is in there i call this my little music room because i have all the cords for the music a teeny tiny little speaker that has amazing sound for the size of it headphones extensions more headphones all those things and i keep them just in this little box this countertop i love this is probably the second favorite thing in the house it's made out of recycled glass so there's um the french blue water bottles there is green perrier bottles there is brown beer bottles red i'm not sure where from but they're all recycled glass bottles from a local area that a craftsman has put together with resin to make these beautiful countertops i have two bar stools they happen to be the perfect size for tables so if i have a few people over and i don't want to pull out the regular table i just pull these out and they eat off these this is an old doctor's cabinet that i found for cheap i pull it out and i can wheel it down that way to become a table for the in front of the couch i store my computer and my ipad there it's got this handmade funky world map painted on wood that i repurposed from my coffee table when i lived in an apartment so the whole thing is full of your sort of dried goods on the inside [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i was a home stager and i supplied all the furnishings for a house for sale so if i could furnish a four bedroom home with everything down to a hand towel in the bathroom and i found it incredibly um draining both physically emotionally and financially to manage all this stuff and move it constantly so i decided to become a consultant instead and i sold all that uh furniture and belongings it felt incredibly good it was so freeing i felt like a huge way to come off my shoulders at the same time i was thinking about what i'm going to do for retirement coming up at that time i think i had seven years until i was going to be 65 and i started panic a little bit because i've always worked for companies that didn't offer a pension plan and i hadn't saved anything my rent was very high and i knew that if i wasn't working i wouldn't be able to afford it so i at the same time i saw probably a youtube about tiny home living and was just mesmerized i just went oh my god this is this is what i need to do this is me [Music] and everybody's going oh yeah no that's not gonna happen you won't be able to do it i don't think you'll like it all these people that have their opinions on what might work for me and i didn't listen and i think the biggest thing i learned was when you're making such a big change like that yes do look at the bigger picture but in order to actually do it you need to tiny baby steps so break it down into manageable chunks if i thought about how much work and coordination and money would have gone into building this i might have been scared off but once i recognized i could manage it if i broke it into smaller pieces had to help with certain things like all the professional things like power and i mean electricity and propane and plumbing and with the help of a carpenter who's willing to teach me i could do this and i did and some people are still amazed that i did it and honestly sometimes i'm amazed that i did it but it's doable just do it [Music] so the kitchen has tons of storage i didn't have any drawers built into this for lack of time so what i bought was an old-fashioned filing cabinet the old wood ones that had the index cards in them and that's my cutlery tin foil things like that i have the eating utensils just in a tray on top of that just the usual garbage managed to fit underneath and then this one is sort of the coffee the dog food the other trays kettle uh jarred food that's stored and i have more jar food here very deep sink which i planned on because i want to be able to wash this guy and he hates having a bath but it's just the right size for him so my stove is um a magic chef and originally it was that lovely mustard yellow which didn't go with anything so i had spray painted it white with high heat paint and it would start discoloring and start going brown from the high heat and the burning i phoned a few companies to see if they could sandblast it and repaint it for me and they said nope once those things are done in the factory that is the permanent color so my solution was to spray paint it with a high heat black gloss and i do have to do it every couple of months because it chips quite easily but at least it looks nice it looks new and i also have the oven which is very finicky you have to learn um a lot about those ovens how to use them because it always burns too hot i have the usual fan and i did eventually um fork out for a small microwave it's very low power so it takes quite a lot more time to cook things or heat things up than a regular one but it's perfect for the space and then i have my some of my tin collection some of the things i've can last year i did peaches and blackberry jam from my area i walk around with the dog and collect them up and then just open shelving storage for the rest of the things so this side of the kitchen i have on top four wood boxes from michaels that i painted and they all have a balsa wood signs on them saying what's in them so i've got computer electronics crafts paperwork and cooking books and things so that's good use of space and then in here is my washer dryer though to be honest i would not buy a washer dryer again because it takes too long to dry it takes about an hour hour and a half to do a load which is smaller anyway but then it takes twice as long to dry it so i tend to hang everything outside and below that is my tool section and my laundry materials extra bedding is in that cupboard now this is a dometic fridge it is the rv fridge and it's actually running off of electricity at the moment it does have sufficient dish freezer space but not always um the fridge itself is is fair fair size and i always know when the power's out because these lights that are so bright and shine at night are out and this is part of the stair system but it's a closet i've got some outdoor coats here my tea towels and my storage for tupperware and drainers and strainers my all-important fire extinguisher these originally when i had the stairs built in april of this year i was worried about either myself or tucker slipping on them so i bought these mats and there was there was two of them and i found that i was rearranging the mats all the time they were slipping off the step so i took them off and i thought since we can't put doors on these because they're not wide enough why don't i use those as a way to keep the dust and dirt off the things and also make it a little more streamlined okay so these are my stairs so the bottom two pull out so you've always got them out of the way and they don't you don't trip over them basically that was a big concern i also wanted this stair to be usable as a side table if i wanted i tend to when i'm cooking or or doing some crafts i tend to use these now as well so they're another bit of surface i've got my radio which i'm constantly listening to cbc radio and then the stairs up to my bedroom and here's another aspect of security a handrail so when you're going up you can hold on there and you can hold on to the o camera so this is my sleeping loft i have a double bed with a really nice mattress and also a three inch foam topper on top so it's the ultimate in luxury i built some hanging rails here as a closet and i got this recently to use as a bedside table when i got it home i realized it's actually a book rack and this is a slider thing to hold your books upright but i use it this way as a bedside table i have two windows and i made sure both were egress windows so that means that if there was an emergency on either side of my house i could get out on either side safely smoked alarm and carbon monoxide detector and we have a lovely view of the woods from both sides [Music] well i went from a big house with a family and a husband to um getting a divorce and living with my kids in an apartment and then the kids moved out to live by myself in an apartment and it's just so much room it's like i come home i read i cook i do other things but what's all the space what do i need it all for and it's so expensive it's twelve hundred dollars a month for one bedroom i mean that's cheap now for victoria but at the time that was the going rate and i just thought there's got to be a better way to to live enjoy your surroundings and make the best use of the space you have and only have around you what you love what you need and not necessarily um what you want because there's always got to be something that you want otherwise you've got nothing to aim for so yeah that's then i started selling everything like crazy had garage sales gave stuff away kitted out my kids with furniture they still got all my my china cabinet and dining room table and so i suited them and they got all this furniture that they didn't need to go by and i never ever hesitated i thought okay i'm gonna have to wait a little bit to save some more money to buy more timber or um you know things are slowing down or i can't get the carpenter here at the time that i want him to be here but it's all it all worked out at all and i couldn't be happier about where i live i got awesome landlords i pay a rent for the space um they supply water and it and it's uh from a cistern so there's a proper pump on it so i have great water pressure unlimited electricity and i don't i don't have wi-fi which i don't need because i've got 20 gigs on my phone um and i don't have a tv which i don't want i have a small ipad and i download netflix at work for free come home and then some evenings i'll watch some netflix most the time i read or i do a project or i sew or so it's pretty um laid back lifestyle only of course we go walking because i live in a wonderful neighborhood and it took a lot of work to downsize it took a lot of work to build and a lot of money but i own property not property i own this home i rent the space to live in it and it's probably been the best experience of my life there's a freedom in owning only what you need and having a place that is totally your own and is a sanctuary and that's what this is for me daisy is my sanctuary [Music] this is my little bathroom i want to make it as small as possible because i didn't want to waste any square footage in the main living so my door is a regular door with glass panels but it didn't work with the arm railing system so what i did was i put wheels on the bar of the door and i made handles from a leather belt and then i just put a little bar across the top so the door doesn't fall out knock you unconscious so that works really well i have an rv toilet my landlord has a septic tank and it's been run close to me but not all the way so i have about 50 feet to walk with the bottom part of that toilet once a week to empty it which is my least favorite job but it's an easy system i have all kinds of recessed uh storage built into the gaps between the wall and also this for my immediate storage needs a small narrow sink that came from home hardware with storage and this was my mom and dad's old butler they called them butler's tray and they had handles here and here and you carry it like that and so we put a mirror in in order to make it a feature in in a mirror so my shower pan is a galvanized tub and i couldn't afford the chrome hoop because it's round so i bought a five dollar hula hoop and used some wire uh holders to hang the hula hoop and then i've got two shower curtains a wide sticky tape together in the middle that come round and encircle me for a shower and that works wonderful so this is outside of my house i have double french doors that of course i painted pink and then we have the double screens to keep the bugs out this was just a tall porch originally when i first moved in and then i realized because it's so tall the wind and the rain and everything were blowing in so i gathered up these patio no sorry they're not patio doors french doors and hung them around the porch to create a protected enclosed space on this one i hung uh shelves and i put all my succulents here so it's a bit like a a greenhouse for them and they're all my outdoor shoes so this is a tile that my son painted for me it's got a daisy on it because she's called daisy and it says home and so it's something i treasure it's one of the first things i got for my home so this is the garden and when i first arrived here there was some gravel put down among quite a slope so things are slightly slanted everywhere and i had to find a way to keep tucker inside without running off because he's one of those dogs that chases everything so i gathered up a bunch of dog kennel fencing joined them all up together and then i planted uh or woven bamboo poles to keep the deer from jumping the fence which is only three foot high into my garden so that's worked perfectly they haven't crossed it and keeps him in the house or in the garden and protects all my plants my hot water on demand ecotemp is in here which is an insulated area i've also got storage that goes all the way to the back and i have a fridge freezer i like to pre-cook meals and put them in the freezer so the in the morning i can take one out a meal out for the night i'm going to get home i just heat it up that was one of the projects i was working on during covid was refurbishing a doll's house so i've got that to find a new home for i have i use propane tanks for my hot water on demand and my stove so i only have to refill them probably four times a year at costco cost about 15 so that's really cheap i store them in that little another shed i built [Music] living tiny helps you spend more time outside it doesn't force you outside because you hopefully have made your home a beautiful relaxed setting but because you're outside and because you're in nature then you get more opportunity i think to actually go outside and experience it i've set up a really nice garden area for myself and my friends and family when they come to visit and we spend a lot of time sitting out there eating drinking laughing and then we'll go for a walk in the neighborhood so thank you everyone for showing an interest in my home my daisy and my little dog tucker and i'd be happy to if anybody wants to reach out to me with any questions how to get started what to do i'd be happy to answer anybody's questions because i'm such an advocative tiny home living and i think it's the best thing i've ever done in my life so thank you [Music] you

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 572,008

Rating: 4.951683 out of 5

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house movement, tiny home, small house, small spaces, small house design, alternative living, architecture, affordable home, off the grid, small space living, tiny house life, diy tiny house, diy home, solo female travel, tiny house build, simple living, off grid living, off grid cabin build, tiny house build time lapse, tiny house living in florida, alternative living documentary, architecture design

Id: SKZcVM_L-0o

Length: 24min 30sec (1470 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021