Her Retirement Plan Is Tiny Home Living -- No 401k, No Problem

[Music] i can look out the window and i'll see a mountain lion trot by it was way behind the eight ball when it came to a retirement plan so i decided to think outside the box i call it my kitty condo i got pavers and gravel and the artificial turf i see this as my future i love living out here this is a long-term place for for me hi welcome to my tiny home my name is hillary just wanted to share with you this is a couch and ottoman set up from home reserve it has storage in it and that's why i picked it it also can be rearranged into a twin size bed for company this entire house was just wood like you see on the ceiling but to make it more light and airy i wanted to paint it white so the builder did that for me and i added the little shelf under the tv and this red door is also a custom door that i was really excited to get because i thought it was so pretty this piece of furniture right here is actually my dining room table it's what i eat my dinner off of and then i have this piece of furniture here with storage inside that i keep everything my cell phone and my remote control and i put these blinds on uh so that i could keep the heat out because it gets really hot where i live during the summer and of course i had to fit in a cat tree for my cat and this is my kitchen all of this again was wood and the builder allowed me to customize it so i chose these countertops and the backsplash and the color of the cabinets i wanted the the mocha cappuccino rather than just the plain wood because i wanted some you know some contrast and then i also got these two granite cutting boards and i put them on top of my stove and it gives me extra counter space and when i cook i just lift them up and this is a four burner gas stove and this is a gas oven and it's run on propane i have a large propane tank outside instead of a dishwasher this is a wash machine and it actually washes a medium sized load and since i live by myself that's plenty i can wash my sheets and light blankets and throw in a whole load of jeans and and instead of washing just a little at a time so i really love my kitchen and there's actually nothing i don't like about it but but when it was being built and i was making my choices i didn't really know what i was doing but it really worked out perfect i never used a dishwasher even when i had them so opting to put this wash machine in here was perfect and at the time i didn't realize how good it would work out but there isn't anything that i don't like about the design choices and the way they uh built these coverage for me everything just worked out perfect as far as organizing uh the truth is is when i moved in here it was probably at least a year before i stopped pulling things out of cupboards and putting them in other spots it took me a long time to figure out how to fit everything but in here i have uh coffee and i have all of my animals medicines i have some old animals and up above here i have a bunch of dry goods and in here uh again i have some dishes but mostly uh the cat food and some other things for the animals and down here i have all of my plastic ware and in here i have what few pots and pans i i need and under here is typical of any other house i have my trash can and my cleaning materials and up here i have the bulk of my seasonings for cooking i have my plates and glasses i kept taking stuff out and and rearranging and doing things differently and after about a year i finally got it right to where it was very handy but easy to find things that i needed for everyday use [Music] [Music] i had three children that i raised since they were two four and six on my own i got divorced when they were very young and i never remarried so even though i had a good job i worked in law enforcement i didn't have the opportunity that my married friends had to have 401ks to have double income to save for retirement it was just living hand to mouth so when my kids were finally grown and i didn't have to support them anymore i was way behind the eight ball when it came to a retirement plan so i decided to think outside the box and buying this tiny home for cash not having a mortgage just renting land at someone else's property i am now happily retired and able to live on my retirement because i don't have a traditional home with a thirty five hundred dollar a month mortgage so this was my solution as to how do i support myself in my older age now one thing i really like is the storage underneath the stairs this part right here is what i call my coffee corner and i have my coffee pot maker and my toaster and just extra space because a lot of times when i'm cooking i need to put something somewhere so i'll put it on this space but underneath instead of opting for what the builder suggested as storage space i call it my kitty condo i have a siamese cat that sometimes does not want to have anything to do with my dog and her kitty box is here which keeps the dog out of the kitty box and her food and sometimes she'll just lay in there so she just goes in through the little opening and i have the screen in there so there's plenty of air but i really like this kitty condo it gives her her own little bedroom so to speak and in this closet here i have my seasonal clothes and i have a shed on the property so whenever the the seasons change i'll switch out my clothes so i just put some of my winter clothes in because it's starting to get cold and i have the dryer in here so i have the washer right here i take the clothes out pop them in the dryer and on top of the dryer i have a place for my cat to sleep because she has a lot of different places she likes to hide and on top in the shelf in here i have little bins and baskets with things like socks and you know under clothes and stuff like that and i also have one bin with all of my tools for my my hand back or my cordless vac i should say which i keep in the bathroom and this is my refrigerator it's a nine cubic which is pretty big of course not as big as the one i had in a normal house but who knew then how much space i was wasting but this is nine cubic feet it has a bottom freezer and plenty of shelving and room inside for everything i need and on top i actually keep a toaster oven which i usually bake chicken in it for dinner at night and above that i have a cupboard that i keep snacks in like you know nuts and pretzels and popcorn stuff like that it just turned out to be you know all that i need and on top of it i also keep my my animal food my dog and cat food and i have my coffee and some fresh fruit on top just like you'd find at any other refrigerator in a big house so it works out really good this is my bathroom this shower is only i think it's only 30 inches it's kind of narrow compared to what i'm used to but it's all i need and i'm i've never been a bathtub person so i'm fine with the shower the vanity here has two drawers on one side and a big door and underneath i can put toilet paper and all this stuff like in a normal bathroom and i have a huge mirrored medicine cabinet it's practically empty i have so much room and i added this standing cupboard here so that i had a place for my makeup and my jewelry and odds and ends in the house that i need and also added this cabinet and i have extra towels and all of my seasonal you know coffin flu stuff in there and i added this towel rack because i needed a place for extra bath towels so i put that above the toilet and this is a separate toilet i absolutely love this toilet it is so maintenance free and so sanitary it and for someone older like me i if something went wrong on a bigger toilet with moving parts i don't know what i would do so this is very easy for me and then i just added this towel rack and put on these curtains and i have my animals the cat and dog water bowl in here when i feed my dog i feed him outside if the weather is nice if it's not i feed him in here and take up the extra bowl and wash it and just put it away so there's room for everything and also right here in the corner i have my cordless back and i probably vacuum a couple times a day because in a small space the dog fur and cat fur are noticeable and i just keep it charged and so i have room for everything i need in here so i love this stairwell the builder put this railing on specifically for me because i'm 68 now it's been three years since i moved in and obviously you get older not younger so this was a great idea and these steps were the same color as the hand rail but they were kind of slippery for my dog i have a 55 pound dog it was kind of slippery for my dog and even for me so i ordered these stair treads they have a sticky back and they fit just perfect i had to trim them just a little bit and now it's easier for me to go up and down barefoot and easier for the dog and so i just really like these stairs a lot they're very safe when i go down in the middle of the night to use the restroom i just hold on to the railing and i'm comfortable that i'm not going to fall this is my loft bedroom it's only 42 inches tall obviously i can't stand up but when i come up the stairwell i'm standing straight up and i just get right into bed or sometimes i'll actually crawl on my knees and go around to the side if there's a dog in the way because you know you can't move the dog right and as you can see my cat is sleeping there because of the afternoon sun she loves it but i have three windows they're cross breezes are fantastic it's almost like sleeping outdoors because your head is on the same level as the windows and because i have so much wildlife i see coyotes i see mountain lions i see bobcats i have a resident bobcat and i just love my bedroom i can sit up in bed at night and watch this tv here and i have like maybe an inch but i'm still not touching the ceiling and this is a queen size bed big enough for me the cat and the dog and i have carpet uh underneath where the bed is with padding and so it doesn't hurt your knees when you walk around to try to make the bed i'm on my hands and knees when i strip the sheets and put them on but it's very comfortable and i just love it up here so this area is where i have as you can see my shoes that way i don't have to have them all laying around somewhere and i have my cat likes several different places to hide in the house so i have a little house for her and just a few decorations and then the basket i have over in the corner has some winter boots and some extra blankets to throw on the couch on a chilly night and i have my printer and my computer on a little cart there and then this little three drawer thing i have like some scarves and um extra pillowcases and stuff like that and uh of course i have my my tv and the little dog toy box that i keep up here with my dog's toys it's just a nice little area and sometimes i'll just sit on the steps here and i'll read for a while and look out the window just to get a you know a different place to spend time in the house so i really like it up here it's like a cute little cozy hangout and this window right here i really love it doesn't open or close i mean it's just a solid window but i can sit at the top of the stairwells when i'm reading my kindle or maybe just watching tv and i can look out the window and i'll see a mountain lion trot by and my dog gets all excited when he sees coyotes and he'll put his face in the window it's probably got some nose smears as we speak but it also lets in extra light and i'm all about light and airy and that's why this loft doesn't feel so confining because there's just so much lightness and airiness and this window makes a big difference i really like this window [Music] so [Music] [Music] downsizing was really interesting i lived in a large three-bedroom house and i knew that i had to get rid of everything i had and start over when i knew i was going to move into the tiny house and the move became imminent i just had a huge sale sold off all of my belongings and just took the essentials with me so that when i moved into the tiny house i could start over so i took pictures of a lot of things that i didn't want to let go of and that enabled me to let them go because i still had the memories but it was an instant purge i went from in one week from having a huge beautiful stainless steel refrigerator nice furniture that i was attached to beautiful rugs decorations on the walls to just nothing so it was a very strange feeling so i had this deck built and i spend a lot of time outdoors now because i have this awesome deck instead of just the little steps leading up to my front door i decorated it you know the way that i like to you know put these little uh iron or metal decorations i have a couple of chairs here one for myself and one for my dog in the and the couch right there and i'll come out here and i'll have my morning coffee and watch the coyotes or i come out here a lot in the afternoon and evening and i'll read my kindle and just look out at the wildlife and i have some really beautiful sunsets so i spend a lot of time outside on this deck i uh i really get some good quality time out here so when i first moved out here this ground was freshly grated so that i could pull my tiny house up here and it was just a bunch of red fluffy dirt and it took me about 18 months but i got pavers and gravel and the artificial turf so there's no more dirt which keeps my house really clean but it also gives me a really great place to just be especially like during the lockdown for the pandemic it was like a an oasis out here so i'm really proud of the yard i do have a few plants and i had to put up chicken wire because the wild animals would get in and eat them but i have a good place for my dog and a place when friends come and visit to gather and i really like that i finally got this all landscaped and decorated the way that i like so this is a 10 by 12 shed in order to live in the tiny house i kind of cheated and i got this shed but i have a wardrobe in here so that i could have room for the rest of my clothes and i also have space in here in in these drawers i have like pajamas and jeans and sheets and pillowcases and blankets and back here in the metal cabinet i have extra toothpaste and shampoo for when i go shopping in bulk so i have a place to store everything and then i have a freezer which really is awesome because i'll buy uh meat or other stuff in bulk and have it in my freezer which saves me a lot of money buying in bulk and then i have these shelves with dry goods and this is a trifold mattress that fits on my furniture inside the house and makes into a twin bed um so and i also have my my bench back here in my tools because i have to do a lot of yard work so i really have everything that you have in a large house simply because i have this shed so i feel really fortunate that i can have this extra space [Music] well thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed the tour of my tiny home dream big this started as a dream and most of the people i knew weren't on board and now they're like wow pretty good deal so dream your dreams make it happen be positive start a notebook that's how i got started i started a notebook did my research and i still have it i call it my tiny home notebook and you can do it and you will love it [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 1,015,523

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, simple living, tiny house community, exploring alternatives, tiny house tour, tiny house living, tiny homes, retirement planning, budgeting, diy, diy projects, home improvement, saving money

Id: NhKYPvU8pnU

Length: 19min 32sec (1172 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 31 2021