[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, my name is Denetra. This is my dachshund, Molly-Sue. This is my tiny
home, Bethany Blue, and we're here at Acony
Bell in North Carolina. [MUSIC PLAYING] I like to travel. I like animals. I'm a counselor. I'm a Christian-based therapist. Tuesday through
Friday, I'm talking to people about their problems. I've been a social worker
for the last 12 years. So, yeah, that's
me in a nutshell. Yeah, I actually had a
three-level townhome in Vegas. It was a beautiful townhome,
and I was renting it. Just with the pandemic
and everything, so much had changed,
and I had always wanted to be in a tiny house. But I was just
apprehensive about going through the process. Actually, I was
scared of figuring out how to set the
foundation for that as far as water
hookups and electricity and getting the tiny house,
and where am I going to put it? Just all these different things. So I just hadn't went
forward in that area, but the pandemic really pushed
me outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to get out
of the city, and I wanted to move to the country. I went forward, and I
actually got a trailer. And I renovated it. And when I lived
in it, I was like, wow, if I could live
in this, surely I could be just fine
in a tiny house. And I was looking
around on a website, and I saw a girl who had the
same exact tiny house as I did. I thought, well,
this girl is single, and she has a tiny house. If she could do it, I can do it. And I prayed. I prayed, and I said, Lord,
if you could do it for her, you could do it for me. [MUSIC PLAYING] I've been living tiny
for two years now. I have an 8-by-26
Tumbleweed tiny home. I believe it's the
Cypress Equator. I've been here for
the last three months. I'm a newbie. I am here on the corner lot. I really like it because
it's by the creek. It's very quiet. I get to see a lot
of the different dogs because a lot of people walk
their dogs on this little trail here. It's very open. I also like that there are
so many hiking trails here. I love to hike, love to walk. It's a lot of nice open space. And I enjoy just meeting
the different neighbors. And you're not so closed in. You're not right
next to someone. You have a generous
amount of space. So I call my tiny house
Bethany Blue, a.k.a. BB. Come on in and
let's take a tour. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. Welcome to Bethany Blue. So my tiny home is
272 square feet. Really happy about it. It's a perfect size for me. I always tell people, if I was
to get married or anything, he would just only be able
to bring his drawers in here. He wouldn't be able
to have no clothes because I have this place
locked and loaded, OK? Every nook and cranny
is all my stuff. So I am so grateful because it's
just the perfect little setup just for me. So this is my fabulous entryway. I'm so grateful because
when I first moved here, this was all just a blank slate. One of those things that
you realize when you first move into a house
like this is that you need to have somewhere
to put things, and I didn't factor that in. So I went to IKEA. IKEA is the best
place for tiny homes, and I found this little
drop-down storage unit for shoes. So I put all my shoes here. I have a place to put my keys,
chapstick, coats, jackets. This is really even better
during the wintertime because you've got the bulky
boots and the bulky jackets, and so it's just very convenient
to have it all in one space and have it organized. Then we come over here,
into my little nook area. This, again, was kind of a blank
slate when I first moved here. It was just pretty much a hole,
and it wasn't practical at all. It was very hard for me to
find a piece of furniture to fit inside this space. I was able to connect
with a builder, and he was able to
come out and put in pretty much a big,
huge drawer for me to be able to store things
under, but also a space for me to be able to sit in. And it gives me a space
to put my exercise mat. I do a lot of Pilates,
so I can put weights in one of the sections. I don't have a
file cabinet, so I have things to put files
in in that section. So it's just good. All those little
things that you need, but you don't need
them every day, but you need to
have access to them. And this table here, I sit
this way longways a lot. And the original
plan for the table was for me to be able
to sit my feet on when I'm sitting in the
nook, so I can make it like almost an L-shaped couch. But the other benefit
of having this is if I'm sitting this way,
I can use it as a side table. So it functions as a little
ottoman and also a side table. And then it just kind
of locks back into place when I am not using it. And this is my storage loft. This loft is very, very
handy because it allows me to store my offseason things. So I usually go through
it and take everything down two, three times a year. And then we come here to
the little dining room area. This functions as an exercise
area when it is folded down. It took me having to do some
maneuvering for a few months to get used to it. It's just enough space for
me to be able to work out. So I'm very thankful for that. And when I am not working out,
I usually have it folded up. Excuse me, Molly-Sue. Molly-Sue run the house. I just want you
all to know that. So I usually have it
folded up, and it functions as a dining room table. I do a lot of crafting, so
I'll pull my crafts out. I have drawers on the side here. It does fold out on the other
side and can seat six people. I don't think I'm ever going
to have six people in here for dinner, but if push comes
to shove and that happens, at least it's an option, OK? This part of my
house is the kitchen. This is where it all
goes down, right? I love to cook. I am gluten-free, soy-free,
oil-free, and I am vegan. So I do a lot of cooking. I pretty much cook
everything from scratch. So this is a very important
part of the house for me. I like to have things accessible
and functional and organized. That is my motto. So my whole purpose
in this whole section was to make it look
nice, of course, but also to have things here
that I could use and grab and for it to be very
functional for me when I'm trying
to get to things. I have my spices here. A little two-tier spice
rack that's very convenient. I have a three-burner
gas stove it. Runs on propane. It does come with a
pretty generous-size oven. I do have some things that
I store in here, my tortilla maker and things of that sort. I really like it. The only thing is you really
can't put three pots on here at the same time. I usually only have
about two things going. But usually I just
try to keep it at one, and I also have an
electric cooktop that I use if I need more space. I like it. And you can also put this
down when it's not in use. You just kind of
close it up, and you can work on top of here,
too, if you need to. So it gives you a
little more prep space. And this is my drawer. This is kind of the catch-all
drawer for the kitchen. Has all my different
utensils and things for me to be able to cook. So that is very functional. Here I have a pantry area. When I originally moved here,
all of these little cubbies were open. And the builder who built the
nook, he put doors on them, and he also put in
two slideouts here. These were just pretty
much open holes. So thankfully, I got these
two slideouts put in. This holds all of my herbs and
teas and things of that sort so I can keep them
nice and organized. And this one holds all of my
cans and the rest of my spices. So this works out perfectly. This is a Splendide
washer-dryer combo. I do not like it. I'm just going to
be real with y'all. I would not get this. I do not think that washers
and dryers need to be together. I've had a few problems with it. It works, so I don't complain. Thank God I got a place to
wash my clothes and dry them. But if I had to
choose, I would have gotten a regular-sized
washer and dryer. It's, to me, not the
most practical thing. But it's good if it's
cozy in this space, and for now, where I'm at in
my life, it definitely works. Here we have the other
side of the kitchen, which is very handy for me. This was actually the
little cutout space that they originally
wanted to put a microwave, but I don't use microwave. So I use it for
all my appliances. Because I cook
everything from scratch, so I got a lot of appliances. So I had to find appliances
that could fit in this space. I bought this cute
little toaster oven. It's super tiny, but
it's perfect for just me. And it's easy. I can just put it
right on the counter. And here I have my Instant
pot, food processor, a juicer, and then my air fryer. So I'm able to just
kind of pull things in and out as I make a meal. My fridge is like an
apartment-sized fridge. It's small, y'all, OK? Now, look, don't judge me, OK? Everything else in here
is organized but this, OK? was just stuffing stuff in here. I gotta make it look a
little nicer than that. But anyway, this is the one
thing that I struggle with, because I like to store food,
and because I make everything from scratch, storing different
things is very important to me. But this right here, it's small,
so I'm struggling with that. But the bottom side
of it is perfect. It just fits
everything that I need. And then I have another
pull-out pantry. This was part of the build
that I had then put in. And down here is my
little baking section. I have all my baking stuff
here and then the rest of my containers. So it just works out perfect. On the other side,
I have my closet. This is my closet. Originally, when it came, it
was a rod that they put here, but that just was
not practical for me. So I went on the hunt
at a container store, found all these
different containers, and so it's good to be
able to pull things out. Then I have a solar generator
down here that I can flip on. I got that included
with the build. So if the power ever went
out, I can flip on the solar. And then I have this big,
huge ugly water heater. I did not realize that this
big old thing would take up half the closet. But I praise God, because you
need to keep some hot water, and nobody wants to
take a cold shower. My tiny house was 98,000. Some people may think
that's super expensive. And at first, for me, it
was super expensive, right? So I was originally going
to go with a used tiny home, but the process
of getting a loan, there's only so many
ways you could do it. You either need to
have upfront cash, or you need to get a loan. And the interest on a
personal loan is gargantuous. So I went through
Tumbleweed and had to go through the whole
custom route, which made it more expensive. And I actually was
really happy that I did that because I ended up
getting a tiny home mortgage loan. And as a result of
that, the interest rate was way lower, so I pay
way less for a mortgage. Because I was really
anxious about the idea of paying for that. Is it worth it? Should I do that? But it was either that
or pay for an apartment because I couldn't afford to
buy a traditional big home, and I didn't really
want that anyway. What I did was I sat
down, and I added up all of the years
of rent that I've paid over the last 15 years-- look, I'm telling my age-- what, 20 years. I'm 39, so I've been out of
the house since I was 18. I added up all the years
of rent that I have paid, and it came to over $300,000. And when I saw that, it
shifted my whole perspective. You sitting up here
crying about $98,000 when you paid this gargantuous
amount of money. You could have had
three tiny homes. You could have had
a regular house. So when I added
that up, it really put things into
perspective for me. And this is
something that I own. And nothing wrong with renting. I did it for a very long
time, but for the lifestyle that I wanted, it just
wasn't practical anymore. And the cost of living
now is just so expensive. So it just made a whole
lot of sense for me, but I would like to pay it off
within five to seven years. That's my goal. And I think it's doable. It's just putting
pressure on myself to double, triple payments,
but that's very doable. And this is my bathroom. It's my tiny bathroom,
but it's super functional. And I was able to find this
little shelf from HomeGoods, and it fit perfectly
in this space because there was nothing
under here, under the sink. And it houses all of my
knickknacks, everything that I need. Then I have a nice little
medicine cabinet here that houses more things. I used to have a compost toilet. Glory be to God I have a
flush toilet right now. I'm so grateful that I do
not have to deal with that. I watched so many
different videos about people who
had compost toilets. No. Dumping and all
of that, I just-- I'm very grateful to be
able to flush and walk away. You just never
appreciate these things until you're put in
a situation where you gotta have something different. So I definitely
like a flush toilet. My shower took some getting
used to in the very beginning. It is a little smaller
than a standard shower, but now I'm very used to it. And in the back
here is my office. This is where it all goes
down during the week. I spend a lot of
my time in here. As I said, I'm a therapist,
and so I spend a lot of time talking to people. All my sessions are virtual. So I am here most of the time. This is a standing desk, and
this is a standing desk chair. So I'm sitting and standing
and sitting and standing. And it has all my
books, everything I need to be able to
access, different materials if I'm helping clients with
homework and different things that I give them
during the sessions. It's not that big,
as you can tell. I can't even
stretch my arms out. Barely. I can't stretch both arms. This is about how wide it is. But I don't feel claustrophobic. Surprisingly, I feel very
cozy in this little office. So it's built by
Tumbleweed Tiny Homes. It was delivered from Colorado. And the first day I
got, it I'm telling you, it was probably one of the
best days of my life seeing it pull up into the driveway. And it was scary because it was
in the West Virginia mountains, and where I had the slab made
for it to be was on a slope. I just had confidence
that he would be able to get it parked in
there, and when he pulled in, he said, oh, I can do it. And he was so confident,
so I knew, oh, he got it. And so he pulled it in just
fine, but getting it out was very scary. I took it to Tennessee. I planned on staying there. I was supposed to be
on a couple's property, and it just wasn't the best fit. When I had first
started exploring the idea of tiny homes, I
had learned about Acony Bell. And I always wanted to
come here and visit, but I'd never really
gotten the time. I reached out to John,
and within a few days, he wrote me back and
said they had a spot. And I was just over
the moon, excited. I paid $625. Some people may think
that that's expensive. It wasn't expensive to me
with the amenities you get. And I also like that I
live close to the city, if I need to run into
town to get something. I like the hiking trails
that it's on, 50 acres. I just love the
whole community feel. I don't have to worry about
cutting grass and weed-whacking and the trash. It's just a very nice,
well-kept, well-groomed community. I don't have any complaints. And so to me it's worth that. I was paying almost
$2,000 being in Vegas, so to me that is well worth it. So my stairs. These stairs are
super-duper steep. I fell twice, busted
my behind, and I had a huge red, purple mark. So I had to get used to
these because they are not like regular stairs. It was a transition
period for me. This here is some
more storage space. These three little cubbies,
that's where I store my pots, pans, and some more appliances. And so that's nice
and tucked away. I really like it. This here is a dehumidifier. I run it every day, all day. We're in a pretty
humid area here. So it's pretty necessary. OK. And so now let's go up
to my sleeping loft. OK, this is where I sleep. It is a nice cozy
memory foam mattress. I believe it's an
8-inch mattress, so it just gives me just
enough space to put my head up. That's pretty much it. I don't do a whole
lot up here but sleep. I do have some storage
space here where I hold all of my dresses
and sweaters, bulky things, big, bulky clothing. I have it stored up here. I also have a fan up here. It's a Dyson fan heater. And my air purifier to just
keep things cool in the evening. [MUSIC PLAYING] There are not a whole lot
of people that look like me, Black folks. We don't do this. Getting a tiny house is too
much claustrophobia for us. So this is definitely out of
the norm for my community, but I have to be who I am. I'm just not the type of
person to want a whole lot. I don't need a whole lot. I can be pretty
sufficient and practical with making the best
out of just what I have. I can do that pretty well. And I'm glad because I'm
not really that stressed. I really try to keep
a peaceful home. This is just a safe space. So I'm glad that I am here. And I just encourage
those who are wanting to explore this to go forward. It can be intimidating. And I just encourage
you to go forward. And I'm glad that I took the
leap of faith and went forward and did it, and my faith
really made all the difference. Everybody don't have the same
faith, and whatever you believe is what you believe. But my faith is
really what allowed me to be able to jump in
and do it and go forward. And I'm glad that I was able to
stand firm on that and staying true to who I am and what
it is that I want as a woman and where I am
right now in my life and not look at what
everybody else is doing and what everybody else has
and really focus on, where do I want to be in my life? This has been one of the
best decisions of my life. The whole process,
the good, the bad, it has been one of
the best decisions, and I'm just very grateful. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you for watching our video
and for stopping by Tiny House Expedition. I'm Alexis. And I'm Christian. Don't forget to like,
comment, and subscribe. And for more tiny home
tours and stories, click the videos below. And join us on Instagram
for bonus content. Including face-to-face
conversations with us. We hope to see you there. All right. Thanks guys. Have a good one.
