Remodel On Big Timber Road – Life In A Tiny House

As I’m sitting here writing this blog post today, I’ve now been living in our ‘tiny house’ (aka the little house) for seven months and 20 days. Yep, I’m counting! When we moved into our home 24 years ago, our current tiny house was a workshop and a garage. We wanted a place for the kids to bring their friends and a comfortable private space for our guests to stay. Jerry T decided to take on the project himself and after a few months, it was complete. We love having it and since the original completion, it’s undergone two makeovers.

Our Tiny House Before

Our Tiny House Now

The plan from the beginning was to live here during our home remodel. As the time got closer to the move out date, I started to have second thoughts. It’s only 480 square feet and there is no kitchen. Without discussing my apprehensions with Jerry T, I starting searching for alternatives. I thought an Airbnb would be a good idea since I would not have to move furniture twice. I contacted several places in Tyler, and NOBODY responded. That along with the fact that we would save close to 6k by living here convinced me to suck it up and go with my original plan. So as of February 1st, our remodel on Big Timber Road – life in a tiny house began.

As I explained in our previous blog post, we just brought the basics to our tiny house. We started with three weeks of clothing and the plan was to go to our storage and switch it out every three weeks. I spent a few days moving several decor items out to make room for organizational storage. Although we have a tiny closet, we bought these clothes racks for extra storage. We used these baskets from Bed Bath & Beyond in lieu of dresser space. They fit perfectly on our shelves, and I will use them in the pantry after the remodel is complete. I also bought two of these rolling carts for extra bathroom storage. We turned the pool table into an island/pantry space by adding plywood and a tablecloth on the top. It holds everything we use on a daily basis.

Before Move-In

 

After Move-In

Three days after we moved into our tiny house, I had an erbium laser treatment on my face. I had previously rescheduled this treatment three times so I felt like I needed to keep this appointment. Boy, did I have major regrets for the next week. Making it worse, was the fact that I could not have any sun exposure for the next week and was stuck inside my 480 square foot tiny house. You talk about a LONG seven days! Finally, on the sixth day, I put on a hoodie and a baseball cap and made Jerry T drive to Canton (about an hour away) to the Dairy Palace for a veggie burger 😁. I couldn’t take being stuck inside the tiny house any longer.

After that week, things went back to normal. As normal as possible in this small space. As I talked about in my video in Part 1 of the Remodel Series, we had several trips planned so hopefully our time here would be broken up and we would get a break from time to time. Our first scheduled trip was late February to Dallas to visit our son, then off to Anguilla for Jerry T’s birthday. What a wonderful break from the cold weather and our tiny house living conditions. We loved Anguilla and hopefully, we will go back for a second visit one day.

The Arch – Anguilla

However, soon after we returned, all hell broke loose. We were in the throws of a pandemic and the following two words would change everyone’s life for who knows how long.

CORONA VIRUS

This now meant that we were in “lockdown” in our tiny house. I’ll admit, I was a little terrified. The news kept talking about how dangerous this could be for the elderly. I kept asking Jerry T “are we elderly”? Being the almost perfect husband that he is, he would always say “I am, you’re not”. Eventually, I googled it and yes folks, I’m elderly 🤦🏼‍♀️ 👵🏻😩. So here we are stuck in our tiny house all day, every day, together.

Turns out, it hasn’t been that bad. At the beginning of the lockdown, my days mainly consisted of meal planning, online grocery shopping, and cooking twice a day (on a hot plate and a microwave). Before the pandemic, we ate out almost every night. I basically have not cooked this much since my kids were at home. It’s surprising what you can actually cook on a hotplate. We’ve had some really yummy meals. I’m vegan so all of the meals that I prepared were plant-based. Jerry T, who is not vegan, has now lost 25 pounds as a result!

I also spent time washing dishes (in the kitchen sink), and lots of internet shopping for the remodel. We also made sure we walked every day and usually after dinner we would go for a ride, just to get out of the house. All that sounds like something “elderly” people do, right?

My Tiny House Dishwasher

In the meantime, we had a bird’s eye view of what was happening with the remodel. That was good and bad. Good when the workers were here, bad when nobody would show up. As the weather warmed up, I spent a lot of time outdoors, working in the yard and planting our little veggie garden. Gardening was a great escape from our confined living space.

Our Corona Virus Victory Garden

At this point, I have become accustomed to ‘tiny house living’. I actually feel like I’ve been “glamping” all these months. I can clean the space in about 30 minutes, and it’s actually an efficient way to live. Yes, I would be open to tiny house living in the future, but it would have to have a kitchen and a little more storage, and it would definitely be a second home.

We’ve decided that we are not going to rush the ‘move-in’ process once the house is finished. We are going to take it slow and unpack a few boxes every day. After all, we’ve been here this long, so what’s the harm in a few more days in our tiny house?

NEXT BLOG POST…Remodel On Big Timber Road – The Process