Is My Tiny House Too Expensive?

I think he made some good points in this post below. And these are among the reasons why I am very ok with what I paid to have someone do all the work on my house for me. (Aside from the fact that it would be way cooler to be able to say I built it myself!)

http://thetinylife.com/the-fallacy-of-a-tiny-house/

My house works out to costing around $342 per square foot. That's really high compared to a big house which one site told me was an average of $88.95 per square foot for an average 2400 square foot home here in WY, but fine with me. That price includes everything except for small furnishing and some furniture. Much of the furniture is built in, as are all the appliances. I still have all the appliances a big house would have, many of them are just smaller. If you're into backpacking, you will know that making things smaller is not usually cheaper, but much more expensive. It makes sense to me that the same it true for appliances. 

Mine is also built and insulated with the area I live in mind. In the northwest corner of WY, it's cold and very snowy for much of the year. As of today, the mountain around here have already received 52 inches of snow this year and it's been below zero for most of the last week. If you live somewhere totally different, the money spent on insulation, roof strength that will hold up a lot of snow, etc may be a total waste. It's not for me.

Time is not free for me either. As I said, I think it would be really cool to say I built it myself. I think I could learn how. But I don't know how to build a house right now. I need a house right now (See this post for more of that story). I don't have a place to build it or the tools requires. And it's easier for me to work and earn the money to pay someone else right now. If I had more free time (or wanted to spend less of my free time backpacking/skiing/fishing) and less money, I'd try to build it myself. Not that I have tons of money, I just think for me in my particular situation, my time/money is better spent this way. This is certainly not true for everyone, and other in my same situation might choose to do the opposite for their own reasons too. But these are some of the reasons I don't think my house was overpriced. You're welcome to think I'm wrong of course, but you don't have to buy one if that's your opinion.

In my case, it also lets me continue to live and work in the Jackson, WY area which is where I want to be and have a good job. Small condos with no land sell for over $400,000 here. (The one I was renting for the last 3 year did just that making me homeless and leading to my buying a tiny house) The average rental here right now with multiple room mates, seems to be about $1000 per bedroom. So having my own space, not to mention owning it and being able to take it with me if I move, is a huge deal. At those rental rates, in seven years I would have paid enough to buy my tiny house anyway. And I've already lived in the area for that long so now I'm kinda wishing I'd done this 7 years ago. So, for me, the price seems like a good deal.

And did I mention that instead of having a standard house built for the average person, I get one totally customized for me? Including custom cabinetry etc? I think I got a very good deal for $342 per square foot. Does that mean I think your house is junk if you built it yourself for less than $1000 total? Nope. I just think it wouldn't accomplish what I want in a house. I paid almost $400 for a 1 pound 9 oz tent which I've now used for several years for two people and plan to continue to use for many more. The light weight is great with the many miles it's covered especially since my best friend has a shoulder injury that limits the weight he can carry when we backpack. That tent does what I want, so it's a great deal for me. You and many others probably don't want my tent, but I hope your house fits you and your needs as well as my tent, and I hope my house, will fit mine.

Nearing Completion!

She has a roof and completed siding now! And should be totally finished in a few days and here by the end of the week.

Front door looking in, and below, the interior spray foam insulation.

Indoor walls and window frames being finished out. Taken from the main room looking back toward the kitchen and bathroom.

The shop where she'll be finished and remain until delivery at the end of this week!

Tiny House Bed

Tiny house bed is awaiting the house! Thanks to some serious vacuum packing, my brand new full size mattress is currently in this fairly small roll. Should be great to use right on my loft floor, and comfy, since I purchased the firmest mattress I could find and my back is most happy with a pretty firm sleeping surface. We'll find out soon if it was a good choice. I don't love Ikea for everything, but they seem to have a winner with this mattress and no one else makes something similar and anywhere close the same price range. Since it just me, I decided a full size mattress should be plenty large enough and I'd rather have the extra space for other things, though I could get a much bigger bed in my loft if I choose to.

My house is going up!

I just received the first photos of my house being built from the guys doing the building. They are the crew from The Shed Yard, working for Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. It should be complete in less than a week, and delivered by next Friday. Can't wait! Though I do wish it wasn't below zero while I settle in to the off grid lifestyle. It's been in the negative teens here the last few days and is snowing like crazy right now.

This was prepping the trailer bed that is the foundation and a closeup of the insulation and vapor barrier that will help keep me cosy.

Walls are taking shape!

Full side view and the interior wiring. 

Siding starting to creep up the exterior.

View from the rear of the house, and below, looking inside from the front door.

Why A Tiny House?

My move to a tiny house was instigated by a phone call informing me and my long time room mate Beth that the house we'd rented for the previous three years was for sale. We had hoped to live there for many more years, but about a week after that first phone call, the house was sold to a couple who planned to move in, not as we had hoped, someone who would continue to rent the place, so we were about to be homeless. 

Housing is always tight in a place like Jackson, WY just because so many people want to live here and there is so little space to build, due to the vast amounts of protected open space such as national parks, national forest, and BLM lands. Of course, these protected spaces are precisely why we all want to live here. This past year it has become worse than ever with many people living in hotels, camping, or living out of their car full time. Literally, one day the paper had over 6 pages of help wanted adds, and only 7 places for rent.

When I suddenly joined the crowd of those trying to find a place to live, it hit home just how hard this was going to be if I wanted to stay in the area and stay within my income. I looked at multiple houses for rent as soon as they were listed, and none of them were ideal, and most of them would have required a commitment of close to 100% of my income in the winter months. (I wait tables and earn more in the summer when there are many more tourists in the area.) None of this seemed like a good idea, and I still did not want to leave the area.

So I started to seriously think about moving into my car or a small RV full time. Then I remembered a post I'd seen a long time ago about a tiny house, and thought maybe I should check that idea out. Within about 6 weeks from then, I decided to go for it, found a builder, designed my house, obtained financing, sold most of my belongings and moved into a hotel where I am now waiting for my finished house to arrive.

I really like the idea of mobility. I think I like the tiny house concept better then buying a nice normal house attached to the ground here, even if I could afford one, which I can't. This might be silly, but I've found that my home is closely tied to security and stress for me. I realized this when I found I'd have to move (very different than the other times in my life when I moved by my choice) and had no idea if I could really find anything. I really like my space, tidiness, having things/colors arranged in a way that is peaceful to me, etc. All of that being up in the air is hugely stressful, so I'm really liking the ability to settle in and only have to move the house if something changes, not move out of the house. And being able to take it with me if I should choose to move elsewhere is huge. This is probably the main reason I'm excited about joining the tiny house movement. There are others too, but I'll probably have a post about them some other time.

Right now I live here

For the last 6 weeks, I and all my stuff have been living in this little hotel room. Not the most ideal, but not too bad of a spot to wait for the completion of my tiny house. Should be done and ready to move into in just over two more weeks!

Past Houses I've Lived In

My housing history... My parents live in this house.

Then I moved to the Jackson area (ID, actually) and rented this kind of spacious studio.

Then my room mate Beth joined me and we moved into this place.

Then this place.

And finally this one.

I'm not sure of the exact square footage of any of the houses I've lived in previously, but I know they were all an awful lot more than the 229 square feet I'm moving into!

Fy Nyth

 Just getting started here...