I don’t have cable, (or even a television!) but whenever I go to my parents’ house, I end up getting sucked into Tiny House t.v. shows. It’s a whole genre now! And it’s amazing to see something that took us several months to do compacted into a neat, half-hour program. And I know a lot of it is editing and creating a story-line, but after living in an Airstream for over 2 years, I see a lot of myths and misconceptions about tiny house living on television shows. Today I’m going to set the record straight by debunking 10 tiny house myths. Continue reading
Category Archives: home
Lessons I’ve Learned From Living Tiny
For over 2 years my husband, my dog and I have lived tiny. We went from living in a beautiful (and big-to-me) 1,200 square foot loft to a 188 square foot Airstream Sovereign. I’ve learned so many lessons during that time. Some of those lessons were expected and some of those lessons were totally unforeseen. Some of the lessons have been easy and some of them have been hard. But more than anything I’m thankful that I’ve learned them. Living tiny has made me a better person. So today I’m going to share just a few of the lessons I’ve learned by living tiny. I’m sure there are so many more lessons in store. Continue reading
Airstream Livin’ Update: 2.5 years!
We’ve been living in the Airstream for almost two and a half years. Years, people! Some days it seems like so much time has passed and other days it feels like no time has passed at all. One thing is for certain: we’ve adapted well to living in just 188 square feet. We know how to declutter. We know when problems arise, we can solve them. And I know it seems strange to outsiders, but the Airstream truly feels like home.
In terms of upkeep, the trailer has held up pretty well. We’ve had some bumps along the way. (See: our leaky hot water heater.) We need to repaint when it warms up a bit. (See how our paint has held up.) But overall, the Airstream has allowed us to save money to travel and to build up an emergency fund. We’ve been to Austin, took a roadtrip to Florida, Charleston, Memphis, Portland and most recently we went to Iceland! And most importantly, we’ve built up an emergency savings and another savings account. And I know it sounds cryptic, but we’re trying to decide what to do with our other savings account. What a wonderful problem to have!
Let me explain a bit: at this point we’re getting the itch again. The itch to do something different. The itch to be brave. And if we’re being honest, we don’t know if we want to live in the Airstream forever. It’s wonderful and our home, but is it our forever home? We don’t know. We’d love to have some land of our own one day. (I want animals! And a big place to grow our own food!) We’re also really interested in other alternative dwellings, like tiny houses, cordwood cabins and shipping container homes. And we love to travel! So much so that we bought a van to convert into a super tiny home. We aren’t moving out of the Airstream yet, but maybe. One day. Sometime.
Are we indecisive and insane? Maybe. I truly don’t know what the future will bring, but I am excited to find out.
love,
melanie
Holiday Decor Ideas for Small Spaces
When you live in a small space, holiday decor can be a challenge. I want to be festive, but I also don’t want to have stuff to put into storage for 11 months out of the year. Over the years I’ve come up with and come across lots of easy and cheap holiday decor ideas for small spaces. Let’s get our decorating on! Continue reading
How Seth and Maggie are Preparing for Tiny House Living
Today I’m excited to feature my new friends, Seth and Maggie. Seth and Maggie are currently preparing for tiny house living. One of the questions I often get asked is how we downsized. I’ve talked a bit about downsizing before, but it’s good to get the perspective of others who have done the same. Since we didn’t work with a contractor, I’m also really interested in the process of planning and building a tiny home. Take it away, Seth and Maggie!
The Products We Used to Remodel Our Airstream
Ok ya’ll. Today is a doozy of a post. I get a lot of questions about the specific products we used to remodel our 1978 Airstream Sovereign. I’ve tried to link to the exact products we used, but we also borrowed when we could, repurposed and recycled. We were on a tight budget and a tight timeline. We spent about 4 months remodeling the Airstream and we spent about $1,500 to fix her up. I’m also writing this post two years in the future, so I’m remembering as best I can. If you want to read more about our remodel, check out this post. Alright, on to the good stuff! Continue reading
2015 Garden Report
I’ve had a few people ask about the results of my garden–which is super flattering. I still love gardening, I just didn’t keep statistics like I did last year. It can be time consuming to log everything you grow.
This year I planted zucchini, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, crookneck squash, peppers, potatoes and carrots. I planted the zucchini and carrots first. Too much rain washed all of the zucchini out of my garden and the carrots were washed all over the garden. The carrots ended up growing in chunks instead of neat rows. I was very disappointed about the zucchini because it was a huge crop for me last year. And it makes great noodles!
Since I planted more tomatoes this year, I had a great crop. The cherry tomatoes have produced for months and are still producing! (I don’t expect this to happen for much longer.) The heirloom tomatoes did well, but I think I had a slight case of blight and they didn’t reach their full size potential.
On a funny note, I must have bought the wrong pepper seeds. I thought I bought sweet peppers, but the peppers ended up being so hot that we couldn’t eat them! I managed to put a few into salsa and chili, and give some away, but most of the peppers ended up uneaten. I hate waste, but when I bit into one, I couldn’t breathe. They were that hot.
The squash bloomed and produced for a good two weeks, then died suddenly. But for those two weeks, it was a stunner! My purple potatoes were the biggest surprise. Since they grow underground, I felt like it was a huge gamble. The flowering part of the potato plants looked great, but I had no idea what was going on under the surface. When I finally dug them up, I was so relieved. I ended up getting pounds of potatoes off of two starter potatoes!
Although I spread nutritious soil on the surface of my garden, next year, I will probably dig deeper or use raised beds. The soil where I live is incredibly sandy and I think it has resulted in poor growth and small veggies.
Every year I learn something new with this little garden.
Did you plant a garden this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
love,
melanie
How Much Money Can You Save by Living in a Tiny House?
Today I’m going to address the question: How much money can you save by living in a tiny house? This answer is based on our own experiences and our own finances. The amount of money could vary for everyone.
We originally began living in an Airstream because we needed to save money. (At 188 square feet, we consider the Airstream a tiny house.) After we got married, George and I started to look at our finances and it wasn’t pretty. Individually we’ve each received 6 years of higher education. This gave us a bit of a later start in life. During our college years and even into the beginning of our professional careers, we saved nothing. Yes, we probably didn’t spend as wisely as we could have, but there wasn’t much left after paying our bills to save. George was a teacher and I am a librarian. We made (and still make) less than the national average wage index, but we are above the poverty line. We knew that we needed to do something that would dramatically improve our finances.
Living in a more affordable place seemed the answer. We looked around at apartments in the new area where we were going to live. We were instantly discouraged. The apartments that were clean and safe would leave us with nothing at the end of the month. We’d be fighting the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle for the rest of our lives. We wanted out.
One day I stumbled across this Featured Seller story on pollenArts— a creative couple who work and live in their Winnebago! One night while lying in bed looking at adorable little properties we couldn’t afford, I mentioned it to George. I didn’t put the pieces together, but George started searching for RVs on Craigslist right away. He knew we could do this. Airstreams had the most appeal, although they were a bit pricier than other RVs. Our Airstream cost $5,000 and it took about $1,500 to fix up. (You can read the whole buying story here.)
Now that you’ve got the history of our story, on to the good stuff! We spend about $700 on living expenses each month while living in the Airstream. (More about our expenses breakdown here.) This includes food, electricity, life, etc. In the past, our rent payments varied widely. Our most expensive rent payment was $1,000 a month– that’s what we were paying before we decided to move into the Airstream. That doesn’t even include the life stuff. When we were renting, we were spending everything we made.
This past year while living in the Airstream, I also went on a Spending Diet for the website I write for, And Then We Saved. I attempted to spend only $100 a month on “extra” stuff. Extra stuff included makeup, haircuts, clothes and stuff that I needed but didn’t really need to live. (You can read more about my Spending Diet here.) I didn’t succeed every month. It was much harder than I expected it to be! But I succeeded about 75% of the time.
With the help of the Spending Diet, I saved $12,441.99 in a year! I was hoping to save $15,000, but considering that I saved about half of my paycheck each month, I consider this a huge success. I also don’t plan on going back to my old ways, so I think I’ll hit my $15,000 goal in a few months.
Prior to the Spending Diet, we had lived in the Airstream for about a year. We went spent much of our “extra” money going on trips, but I don’t regret that at all. We could definitely save more if we didn’t go on vacations, but traveling is one of our priorities. George and I have been able to travel to Portland, Memphis, Austin, Canada/Niagra Falls and we took a road trip to Florida. I now also have emergency savings, a 401k and a Roth IRA. I didn’t even know what those things were a few years ago! Now that I’m off the Spending Diet (but still on the savings train) we just booked a trip to Iceland! So crazy.
Yes, we’ve been able to save more money by living tiny, but we’ve also been able to travel and explore the world outside our tiny home. That is priceless.
That being said, the longer we stay in the Airstream, the more we can save and the more we can travel. If we stay in the Airstream for another 5 years and continue saving at the same rate, we could save $60,000. That’s insane. I don’t know what our life will look like in another 5 years, but with that kind of savings, we could do something big.
Have you ever thought about living tiny to save money? Talk to me in the comments!
love,
melanie
The Small Life: Dre’s Free-Spirited Airstream
Hey ya’ll! Today I’m excited to share the Airstream of my friend, Dre. Dre is an incredibly talented artist whose work I have long admired. She lives and works out of her 1975 Airstream Sovereign! Take it away, Dre!
Please introduce yourself (name, occupation, current location, etc.)
Hi! I’m Dre! I’m an artist with a day job (the day job is visual merchandising). I have been actively working towards being a full time artist for about 3 years. I work with textiles; making quilts, tapestries, embellished re-purposed clothing, and other things! I currently live in West Virginia. I grew up in WV, and moved away to Savannah, GA for college when I was 18. I was there for 4 years then I moved to Los Angeles where I lived for 5 years and I returned to WV about 2 and a half years ago. Continue reading
Living in an Airstream: A Two Year Update
We’ve been living in an Airstream for two years now… two years! Sometimes it feels like no time has passed and other times it feels as if we’ve been living there forever. Most days it just feels normal. I go to work and come home. I come home to a home that is much smaller than average, but it still feels like a very conventional life.
Sometimes conventionality is good, but if I’m being honest, I am getting the urge to switch things up a bit. I get this urge every couple of years. We’re not planning on moving out of the Airstream, but we’d love to get a larger plot of land where we can do more gardening. George and I are also thinking more about the future of our family and what that looks like. We don’t know what the future will hold, but it’s good to question your priorities every few years.
Anyway, on to more shallow things! I’ve been getting some questions about how well the Airstream has held up after two years. The answer is: surprisingly well! We’ve actually switched very little around since we moved in. We did have to replace the hot water heater and the AC unit. Both were costly, but both were original to the Airstream, so it wasn’t a huge surprise.
The paint on the walls and on the storage units has held up well. (You can see what products we used here.) It looks mostly the same, but slightly less white from use. We’re big fans of Magic Erasers for getting dirt and marks off the walls. The paint on the counter and the paint in the shower has begun to chip a bit. (Pictures below.) We used oil-based paint on the counter (not something like this product for counters), so it is to be expected. I also put a hot French Press directly on the counter every day for two years, so I’m not surprised about that one either. This fall, when it cools down, we want to do a big repaint and clean. It’s surprising how dirty a tiny space can get.
This is the kitchen countertop. It’s seen the most wear and it is the worst of the paint chips.
The bottom of the shower.
The bench in the shower.
The bathroom sink.
Since living in the Airstream, we have accomplished our goal, which was to get ahead with our savings. We have jumped ahead savings-wise, but we’re still not at a place where I feel comfortable. (Will I ever feel comfortable? I don’t know.) I’ll have an in-depth savings post on how much we’ve saved on Friday.
Do you have any more questions about how the Airstream has held up? Talk to me in the comments!
love,
melanie
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