Here is a wonderful and honest post from our friends over at TinyHouse43 who just moved from Texas to Colorado in their THOW and found out that the answer to all of life’s mysteries will not be solved by living TINY. Here’s an excerpt and then run over to read the entire heartfelt post ~~~~~~
“WE ARE MOVING BACK TO TEXAS AND INTO MY DAD’S HOUSE IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.
Now, before you think, “Oh look, another tiny houser who couldn’t hack living tiny is going back to their big house life,” allow me to make one thing absolutely, positively, crystal. frigging. clear…”
Click here to read the rest
https://tinyhouse43.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/reality-bites/
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Be chatting soon 😉
Ron
Thanks for sharing, Ron. The one thing I want to clarify is that we never, ever thought just building our THOW was going to magically solve all of life’s mysteries, as you so eloquently put it. Our point is more that we got distracted by the awesomeness of the house itself and all the hard work we put into building it without out pausing to do more thorough research on the area we were planning to move to. I make the statement about building tiny houses not equating to instant debt-free living because I see soooo many posts of understandably excited but hopelessly naive folks thinking a tiny house is the cure-all for whatever ails them (student loan debt, stuck living with family, lost job, lost house, etc). My point is that THOWs and other tiny living apparatus, for lack of a better descriptor, CAN be a part of getting one’s life on track for whatever goals one has set for themselves, but the tiny house itself is merely ONE piece of the puzzle. We never thought we’d build a tiny house and *POOF* would go our other financial obligations, but we also didn’t count on the cost of living differences between TX and CO being so dramatically different as to actually put us in MORE debt than when we got here. The idea is still to think big picture, because it’s very easy to get the equivalent of “beer goggles” when dreaming/planning/building/buying a THOW or similar tiny living space. Our advice is the same advice we should have given ourselves: 1) pay off any existing debt first 2) secure parking for when you’re done 3) build high quality/ low cost w/o any financing (loans, credit cards, etc)if at all possible – and do it in that order! It’s not a fool-proof plan, but those three steps will greatly reduce the likelihood of getting in over your head when you’re ready to start the process or are finished and moving in. Just our $0.02 based on our own experiences. Cheers!!