Our Time in the Tiny House has Finally Come to an End.
Aimee and I have lived in the tiny house for two full years now and it has served us well. When we built the tiny house, we never intended to live in it long term, the plan was always to use the house as a stepping stone to the bigger picture. Finding out that we were expecting twins sort of threw a wrench into our strategy. We thought that we could manage one baby in the tiny house, and I think we could have, but two babies is hard no matter what your living situation looks like.
How the tiny house looked the day we left it behind.Rent in the Edmonton area is outrageous, the top floor of a house or a half duplex can easily fetch $1500 to $1700 a month and that doesn't even include utilities. With a cost of living this high is there any wonder why we were having trouble saving for our dream property?
We reasoned that, if we lived in the tiny house for at least two years we would have paid for the cost of building it which was around $30,000 CAD. Having met this goal, we now basically own a tiny house that paid for itself but it is time to move on.
We Moved in with Aimee's Parents
The main motivation was to get some extra help with child care. Aimee's Dad works seasonally and her mom cut her hours back to part time when the twins arrived so she could help out the first year. Their availability means Aimee has an extra set or two of hands when I am at work during the day which goes a long way towards reducing her stress level. She has even been able to start taking on a few graphic design projects again which will help us have a bit more funds for the house build this summer.
The extra room is nice too. Our space was just getting a little too tight in the tiny house, especially when we're confined by snow and cold weather. Originally, we had the babies sharing one bassinet in the bedroom loft with us. They were so tiny! When they outgrew that we had each one in their own separate bassinet.
Once they started moving around more though we didn't feel safe with them up in the loft with us. We rearranged the layout of the living area to incorporate a full size crib for them to share. The crib taking up so much floor space had the effect of turning the house design into one long, narrow hallway which was something we tried to avoid when we built the house.
The changing table was moved from the other side of the house which freed up room for the crib. The second loft ended up just being used for storing baby related items.One idea that crossed our minds was to use the second loft as a baby jail. I would enclose the space with lattice and a gate so the babies would be contained and out of the way. However, the thought of accidently leaving the gate unlatched while in an overtired and distracted state and having a baby fall five feet onto a hard wooden floor nixed that idea pretty quickly for me.
The babies have also been crawling for over a month now, well it started as an army crawl but anyway... That extra mobility has meant we had to make some modifications to the tiny house. I installed pull out gates at each end of the main living area so they wouldn't be able to get to the stairs. While the gates made the tiny house baby safe again, it was getting tiresome to constantly have to step over them.
Once the babies started moving around we had to install gates so they wouldn't fall down the stairs. We also put down some foam mats because the babies were falling over on their heads so much.So, What is the Plan Now?
We are going to stay with Aimee's parents until the new house is ready to move into. The house doesn't necessarily need to be completely finished, just far enough along that we can comfortably stay in it. We may use a fifth wheel to stay out on the property during parts of the build.
Once the large house is quite a ways along, we will also move the tiny house out to the property. For those of you who are wondering why we haven't moved the tiny house to the property yet, the main reason is because I don't want to attract unwanted attention. A tiny house on a completely undeveloped piece of land is a great way to attract the attention of a county bylaw enforcement officer.
The county has limits on how long you can "camp" on your own land. Ridiculous, I know, but that is the world we live in these days. Once we have a regular house up we can always tell them we aren't using the tiny house or we are using it only occasionally for guests which would fall under camping use.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, the tiny house has basically paid for itself. We will have to decide what we want to do with it. We can keep it as a guest house, use it as a cabin on a future recreational property or sell it and recoup our investment.
Life is about learning and tiny house living has taught us a lot about ourselves, our relationship with each other and how we want to live in the future. It certainly taught us that we don't need as many physical possessions as we thought we did. We've also learned that we can live comfortably in 200sqft. Just maybe not with twins!
Love it! So beautiful! My hubby and I lived in a "tiny house" for ten months, over the winter. It was a homemade fifth wheel, and we enjoyed every minute. And DO enjoy your twins. I always wanted twins, but the Lord gave my 4 to me one at a time. May I recommend an excellent book for training them? It's called "To Train up a Child" by Micheal and Debi Pearl, of NoGreaterJoy Ministries. I used this book, and believe me, I would use it again! If you train them, they will learn to be such a help to you, and SUCH a JOY and BLESSING! It's a lot easier than going the "undisciplined child, angry parent" route, which I also (sadly) experienced. Love one another, and be blessed! 😊
Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed your stay in the tiny house.
how big is going to be the BIG HOUSE?
1000 ft² (93 m²)
That's quite rough. Over here 1500$ would pay a year's rent in a comfortable apartment and people are camping for however long they like even in public spaces. The tiny home looks lovely, but I'm sure your new home will be amazing as well. Also, belated congratulations on your twins! That's sure to bring a lot of change. I'm sure growing up on a homestead will be so great for them.
We think the twins growing up in the country will be good for them too.
It's hard for me to judge to how "rough" the situation is because I don't have a lot of experience visiting other countries. Maybe I am being a wuss to even complain about our rents. I feel like Canada has high incomes but our cost of living and taxation is also very high so it is hard to get ahead.
So excited to see your new adventure! I loved your "baby jail" and then your whole thought process after! I also think it's great thay Aimee's parents are so supportive, and have helped so much! Congrats to you both for sticking in there and making your goals happen!
Thanks!
Limits on how long you can "camp" on your own land is crap in Canada and people need to start speaking up about it. In this area they have started not allowing you to camp on your own land at all. And no sheds or trailers unless a very large house is built first. That is not what Canada is suppose to be about. These laws does not effect our family but sure are upsetting to think what my grandfathers did for these freedoms be taken away from us as Canadians.
Great post good luck with the new home.
It really sucks and you are right more people need to make a stink about it. Unfortunately the majority of Canadians are probably in favor of these sorts of laws. They are worried that people "camping" long term looks junky or poor and it might hurt their property values.
instant follow, love anything tiny house related, maybe you can airbnb it out for extra income. i had no idea that you could not live in it EVEN if on your own land for any long periods of time, seems nuts, your land, the world is mad sometimes.. .
Good idea on the airbnb. I wonder if there would be a market for people who wanted to experience living in a tiny house for a few days?
Glad you enjoyed the post.
i have no doubt that their would be. you would be surprised, especially if you made is like a retreat thin or maybe all inclusive with food from the local area in the fridge etc for the time they were there, stuff like that, tour guide information waiting for them, some wifi. yeah i'd give it a shot.
You effectively doubled your family overnight when the twins were born. That's a lot to expect of a 200 sq. ft. tiny home. Kudos for making it happen for as long as you did. The baby jail was a cute idea but I understand your reasoning for not doing it. It is wonderful to have supportive parents during this transition time. Congratulations on living your dream!
Thanks. Yeah we did pretty good I think. Babies are 8½ months old.
Yeah, living in a tiny home with toddlers would be a nightmare, trying to keep them safe...I had four sons in a 900 square foot home and that was tight!
Our newest one's not at the army crawling stage yet but I can see the future of having to rearrange things again for her.
That said, I can totally relate. We're not living in a tiny house but we have a small house, we need less stuff is all I can say.
Hope the house progresses well so the family can move in and be comfortable, another step towards your goals. For now, enjoy the extra helping hands :)
Thank you! So how many children do you have now? Is that 4?
Yes, we have 4. I thought it would be nice to have twins at first then singles after. But after having the first child, it would have been tough for us since we didn't have any family around.
Having said that, I know we can handle twins. You are both handling it well and I admire you both for it. And homesteading at that... Soon the twins will be walking and it will be another arrangement :D
The walking is going to be fun but also a pain. They are already getting into everything!
LOL yes they never stop getting into your stuff. Let me help you my friend. At one point I asked my son, what he was allowed to do. Ohh he broke my heart... he basically said everything with a not do this or not do that. So that very day we changed the rules at our house.
There are two rules now.
Dont hurt people. And you are a person so you cant hurt yourself.
Dont hurt peoples stuff.
Now everything is much more beautiful but they still don't listen! I think it just helped @lovenfreedom and I chill out and let them learn the hard way. It is so tough as a parent letting your kids make mistakes.
But they will do it and the best we can do is support them when they are recovering from those consequences.
Sounds like good advice. Thanks!
It's looking really amazing sir... 👍
very beautiful house!