Big Step #1...What did we get ourselves into?!"

For about 6 years now I have been mesmerized with tiny homes. It's not really the size of them that fascinates me as much as the fact that by embracing this alternative lifestyle, one can more easily find financial freedom in life by living mortgage free and with very low, or in some cases, no utility expenses. The homes themselves do intrigue me as well. They are always unique and customized to the homeowner with creative ways to make use of the space. And when a home is built around who you are, that is about as close to home as it gets right? 

My boyfriend Hank jumped on board with the idea and he has turned it into a dream of his as well, so with the two of us gung-ho on the idea, we decided to embark on the journey of becoming tiny home owners ourselves! Last week, I found on Facebook Marketplace a $500 Jayco 5th Wheel RV. It's one of those 36-foot long goose-neck campers with the hydraulic slide-out. I believe its a 1996:

This is an awesome deal considering a brand new trailer can cost upwards of $4500! All we need to do is demo it down to the bare bones and retrofit it to be safe and sturdy for the weight of a tiny home. Sounds easy enough when it rolls off the tongue like that, but a week into owning the trailer and we soon realized that there is going to be a lot of work ahead of us to turn this dream into a reality.

I already know there are people who think we are lunatics for having this dream. (We have five kids total! Two stay with us full time and three visit on weekends). Some wonder if we will be selling our 1600 square foot three-bedroom home to live in a tiny home permanently. Others like to remind me of how small an RV is and how I will not like it. 

I know I don't need to justify or defend our reasons for deciding to do this. But to enlighten those who can't help but wonder, we do not plan to make this a permanent home at this time and we will be keeping our "normal" sized home. We see our tiny home as a usable investment. When it comes time that we want to buy land or do something crazier like build an Earthship (go ahead- google it!) our tiny home is going to be our stepping stone. We will have the option of a mortgage-free home that will allow us to save money. We will have the option to travel. We will have the option to increase our income by renting our larger home or our tiny home as an Airbnb. And in the future, we will have the option to house one or more of our kids when they need a place to stay. 

With the dream disclaimer out of the way, I am here to document our journey. The trials, the errors, the achievements, the craziness.... ALL the ups and downs. As I peer out into the driveway and catch sight of the junker RV, I feel a mix of excitement and motivation sprinkled with doubt, anxiety, and fear of failure. I'm not really sure what to do with that so I tend to start putting pen to paper because when I can see the plan written out, I can just turn on my robot mode, forget the worries and get to action making things actually happen instead of just talking about it.

So far, our plan looks like this: 

I am trying not to look too far past this part of our plan due to the fact that 1) we are cash flowing this project. 2) We do not have a floor plan yet and 3) We do not have materials chosen. We DO know that the goal is to keep this total project budget at $10,000 and it will probably take a year if not more to complete. 

Now if the actual cost exceeds the budget, that will be okay. But I dream of this tiny home because I dream of financial freedom. So it wouldn't make sense to me to build a tiny home for the same price as I would pay for a normal sized house. 

Well I hope that even if you think we are crazy fools, that you tag along with us on this adventure. Neither of us has done something like this before, but with my skills in planning and budgeting and Hanks skills with power tools, I think we can figure it out.