I found her story very inspiring. I have really started to come to the conclusion that I don't want a mortgage. I don't want to be paying all this money every month for the rest of my life just because it's what is considered the normal thing to do. My dream is to travel. If I didn't have to spend tons of money on a "roof over my head" I could achieve my dream of traveling the world. Which I've always felt would never be able to happen. The below video is of a 16 year old who has started building a tiny home in his parents backyard. What a smart kid!! He is going to have a very promising future ahead of him. He is building his first home already and it's on a trailer so that he can move anywhere he wants to.
Then there is the tool shed house in the video below. This one is my favorite. I love the style and size. Out of all of them I find this one the closest to the amount of space I would want. I will admit, these homes may not be for everybody but when you are building something like this yourself the designs and options are endless. I want something small but not super tiny. Even though I think building your house on a flatbed trailer is pretty genius. Moving wouldn't be a burden ever again!
I really look forward to researching these homes more. I did always dream of building my own home someday! Little did I know that this would be the direction I would go. It went from a dream of huge mansions with a million rooms I didn't need to an off the grid / mortgage free tiny house. HA! Aren't priorities great? ;) If you are inspired by these cute little homes or even just curious about them, below is the film We The Tiny House People by Kirsten Dirksen. Or you can just visit her YouTube Channel HERE.
What do you think of these homes? Tiny, yes. I would need an additional tiny home just for my pets. hahaha Right now I'm off to work so that I can make money to pay for a house I don't need. Ironic.
Though I am planning to build an Earthbag/Cob home my greatest motivation is that I will live mortgage free. In addition to being more connected to the world and having less of a carbon footprint. I don't think many realize that you can live mortgage free. That you don't need to be burdened by debt, of any kind. Yet the world tries to make us think we have to, that we have no other option. It tries to take our choices from us, our ability to choose. But we must take it back. For isn't that the beauty of thinking simple, thinking outside the box. There is a book by Robert Roy called, "Mortgage-Free!: Radical Strategies for Home Ownership." I have plans to devour that book but just reading about cob homes, Earthbag homes and this journey I've been going on with working to build my own sustainable home, I've learned that it's up to you to live mortgage free. That you can do it, and often rather easily.
ReplyDelete~Aubrey
I also want to tell ya, Jessie, that I've been thinking about this post more and more. We learned about tiny homes a while back and thought them neat and then shrugged them off. Then we started researching Earthship, Earthbag, Cob and Adobe. But, and Matt and I are going to talk about this more today, I don't know that I'm yet ready to settle in a place and be land locked. You know?
DeleteI've always been a nomad at heart. Even in Alabama we lived in Montgomery but we kept moving and lived in 3-4 different apartments. And I've always loved travel. I want to embrace travel again. So I've been thinking about this post more and more and rethinking tiny homes and such. I avoided things with wood because they are prone to fires, rotting, don't last a long, termites and whatnot. They also involve, well, cutting down trees. But if it were mobile I might be willing to do wood. So I want to say thank you for this post. I'm constantly learning new things in the area of sustainable living and I'm happy to have someone else also learning along and that we each are learning different things and can share them with one another. So thank you. I'm seriously considering this for so many reasons. I was going to send you an email on why but if you want to chat we can. I just wanted to say thanks. :) Now I'm going to go research more on mobile living. Cheers to ya!
This is great! It's cool that we can kinda bounce ideas off of each other. I've been really obsessed with the tiny houses since I did that post. I'm with you on the whole settling down thing. I worry about building somewhere because we do seem to like to move around. Without being in the military we would have so much freedom to go where we pleased. I just find the tiny houses on the trailers "too tiny". hahaha Maybe if I didn't have six pets that have to live in the home with me as well it wouldn't be a big deal, but I don't know. I guess that's the beauty of research. I need to do tons of it.
DeleteMy favorite home I posted about was the toolshed house. I've actually been sketching designs to attempt building that same design. I also hate using wood to build. It is a huge bummer. I know that lady that had the container home got a lot of things from salvage yards to keep her home more "green". I think it would be a blast hunting for things to build with. It's just all so exciting to think about! Also because of you I will be hitting up my library to see what books I can find about sustainable living. (and maybe some Dexter!!!)
Love these cute little houses. I agree about wanting to be mortgage free. It would be such a load off not to have to worry about that and to really do what you want with your time and money.
ReplyDeleteIt is my new goal in life. :)
DeleteThese houses a fantastic. I love how small spaces force you to think about everything you have, what you need and love. It also appeals to the tidy freak in me! I would have loved to have a mini house to wheel away when I was sixteen!
ReplyDeleteThey really remind me of a dollhouse/playhouse for adults. My dad built me a playhouse when I was little and every time I see these homes I think of it. Putting on a trailer is brilliant.
DeleteThis is really cool. I am going to show this to my husband. Such a smart idea. Traveling to me is far more important than having some big house.
ReplyDeleteThey are so fascinating. I think it would be really fun to build one. I just need a bigger trailer. ;) hahaha
Deletejess, i really love this post. thanks for taking the time to do this, hope you feel better soon! i love the tiny house movement. it's long been my dream to have a little camper and to travel the U.S. more than anything, i want freedom. i am actually planning some posts on my blog regarding simplicity. i think your trip across the U.S. merely whetted your appetite. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed this post! :) It's funny because I would get super depressed thinking about how I would never have enough money to travel the world, then I watched the first video with the mom in California. I realized if Cody and I are smart about our future with where we live after Wyoming, it could be possible to have enough money to travel. It gives me a lot of hope for my future. Having a camper would be AWESOME!! We talk out that on a daily basis.
DeleteI think "moveable" houses are a great idea, for an additional reason...I live in "mortgage meltdown ground zero" (Las Vegas) and so many people here lost their jobs and could not make their house payments, then couldn't sell their houses so they could move somewhere else where a job was available. That got me thinking about the whole "moveable" home thing.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the tiny home and recently downsized my own home, and yes you really can do without a lot of stuff if you are committed to saving space. And it's a lot less maintenance! The only question that comes to mind is, what about the land where you want to put your tiny home? If you want to live out in the country, a big piece of property can be quite an expense. Also, what do you do about sewage? Anyway, very cool post. Thanks for your frequent thought-provoking posts! ~Suzanne
Thanks for your comment Suzanne. I am glad you enjoyed this post. These homes are so inspiring. I am pretty motivated to do something like this, but I'm like you, what about land and utilities? I plan to start doing a lot of research. Mortgage free sounds like the way to be now a days. I am totally okay with downsizing if it means I could travel and not live check by check! :)
DeleteI wish I was a teenager that thought of doing something like this. I've never believed in "mortgages" or building credit for that matter, because in the end its all about how much you are worth.
ReplyDeleteIf the world can live simply within ones means with a personalized mortgage free home, we would probably see an increase in how many people have homes as compared to most of the population living out on the streets.