Jul 2, 2017

If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak

Here is where things currently stand; there is a little pie shaped lot nestled in an older housing plan for $11,000. There used to be a house on the property but it was demolished a few years back- which means utility hook ups already in place! There is the ever present issue of legality and money. The township this pie piece is located in does not allow any RVs to park anywhere. Slowly there has been progress in different areas of the country to legally allow tiny homes, so I am not discouraged by the current zoning laws. The money is another battle.

Even with diligent saving, I am not even halfway to purchasing just the land. Then I'd need funds for the actual house. Loans for land, I'm learning, are not as easily granted as for homes. Factor in my limited credit history, student loans, and meager income- few banks are likely to be supportive.

When I left my apartment to move back with family, I believed it would be a temporary situation. One or two years tops before I'd be living in my tiny home. It will be three years in the fall, and despite small steps- moving into my house is still years away. Time to reevaluate my strategy.

At first it felt as though moving into an apartment would be giving up on my tiny house. But if I am going to invest such a large amount of time and money into a project, I want to do it right. I don't want to rush construction, buy subpar materials, and I really don't want another loan over my head. Not having my own place has made me anxious to jump into the water head first without checking the depth. One piece of advice from multiple tiny home builders is to take the time to research and plan before building.

So that is where things stand. My goal of living tiny before I'm 30 is no longer feasible, a realization that lifted a weight. The stress of bringing this large project together in a short amount of time has dissipated, just leaving the stress of finding an apartment, trying to find freelance work, getting some semblance of a social life, being aware of current events but not overwhelmed by the news, learning how to meal plan, planting the right flowers so bees don't die out....