We could hardly believe we did it! D and I actually took 3 nights and (roughly) 4 days of vacation - ALONE!!! It's up there on our bucket list of things to do since it's been so long that we've taken so long away from kids. 20+ years long. We've been gone one at a time. We've been gone for 24-ish hours, but this??? This was bliss. And what did we do on our time off? We stayed in Auburn, CA two hours away in a TINY HOUSE ON WHEELS!!
Since our minimalism started, we've thought ahead in a big way - going tiny. As the kids move out, we downsize everything from what we own (goodbye dressers and a dozen twin sized beds!), how big we need our space to be and our values on what we want to spend money on. We have a general floorplan mapped out. (This means, I have a floorplan done and ready to build, but D hasn't stamped his approval on it). Our biggest issue is where to park it, so we're looking in to options. To even contemplate floorplans, we needed to figure out what was important to us, what we could live with and what we couldn't, etc.... The tough part is we have nothing to compare tiny house living to except where we've been and nothing has been like a tiny house.
This tiny house (found HERE) is only 21' long and the standard 8.5' wide and 13.5' high. The tiny house we want to build will be 10' wide and 38' long with two lofts, coming in at about 620 sq ft - not tiny by tiny house standards, but more suited to us.
We've thought - and we were spot on - that we'd have our lower floor ceilings at closer to 7.5' to give an extra 6" in the lofts and we agree. We also agree that the two extra feet in width will make a huge difference. We know where we spend the most time, so planning on making those great is a priority - the living area and kitchen. A bathtub! (Side note: I love baths. I have had no tub or a horrid tub for over 4 years now. I JUST WANT A TUB!). We plan on having the stairs at the end of our tiny house instead of the middle to free up space and we high fived ourselves on that decision.
Pretty much every change we've considered, we want to plan. What we didn't realize is how much we'd really, really love staying in the tiny house and how much easier it was than we imagined. Even without the changes, we enjoyed every moment. It wasn't cramped or claustrophobic at all. The layout was easy and worked well. The chemical toilet (although we won't use one most likely) was easy to use. The stove was fantastic and venting the house was a piece of cake. It also cooled off quickly.
What we didn't love was a tiny fridge and shower. Again, they aren't in our plans for our Big Tiny House, but since we cook a lot and I shave my legs it was a reiteration of our desires. We had to plan our shopping accordingly due to the dorm fridge that's there. It was an amazing way to try out tiny house living and we're already planning another trip to visit and stay when it gets colder out. I can hardly wait to spend more time there and visit our friends and owners of the Air B&B.