So the wife and i have decided that in 4-5 years, when all the kids are out of school and gone, that we are goinig to build a tiny house on a couple of acres out in the country. The house we are looking to build is shown here
http://www.tinyhousebuild.com. We will be doing our own style to the interior and exterior, but the layout will basically be the same. Right now we live in a 1008 sq ft house (we do have a full basement with garage) with 3 kids (all are teens) and we have rooms and areas in our house that we dont even use now. The house we are looking at building is 207 sq ft + 110 sq ft in the 2 lofts. I have been emailing the guy whose house we will model ours after (really awesome dude) and have bought the plans that he sells. We will not be building it on a trailer, but rather on a foundation, or if the landscape fits, on a wood deck on a hillside. It will run off of solar and a rainfall catch system for the water (the roof size of the house with 3in average rainfall a month will equal roughly 500 gallons and if we ever run out the local fire department will come fill up our tank with their tanker for a small fee, less than $200 to fill the tank). I am amazed at how easy and inexspensive the rainwater catch system is to set up and use. The main reason we will be doing that is that we have rural country water options where we live but, to hook up to them it costs at least $2800 and thats if the piping runs right under the area we want to live (if its not close it becomes ALOT more exspensive). The rainwater catch system (including tank and fitlers and pumps) will cost less than $2000 to setup and have running. The same way with the electricity (although it will be a little more expensive to set up and get started). Buddy of mine wanted to build a house out in the country and was told it would be $100,000 just to get the electricity and water to the land he wanted to use!
Good news for us is that i can build it myself and do all the elctrical and plumbing. Plus i have access to all the tools needed, including back hoes and skidloaders.
The wife and i have basically lived our lives til now spending all our time and money on the kids and their activities, so when they move out, we wont need that much space and the extra income saved will afford us the chance to travel the country and the world. Hell at this point she is more excited to do this than i am. We literally will be saving over 3/4 of our incomes living in this house. The house will be bought and paid for with the equity from selling our current house in 4-5 years, including all the setup of the solar and water systems. We own both of our vehicle, so no car payments either. Kinda crazy to think that in 5 years i wont have any monthly bills other than phone and internet (which are less than $100 combined). Plus, i have grown to hate being around people and living in a city.
What do you guys think?
a nice Labrador retriever would occupy about
