Thinking Tiny
A year and a half ago, my husband and I purchased a transit/shuttle bus in Katy, TX. As soon as I saw her, I knew she'd be the one we'd convert to our tiny home. She's 30 feet in length with a storage space in the back and large windows that I thought were perfect for daylight to come in and for us to peer out.
The thing that steered me to this type of bus was the ceiling height and width of the bus. I wanted my husband to comfortably walk in the bus without hunching over, and I wanted a space large enough for my yoga asana practice. My husband Ray likes the type of engine she has, a Cummins - a diesel similar to the one he had in his Dodge pickup. He was familiar with it and knew how well it would run. Plus, she had hardly any mileage. We purchased our bus for $6,700 then she was ours - our Gypsy Rose Bus.
The decision to go tiny was not one we jumped into. It took owning two homes and wrestling with a recession before we even considered going tiny.
When we first married, we purchased a home right outside of Kansas City, MO. I have to say that the idea of purchasing a home then was scary, and I should've listened to my gut. We had just moved to Kansas City for work and hardly knew the city. After living there for three weeks, we closed on our home. I loved the layout and size of the house. There were hardwood floors throughout. We started making it our own right away, and we started learning about how to deal with older plumbing and electricity. These lessons actually helped Ray build our tiny home. So even though it was a major pain in the ass, I'm thankful for these lessons.
We were ready to leave Kansas City not even a year later. We didn't feel at home. We missed San Antonio and our friends. So, after doing lots of updates to our Kansas City house, we put it on the market.
We moved to San Antonio two years after we originally left. We stayed with friends as we had our new house built in the same neighborhood they lived in. I was excited about our new house. It was about 1,000 square feet larger than the house we had in Kansas City, but we could start with customizing early on, and it would be 'move in ready'.
The house in Kansas City sat on the market as we headed into winter. I budgeted to make two mortgage payments before finally deciding to let a coworker and his family move in with the hopes they would rent to own. His family didn't stay together though. After they left, we listed the house for sale again.
In 2008, the recession hit. Thankfully, we didn't lose our jobs. Our hours were cut though, and I had to make harder decisions with our budget. The house in Kansas City was now worth less than what we owed.
After several tenants and a terrible property manager, we agreed to a short sale on the house in Kansas City. What is funny (not really) is that we'd already sold our house in San Antonio and made a profit before the Kansas City home even sold. It was many years of heartache that lasted from 2006, when we left Kansas City until 2016, when we finally made a short sale deal. We learned quite a bit from the whole experience.
We loved our house in San Antonio. We made a lot of memories there. We hosted many parties, lived with our friends and grew up more in that house. I still miss the backyard of that house. It was this lovely little sanctuary.
It was way too much house for just the two of us. My stepson visited occasionally but mostly two rooms sat vacant. We invited our best friends, another married couple, to move in with us. We lived together in that house for a little over four years.
Something important happened during those years. We had a realization - we didn't have the freedom that we craved. I remember asking myself as I went into work, 'what is this all for?' 'Am I just living to work?' I didn't enjoy what I was doing. Ray didn't enjoy the work he was doing. A big change was needed. In order to make those changes, we needed to sell our house.
And, just like the question 'what is it all for?' had hit me on a deep level, the questions I started to ask myself about all my belongings did the same. Why did we have all of this stuff? I thought I was doing so well when I went through my closet every six months to remove clothing I no longer wore. I was more of a consumer than I had originally thought. (More on this in the next post.) In June of 2017, we sold our house in San Antonio. As we closed the door on that part of our life, a new door opened - one that offered a completely new way of life and a new way of thinking. We were thinking tiny.
Thank you so much for reading. Do you ever find yourself questioning your life? You aren't alone. Reach out. I'd love to chat.
P.S. I have a YouTube channel where I'll be posting workouts, yoga, meditation, mindfulness and all about my tiny lifestyle. Follow me here: https://www.youtube.com/user/nevaezi
P.P.S. Need motivation on Monday? Sign up for my newsletter. https://mailchi.mp/b8c893064f10/thewildrosegypsy
The thing that steered me to this type of bus was the ceiling height and width of the bus. I wanted my husband to comfortably walk in the bus without hunching over, and I wanted a space large enough for my yoga asana practice. My husband Ray likes the type of engine she has, a Cummins - a diesel similar to the one he had in his Dodge pickup. He was familiar with it and knew how well it would run. Plus, she had hardly any mileage. We purchased our bus for $6,700 then she was ours - our Gypsy Rose Bus.
The decision to go tiny was not one we jumped into. It took owning two homes and wrestling with a recession before we even considered going tiny.
When we first married, we purchased a home right outside of Kansas City, MO. I have to say that the idea of purchasing a home then was scary, and I should've listened to my gut. We had just moved to Kansas City for work and hardly knew the city. After living there for three weeks, we closed on our home. I loved the layout and size of the house. There were hardwood floors throughout. We started making it our own right away, and we started learning about how to deal with older plumbing and electricity. These lessons actually helped Ray build our tiny home. So even though it was a major pain in the ass, I'm thankful for these lessons.
We were ready to leave Kansas City not even a year later. We didn't feel at home. We missed San Antonio and our friends. So, after doing lots of updates to our Kansas City house, we put it on the market.
We moved to San Antonio two years after we originally left. We stayed with friends as we had our new house built in the same neighborhood they lived in. I was excited about our new house. It was about 1,000 square feet larger than the house we had in Kansas City, but we could start with customizing early on, and it would be 'move in ready'.
The house in Kansas City sat on the market as we headed into winter. I budgeted to make two mortgage payments before finally deciding to let a coworker and his family move in with the hopes they would rent to own. His family didn't stay together though. After they left, we listed the house for sale again.
In 2008, the recession hit. Thankfully, we didn't lose our jobs. Our hours were cut though, and I had to make harder decisions with our budget. The house in Kansas City was now worth less than what we owed.
After several tenants and a terrible property manager, we agreed to a short sale on the house in Kansas City. What is funny (not really) is that we'd already sold our house in San Antonio and made a profit before the Kansas City home even sold. It was many years of heartache that lasted from 2006, when we left Kansas City until 2016, when we finally made a short sale deal. We learned quite a bit from the whole experience.
We loved our house in San Antonio. We made a lot of memories there. We hosted many parties, lived with our friends and grew up more in that house. I still miss the backyard of that house. It was this lovely little sanctuary.
Something important happened during those years. We had a realization - we didn't have the freedom that we craved. I remember asking myself as I went into work, 'what is this all for?' 'Am I just living to work?' I didn't enjoy what I was doing. Ray didn't enjoy the work he was doing. A big change was needed. In order to make those changes, we needed to sell our house.
And, just like the question 'what is it all for?' had hit me on a deep level, the questions I started to ask myself about all my belongings did the same. Why did we have all of this stuff? I thought I was doing so well when I went through my closet every six months to remove clothing I no longer wore. I was more of a consumer than I had originally thought. (More on this in the next post.) In June of 2017, we sold our house in San Antonio. As we closed the door on that part of our life, a new door opened - one that offered a completely new way of life and a new way of thinking. We were thinking tiny.
Thank you so much for reading. Do you ever find yourself questioning your life? You aren't alone. Reach out. I'd love to chat.
P.S. I have a YouTube channel where I'll be posting workouts, yoga, meditation, mindfulness and all about my tiny lifestyle. Follow me here: https://www.youtube.com/user/nevaezi
P.P.S. Need motivation on Monday? Sign up for my newsletter. https://mailchi.mp/b8c893064f10/thewildrosegypsy
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