For the past two months, I’ve been researching the feasibility of buying my own place. Seems like a premature endeavor since I barely have two spare pennies to rub together, but this new insurance job that I have is promising.
Nonetheless, one thing I concluded early on is that I didn’t want a house. I thought perhaps a townhome or condo would suit me just fine. Too bad they’re all out of my price range, especially in the new area where I wanted to move.
Enter tiny homes. For the amount I thought I could purchase a condo, seems as if that’s tiny home prices. That’s why I pounced on the opportunity to attend the Tiny Home Jamboree. I wanted to see what was available in this market, so I went with a friend, who’s actually a homeowner, but wanted to put a tiny home in the lot adjacent to her property and use it as an office.
Unfortunately, the weather reached around 106, so we slowly roasted as we checked out the tiny homes, starting with the DIY ones outside the Travis County Expo gate.This guy’s short bus had a Radio Flyer theme, complete with an actual Radio Flyer wagon in front.
I thought it was a little dangerous to have the bed next to the stove, but still it was otherwise a great use of space.
He even had a little dining table on the other side of the stove and the compost toilet was behind me in this picture.
Before attending this event, I had a bias against buses, but all the wood paneling added warmth to the ambience and won me over.
This was one of the biggest buses in the DIY lot. I thought it must be horrendous to drive this monster.
Yet, check out the full kitchen and pantry!
I really liked the bathroom area since I could stand in the shower.
Plus, there was a compostable toilet, which was a popular model.
This rustic homey DIY had to be pulled by a truck.
Again, I took bathroom shots since I don’t plan to be off the grid as far as some campers were, but many people enjoyed the fact that they had no home base and could see the country while driving along with their home.
Although I want my future tiny home to be in one place, I still appreciated the functional use of space in most of the mobile designs.
This guy, who I nicknamed “Shaggy,” owned a van that was painted as a jungle of marijuana leaves with his stove hitched on the inside of the van door.
This was the first DIY I actually visualized myself living in. Those wide steps were very sturdy and I liked the kitchen area along with dining table/workspace to the side of it.
I felt comfortable climbing the stairs to see the sleeping area.
I also liked the view of the kitchen and dining/work table from the stairs.
This was the only bus I’d seen with a club-footed bathtub. Yet it was in the kitchen without any privacy!
This family did have a private toilet area, but that “public” tub left something to be desired, like a wrap around shower curtain!
I liked how the tiny house from landlocked Colorado reminded me of a ship. The owner said that that wasn’t their intention in the beginning, but it morphed into ship.
The copper floor was made out of thousands of pennies, adding to the penny shortage, no doubt. This was the most elegant tub among all the tiny houses.
Compared to the rest of the home, this sink was surprisingly plain.
The area above the bathroom reminded me of the bow of a ship.
For this model, although I liked the full kitchen with the bathroom behind, I wasn’t so sure about the sleeping quarters being above the kitchen, especially with the spices I use! And that ladder didn’t look middle aged woman-friendly.
Here’s another spacious tiny home I visualized myself living in. Not only were there twin mattresses and one queen-sized mattress upstairs with middle aged woman-friendly stairs leading to them, but a full bathroom and large bedroom in the back. Is it possible for a tiny home to have too much room?
So apathy, overheating and hunger worked against me taking many other pictures, but this wraparound wet bar spoke to me. I loved the elegant arrangement of the storage space. More practical people can have a dining area instead of this wet bar, but “dining area” can be anywhere one eats. A wet bar on the other hand…