This is a question I’ve pondered more times than I care to remember.
Having first stumbled onto the Tiny House on Wheels lifestyle over 17 years ago and maintaining an ardent love for the lifestyle every day since – until I finally became a member of the Tiny House community!
As I sit here and write this from my tiny home on wheels – I don’t know why on earth I waited so long.
Living in a tiny house is undoubtedly one of the best decisions I’ve made; it’s utterly marvelous, with the ideal amount of space, all the creature comforts I need, and plenty of storage space for hobby and lifestyle gizmos.
It also doesn’t hurt that my home is surrounded by rolling countryside and horses galore!
With that said, you may be wondering why it took me close to two decades for my tiny home dream to come to fruition, and to be truly honest – the spanners in the works were finances, fear, and a healthy dose of the “wanders” running through my veins.
Finances
While more affordable than a traditional brick-and-mortar home, tiny homes are far from cheap.
Over the 17 years of my tiny house obsession, I have often perused prices, requested personalized quotes, and looked into whether it was financially feasible – but the cost had always held me back.
I know what you’re thinking, “Why didn’t you just build it yourself?”
Well, to be honest – I wasn’t confident that my building skills would make for a home that could withstand the bitterly cold Norwegian winters or the blisteringly hot summers!
But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my bank, which I’ve been using for the past ten years – decided to start giving out tiny house mortgages!!! So before you write off the idea of getting a tiny house, I’d really recommend getting in touch with SpareBank 1 and finding out if they have a mortgage that would suit you.
Fears
As someone who works from home and has a partner that does the same – I was quietly nervous about what living and working in 20 square meters may look like.
What would we do when we have meetings at the same time? And would we feel as though we were on top of each other all the time?
Well, the answer is that I can happily sit in the car with my laptop for a meeting (which is close enough to the house to connect to the WIFI!), and we haven’t annoyed each other yet.
It’s not as though we haven’t lived in close quarters before; we traveled the world together for five years with nothing but hand luggage each.
We then went on to become full-time vanlifers, living and working from our 1969 VW bus – but there’s something about the larger investment of a Tiny Home that makes you pause in consideration for a little longer.
This investment was another part; what if I spend all that money buying a tiny house, and then I realize that I don’t like it?! That trepidation was mostly quashed after living in a VW bus for a year, as I knew that if I could happily do that – anything larger would simply feel like an upgrade.
The Wanders
My fiance and I were both born with a strong case of the wanders, a desire for adventure and exploration that only traveling can ease the symptoms of.
We had traveled the world for almost seven years, so settling down in one spot and putting all of our eggs into one basket was not just scary – but didn’t seem like a lifestyle we’d be our happiest living.
Even though we had lived in the van and traveled full-time, we knew that wasn’t something we wanted to do with a tiny house, not least due to the winding roads of Norway – but also because traveling with a tiny house does decrease the properties lifespan.
But sitting down and running the numbers, we realized that having an affordable base for most of the year meant traveling for a few months every year was more than financially feasible!
In fact, the numbers showed that if we did travel three months every year – we would still be spending less money than if we just rented an apartment in the same area that we live, and it’s important to point out that this includes the cost of having a mortgage on our tiny house.
Final Thoughts
Working through the fears and financial requirements to make tiny living work for us took time. And ultimately, it took the commitment to make it work even if it didn’t live up to everything I had dreamed of for those 17 years.
After all, when you’ve wanted something for that long, it’s easy to build it up to an impractical degree in your head.
While I understand that we’re all unique, with different priorities in life, I can say that having dreamed of tiny living for so very long and finally achieving that dream… it’s just that – an absolute dream.
Not a day goes by that I don’t feel lucky to be living in this home, with no desire for anything larger, and that I probably should have made the leap years sooner.
Having said that, I wouldn’t change my journey to get here, and I appreciate every adventure and challenge it took; without that – who knows if I’d have as much gratitude for my utterly perfect tiny house on wheels?!
Keep Living Tiny xx
Nadia.
