Kristie is a full-time senior instructor at a university in Colorado. When she is not working, she spends her time gardening, hanging out with the chickens, and running or hiking. However, she started to really consider living tiny after working and traveling through Southeast Asia for three months in 2015 with a large backpack. She also wanted to build a tiny house because of the TV shows she watched.
Kristie was living in a 660 square foot condo when she decided to go tiny. Once she sells the condo, sheโll be able to pay off her tiny house debt. As a result, she bought her tiny house as a shell from Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses. Itโs made of SIPs, so it had four walls, a subfloor, and a roof as a shell. The rest of the work was mostly completed by Kristie on her own.
If thereโs one piece of advice I could give, itโs to women who want to build their own tiny house but have never built one is to just do it!
โ Kristie
Her boyfriend only gave assistance when she needed a second pair of hands. It took nearly a year to complete and sheโs been there for a year and a half. It cost her less than $40,000 in total, including the trailer, shell, and finishing materials. That is to say, about $17,500 of that was just for the trailer and shell and delivery. Currently, she parked the house on the rented property of four acres in Colorado.
On the other hand, That vast landscape allows her to have a garden rather than container gardening. โMy initial dream was to have my own property to put the tiny house on, but so far that has not been possible financially (and legally). Iโd love to have an acre or two for the tiny someday,โ said Kristie.
@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
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@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
@fiercelytiny
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As I mentioned earlier, Kristie customizes the house with the help of her experience volunteering with Habitat for Humanity by adding a sleeping loft, a shorter kitchen, a bookcase with a fold-up table, and a hallway next to the bathroom.
Kristie shares a few words about her tiny house
My tiny house is 8.5 x 22. The exterior is metal and cedar. The Interior is pine shiplap.
I chose small appliances (like an under-the-counter fridge and a single induction burner cooktop that I can put in a cupboard).
Iโm really proud of the bathroom vanity that I built myself and my horse trough tub with beetle kill pine surround โ I polyurethaned that wood for days to get a water-tight seal!
I opted for a ladder rather than stairs to save room. I also have a cat tree in my tiny house, so my cat gets up and down easily to the bedroom loft.
The property owner built an 8ร8 deck outside so I have some outside space. I also keep buying plants! I had 35 when I moved in and I now have over 50. A lot of them are small cacti and succulents, so I figure I can keep buying more plants!
Teal is also my favorite color so I pained the kitchen cabinets, my bathroom vanity, and an accent wall in the main living area teal. I also have a 30โ closet with room for hanging clothes and a tall dresser that I loved and did not want to part with when I moved into the tiny.
However, Kristie also plans to build an awning for the front entrance, small storage shed on the bumper end, cover the propane on the hitch end, and paint the interior shiplap white. Obviously, building the tiny house was a seven-year dream for Kristie. As a result, she is incredibly grateful for Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, as well as Tiny Nest and Andrew Morrison of hOMeโs building series.
Is Kristieโs story inspiring? You can join her journey by following her on Instagram @fiercelytiny
