Tiny Living Story Of a Single Mom in Tampa, FL

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Alexis Monkhouse has been living in a tiny house with her 22 months old daughter Nalini Monkhouse Ruiz for 18 months now in total. It’s a trailer-based tiny house with double lofts that measure 26 ft in length and 8.5 ft in width. Currently, she parks the house in a tiny house community in Tampa, Florida.

During her first year of graduate school. She found that rent was too expensive in the area. Therefore she began looking for a tiny house lifestyle. Then she really became serious about changing her lifestyle once her mother passed. As s result, she committed herself to build a tiny house.

If you are going into tiny house living with a partner really really think about whether or not you will have kids intentionally or not and factor living with kids into your build. Because a house designed with kids in mind looks very different from one without it! And do A LOT of research before going tiny especially on your builder.

– Alexis

Luckily, with the help of her little sister Ashley who also living in a tiny house Alexis complete the design. Then she asked the Longwood, Florida-based builder ‘Cornerstone Tiny Homes’ to complete the build for her. Meanwhile, the build took around 5 months to complete and costs her about $75,000.

Further, her tiny house features some full-size appliances like a fridge & freezer combo from the Summit, a coil top electric stove from GE, a washer & dryer combo from Splendide, and a split unit from Halcyon. She also has a tankless hot water heater to survive winter. “The most challenging part was changing my mindset from living in a traditional home to tiny house life.

I wasn’t ready for the overwhelming feelings you can experience in a tiny house even when you love the lifestyle,” said Alexis. Her living room features a comfy sofa, wall-mounted TV, and a built-in bookshelf. Likewise, the copper sink with butcher block countertop makes the kitchen looks awesome. However, she has an Instagram page and youtube channel to share her tiny house journey. You can also join the journey by simply following her!

Watch her tiny house story in video format!