Nate and Tawnee's Tiny House

10/01/2018

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/eagle-mountain-couple-went-tiny-to-simplify-lives-allot-more/article_ec336937-7d96-51e6-b9e8-db43500eabc0.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_isaac_hale

Hanging on a wall in Nate and Tawnee DuBose’s home is a world map peppered with over a dozen purple pins in destinations marking “memories made” and many more white

09/02/2018

Slowly working on our Tiny Yard 🙂

08/22/2018

Tiny fire pit with family 🙂

07/13/2018

Operation tiny yard in progress :)

01/20/2018

Sorry for the delay in posts.
Life is going amazingly in the Tiny House. We really will post a video next week lol.
The only negative thing is that we were recently egged. haha I am hoping it was some teenagers having some fun and not people upset about us being here. I was laughing when I saw the eggs all over our cars. But I do hope it does not become a regular thing haha

Block of flats

11/17/2017

Nate's been playing 3D SimCity 🙂 (next week we hope to upload a full video walk through)

11/07/2017

Nates been playing Minecraft 3D 🙂

11/04/2017

Here is an aerial drone view of our Tiny House and its lot. It will have more solar panels later on.

30ft tiny home as an ADU with solar in Eagle Mt., UT

10/06/2017

We have been so blessed. Things are coming along smoothly and next week we will be living in our TinyHouse :)

09/28/2017

Opposition:

Who would have thought it would be so complicated going Tiny? After we made the decision to join the Tiny Home Movement, we ran into quite a few obstacles.

First financing and finding a builder; with great credit (over 750) and decent income, it still is a challenge to get financing on Tiny Houses. It is an abstract idea to banks. We found a builder who did in house financing. We gave him a 5,000-dollar deposit. He lied to us, was very disrespectful, and then stole the 5,000 and did not build anything for us. He has since lost his business, has multiple felonies, and is filing for bankruptcy all while having a wife and 2 kids to take care of. It was difficult not to have anger for a while but we have been so blessed and really we just feel sorry for the guy. It truly was a blessing in disguise. We have since been blessed to have in house financing with Alpine Tiny Homes who have been nothing but Amazing. We are their first in house financing and we struck gold ☺. If the first builder had built our home, we would have had issues with it down the road, which, would have been a lot more trouble and money than 5,000. Forgive and move on being happy.

Second obstacle; perspective. When telling people that we are going tiny. We get an extremely wide range of responses from, “it’s just a trailer” and “you will regret that” to “that’s the way to go!!!” and “I am so jealous! I would love to do that.” We have found that at the first thought, most people think it is a terrible choice but as people learn more they can see the benefits and despite not wanting it, they can understand why we would. Sometimes we feel that we are being judged, and that we for some reason need to prove people wrong. It also sometimes feels that people want it to fail to prove that they were right. Both are silly. We are very hopeful at this point and hope to inspire others to simplify their lives (which can be done without a Tiny House). It has been a fun adventure so far and I guess time will tell.

Third obstacle; Location. We have spent many hours researching, brainstorming, and searching for the best option of where to put our Tiny House. Part of the issue is that most cities will not allow them because they do not fit (no put intended) into a traditional city code of the minimum square footage. However, again we were blessed that Eagle Mountain has a Tiny House on Wheels permit that allows a tiny house to be an accessory building to a traditional home. Again we were very blessed to find a host who is the nicest person and who we could not thank enough. The code does have some limitations and it has been a little bit of struggle getting the permit and not being able to have the exterior finish that we wanted.

Lastly, Compromising. I think it is always a little stressful working with your spouse to build a home. However, a Tiny Home has unique differences. The plus side is that there are not as many decisions as a traditional home. At the same time, with such little space, every decision seems very important and it can be difficult when you do not agree. With that being said, I think Tawnee and I have been doing great and it has actually brought us closer together.

If you think you can overcome those challenges, you are probably ready to go Tiny ☺

09/22/2017

It is coming along 🙂

09/15/2017

Deciding to go Tiny :)

The Tiny House movement is perfect for Tawnee and me for many reasons. The initial biggest motivation for me was economics. I love the idea of having something that we own rather than wasting money paying rent. With grad school hopefully in the near future and the housing market being a sellers market we did not feel a traditional home was a good idea at this point.

The biggest motivation for Tawnee is the simple life. Easy to clean. Everything has it its place and if it does not have its place then it is donated creating a more stress free enviorment. I struggle with this a little bit so this will be a great way to improve.

Other advantages: Very environmentally friendly. Solar, Compost, fewer materials, etc. We both love this. I think of it like Tithing, our 10% is not going to solve world hunger, but if everyone in the world paid 10% that would solve it. Every little effort adds up.

Many people ask us, "What would you do all day?" That is really the point. We don't want be in a house all the time. We love being active, hiking, biking, traveling, visiting family, anything active. Having no debt and no almost no housing payment will give us the financial freedom to spend our time enjoying new experiences and living life.

We know that THIS tiny is not a realistic option for many, especially with bigger families and we plan on upsizing in the future, but only to our needs.

There is nothing wrong with the American dream of working hard and buying what you want. However, we do feel many people search after an ideal, a representation of happiness such as a huge house only to realize it requires them to work a lot more (less time with family), clean a lot more, take less vacations, spend less time visiting one another, and adds a lot of financial stress. We strongly feel that happiness and joy comes from trying to follow the teachings of Christ and being with family and loved ones. Have a blessed day. :)