Woman Downsizes to Live in a Legal Tiny House in the City

One of the misconceptions about tiny houses is that they are geared more towards people of the younger generation, many of whom face unprecedented barriers to traditional homeownership, like growing student debt, a recession, and a global pandemic, as well as skyrocketing housing prices. So it makes sense that the relative affordability and the flexibility of the tiny house lifestyle would appeal to younger people who are seeking more financial freedom.

But there are those of the older generations who are also consciously eschewing the conventional trappings of success by choosing to go tiny, like Adelina, a mother of grown adult children who recently decided to sell her condo in order to move into a CSA-certified tiny house that is now legally parked in a mobile home park in Canada. We get a quick tour of Adelina's Serendipity tiny house, via Exploring Alternatives:

Adelina's 37-foot-long tiny house is of the gooseneck variety and was professionally built by Teacup Tiny Homes. Adelina, who works remotely in the finance sector, became interested in tiny homes after moving into a condo on Vancouver Island that still required her to pay expensive monthly condo fees, in addition to the usual monthly mortgage payments. For Adelina, tiny houses represent a whole range of other possibilities:

"I wanted freedom. I wanted the ability to move my house. It also came down to being more intentional with how I live my life, so I wanted to simplify. I wanted to get rid of the things that were sort of weighing me down literally, and figuratively. Going tiny allowed me to do that -- only have the things that I love, or that are really useful, to spend more time having experiences and being with the people that I care about. It also lowered my expenses. So when you don't need to support a bigger lifestyle, then you have more flexibility and you have more options."

Adelina knew her priorities in life, and she also knew what she wanted in her tiny house. To start, she knew that she wanted a permanent office space, and a big kitchen, as she loves to cook, and she knew she wanted a bedroom that she could stand in. Thanks to her research prior to hiring a tiny house builder, Adelina was also sure she wanted a builder who could build her tiny home according to CSA certification, which would allow her to register it then to be parked legally in a mobile home community.

In total, Adelina's home measures just under 400 square feet, including the secondary loft. The exterior of the house has a huge amount of extra enclosed space underneath the gooseneck trailer—a conscious choice on her part because she knew she wanted ample outside storage for lawn equipment and patio furniture.

Upon entering the house, we come into the living room, which is compact but has enough space for a couple of small sofas, a coffee table, a closet, and a place to store the detachable ladder for the loft.

The expansive kitchen is Adelina's pride and joy, and the place where she can indulge in her passion for cooking and baking.

The design of the tiny house features a lot of food storage in different places—not only in the kitchen but also in the three extra pantry cabinets in the hallway leading to the bedroom.

On the other side of the kitchen and overlapping into the hallway space, Adelina has her office desk, which has a neat extendable portion that flips up.

In addition, Adelina has installed herself another flip-up table that serves as a dining nook, looking out of a window.

Here is the bathroom, which Adelina admits is small, but as she explains, a big bathroom wasn't one of her priorities. Nevertheless, it still fits a combination washer and dryer, as well as an RV-size bathtub.

Up the stairs (which has integrated storage in each tread), we come to the bedroom, which is enormous and tall enough for Adelina to stand up in. The bed itself can lift up, revealing even more storage space.

There's also yet another closet space here, which has access to the loft as well.

Adelina has been living in her tiny house for two years now, and she's even taken to sharing her story and tiny house tips on her own YouTube channel, My Big Tiny House Life. Adelina explains her motivation:

"I love sharing this lifestyle, I love being able to help people on their journeys. The biggest challenge that I've had is people's perception of what I'm doing -- that somehow, it is a 'lesser than' [situation], because it's not a foundation-built house and you no longer own property. But for me, that's a plus, so I can't think of any negatives. For me, I think it's all been positive."