The Tiny House Road Less Traveled

Our journey to living in a tiny house could be more accurately described as the equivalent of pushing a giant boulder up a mountain for nearly two years.

We chose a builder we couldn’t depend on, had to jump through legal hoops and pray we’d be approved to live in our tiny house on our property in a zoned R-2 medium-density neighborhood (not an easy task) and demolish a mobile home that sat in the spot we needed to place our new tiny home.

There were absolutely easier routes we could have pursued. We just happened to choose the most difficult (and stressful) path.

We could have simply gotten a mortgage to live in a more “practically sized” home.

We could have paid more money for a more reputable builder (we definitely should have).

We could have given up our land-owning dreams by simply paying a monthly lot rent at an RV park.

All of these things would have made our lives easier.  However, easy isn’t always best and easy isn’t what we wanted. So why exactly did we choose the most difficult road, you ask?

Because difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.

I’m not entirely sure whether an easy road to legally living in a tiny home actually exists. Tiny homes aren’t technically legal and currently, they exist in a gray area with regards to zoning and other regulations. Those zoning regulations are also different for every borough, township, or city, county, and state across the country. We knew all of this before attempting this route, but we knew what we wanted and weren’t prepared to stop until we reached our goal!

Our first obstacle was finding land for our tiny home. We didn’t want to pay lot rent to live in an RV park, which can be just as expensive as paying rent for an apartment, which wasn’t going to work for us and defeated the purpose of going tiny. We wanted to park our tiny house on our very own piece of land.

Would you believe we ended up finding the perfect property on Craigslist of all places? We purchased slightly more than half an acre with a dilapidated mobile home sitting in the spot we wished to place our tiny house.  It wasn’t pretty, but we saw a vision of what it could be. The view was fantastic. We bought it knowing that we would have to put in sweat equity by knocking down the existing structure and clean up the entire mess all on our own. Did we have any experience doing this kind of work before? Not at all! But it was located perfectly between both of our jobs and had all of the water, septic and electrical hookups we needed. All of the other properties we looked at were raw land without the existing utility connections, which would have been much more expensive to have installed! We felt that we were getting a great deal for the price and would have the best opportunity to complete our dream.

Another major roadblock was the frustrating fact that you’re not allowed to simply live in a tiny house, even if you own the property!

But if things always came easy we wouldn’t appreciate them nearly as much!

Our county sets a minimum square footage size for a legal dwelling at 500 square feet. Our tiny house was obviously going to be less than that. Our home is eight feet wide by twenty-six feet long, giving us approximately 208 square feet on the first floor, along with an eight foot by twelve-foot loft area, giving us an additional 96 square feet. Far less than the 500 square foot requirement!

We figured the best and most efficient way to resolve this issue was to take it directly to the people in charge with the ability to change our circumstances. So, we went to the county courthouse and walked into the zoning office, tucked away in the far corner of the old building’s dusty basement. We explained to the clerks that we had a tiny house that we wanted to live in permanently on our property. They were intrigued and surprisingly supportive. I can remember one of them saying something along the lines of, “Oh, I’m sure they’ll let you do that,” like it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But we had already checked the records of past variance requests in our county’s history and could not find one single instance of someone requesting to do what we were attempting!

They gave us a form to apply for a variance to the square footage requirement.  We had to answer many questions and supply specifics on the size of our house, where our house would be positioned on our property and approximate setbacks from our neighbor’s property lines, etc. We had to write a check to reserve a time for our court appearance. I don’t remember the exact cost, but I do remember not being happy about it. I believe it was in the $200-$300 range. We were told we would receive a letter in the mail confirming the date and time of our zoning board meeting.

At this point, we informed our neighbors what we were planning to do. We did this because all of our neighbors that border our property were going to receive a notice in the mail anyway from the zoning commission explaining that we had a public zoning board meeting to determine whether we could live in a 300 square foot house and that they could attend if they had any issues with it. Luckily, none of our neighbors objected and were actually intrigued. This should be the first thing anyone should do if they are trying to live in a tiny house in a residential area. Make sure your neighbors are okay with it because there’s a good chance it won’t happen if someone is giving you a hard time. I’ve also found that most complaints about tiny homes and RV’s come from disgruntled neighbors! The best thing to do is make a lot of friends and be nice to everyone!

I realize now how extremely risky it was for us to apply for a variance after we had already purchased the property and our tiny house. We were extremely naive in thinking they would simply allow us to do what we wanted. I think we went about it in the best way possible, which helped our cause. But, I would recommend to others attempting to apply for a variance to check with zoning before purchasing their property to get a feel for their views on tiny homes. We could have easily been stuck with a tiny house we were not legally allowed to live in on land we owned. It could have been a total mess and we could have been screwed. Luckily, things ended up falling in our favor in the end, but we should have planned things much better.

Like anything in life, you need to put yourself in the best position to be successful. Don’t just blindly hope things will work out, like we did. We know we got lucky.

I was extremely nervous heading into our zoning board appearance. I had no idea what to expect. I remember having searched google looking for any information about people applying for a variance to lower the square footage requirement and couldn’t find anything. I knew we were in uncharted waters which made me uneasy. The best information I could find was a general list of criteria that typically needed to be addressed in order to successfully be granted a variance:

• Would the proposed change negatively impact local traffic?
• Would the change alter the essential character of the community?
• Was the change necessary for reasonable use of the property?
• Would compliance with zoning laws cause undue hardship on the landowner?
• Does the proposed construction represent the least intrusive solution possible?

I prepared a written statement heading into our zoning board hearing that addressed all of these questions in the best way I could possibly benefit our cause.

• No, this change would not affect local traffic. Our house is several streets away from the main road and is actually a dead-end dirt road with no thru-traffic other than our three neighbors.
• No, this change wouldn’t alter the character of the community. We argued that we were adding character to the community by adding a unique tiny house structure and doing our neighbors a service by removing an ugly old mobile home trailer.
• Yes, this change is necessary because we wouldn’t be able to live in the current mobile home as it is unlivable and want to replace it with a new, energy-efficient tiny home.
• Yes, the current 500 square foot minimum would not allow us to legally live in our approximately 300 square foot tiny home.
• Yes, we believe the addition of our new tiny house would not be intrusive and would actually be a welcoming addition to the community and add some character of its own!

We provided the members of the board with photos we took of the dilapidated trailer we intended to remove. I also added a heartfelt plea to end the written statement to make our best case. I ended by saying that this was our dream to live in a tiny house. Who would want to destroy the naive dream of two innocent, lovely people such as ourselves? We were desperate to move out of my parent’s basement and start a life of our own!

They asked us a few questions after I made my statement. Basic questions such as what the house would look like and if our neighbors were aware of our plans. We told them they were all informed. They then asked if anyone present in the auditorium was here on behalf of our case and thankfully no one raised their hands to be acknowledged.

They also asked whether there were other mobile homes in the surrounding area.

They wanted to know whether our house was going to appear out of place to its immediate surroundings. We told them that our property already had an existing mobile home, another neighbor had a small modular home, and there were two mobile homes around the corner of our property.

Another question came from an older gentleman of the board who candidly asked, “Is this one of those tiny homes?”

This was the reason I purposely refrained from calling our new home a “tiny house” in our application. This was not to be sneaky. It was because they seem to carry a stigma surrounding them for whatever reason we and did not want that to play a role in the committee’s ultimate decision. Throughout the process, I called our home a “small mobile home,” which it absolutely was. It was on wheels and smaller than the typical mobile home.

We told him that it was a tiny house but that it would be set on a foundation and connected to regular utilities.

He then followed up by asking, “You don’t intend to move this trailer to go camping in the mountains on the weekends, do you?”

We responded by saying that our home’s location was already in the mountains and that we didn’t intend to move the home anywhere once it was set on its foundation.

They asked us at the end of our hearing if we wanted to hear their decision now or wait until next month when they reconvened. We looked at each other and told them we would wait. We weren’t prepared to be told no at that moment after everything we’d done and all the energy we’d put towards making our dream happen, with so much riding on their ultimate decision.

We were given the option to come back to the next month’s zoning board meeting to hear their decision in person, or simply wait to receive a letter in the mail.

A little over a month later, we received the letter and we nervously opened it together. We were approved! It was a magical moment for us. Going through this experience together brought Stephanie and me even closer together, sharing the feeling as though we’d accomplished something truly special and we continue to carry that pride along with us every single day.

We learned quite a bit throughout this process. The most prominent lesson being the realization that we can change our circumstances and make a positive change for others if you just have the foresight and belief that you can do it.

And you can do it. Having that belief alone will take you a long way. It can take you to wonderful places. There’s no limit to what you’re capable of.

Just because you haven’t done something before, or you’re attempting to do something that hasn’t been done before—that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, or it won’t happen.

Sometimes you have to make bold moves and make it happen.

Pave your own path and create the most wondrous magic the world has ever seen—one that would never exist without giving all of yourself to the endeavor.