This Modern Millennial is Living the Tiny Dream

I feel like tiny house life is a lot more different and the culture's a lot different than van life. It's very different because we're not as mobile. We can move our houses and some people do move their houses constantly but most tiny houses don't move as often.

What happens when two siblings decide to buy tiny houses and live next door to one another? Welcome to the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast, the show where you learn how to plan, build and live the tiny lifestyle. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman, and this is episode 211 with Ashley Monkhouse Ashley Monkhouse is here to tell us all about her tiny lifestyle. Even though the two sisters bought their tiny houses from the same builder., they are quite

Hello, thank you for having me.

You're very welcome. Thank you for being here. I've been following you on Instagram. I recently saw an awesome tour of your tiny house and your sister's tiny house. But I wanted to start with, you know, what got you into tiny living in the first place? What's your tiny story?

Well, I think my story, I think it's pretty funny because it's all about being a sibling. Like my sister wanted to go and see tiny houses, she didn't want to go by herself. I went with her. And then I walked into one of the houses and I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world. And since she was getting one, I had to get one, you know. I can't be the only one left out. And that's kind of how I started in my tiny house journey. She was getting one because we did

Okay, so you you went and saw a tiny house with your sister. And did you end up buying one first? Or did she?

Well, we got them the same time technically, but we had two separate design meetings. Her's was first, and then mine. Just because you know they have to build it. It takes some time between them. So we both got them on the same day as well.

And did you - you both worked with the same company?

Yes, we did.

Did you get a discount for buying two?

No, I wish! You know tiny house in bulk discount.

Seriously, I guess I guess if they had to build two different houses for you and your sister then, you know, yeah, maybe if they were gonna build the two exact same houses.

It probably would have been a little bit cheaper. Yeah.

You know, it's important to get what you want. That's that's custom for your needs.

Yes, I totally agree.

So tell tell us about your tiny house. You know, the stats, like how big is it? What are some of the features? Those kinds of things.

So I do live in a 26 foot tiny house. It's about between 200 - 250 square feet because I only have one loft. I know some people have two lofts. And my house is mainly centered around my kitchen and my bathroom. For tiny houses. I have a pretty large kitchen because I love to cook and I just like love making new meals and trying new things in my kitchen. And then the bathroom because I love you know, putting on clothes and just getting dressed up and

Wow.

It fits me. I'm short. I'm five foot five. So I better be sitting down maybe not anybody else.

That's awesome. And so So you love to cook so you have a big kitchen. And is the loft a sleeping loft or is it a downstairs bedroom and a storage loft.

So my loft is a sleeping loft. That is where my bed is. It's mainly storage for my shoes. I love shoes. So I've turned my loft into kind of like a shoe haven, but it still have a full size bed and everything. So it's fun.

The shoe loft. I love it. How long have you been living tiny now?

So I've had my tiny house, I got it in 2018.

Okay.

I did move out of it for a couple of months, like a year, and then I moved back. So in total, it would be about two years since I've like lived at my tiny house like, fully lived in it by myself.

Okay, that's, that's a pretty decent chunk of time. Why did you move out, may I ask?

I just had a partner at the time. And it was just easier. And I was renting it out, though. Making that money.

No. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the cool thing about tiny houses is that you don't necessarily always have to sell them if you're not gonna live there anymore.

Yeah, I like still owning it.

Yeah, totally. And so do you own the tiny house debt free?

Yes, I do. Me and my sister, we both bought ours outright. So we just have like the lot rental and such like that.

That's so awesome. Has like, I would imagine that of your peers, of your friends, you're probably the only or one of the only people who like owns their house outright.

Yes. Yes, I am in. I mean, I can see it that way. But it's not like a house, in my mind, it doesn't seem like a house.

Uh huh.

So I'm like, yeah, technically, I do own my house. But it doesn't feel like it.

It doesn't feel like a house?

No. It just feels like, I don't know. It's like my bedroom. That's what it feels like my tiny house is just my big bedroom.

Okay.

Especially since my sister lives next door. That's her bedroom.

Right. Yeah, that's, I love that aspect of your story that that you and your sister live next door. And so you really are able to spend a lot of time together, but you also still have your own space.

Yeah, I do love that aspect. Me and my sister. We weren't always close growing up. But now we're getting a lot closer. And it's easier. When if something happens I just go next door and be like, "Hey, Alexis, watch my dogs real quick. I have to go do something."

Yeah

Just something like that.

Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's great to have a sibling as a neighbor. As long as you get along well.

Yes. And if we don't, you know, go back to your separate rooms and siblings, you always end up coming back together in the end.

Yep. So can you tell us about your the tiny house, the community, the lot that you rent?

My tiny house community. So I love where I'm living right now. I did live on a horse farm for a little bit with RVs, which was an experience. But the tiny house that I'm in right now, in the community, I really enjoy it. I think it's a beautiful place to be I get honey. Like sometimes, because they do have bees on the property, which is so much. It's so nice, since I have allergies, like having fresh honey is always great. And then the neighbors are just also nice, and we're always looking

Yep. Yep.

And I really enjoy that aspect.

That's awesome. And so this this is like an official tiny house community. How many? How many houses are there?

Yes, this is official tiny house community. I'm trying to think. Because almost all of the lots are filled up with a waiting list. I think there's about 12 houses 11?

Wow. And and how much if you don't mind saying how much is the rent to have a spot?

So the lat rental is $475 a month and that includes like water, electricity, sewage, like all those utilities. Like WiFi, you have to get it by yourself, but that's understandable.

That's, that's awesome. That I mean, that seems like a great deal and you get to live with other tiny housers for better or for worse.

We do learn a lot from each other because everyone's house go through different things at different stages. So it's easy and fun to converse and be like, "Hey, my house is doing this. If you guys just house okay, how do you guys fix this issue when you had it?" And just things like that.

Totally. So, as somebody who studied anthropology, you know, what is your take on the tiny house culture, or do you do you see tiny house dwellers as be In kind of their own their own culture in a way?

I really do, in my opinion, just because my sister watches like van life sometimes and like living in a Yurt, like she told me about it, she's the one that does the research. And I don't know, I feel like tiny house life is a lot more different. And the culture is a lot different than van life pr, like RV living or just like running or changing out a bus or Sprinter van. Like, it's very different. Because we're not as mobile, we can move houses. And so people do move their houses

Yeah, I guess there's much less emphasis on that nomadic aspect, you know, when you're living in a tiny house on wheels, because there are a handful of people that I know of who are travelling in their tiny house or they're moving in every couple of months. But the vast majority of us park our tiny house for years at a time in one place.

Yeah. And the tires, it's not that easy to haul either. A Sprinter van is a lot easier to haul.

Yeah, yeah. And it has its own motor.

I'd have to get a truck to move mine.

Yep. So you've when you have moved it, you've hired a professional mover to do that?

Yes, I've used the same one. Me and my sister both because we know he can get the job done. He's not extremely expensive. And it's from our builder. So it's like still a reputable person, not just a random, "Hey, do you want to move my house 100 miles?"

Yep. Yep. And so in the community where you are you mentioned now I'm a warn you, I want to talk about the toilet, of course, because that's like such an interesting thing that everybody loves to talk about. So does your tiny house have a flush toilet?

So I just installed a flush toilet, literally this weekend. I did it myself. Yeah, I'd had a composting toilet the whole time.

Okay,

Which was a little difficult at first,

Okay,

because you can't just go away can't like human waste, you can't do that. Right. You either have to compost it, which takes a really long time. Or you have to take it to a compost facility that does deal with human waste. And so finding that and doing that research was a little difficult. But once I got it, it was easy.

And you so now you have a flush toilet does that, did they install, like the kind of the pipe in the floor for the toilet? Like when the house was built so that you'd have the option in the future?

Yes. And that is something that I'm really glad that we did say that because they were like, "Do you want a flush toilet?" and I were like, "We don't know." My sister wanted a compost toilet. No, I'm just doing what she's doing. So I was like, "Yeah." But they did put the hookups in case we did want it and I'm so thankful because I installed this by myself. If I had to do all that plumbing, I would have had to pay someone to come do it.

Yeah, as long as as long as the pipe is there installing a toilet is kind of a fun a fun job. You got that, you got that seal.

It's a fun, I was fighting with my toilet. My toilet did not like me for the longest time. But it was fun to do projects. Like I'm still doing a lot more projects on my house this year. I'm excited to do it.

Yeah, what kind of projects do you have coming up?

So I am changing out my water heater because it didbreak on me a little while ago. And you know, thankfully,

Is it a tank tank or tankless?

It's a tankless water heater. So it did have natural gas, like it took, propane. But I think I'm switching to an electric one too. I feel like that's a lot easier overall.

Yeah,

Because hooking up and taking down a propane tank is somewhat frustrating because I run out of hot water. And then I'm like, "Dang, I have to run to the gas station, get propane and hook you up in the middle of the night."

Yeah, yeah, I have to say of all the systems in my tiny house the propane has been the most troublesome for me just in terms of running out of gas. Having it actually freeze up at times in the deep winter. Yeah, just Yeah. And then you have the whole like, question of you know, is it leaking and you needing to check it periodically?

Yeah. Yeah, me I don't know I didn't know how to pick up a propane tank after all these years because it just was not working. But I also have to change out my fridge in my kitchen. I have to fix it because in the tour video, it my door opens up away from my kitchen and everybody, and when I say everybody I mean everybody, was telling me to flip the door around. You know it shouldn't have it open towards the kitchen. If I can do that, I've just been too lazy to

Ah, okay. Okay. I asked John and Finn Kernaghan of United Tiny House Association, what they love about their PrecisionTemp hot water heaters. And here's what they told me.

PrecisionTempon-demand hot water heaters. The thing we really like about these and folks know this, I think they picked this up on Fin and I, if we don't like something, you'll never hear us talk about it. So the two things we noticed that we noticed the experience immediately, they took painstaking effort to make sure that it was done right and installed. And so that was pretty cool right there. The other thing is the continuous on-demand hot water that just ran forever, without any

Yeah, that's, I think that's a cool thing about tiny houses is that a lot of these handy projects are within reach. And yeah, you know, you might have to learn some things to do them. But the scale is smaller for everything.

I think so as well. And I like being hands on and doing this stuff. Because I feel like once I learned the basics, which is what I feel like in the tiny house, nothing too extravagant. If I ever do go and get a full sized house, I can have at least some kind of understanding on these appliances. Like, I'd have to take apart my washer dryer combo so many times that I can take it apart and put it back together and not even think about it. Probably five minutes.

What is what have you had to do? Like, why are you having to take it apart so often?

Well, I had to do that because what happened was one of the hoses like it wasn't training properly, because I didn't know where to find the lint trap, because it's a washer dryer combo. And so it just like just got filled up, and I didn't know how to rinse it out. I fix it. I took it apart. I thought I did something. They went online, but about together. Nobody was still leaking. It was just a bunch of stuff. So it took me about a week to figure out what was

That's no good. That's that's a tip to listeners, like make sure that you can get spare parts for the appliances that you buy.

You don't think about them because they're not very common appliances like in the US anyways, washer dryer combos aren't that common. Washers and dryers are very common, but just the combination ones aren't. And so having to find the right one for that and such like that.

One of the features that I really like about your tiny house is is the staircase. It's like it's like a diagonal bar that comes down from the wall and then you know this each stair tread is supported just in the middle. Is that a feature that's unique to to your house or?

Yes, it is.

Okay.

Because the when I was designing my house I don't know if you've seen the tour or not but my house is very neutrals, it's very black, white, gray, I think I have like a little bit of like light blues in it.

Yeah.

And to me I enjoy that but I also do like a little bit of warmth here there. My sister's house is very warm orange tones everywhere. So I was trying to figure out how to incorporate that like with wood whether that's in the stairs or like in the ceiling the floor and the person that was building my house he was like, "I have this great idea you know. What's your budget?" And thankfully me my sister had a pretty nice budget. He was like, "I'll just make you custom

Okay then floating off of that one central kind of thing?

Yeah, they're not even connected to the wall.

Okay cool.

They have fallen before.

Okay, so they can actually come off?

Yeah, I can unscrew them.

Wow, okay.

If I wanted to.

You don't do that when you move though they just stay where are they?

Yeah, because the bar that is connected to is a steel bar and that is reinforced on the floor and the wall.

Got it.

But the stairs themselves if I ever wanted to change out the wood, or restain it or anything I'd just unscrew them all do that.

And so your sister's house does not have that staircase?

No, she has a more put in staircase like what you would typically see in a tiny house that's like attached to the wall usually have storage underneath. Her is underneath. It is like a reader's nook because she reads. Like I cook, she reads so she has a giant bookshelf in her house. She has a place to sit and read if she wants. I mean, she has a baby now. So she can't really do that. But yeah, she has a second loft. She has a ladder as well.

Okay. Okay. And your loft is it's it's pretty generous sized. Because it's it's like, almost Well, it's not completely closed in but it's it's got like a half wall,

Yeah. But me and my sister were just right? talking about this recently. My house anyway has very defined spaces, in a sense, like my kitchen, you can tell it's the kitchen, you can tell it's a living room, the bedroom as well, which the last is fully enclosed almost, you can just see a little bit on top and the staircase, you know, it's open under there the whole, but it's pretty secluded, like almost like a bedroom. Technically without a door.

Okay.

I'm very grateful that I built my house that way. Because sometimes it just feels like one giant room. And then it really doesn't feel like a house. At least to me anyways. So I'm thankful for that.

Yeah, yeah, the tiny houses can get a real tunnel effect where it just feels like it's all this one big tube.

Yes. Not always the most fun when you have that realization.

Yeah, no, no. And having that separate space does help. I don't know. I gather from your your Instagram posts that you you work from home?

Yes, I do.

Do you have like a space that you specifically work in?

Yes, I work in my living room. To me, it gives a lot of light and I see I almost have almost all of my windows. And I just, it's more of a comfortable space. I wouldn't want to work in my kitchen. And I wouldn't really want to work in my bedroom. I could if I wanted to. But I enjoy the living room aspect. Because when I'm in my living room, I'm actually doing something that's either on my computer or my phone, something

Yeah, yeah.

When I was building my house, I designed my house to be in my living room and work because I was a student then. So I do have a desk technically in my tiny house in the living room for me to work on. It's just don't use it all that much.

Yeah. And then in your kitchen. Are the appliances like full size? Or are they kind of RV size somewhere in between? So

I thought my appliances were full size, not my fridge. My fridge is a three quarter length fridge. But in my mind, I thought my washer dryer combo and my oven were like normal size until I go back to my house like my dad lives in. Yeah, they're not normal size at all. They're so small. So I think they're like I would say it's not RV size, it's a little bit bigger than that, because they are pretty standard. I have four burner stove, but it is a little on the smaller side.

So you have an awesome, a couple of videos on YouTube. There's one that's called Sunday Clean With Me and you just like go through. It looks like mostly the kitchen, you know in the house too. And you pick up is that is that a weekly ritual for you?

So usually on Sundays, that's when I do like my full clean once a month I deep clean which is like moving everything. Thankfully, it's not too much. I don't have a big house. So it's not hard to clean it. But like moving the oven stove, like doing all the laundry, set of sheets. That's like a once a month kind of thing. And but every Sunday night, I do like to start my Monday with a clean space, specifically a clean kitchen, because I kind of meal prep on

Right. Yeah, you seem you seem very well organized. So congratulations.

I love being organized. I went to a Container Store with my sister a couple of weeks ago. The best time of my life. So much fun.

I've never been to a Container Store.

You have to go Yeah, I bought so much stuff. And they work well in a tiny house because being organized helps not feel like it's cluttered. I do have a lot of stuff.

Yeah, it's important to not have all your stuff just like out. It needs to go in somewhere.

Yeah. Plus, it makes it easier to feel present in the space when there's not too much going on around you. Yeah.

Is there anything that surprised you about tiny living that that you weren't expecting?

Yes. I don't know why I wasn't expecting this. But there are a lot of bugs when you're living tiny. Well, you notice them anyways.

Okay.

And I'm pretty sure that's because when you're in a normal sized house, you know, bugs are always there as well. It's just space isn't so small, you don't see them a lot. But spiders love trying to come into my house, mosquitoes love coming in my house, I had to put up a net and everything because they just love going into my house. And ants. So a big problem when it comes to tiny house living well, for me and my sister and our community anyways, they just come out of nowhere, they

Alright, so bugs. If you could go back and give yourself pre-tiny house advice about your tiny house, what would you what would you tell yourself?

Um, let's see, I think about this a lot. Actually, I would say be cautious of your electronics and your outlets, and where you'll be spending most of your time. Because most people like it my kitchen, I have a plethora of outlets like I cook in there a lot of always using appliances, it's great. In my living room, my outlets are so far away. Like if I was to plug in my phone I have to plug it in almost a classroom, which isn't too big,

I so agree with you that, you know the outlets. When I when I designed and built mine. Like I thought I was putting in a lot of outlets. Yeah, like more than I needed. And then like, I don't have a half as many outlets as I need.

Yes. See? You understand.

Yeah.

And another I think I would have already built in storage, like I should buy or pay for or look where you want storage already built into your house.

Yeah.

I have a lot of storage in my kitchen cabinet. But there's no actual storage in my house. In the living room. I have a couch that has storage in it. But there's no cubbies. There's no like shelves. It's just this rectangular piece of my house. Having to build it and put all that in is a little bit more of a hassle that I could have had done at the beginning.

Yeah, yeah, totally. Do you have? You know, you mentioned maybe wanting a bigger house at some point is there like, a specific time that you're like, "Okay, after this many years, I think I'm gonna want to move on from tiny house living?" Or, you know, how are you just kind of taking it day by day, year by year?

I think for me, there's not a specific time that I want to be out of my house.

Okay.

I just know personally, I can't have a family in my tiny house. My tiny house was not built for family living like at all. It was built for me to live as a single adult. And now I have a I do have a partner I am together with him. But I still own my space. And this is a great space that I still have by myself. My sister, I don't know how she does it. Her on her kid. My niece, love them. She's great in a tiny house. I can't do it. So I'll probably be out before I have kids.

Okay, yeah, cuz that is it is quite a small space to share with with a young one.

And, you know, if you build your house, in the hopes or in the aspect of having kids, then it's a lot easier. Like that was not in my plan at all. So there's no place for a child to sleep to play to run around. Yeah, I don't have any of that.

But you do have a dog or or more than one dog?

I have two dogs. But they're little. Yes. So I have two dogs one is to Talula. They're both shih-tzus. Technically, I'm allergic to dogs. But I

Okay. can't not have a dog. They're hypoallergenic. But I have Talula, she's nine years old. My little old lady. Okay.

I have Chaos. He just turned two. He was my COVID baby. I got him during COVID.

Okay.

And he's also a shih-tzu. They just keep me company. Great in a tiny house.

Talula and Chaos.

Yeah.

They're great names.

Talula, we got her from the shelter so that was her name to begin with and Chaos, we got him on Craigslist. And if anyone ever sees him, he's just this big ball of chaos. You don't know what's gonna happen. You don't know if he's gonna run around. He's just gonna sit on you. You never know. We'll find out.

So he's he's aptly named.

Yes.

Nice. Well, one thing that I like to ask all my guests is, you know, what are two or three resources that have kind of helped you on your tiny house journey? This could be books, podcasts, YouTube channels, movies, you know, really anything, anything that's helped you that you'd like to kind of share with our listeners.

So for me, what's helped me mainly was YouTube, although because YouTube was just very easily accessible back then, By back then I mean like 2018. Because it's like one of the main platforms at the time. And so using that, and just seeing how different people design their houses, seeing how different houses were laid out, there wasn't that much out there. But, you know, it was still enough to be able to be like, "Okay, I don't want an L shaped kitchen

Yeah,

But it was always like oh, information on plugging a tiny house and they would tell you, you know, try to be RV certified because then you can park in an RV park. Stuff like that just was really helpful. So typing in questions onto Google sometimes gave great resources.

Nice. Well, that's that's a great thing. There's a lot of great Tiny House information available online.

Yeah, it's becoming more popular now. It's becoming more accessible. More people are talking about it online.

Nice. Nice. Well, Ashley, thank you so much for being a guest on the show today. This is it was really fun to get to know you and learn about your tiny house life.

It was fun. Thank you for the interest in having me on here. enjoy talking to people about tiny living so.

Thank you so much to Ashley Monkhouse for being a guest on the show today. You can find the show notes including pictures of Ashley's tiny house and a complete transcript at thetinyhouse.net/211. Again, that's the thetinyhouse.net/211. Well, that's all for this week. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman, and I'll be back next week with another episode of the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast.