Between Then and Now

We were friends in college. We partied together, passed notes in class. But that isn’t where this story starts. Fast forward to February 2012, Brent and I reconnected. The previous year I had moved from a 4-bedroom house in the suburbs to a 1-bedroom apartment in Uptown. I was loving everything about being back in the city, walking everywhere, not getting on a highway to go to work. My tiny 510 square foot apartment became a gathering place, which is the opposite of what I expected. I thought my days of entertaining were over!

At that time, Brent was living in a 3-bedroom house in the suburbs on almost a ½ acre lot with two roommates. He moved out there for his job at the time, but had since moved on and was mostly working in the Twin Cities. He hated the time he had to dedicate to mowing the lawn. He told me how he wanted to sell the house once the economy started to improve.

That spring I lost my job. The company I was working for went out of business. Luckily the next month my lease was ending. He told me I could move into his house (knowing I would be cleaner than his roommates) until he sold the house. Almost a full year later, he put the house on the market and four days later he had three offers.

To say we weren’t prepared is an understatement. We didn’t know where we were going to move, other than back to the city. There were four points we were unwilling to budge on: in Minneapolis (downtown or certain areas of Uptown), dog friendly (because Napa wasn’t going anywhere), washer and dryer in unit and garage parking (off-street at an absolutely minimum). This was surprisingly hard to find without spending more than $2,000/month. Finally we found a place in Loring Park. The catch: we couldn’t move until four weeks after the close date.

We contemplated options. We could stay with friends or family, but that felt like a long time to not have our own space. So we did the unthinkable. We went on Priceline and entered a price and the area near my work, and we moved into a hotel room for three weeks. I kid you not. This was our life.

Yes, we had our stuff stored in my mom’s garage and my dad’s big trailer, but there we were. Two adults and a dog living at La Quinta Inn. The one and only positive in this, is by the time we moved into our 1-bedroom apartment, 707 square feet felt palatial.  

We’ve been here over a year now. We love city life. We love not having a yard, having a small space to clean and maintain - so many perks. We learned we don’t love property management companies or neighbors, which is when our plans to buy a condo were blown out of the water.

So we landed on an even better idea. Find a lot in the city. Design and build a tiny house that suits our needs. Make it green. We’ll be able to pay it off, be debt free, and have the time and money to travel and go on all the adventures we’ve been dreaming about.

That brings us to now. We found the lot (we haven’t bought it yet). We’re investigating contractors. We’re ready to take the next step in our tiny house dreams! Join us on this crazy adventure!