Her old house always needed painting. At 70 she wanted something she could take care of herself, so she looked at 40 homes and picked this one.

A tiny home on a foundation is a small home permanently attached to a base built into the ground, instead of sitting on a trailer that can be towed. That one difference decides whether the county treats it as a house or a vehicle, where you can put it, how you insure it, and whether a bank will lend against it. Here is the part most guides skip. "On a foundation" is not one thing. A slab, a crawlspace, a row of piers and a set of steel screws twisted into the dirt are all fou

Most women her age pick the downstairs bedroom. Barbara picked the loft, then solved the stairs and the 2am bathroom trip one at a time.

She measured the couch, the pantry and the refrigerator for months before buying any of them. Now 300 square feet feels roomier than 465 did.

Stairs to the loft were a condition of buying, not a preference. Inside Priscilla's Durango tiny home, and the spare room she is keeping ready for later.

Her kitchen is on the north wall on purpose, the vanity top is finished with homemade soap, and the pizza oven holds 12,000 pounds of sand. Come look inside.

Their goal was $30,000 and they came in at $39,000. A single ordering mistake explains most of the gap. Here is what each stage of the build cost.

Her daughter drew the shelves and the window seat she wanted, and the builder copied the drawing. Three people, two cats and a hammock loft on a 32 foot trailer.

It rained for a week on a cabin vacation with three small boys, and she realized she could live with far less. Twelve years and two more kids later, their family of seven is still proving she was right.

She drove an hour to work, six days a week, and never met her neighbors. Six years into 399 square feet, she cleans the whole house in about an hour.

Her 1928 Spanish house burned with 9,000 others. A year later she is living on the same lot in 243 square feet, with a path made from her old chimney bricks.

She has owned the same house since 2001. Twenty-five years later she lives in the park model out back, and the tenants in the main house pay for it.

She has designed tiny homes for six years and lives in one herself. What she asks buyers before they choose a plan, and the mistake she made in her own first home.

They bought a 40-foot bus, cut it in half to raise the roof, and spent two and a half years learning to build. Now five of them live in it, with a tiled shower.

After his divorce he needed a home near the family business his great grandfather started in 1923. So he parked one on it, and got through a Wisconsin winter.

We asked twelve tiny home owners what they pay for their lot. The answers ran from $300 to $1,000 a month, and what that buys varies more than the number does.

He spent 15 years designing nail salons. Then he lost everything, started over, and built himself a 28 foot tiny home with a rooftop deck and a real bathtub.

Seven years, two continents to go, and a short list of things they would build differently. Inside a self-converted school bus that cost $29,000.

Mona thought she would work until the day she died. See how van life on Social Security works for her, from the water jugs to the monthly budget.

Debbie added two feet, a fireplace and a drawer dishwasher to her Oregon tiny home. See which upgrades earned their money, and the two she would change.