Gooseneck Tiny Home: A 246 Sq Ft Home She Designed Herself
- Tiny Home Tours
- 12 hours ago
- 6 min read
Lisa wanted to downsize so she could work less, travel more, lower her expenses, and reach a better quality of life sooner. She found it in 246 square feet. "One of the things about living tiny that I love is that if I want to go somewhere else, my house is on wheels," she says. "I call up a tow truck driver, they hook up my house, and I take it with me." This is her gooseneck tiny home, a layout she designed herself down to the last quadrant.
What Is a Gooseneck Tiny Home?
A gooseneck tiny home takes its name from the raised front section that extends out over the tow vehicle's hitch. That extension, the gooseneck, becomes a separate bedroom you can actually stand up in, which is why Lisa chose the style. Her home runs 29 feet long in total, a 22-foot body plus the 7-foot gooseneck, and 8.5 feet wide to stay street legal, adding up to about 246 square feet.
What sets Lisa's apart is that she planned every inch of it. "I wanted to have basically four sections almost equally proportioned," she says. Rather than the single open room many tiny homes use, she divided hers into quadrants so every part of the footprint had a job.
Designed in Four Quadrants
Walk in and you land in the combined living room and kitchen, kept bright with high ceilings. The centerpiece is a full-size modular couch, a deliberate rejection of the tiny, stiff sofas she saw in other tours. "Part of the reason for living in a tiny house is so I can work less, so I plan to spend a lot of time relaxing on my couch," she says. The modular design earns its space twice over: it converts into a guest bed, and it doubles as a backup bed for the day she may not want to climb stairs. There is storage under and inside every cube.
A wall-mounted TV for sports, a fireplace for ambiance and backup heat, a mini split for cooling, and dual-paned windows for insulation round out the room. On a mild day, she just opens the windows for cross ventilation. Above the living area sits a small storage loft, not for sleeping but for overflow, one of many moves she made to keep everything she owns.
A U-Shaped Kitchen Built for Someone Who Cooks
Lisa cooks, so the kitchen got real thought. She chose a U-shape over the galley she had before, putting the fridge, cooktop, oven, sink, prep space, and dishwasher all within arm's reach. "Without barely moving, I've got everything," she says. The appliances are right-sized rather than downsized: a half-drawer dishwasher ("I hate doing dishes"), a two-burner cooktop ("when was I using all four? Never"), a small combination oven that replaced her toaster and air fryer, a fridge that is plenty for one, and a full-size microwave.
The look is all her, white, light, and bright, with a marble-look quartz counter she picked for durability. "In my old condo, I had done things for the sake of resale," she says. "This time I wanted to go completely with just what I wanted." There is a wine area and a coffee and espresso station. Tellingly, she says she barely had to get rid of anything, and her cabinets are not even full.
A Full Bathroom, Tub and All
Lisa was clear she did not want to give up a real bathroom. Hers has a flushing toilet, a large medicine cabinet, storage under and around a counter she had built out for the purpose, and a tub she calls non-negotiable. "I'm a girl, I have a lot of products," she says, and she actually has more bathroom storage now than she did in her condo. The custom tile runs vertical to make the space feel taller.
The one tradeoff was the washer. Fitting the tub meant the laundry would not fit in the bathroom, so it moved to the closet instead. "Had I done it over, I would have made the bathroom even bigger," she admits.
The Bedroom and the Laundry Compromise
Up the stairs, the gooseneck bedroom has a door for privacy and enough headroom to stand. Her full-size bed lifts up for a deep well of storage underneath. Across from it, a closet spanning the entire footprint of the bathroom holds her clothes and shoes, along with the combination washer-dryer that did not fit downstairs. Laundry at home was non-negotiable for her, though she is honest about the compromise: combo units are slow to dry, expensive, and prone to breaking, "but it's still better than nothing."
What It Cost, and the Freedom It Bought
Lisa's condo mortgage had been a reasonable $1,600 a month, but the house came with rooms she cleaned and never used. She pulled equity from it to buy her tiny home outright, all in at $83,000. Now she pays $1,000 a month in space rent that covers water, sewer, trash, electric, and landscaping, adding only propane and cable on top.
The real return showed up in her calendar. She cut back to a three-day work week, which freed her to hike, work out, travel, volunteer, and enjoy the breweries and wineries around San Diego. "The most important thing is living life and having fun," she says, "not trying to make more money, not having a bigger house."
Parking and Moving a Gooseneck Tiny Home
If there is a catch with a tiny home on wheels, Lisa says, it is parking. She originally planned to move to Colorado, but COVID rerouted her, and she had the finished house delivered to San Diego instead. The only legal spot she knew of at first was a tiny house community, Tiny House Block on Mount Laguna, where she lived for six months before the snow drove her down to the foothills. She found her current private space through an online listing.
Moving itself is the easy part. A driver with the right gooseneck truck hooks up, the jacks come up, a few things get secured, and she is off, usually a one-day job. "When moving a traditional house, you have packing and unpacking of boxes for weeks," she says. "I never have to do that again." (Where you can legally place a tiny home varies widely, so it helps to know whether tiny homes are legal where you live before you buy.)
Built to Retire In
For all the talk of travel, Lisa designed this home to stay in for good. She chose no sleeping loft on purpose. "I plan to retire in this house, so I don't even want to crawl into a loft now, much less in 10 or 20 years." The convertible couch is her backup bed, and she already has a plan to adapt further, eventually moving the laundry into the bathroom and removing the tub if she needs to. If a single-level tiny home is what you are after, Sharon and William's no-loft tour is worth a look too.
FAQ
What is a gooseneck tiny home? A gooseneck tiny home has a raised section that extends out over the tow vehicle's hitch, called the gooseneck, which creates a separate stand-up bedroom above. Lisa's is 29 feet long in total (a 22-foot body plus a 7-foot gooseneck) and 8.5 feet wide to stay street legal, for about 246 square feet of living space.
How much does a gooseneck tiny home cost? Lisa's gooseneck tiny home was $83,000 all in, which she paid for outright using equity from her condo. She then pays $1,000 a month in space rent that covers water, sewer, trash, electric, and landscaping, plus propane and cable on top. Costs vary widely by builder, options, and location.
Where can you park a tiny house? Parking is the biggest challenge with a tiny home on wheels. Lisa first parked at a tiny house community, Tiny House Block on Mount Laguna, then found a private space through online listings in the San Diego foothills. Where you can legally park varies a lot by city and county, so it is worth sorting out before you buy.
Is it easy to move a gooseneck tiny home? Yes, because it is on wheels. Lisa raises the jacks, has a driver with the correct gooseneck truck hook it up and secure it, and it is typically a one-day process unless she is traveling far. As she puts it, there are no boxes to pack and unpack for weeks like a traditional move.
Is a tiny home a good choice for retirement? Lisa designed hers specifically to retire in. She deliberately chose a layout with no sleeping loft so she never has to climb, added a modular couch that converts into a bed as a backup, and plans to adapt the space further as she ages, such as swapping the tub for the laundry down the road.
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