Low Maintenance Tiny Home: At 70, She's Done with Upkeep
What pushed Hilda toward a low maintenance tiny home at 70 wasn't the money or even the square footage. It was the upkeep.
She and her husband had fixed up an older house, but the work never really ended. There was always something that needed painting, something that needed cleaning, and the wiring was getting old enough that she had started to worry about it.
"It got to be almost scary trying to take care of it."
Eventually, Hilda realized she didn't want a home that required so much from her.
"I guess that's where I got this idea of feeling trapped. I said, no, I want something I can take care of, something I can do."
That led her to In The Pines Cottages, a community owned by Gwen, who was her daughter's friend in high school and who Hilda has known since she was a child. Hilda looked at 30 or 40 homes before she finally chose this one.
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At a glance
A low maintenance tiny home at In The Pines Cottages, a gated community, moved in last October
No loft, by choice, with a ground floor bedroom and a back door onto a porch
Windows on every outside wall, which is what sold her on this one
Electricity ran $76 to $78 a month across last summer
Site includes the well, sewer, internet, electricity, a gate, a pavilion and yard mowing
What Makes It a Low Maintenance Tiny Home
The jobs did not disappear when she moved. They got smaller, which turns out to be the whole difference.
"I've got some painting I got to get done this spring, but it's like I can take a little can, get it done, and it'll be done. I spent all summer long painting in my other house."
The same goes for repairs. She can handle most of what breaks without waiting on anyone, because there is simply less of it.
"I can fix most of the things around here if something tears up. I don't have to wait until I can get somebody to come in, because it's less of everything."
Asked what she gets back for it, she is blunt, and the answer is time rather than money.
"Painting and cleaning, if that's all you do in your life, that's no fun. That's not what we want to be doing. We want to be out walking and hiking."
There is a second kind of upkeep she has lost, which is the hunting. She says she spent a lot of her life looking for things she already owned.
The Kitchen, Where She Spends Her Time
Hilda is a substitute teacher, so Sundays are usually her cooking day. She makes several meals at once and puts them in the freezer, giving her something ready to eat when she gets home. After decades of cooking for large groups of people, she has intentionally scaled things down.
Her stove bakes well and holds its temperature, something she doesn't take for granted, although these days she probably uses the microwave and small air fryer more than anything else.
The kitchen itself is simple and easy to keep up with. The counters wipe clean, the sink is a deep single basin with a spray hose, and there is even a small dishwasher she is especially fond of. Her spices sit on open shelving, and if it had been entirely up to her, she would have chosen open shelves throughout the kitchen.
But two of her favorite things have nothing to do with appliances. She held out for a drink bar where she could keep her coffee and teas, and she loves the high wooden ceiling that keeps the small space from feeling boxed in. The window over the sink earns its place too.
"A lot of women, and I do, will sit here and be doing dishes and we'll be daydreaming out the window."
About the Sponsor
Disclosure: this video tour was sponsored by Wildgrain.
Wildgrain delivers par-baked sourdough, ready-to-bake pastries and pasta. Everything arrives frozen, stores in the freezer and bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less. Boxes can be skipped or canceled at any time. The sponsored segment is read by the host of the tour rather than by Hilda.
You can see Wildgrain here, and the code TINYHOME30 takes $30 off a first box.
Windows Everywhere, and No Loft At All
The windows are the reason she chose this particular home out of the forty she walked through.
"I've got a window on every outside wall. That was what sold me."
Smaller windows up high move the light around through the day. Her bathroom has one too, which she would not do without, and she says the moon through it at night looks like a picture hanging there. On the subject of lofts she is a good deal less sentimental, and her objection is not the climb.
"The lofts, you are not functional usable space to me. You can't stand up in them. So I didn't want the lofts because of that."
Her bedroom is on the ground floor with a back door onto the porch, and she wakes up and watches the birds through it. Storage goes under the bed, into a little dresser and into an antique pie safe, with baskets and step stools throughout because she is short.
Everything else works twice. The couch folds out into a bed, which her grandchildren treat as the main attraction, and her son-in-law found her a table that opens up to seat four and folds back down for one.
What Land Would Have Cost Her
Before choosing a community, Hilda priced the alternative. Land and getting it ready came to about $300,000 by her reckoning, with a well alone close to $30,000, before electricity, sewer, landscaping and a road.
Her site comes with the well, the sewer system, internet, electricity, a gate and a pavilion, and the yard is mowed for her.
"They keep the yard mowed and the hard stuff done around here, so I get to play."
Her electricity ran $76 to $78 a month through last summer. She had one bad month over the winter, and otherwise says her bill has been a fraction of what people around her are paying, while she keeps the place as warm or as cool as she wants it. She rates the arrangement above the other obvious option for someone her age as well.
"I have got more freedom here. An apartment wouldn't give me this kind of a freedom. I couldn't have my plants."
If you are weighing the same choice, the raw land guide covers what to check before buying, and tiny home vs apartment runs the numbers on the comparison she is making here.
The Porches Are the Point
Hilda says plainly that she is not an inside person, and that a house is mostly wasted on someone like her. She has two porches and uses both.
The back one is where the gardening and the crafts happen, and where she drinks her coffee in the morning. Deer and turkeys come through, there are wind chimes, and she planted a cutting from her grandmother's rose bush out there.
The front one is for people. She has furnished it to keep visitors sitting, and she is open about the strategy.
"I can keep them here longer if I keep it comfortable, so I make my little couch comfortable, so people will come and spend time with me."
"My porches are my favorite part of my homes. They really are. I wouldn't want to have a house without porches."
She moved in last October and has a number in mind for how long she stays.
"I plan on living tiny until I'm at least 80. I'm going to be at least 80. I hope to live beyond that, but I got at least 10. Actually, I've never lived nowhere 10 years yet. I intend to try to make this my 10-year thing."
Questions About Low Maintenance Tiny Homes
Is a low maintenance tiny home really less work than a house?
Hilda's answer is that the jobs are the same but the scale is not. She spent a whole summer painting her last house. Here she says she can pick up a small can, get it done, and it is finished. She also fixes most things herself rather than waiting for someone to come out, because there is less of everything to go wrong.
What does a tiny home community cover that land does not?
At In The Pines Cottages, Hilda's site comes with the well, the sewer system, internet, electricity, a gate and a pavilion, and the yard is mowed for her. She priced doing it herself on raw land at about $300,000 to get set up, with a well alone running close to $30,000.
Why would someone choose a tiny home without a loft?
Hilda ruled lofts out on usability rather than on the stairs. In her words you cannot stand up in them, so she does not count them as real space. She looked at 30 or 40 homes before picking one with a ground floor bedroom and a window on every outside wall.
How do you make a small living room work for guests?
Hilda's rule is that most things should do two jobs. Her couch folds out into a bed for her grandchildren, and her dining table opens up to seat four and shrinks back down for one. She also treats the porches as extra rooms, which is where most of her visiting actually happens.
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