Michael and Katy Krebs were searching for a place to call their own when they stumbled upon an old shed that had formerly belonged to Michael’s grandparents.
The Krebs had been renting for almost seven years. Since they were getting older and had two kids,
Carolina, 7, and Harper, 3, they decided it was time to locate a place to call home when the coronavirus epidemic hit.
The wait time for a response was short.
The couple had been given 70 acres of land close to Fayetteville, Texas, by Michael’s grandparents. The property consists of a modest, decaying shed and agricultural land.
According to Krebs, a stay-at-home parent, ‘We thought the shed would be the perfect thing to fix up and turn into a tiny home, where we could live while saving up for the forever house.’
Until they have saved enough money to renovate and move into the larger house, which was his grandparents’ house, they want to reside in the smaller house.
But it wasn’t an easy task. The 1980s saw the construction of the 280 square foot shed, which used as a storage area. There was peeling paint, inadequate plumbing, and electrical wiring.
Krebs, though, had high hopes for what the shed may develop into.
I’ve always found small houses to be fascinating. I used to spend a lot of time watching TV shows about tiny houses, said Krebs.
When my husband took me to visit an old shed that belonged to his grandparents, it was like a dream come true.
Due to their limited resources, the couple completed the majority of the remodeling tasks themselves, including adding windows, erecting partition walls, and restoring the roof.
After removing the last items inside the shed, they started tearing down the interior walls.
Krebs continued, ‘We removed the plywood ceiling and walls, and it still had excellent insulation.’ The original flooring could also be kept because it was in great shape.
At one time, the shed featured three windows. To boost ventilation and natural light, the couple decided
to construct two extra buildings. They were outdated aluminum windows, but Krebs said, ‘We just popped them out and put in new vinyl ones.’
The living room and kitchen area’s ceilings were also vaulted.
The two painted the roof’s outside with a fresh coat of galvanized paint to shield it from rust and corrosion.
The shed’s exterior walls were also painted.
The paint on the shed was dry-rotting, so we had to wipe it all off because you could see it was an ancient structure, according to Krebs.
They attempted to reuse pre-existing materials from the site, like timber, in an effort to save money.
Krebs said, ‘We installed a beam that we found in an old barn out in the pasture on the property.» Additionally, we removed all of the wood off that and utilized it for our ceiling.
As their new entrance door, they also used an antique barn door.
The door was in excellent shape when we discovered it, so I simply sanded it down and added a window.
I didn’t even paint it, remarked Krebs. That, in my opinion, would be ideal for the tiny cottage.
They wanted to change the orientation of the structure, which was originally designed with the entrance on the back side.
The previous entry was covered, and a hole was made in the building’s front side for the new door, she said.
Building new walls to divide the space into rooms was one of the most challenging challenges the couple encountered during the repair.
The first decision Krebs and her husband had to make was a floor plan. Where there had previously been one open space,
the couple divided two rooms from the combined kitchen and living area to create a bedroom and a bathroom.
It was time to start working after they had that out of the way.
We used YouTube extensively to learn how to accomplish this and that. ‘Me and Michael, with our two daughters by
our sides, did all of the framing ourselves,’ Krebs said. It’s fortunate that my husband was well aware of what he was doing.
Krebs had always wanted an 8-foot front porch for her family home, so the couple constructed it along with the existing shed.
The porch increased the size of the house by around 100 square feet, she said. Even in the rain, the girls
may go outside and play. It’s a lovely location to relax, especially as the sun sets in the evenings.
Family and friends helped out where they could.
Krebs calculated that it took about nine months to complete the remodeling.
She said, ‘We began in September 2020 and finished in May 2021.’ Everyone enjoyed the endeavor because our family and friends helped us with various areas of the makeover.
The couple did the majority of the wiring themselves, but they hired an electrician to connect the house to the main power supply.
Krebs, who has about 9,500 followers on TikTok, has been documenting her experience living in a tiny house.
According to Krebs, their expenditures were about $16,000, which was within their original budget.
We were aware that we needed to stay within $20,000, and fortunately we finished it before the cost of everything increased, she said.
Even though they were remodeling during the coronavirus outbreak, the couple had no significant supply-chain issues.
As she continued, ‘We reused a lot of the old lumber and other materials that we already had laying around,
so building the home during the pandemic really wasn’t that bad.’ Fortunately, the neighborhood home improvement store didn’t have a significant supply shortage.
Three rooms and simple furnishings make up the completed small house.
The open kitchen is on the left as you enter the main door, and the living room is on the right, according to Krebs.
The 70-square-foot bedroom is then accessible by a doorway, and the bathroom is located to the left of that.
The bathroom has a shower, a toilet, a vanity, and a closet that is concealed by a curtain.
While my husband created the closet space by inserting shelves into the wall, my husband tiled the shower in about a week, according to Krebs.
An outside contractor built the small home’s new septic system and connected it to the bigger house on the property.
Krebs said, ‘We don’t really have a set place somewhere where everybody sleeps because we have one full-sized bed and one couch that folds out into a bed.’
She stated that while she and her children might spend some nights on the couch, other nights they would spend in the master bedroom.
Although she and her family find this flexible sleeping arrangement to be effective, other TikTok users have expressed disapproval.
‘I’ve heard some bad things about where my kids sleep, but it’s OK,’ I tell myself. I’m sure they’re secure.
They have a bed and a safe place to live, she said. However, I constantly remind folks that it won’t last forever.
In the future, they’ll have their own room in the main house; this is just a temporary arrangement.
Krebs says that his favorite room in the house is the rustic kitchen.
Krebs said, «I’ve always wanted a kitchen like that, and it doesn’t cost a lot of money to obtain it.
I desired shiplap walls and a farmhouse sink, both of which were possible in my tiny home. Even if you live in a little space, you can still have a beautiful existence.
Krebs offers some guidance to anyone thinking about starting from scratch to build a tiny house. Create rough sketches of each floor plan before you start.
This covers particulars like the location of light fixtures and electrical outlets. Although we preferred it,
the air conditioning ended up in the living room instead of the bedroom. We now have this substantial galvanized pipe in the front where the porch is, so it complicated our plans,
she said. I didn’t like it at first, but now I don’t notice it as much, and it serves as a nice reminder to plan things out before you begin.
About a year has passed since the family moved into the house. Krebs claims that everyone has benefitted from the experience, especially her daughters.
They’ve cut back on a lot of things, she said, and they don’t spend every day pent up indoors. We have our own hens, cows,
pigs, and dogs, so it’s wonderful for kids to be outside and explore. They can also go outside and ride.