Elisa and Ryk are a happily married couple who live in side by side tiny houses. They’re parked next to each other with a shared yard at an RV/THOW community in Welches, Oregon. Impressively, even with two homes and double the lot rent, plus utilities, they still save $600 per month on monthly expenses. This is compared to their previous apartment rental living situation. Why would they want to have separate tiny houses? Each enjoys expressing themselves through their small space interior design and having a private retreat when desired.
“We got married later in life. We both have our own tastes. And we’re very similar in some ways, but the way we express that is very different.
He has a whole man cave. That’s his house now. And I have my place to do my things. But my kitchen is bigger. So we still cook meals together, and we eat together. We sleep in my loft bedroom because he loves it. It’s like a treehouse. He loves it.
But we have the big TV in his bedroom. So if we wanna watch a movie together, we just go over and watch a movie. So in many ways, it’s no different than living in a regular-sized house. It’s just two separate small residences.
And because we’re in such a great environment, I have this porch here. He has his deck. So sometimes we come and say, oh, you want a glass of wine? OK. Well, which deck are we going to sit on? And we can choose between different spaces to hang out. And that’s a lot of fun, I think.”
-Ryk & Elisa, @goddesslifeguide
Ryk and Elisa’s side by side tiny houses were both built by New Creation Tiny Homes, based in Oregon. The layout, look, and feel of each are entirely distinct from the other. Each is customized to their individual owner’s preferences. However, as a pair, they complement each other well—just like Ryk and Elisa.
Elisa’s witchy “Little Starry Blue” tiny house is 26 feet long and 8.5 feet wide. She particularly loves the open living room area with reclaimed wood high ceilings. It’s large enough for a full-size sofa and a compact home office setup. She accesses her secondary loft via a wall-mounted ladder next to her couch.
“This is my room of creativity. Certainly, a guest can sleep up there if they wanted to. But I have it set up so that I can do all of my creative endeavors in my own space, and everything is in its own space up there. So it makes a perfect place for me to go up to meditate, to work on creative projects, and sometimes just to hang out as another space.”
-Elisa
Her bedroom loft is on the other side of the house. It features a queen-sized bed that easily lifts to access a large storage compartment. Additionally, there’s a built-in closet with great hanging space and shelving along the back wall, perfect for her beloved Kokeshi doll collection. The stairs up to the loft are open, making the downstairs space more spacious. At the top is a landing area. It provides Elisa with enough room to stand there and comfortably dress or make the bed. A wall-mounted catwalk connects the two lofts. Elisa’s cat, Magic, loves it!
Ryk’s tiny house on wheels could be referred to as a meditative man cave. He calls it “Lassen Creek.” It’s 30 feet long by 8.5 feet wide and is a single-floor design. Though, to maximize his bedroom square footage, Ryk created a low-height platform bed that’s accessed by a few steps. Underneath makes an ideal storage space. He uses it as a closet and mini wine cave.
“So when we got this tiny house, one of the things that it had was just an empty room. They didn’t give us a bed or anything, which is actually great, because we could sit back and say, what do we need? We need more storage. We need a bed. The need for the storage outweighed the need to have the bed at floor level.
And so what I did was I created a concept where I raised the bed to a half wall platform. And then, I went on Etsy and found these bookcases and had them shipped. And that became the foundation.
So I put them all together and screwed them together and then bolted of them into the wall so they wouldn’t shift. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a little of a larger guy. So I really need things to be stable and secure, not creak and things like that. And then, underneath, I have all this great lighting that I installed. And it’s got our books and our wine and tool kits and everything that we need.”
-Ryk
Initially, Ryk planned to go with a smaller trailer but upgraded by 4 feet to create room for a home office. It’s a very comfortable and functional room. One of the walls is semi-open to keep it from feeling too tight. Interestingly, it features large shelves to showcase some of Ryk’s prized artwork.