Latest news with #minimalism
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
After a divorce, these parents rebuilt a new life with their own tiny homes
Mom-of-three Michelle Taylor made a big move to a small rural town in Georgia fresh on the heels of her divorce. In the process, she said goodbye to her 1,800-square-foot house and hello to her new home: A two-story shed from Home Depot that measured only 256 square feet. Seeking a fresh start, Taylor bought 10 acres of land in Georgia, with a semi-furnished, 16x16 shed already on the property. With just one bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, and no bedrooms, the challenges of making that space work for a family of four were abundantly clear. So Taylor and her dad got busy renovating. Taylor is one of many to take a leap of fate into a tiny home, a movement that continues to gain momentum. Many big-name retailers are aware of the trend and have begun selling small houses, complete with bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. Amazon has a two-story portable Prefab (meaning premade) house for $40,000, and a one-story 'Luxury Tiny Home' for $9,280. Home Depot, too, sells tiny homes for anywhere between $20,000 and $100,00, with costs varying based on the size you get. Sure, it may sound enticing since the cost of a tiny home is often less than the mortgage on a house, depending on location. But what's actually the big appeal about these small spaces? For starters, Taylor says it's much easier and cheaper to maintain than her nearly 2,000-square-foot house. ' After only an hour, I can have the entire house clean, top to bottom,' she tells The Independent. 'Living here also kind of minimizes the amount of stuff that you own, which, in the long run, is a benefit because you're not spending as much time, energy, or money maintaining and keeping everything.' Still, after renovations, the home is significantly larger than when Taylor purchased the property. When Taylor moved into the Home Depot shed in 2021, it sat like a treehouse, with a deep deck underneath. So she converted that deck into the bottom floor of the two-story shed, making it a three-story tiny home. She also added more square footage to the top floors of the house. 'We wanted to give enough room for the boys to have individual bedrooms,' she explains. 'The kitchen and the living room are one room combined on the second floor. And the bedrooms are all on the first and third floors.' With time, patience, and hard work, Taylor's shed became a four-bedroom, two bathroom home, with the top two floors measuring at 384 square feet and the first floor at 256 square feet. It wasn't an easy transformation for Taylor, especially with her children, who are teenagers now, living in the home during the renovations. And while it's not picture-perfect yet — Taylor still plans to paint her children's bedroom walls and put up the trim — the space has everything her family needs. Meanwhile, father of three Jeremy Collins, based in Murphysboro, Illinois, took a similar approach to fulfilling his dream of building a tiny home. Following his divorce last year, Collins began transforming a high-cube shipping container, measuring 320 square feet, into a one-bedroom home. The small space is equipped with a stackable washer-dryer, 60-inch windows, a full bathroom, a kitchen, and a living area. Currently, he's living a few miles away from the yet-to-be-completed home, which will be finished with the help of his teenage twin sons, who stepped in to do some of the manual labor earlier this year. Collins has never been attracted to the idea of buying a tiny home online, since essentials like installing gas, plumbing, and electricity are not included in the purchase. The house may also be trickier to assemble and have much smaller rooms than usual. So, the Illinois native argues that he's getting more bang for his buck by building the space himself. 'When you get those homes online, there are no appliances. It's missing this and that,' he says. 'It's not something that could keep you for 20 to 30 years. And when you add up what you actually need to make it a living home, that number supersedes what it would cost to build one. My home is built on sustainability, low maintenance, and low overall cost.' This way of living and thinking is only expanding, with the global tiny home market valued at $21.93 billion in 2024, according to Business Research Insights. The market is expected to grow to $29.9 billion by 2033. The cost of building a regular home in the U.S. in April 2025 was $503,800, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. And that's a huge investment that many tiny home builders have never had to consider. Collins says he spent an average of about $36,700 to build his tiny house throughout the last year, with plans to sell it for anywhere between $59,000 and $69,000 — and he already has an interested buyer. However, he still absolutely sees value in building another home to live in one day, or multiple houses for more people to reside in. ' I used to live in an almost 5,000 square foot house with 10 acres. When I got divorced, I had to put all that stuff in storage, and I moved to a place that was a small apartment,' he explains. 'Now I realize that in a tiny home, in a rural town, I spend more time with my kids. I'll hit the kayak more because I don't have all the distractions and stuff.' Taylor, too, sees the financial benefits of having a tiny home, since it was cheaper to renovate the Home Depot shed on her plot of land than to buy a small home online. With utilities and Wifi included, Taylor pays only $600 to $800 a month to maintain her tiny home. She knows that this price is a steal, despite her $25,000 investment in renovations. 'I spend less a month on everything like utilities, or updating my curtains, than I would on a two-bedroom apartment,' she said. As a result, Taylor is now financially able to go on hiking and camping trips throughout the year with her children, without having to worry about working 80 hours a week to pay the bills. Add that to the fact that her skills as a handywoman are also paying off in the business of tiny homes. On her property, she's renting out a second tiny house that she built from scratch; a perfect space for one person. Outfitted with a couch, utilities, kitchen appliances, and internet included, she charges renters between $600 and $800 a month. Inside her former Home Depot shed-turned-home, Taylor's found both financial and personal benefits that she didn't have in a bigger space. 'My kids have their own room and privacy, but if they want to do any physical play, they have to come downstairs or go outside," she said. "So I feel like I see my kids more than my friends, who have 2,000 square foot homes, see theirs.' Solve the daily Crossword
Top Gear
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Top Gear
MG Motor UK IM5 Interior Layout & Technology
Interior What is it like on the inside? The IM5 has followed Tesla down the path of ultra-minimalism, so there's very little actual stuff in here. The seats, dash, doors and steering wheel are all finished in leather, and only the lower reaches of the interior get the hardcore plastic treatment. The floor mats don't photograph well (check out the gallery), but good lord are they comfy – we'd happily have those in a living room. Advertisement - Page continues below The seats are well padded and we've no complaints about the driving position, although rear visibility is atrocious: the rear windscreen is barely more than a slit. To combat this, the IM5 has an easily-cued up rear-view camera so you can check what's behind you, although judging distance with it is hard. The fact that there's a tech solution for such an obvious design flaw speaks volumes. So everything is in the screen? Correct. The mirror adjustment, the drive modes, the ADAS, the nav… the only physical controls are a pair of scrollers on the steering wheel, releases for the doors (no handles in here), paddles for the cruise control, plus stalks for the drive selector and indicators. That's your lot. That puts a huge emphasis on the interface itself, spread across a sweeping 26.3in screen and 10.5in touchscreen. The latter is what you'll interact with most: all the menus are listed on a column on the left (again, Tesla-style) with dozens of inputs covering all the IM5's functionality. Like the Cyberster, an entirely new system was needed for foreign markets. MG will argue that the customisability of the homescreen (you can set up your own shortcuts) means you can focus on what matters to you; we say it's just the latest manufacturer to use that as a Get Out of Jail Free card for flawed thinking. Advertisement - Page continues below You spend so much time fiddling with it, it forces you to divert your gaze away from the road… then it'll beep at you for not looking at the road. You can't win. On top of the bongs for the speed limit warning (it sounds like a toddler jabbing away at one of those Fisher-Price keyboards), speed limit change warning, and impending phantom head-on collisions. Hmm. Credit where it's due: everything is crisp and clear, and the nav layout is easy to follow. Though it didn't pick up on a closed road on our journey when Google maps did. No doubt a bug fix that's already on MG's to do list. It's almost five metres long and almost three of that is wheelbase. Space must be good? Certainly is up front. Loadsa room to stretch out and while the seats could do with more lateral support, there's enough for the kind of driving you'll be doing. S'all good. The rear is less roomy. Problem is the floor is quite high up, so your knees will be raised and you're reliant on the driver or front passenger jacking up the front seats to give your toes some wriggle room. Still, it's pretty airy back here thanks to the pano glass roof. The boot is deep but narrow, with no underfloor storage. 457 litres is yours to play with (1,290 with the back seats down) – comfortably above average in the class, but not the outright leader for convenience. Can't find the release button? It's one of the dots in the IM logo on the tailgate - lovely little detail, that. There's an 18-litre frunk for odds and ends. Any party tricks? A couple. There's a self-park feature that scans the spaces around you, and then whirls you into whichever one you pick. We tried this in the IM6 SUV and it popped us bang in the middle of the space, albeit at a speed that had us praying for the cars either side. There's also a 'crab mode' that uses the rear-wheel steering to make otherwise impossible parking manoeuvres… possible. We're yet to test it, but don't go picturing a full-on sideways parallel park.
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
Man details the shocking realities of living in a remote tent in the woods after shunning modern life
A man who sold his apartment to live in a tent in the woods alone has lifted a lid on his unusual lifestyle - revealing he uses baby wipes to bathe and survives off canned beans. The man, named Keith, who is in his 20s and lives in Australia, explained exclusively to the Daily Mail that the idea dawned on him after years of working tirelessly and still struggling to get by. 'No matter how many hours I worked, I'd still have nothing left at the end of the pay cycle,' he said. 'Sham contracting jobs make you liable for taxes at the end of the year.' As someone who is 'naturally introverted,' he enjoys 'solitude' and being in nature, so four months ago, he decided to leave his home and try living in the forest full time. At first he started by sleeping on the tent floor in a sleeping bag, but when he woke up 'drenched and shivering' he got creative. He bought a stretcher and started resting on that at night - and he now insists he sleeps better than he did at his apartment. 'I can sleep better in the woods than with noisy roommates,' he told the Daily Mail. The only items he has with him are some clothes, a mop to dry the floor of the tent if it rains, his sleeping bag, a portable clothesline, and 10 power banks that he uses to keep his phone charged. He sleeps at 'free legal campsites' and usually stays in the same one for a month before he is required to switch to a different campsite. He has a gym membership and goes once a month to re-charge all of his power banks. As for food, he explained that he lives off tortillas and canned beans. 'Twenty flour tortillas at $5 a pack, along with a $1 can of large canned beans (either kidney, chickpeas, lentils, baked beans) lasts me three days,' he shared on Reddit. 'I also buy high protein soy milk cartons, a carton costs me $3 and I consume them within 72 hours of opening since I don't have refrigeration. 'I also buy around 10 packets of family sized snacks (potato, corn, biscuits) for calorie bulking. 'These cost me around $2.50 each. So about $40 on snacks, plus water costs me $20 for two 24 bottled water packs. I take vitamins C, B12 and iron supplements. 'My bloodwork is normal and my BMI hovers around 19. I used to have Type 2 diabetes but it is now in remission since going on this diet.' He uses baby wipes to bathe 'every few days,' but he 'might use a smidge of hand sanitizer once a week with the baby wipes.' 'I use creek water every week or two with the biofriendly soap. I carry a bucket and bathe on the soil away from the water flow,' he added. He wears his clothes for 'three to six days' before he deems them dirty, and washes them in the river without any detergent. 'I immerse them in the flow, take them out, wring it, and repeat three times,' shared Keith. 'I wash the sleeping bag every few months at a laundromat though.' While his tent is waterproof, he said rain sometimes seeps through the seams and collects on the floor, which is why he sleeps on a raised stretcher off the ground. 'I mop up the water and occasionally spray some disinfectant on the tent fabrics during heavy rain,' he dished. As for how he uses the bathroom, he explained the campsites usually have 'drop toilets,' which are non-flush toilets that utilize a drop hole instead of water to dispose of waste. He told the Daily Mail that he has faced some life-threatening situations over the last four months of living in the woods. He said he was once worried about getting hypothermia after he 'got drenched' and once had a large branch fall off a tree and nearly hit him. 'I try to set up underneath a gap in the canopy for this reason. I also try not setting up right besides the road as a careless driver could run me over at night,' he explained. 'And [thankfully] my area stays above freezing even in winter so I just adapt.' As someone who is 'naturally introverted' he said he 'doesn't need constant social stimulation' and is happy to spend his days going on hikes. He vowed that he doesn't get lonely and is able to stay in contact with his family using his phone. He estimated that his living expenses are only $500 a month, which includes his car registration, insurance, gym membership, phone bill, food, and supplies. He lives off 'savings and welfare' and still works 'a few months in the year' to make some income, and he said the 'main benefit' so far has been cutting out his high rent. 'The benefits of this lifestyle are mainly financial, though being able to go on nice walks through the forest trials in the early morning is an underrated advantage,' he explained. While Keith knows not everyone will understand his lifestyle, in the end, he insisted that he is happier than ever. And he said he could see himself doing it 'indefinitely' as long as nothing goes astray.
Wall Street Journal
11-07-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
House of the Week: A Santa Fe Home in a Gated Golf Community
Stephen Robeck and his wife, Susan Robeck, were living in Santa Barbara, Calif., when they decided they needed a change. Their house had been robbed twice and the area had suffered devastating mudslides, killing 23 people. 'We were ready to try something new,' said Susan, 73. During a trip to Santa Fe in 2018, the Robecks bought two lots for a combined $715,000 in Las Campanas, a gated golf community about 20 minutes outside of the city's central plaza. They were drawn to the community's privacy and amenities. A year later, the pair moved into a Santa Fe rental and hired local architect Lorn Tryk to build their new contemporary home. The couple say they were very hands-on when it came to the design, and were influenced by the minimalism of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. They didn't want baseboards or crown moldings, and instead opted for walls that hover a few inches off the ground. They also wanted the main living spaces to be open to each other, but also separate—something they achieved using countertops and walls that don't reach the ceiling, visually breaking up the space.
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
Pristine home on the market for £170,000 leaves people 'nervous' over its extreme all-white interior
A two-bedroom bungalow on the market for £170,000 has come under fire for its pristine white interior that takes the 'greige' design trend to another level. The property, located in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, boasts bright and clean spaces, plenty of storage space and an envious proximity to schools and amenities. But as the 'greige' (grey and beige) trend grows in the world of interiors - where homeowners tear out a property's quirky features and instead opt for bland minimalism and modernism - this house keeps pace. The property listing, from estate agent Gebbie & Wilson, reads: 'Situated within a sought-after residential pocket of Stonehouse, this is an immaculate mid-terraced bungalow, ideal for a variety of purchasers. 'The property is presented in true walk-in condition, with tasteful neutral decor throughout. 'Internally, the accommodation comprises a welcoming entrance hallway, a bright and generously sized lounge and a modern fitted kitchen complete with a comfortable sitting area, providing direct access to a charming patio and the beautifully maintained rear garden.' And in a cheeky nod to the selective interior, one of the listed images features a chunky white hardback book, perched on the corner of a white coffee table, titled The Art Of Living With White. Would-be buyers took to social media to share their horror at the house's ghostly interior, believing the description's use of the words 'immaculate', 'bright' and 'neutral' was an understatement. One person referenced the book, writing: 'Living With White makes it sound like it's a medical condition, along the lines of "living with Alzheimer's" or "living with chronic pain".' To this, another quipped: 'Chronic pain would describe well trying to live with all that white.' Although the exterior is unassuming, the living room immediately welcomes guests into a world of white - with the walls, plush cushions, vase, lampshades, coffee table, rugs and fluffy throws all the same chalky colour. Visitors then walk into the kitchen where, apart from the surprising brown wooden floorboards, all other features are colourless, including the fridge, microwave, cupboards, rug and clock. The pop of colour offered by the garden provides a stark contrast with the house's interior, and one commenter wrote: 'Disappointing amount of green in that garden. Maybe they hadn't got to the chapter on whitewashing the lawn yet.' Another echoed this sentiment, writing: 'I'm shocked the garden isn't just white roses only.' Other prospective homeowners imagined visiting the house as a guest, and being terrified to spill or make any mess. One said: 'This makes me very, very nervous. Can I skip sitting down? I'll just stand here, just here, and not move an inch.' And one person shared a personal experience of that very situation. They wrote: 'I once picked my friend up from her Mrs Bucket mother-in-law's mansion. 'I got asked in for a cup of tea and her mother-in-law took me into that exact room where, once I'd sat down, she handed me a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive. I've honestly never been so petrified in my life.' However, the interior offers a surprising reprieve from the otherwise snowy mania. Where cupboards or chests of drawers are relatively easy to replace, the homeowner has nonetheless retained a deep mahogany chest. Eagle-eyed property fans spotted this, with one saying: 'Disappointed to see a brown wardrobe.' Another chimed in: 'The deep, shiny wood stands out soooooo strangely!! They'd be nice pieces of furniture in a house with more character…' Others noted the difficulty of living in such a house, where the room for error is already so minimal, with children or pets. One said: 'My border collie would permanently change that house within seconds.' However, the all-white interior, extreme though it may be, represents a port in the storm for many potential homeowners who prefer absolute minimalism at home in a chaotic world.
