I'm thrilled to welcome Betsy Barbour back to the show. Betsy has been living in a 200 square foot tiny house since early 2019, navigating the challenges and joys that living tiny presents. Over the past few years, she's moved her home between various locations in Florida and Pennsylvania, even enduring back to back hurricanes. Betsy has also worked in the tiny house industry as a community facilitator and lifestyle consultant, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to our conversation. We'll be diving into her unique lifestyle insights on building resilient tiny homes and the potential for tiny house communities. Stick around. This episode is packed with valuable information and inspiration for anyone curious about tiny Living.

 

In This Episode:

  • Betsy's personal experience of what it’s like living in a tiny home during a hurricane, including what steps she took to prepare and just how well her tiny house held up.
  • The importance of creating and ensuring tiny home communities remain affordable housing options despite the rise in luxury communities.
  • Betsy shares her vision of sustainable tiny home communities, including hybrid options that provide options for 55+, families and luxury resort areas that provide multigenerational living.
  • Facing challenges of developing properties and rising infrastructure costs, Betsy sees this a good opportunity to repurpose land that has already been developed, creating more sustainable and affordable options.
  • How Betsy’s personal experiences as a tiny home dweller has shaped how much she values creating and being part of a true community.
  • Current roadblocks in the tiny house industry, including infrastructure and development, along with concerns about housing affordability.
  • Designing and planning your tiny home to be supportive through, injury, illness, and retirement, leaving room for future adaptability and accessibility
  • The future of tiny homes and tiny communities, including more widely accepted and normalized, zoning restrictions and code ordinances.

Links and Resources:

 

Guest Bio:

Betsy Barbour

Betsy Barbour

Betsy has been living tiny in her 200 sq ft Tiny Nest since early 2019. She git involved with the tiny living movement a few years before that, and since had worked in the tiny house industry as a tiny house community facilitator and in marketing and lifestyle consulting. She has had her home in 4 different sites, in FL and PA. She loves affordable tiny living and building sustainable communities. Having just experienced the back to back hurricanes disaster on the Gulf Coast, she is currently recovering personally and working to strengthen local and regional systems including affordable, safe housing.

Leave a comment below if you would like to be connected to Betsy to get on her Tiny Circles Mailing List

Tiny Tuesdays

Did you know that I personally send a tiny house newsletter every week on Tuesdays? It's called Tiny Tuesdays and it's a weekly email with tiny house news, interviews, photos, and resources. It's free to subscribe and I even share sneak peeks of things that are coming up, ask for feedback about upcoming podcast guests, and more. It's really the best place to keep a pulse on what I'm doing in the tiny house space and also stay informed about what's going on in the tiny house movement.

To sign up go to thetinyhouse.net/newsletter. I'll never send you spam and if you don't want to receive emails, it's easy to unsubscribe.

 

More Photos:

Betsy's Tiny Home

Inside Betsy's Tiny House Kitchen

Room in Betsy's Tiny House

Snowy view of tiny home

Tiny home front porch

 

Betsy Barbour [00:00:00]: The model that I would love to see is having a pilot 55 plus community where you've got four or six houses and we are like a pocket neighborhood community and then we're in a bigger community that is multi generational.

Ethan Waldman [00:00:17]: Welcome to the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast, the show where you learn how to plan, build and live the tiny lifestyle. I'm your host Ethan Waldman and today I'm thrilled to be joined by Betsy Barbour. Betsy has been living in a 200 square foot tiny house since early 2019, navigating the challenges and joys that living tiny presents. Over the past few years, she's moved her home between various locations in Florida and Pennsylvania, even enduring back to back hurricanes. Betsy has also worked in the tiny house industry as a community facilitator and lifestyle consultant, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to our conversation. We'll be diving into her unique lifestyle insights on building resilient tiny homes and the potential for tiny house communities. Stick around. This episode is packed with valuable information and inspiration for anyone curious about tiny Living.

Ethan Waldman [00:01:09]: But before we get started, did you know that I personally send Tiny House newsletter every week on Tuesdays it's called Tiny Tuesdays and it's a weekly email with tiny house news, interviews, photos and resources. It's free to subscribe and I even share sneak peeks of things that are coming up, ask for feedback about upcoming podcast guests and more. It's really the best place to keep a pulse on what I'm doing in the Tiny house space and also stay informed of what's going on in the Tiny House movement. To sign up, go to thetinyhouse.net/newsletter where you can sign up for the Tiny Tuesdays newsletter. And of course you can unsubscribe at any time. I will never send you spam and if you ever don't want to receive emails, it's easy to unsubscribe. So again, that's thetinyhouse.net/newsletter. Thanks and I hope you enjoy next week's Tiny Tuesday's newsletter.

Ethan Waldman [00:02:24]: All right, I am here with Betsy Barbour. Betsy has been living in her 200 square foot tiny nest since early 2019. She got involved with the tiny Living movement a few years before that and since had worked in the tiny house industry as a Tiny House community facilitator and in marketing and lifestyle consulting. She has had her home in four different sites in Florida and Pennsylvania. Betsy loves affordable tiny living and building sustainable communities. Having just experienced the back to back hurricanes on the Gulf coast, she is currently recovering personally and working to strengthen local and regional systems, including affordable, safe housing. Betsy, welcome back to the Tiny House lifestyle podcast.

Betsy Barbour [00:03:07]: Thank you, Ethan. It's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Ethan Waldman [00:03:12]: You're very welcome. I always, I always enjoy talking with you. So you experienced back to back hurricanes on the Gulf coast recently. Can you walk us through what that was like as a tiny house dweller? And how did your home hold up?

Betsy Barbour [00:03:27]: Well, it was twice as much as we've had. I mean, I've done hurricanes before, but this was a lot more just because of the fact that the first one came through and then ten days later the second one came through.

Ethan Waldman [00:03:42]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:03:43]: So I always evacuate. I don't stay in my tiny house. It is anchored. So I don't really worry too much about the house.

Ethan Waldman [00:03:52]: Okay.

Betsy Barbour [00:03:53]: But it's more accessibility. It's being stuck here without services, that possibility. And that's why I always evacuate.

Ethan Waldman [00:04:03]: Got it.

Betsy Barbour [00:04:04]: And the place I go is about an hour from where I live. So the first one wasn't too bad for me personally. It was devastating for about a half hour from me on the coast.

Ethan Waldman [00:04:18]: Right.

Betsy Barbour [00:04:19]: So there was a lot of fallout from personal contacts and stuff. But my house did fine. I was concerned because the last hurricane water came in under my door, which was the first time that had ever happened with any rain. And the times that the years I had the house. But after that, I got some really good gorilla sealing tape, waterproof sealing tape. And so when I evacuate and leave the house, I tape the door shut from about three feet up, all down the sides of the door and the bottom of the door.

Ethan Waldman [00:04:56]: Oh, wow.

Betsy Barbour [00:04:56]: And then I closed my screen. But I didn't know if that was going to work or not. So I was concerned. But I got home, I had been gone, I think four days and everything was fine. And actually, amazingly, we didn't lose electricity for that. So losing electricity is a problem because if I don't have AC on in my house, I start getting mold pretty quickly in the house. I mean, I get a filmy stuff that grows on my furniture.

Ethan Waldman [00:05:27]: Okay.

Betsy Barbour [00:05:28]: So I know that it's, you know, it's a problem if there's no ac, but we didn't have a problem. So I got home, got settled, and then the second one was coming and that was Milton. And all reports were that it was just going to be unprecedented.

Ethan Waldman [00:05:42]: Yeah, I remember it was really scary.

Betsy Barbour [00:05:44]: Yeah. They had more evacuations in the whole region than they'd ever had before. And part of that was because there was still a lot of debris from the first hurricane. So there was a lot of stuff lying around that could become flying objects.

Ethan Waldman [00:05:59]: Got it.

Betsy Barbour [00:05:59]: Anyway, so I got the house ready, taped it up again, left, and I was gone. Actually, I ended up being gone over a week. I was gone 10 days.

Ethan Waldman [00:06:12]: Wow.

Betsy Barbour [00:06:12]: Because I. I mean, as far as staying in my house goes, and it was bad. It was really bad. We had. Yeah, we had a lot of damage in my community. My neighbor, who is. His roof is about maybe 30ft or 40ft from my house. He lost his roof.

Ethan Waldman [00:06:32]: Oh, my gosh.

Betsy Barbour [00:06:33]: He had a vintage mobile home, and so that's how close it came.

Ethan Waldman [00:06:40]: Wow.

Betsy Barbour [00:06:41]: My house did great. It was fine. I think if it hadn't been anchored, it would have moved, probably. Yeah, we had a lot of damage.

Ethan Waldman [00:06:52]: Yeah. I mean. Well, two questions. Do you think. I know. Your house is metal sips, right?

Betsy Barbour [00:06:59]: It absolutely is. Yep.

Ethan Waldman [00:07:01]: And is your roof also a SIP panel, or is the roof like a traditionally framed roof?

Betsy Barbour [00:07:07]: Yes, it's a SIP panel. And then it's got the metal sheathing on it, the metal sheets.

Ethan Waldman [00:07:12]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:07:13]: So I think it's sturdy.

Ethan Waldman [00:07:17]: I've got to wonder whether that, you know, whether the fact that your roof is. Is such a structural piece of the house might have helped, you know, you. You might have lost your metal roofing on top of that sip. But that's a lot different than. Than, you know, having a giant hole that, you know, rain and water has gotten in.

Betsy Barbour [00:07:37]: Yeah, it was. It was pretty amazing. I did have two issues. I'm now working with FEMA on one of them in particular. My hot water heater got fried because of the power surges with the electric.

Ethan Waldman [00:07:51]: Oh, okay.

Betsy Barbour [00:07:52]: And then the other one was I did have a mystery leak, which I believe the water literally came through the SIPs panel.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:01]: Wow.

Betsy Barbour [00:08:01]: Which is kind of. They say impossible, but it happens in these hurricanes.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:07]: Nothing is impossible.

Betsy Barbour [00:08:09]: Yeah. Come through. The panel where it pooled was underneath, interestingly, was underneath a press board cabinet that was flat with the floor. It wasn't up on feet. So the press board literally sucked up all the water. And so the cabinet was ruined, like, for about 5 inches. The bottom of the cabinet disintegrated. There was so much water, it was literally wet.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:31]: Oh, that's frustrating.

Betsy Barbour [00:08:33]: But the rest of it was fine. So we just. We just cut off those five inches and rebuilt the cabinet.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:39]: Oh, awesome.

Betsy Barbour [00:08:40]: And there was no water damage under it. There was no water damage. There was no mold. And that sat there for a good three weeks till I could get it taken care of.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:49]: Wow.

Betsy Barbour [00:08:50]: So pretty Amazing.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:53]: That is, that is really great. I'm, you know, I'm, I know that other people suffered a lot of damage and you know, I'm grateful that you, that you're okay then, that your house came through it. Okay. I'm curious, you know, having gone through this, has this experience changed your long term plans and, or has it changed just anything small that you'll do for the, you know, in future hurricanes? Because we know, we know that Florida is going to get more hurricanes, that's for sure.

Betsy Barbour [00:09:25]: Yeah, Yeah. I think it, I am looking at my long term plans because it's actually not the hurricanes that got me this year. It was the heat. It was the brutal heat this summer, which is worse than I've been in the subtropics for 45 years. Never had any heat related incidents. Personally had a heat related. It had nothing to do with my house. But anyway, so I am looking at possibly going maybe up into Georgia.

Ethan Waldman [00:09:57]: Okay.

Betsy Barbour [00:09:58]: My son lives in Atlanta, so I'm thinking about if I have to leave because of the heat. As far as the hurricanes go, what I'm noticing is it doesn't really matter where you are in America or maybe even in the world these days. Extreme weather is going to be an issue. So I think, you know, as far as that goes, I think I'm pretty, I'm okay with that. I love Florida. I let my houses anchored. I had to anchor it. That was required by my mobile home.

Betsy Barbour [00:10:32]: Park here. And I think if I move the house, I will probably anchor it wherever I go.

Ethan Waldman [00:10:39]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:10:39]: Even though it's expensive to do that now.

Ethan Waldman [00:10:41]: Is that something that you could diy?

Betsy Barbour [00:10:44]: I suppose you could if you knew what you were doing. The materials themselves would probably be pretty pricey, but I think for me, having it done professionally is. It just works better. And also in some places it would actually have to be done by a licensed person in order to.

Ethan Waldman [00:11:03]: Okay.

Betsy Barbour [00:11:04]: Florida has really strict laws that way. So. Yeah, you know, it would just, it would depend.

Ethan Waldman [00:11:11]: Okay. So I'm, it's been, it's been a minute since you were on the show. I was looking and I think it was 2021 that, that was your last interview. And in our last interview, you shared plans for a smaller, 16 foot tiny house. And I'm curious, you know, has that project materialized in any way and, or what's your, what's your current vision for your next tiny home? If there is a next tiny home?

Betsy Barbour [00:11:36]: Yeah. Really? I think there might be a next one. Although given my financial situation since 2021, I have, I am looking probably long term rather than just staying in this house or staying with this house. And even if I move to Georgia, I could comfortably take this house to Georgia. I would never take it up north again. It's just, it's, it's not built for winters, but I think I could manage in Georgia. But I often actually just the other day even I often think of the 16 foot because we designed, I mean I had a design for the house with COMAC Builders. Cody who owns Comac, we have a design and so I don't know if I, as they say, if I win the lottery.

Ethan Waldman [00:12:26]: Yeah, you never know. That's a, that's what the old, the old New York Lottery commercials. Hey, you never know. So you've become deeply involved in local agriculture and food systems. How does this connect to your vision for sustainable tiny home communities?

Betsy Barbour [00:12:44]: Well, it's a total integrated part of it. And whenever we talk about food systems in the area, whether it be community gardens where you would have one garden supporting a number of different home sites, but everybody's thinking of integrating community gardening with the tiny house and to me, sustainable living, you gotta have access to a garden close by. It's just part of it.

Ethan Waldman [00:13:16]: Yeah, yeah. I mean that is, I think a really interesting point and it's a, it's a tricky place where we are in the tiny house movement, which is that a lot of people are going tiny and then wanting to live in some form of community. You know, I actually just interviewed Mic Holliday from the YouTube channel. Mic Thinks Tiny. It's, it's actually, it will be the episode just before this and in that conversation we talked a lot about the affordability of communities and, and Mic really believes that as there are more communities that they think that they're going to become more expensive to live in, not less and that, that it's going to trend towards luxury rather than towards affordability. Just, just like the tiny house already. Yeah. So do you, it sounds like you agree with that, that take.

Betsy Barbour [00:14:08]: Well, I agree that's what's happening. I don't think that's what has to happen by any means. I think there's a lot of other roads that one.

Ethan Waldman [00:14:16]: How do we, how do we change that?

Betsy Barbour [00:14:19]: Well, I think we look at, we have to look at the realities, of course. And to me, I was actually just explaining this to somebody last night who came, She's a, she's quite a dynamic small business entrepreneur kind of think tank person and she's very, she came because she wanted to see A tiny house. And my thought is, okay, so you've got investors because she has an investor that is interested in tiny house community. But you have to get your return on investment. So my thought is let's go with hybrid communities and let's have a community which has the resort part of it for sure. And it can be as removed. You can build a 10 foot wall, you can do whatever you want so the resort people don't have to feel like, you know, there's other people around them. Yeah, but, yeah, but hopefully they'll at least realize that they want people working for them, they want workforce people and those workforce people have to have housing.

Ethan Waldman [00:15:23]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:15:24]: So hopefully they would be amenable to having another part of the community be for workforce housing, for instance. Affordable.

Ethan Waldman [00:15:32]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:15:33]: And then you would also have a 55 plus part of the community which again, it's not going to necessarily give you your return on investment. But if the resort can be designed to be the income generator, then you have the other social enterprise impact. So then people would have, I mean you'd have your cake and eat it too. You have your resort, but you also have a community that's facilitating and it's benefiting from the resort and everybody is living affordably.

Ethan Waldman [00:16:04]: Right, Right. Well, your perspective on tiny house communities is, you know, I, I have a high regard for it because you've, you've experienced, I guess four different parking places. Has your thinking on tiny house communities evolved after experiencing all these different models in both Florida and Pennsylvania?

Betsy Barbour [00:16:29]: Yeah, I would say it's evolved in the sense of me experiencing, having more experiences. Like a big part of my experience this year has been that I live alone and I need to be around people because I had surgery in February and then I was quite ill all summer with heat exhaustion and then with these hurricanes. So this year the big gift has been understanding the value of having community in terms of close knit support where I'm supporting others and they're supporting me.

Ethan Waldman [00:16:59]: Nice.

Betsy Barbour [00:17:00]: So that fits really nicely into a community design where you would have different people committed to not just where they're living, but to each other.

Ethan Waldman [00:17:11]: Yeah, that's a really, it's ideal. I mean it makes a lot of sense to me and I, I would imagine that even in communities that don't officially promote that, that it happens, you know, amongst people living tiny, living near each other. Have you found that I have never been.

Betsy Barbour [00:17:32]: Well, I. My Pennsylvania place, there were lots of other tiny house owners around and we've definitely found that among ourselves, some of us, not all of us. Because not everybody that lives tiny is interested in being, you know, a part of a community.

Ethan Waldman [00:17:45]: Right, yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:17:46]: Not.

Ethan Waldman [00:17:46]: Not everyone wants it. Not everyone wants it.

Betsy Barbour [00:17:49]: Yeah, yeah. But those that do, absolutely. Another thing that I've been thinking a lot about is this idea of a 55 plus community, which is a small community which is placed in a hybrid larger community, whether that be a mobile home park or a tiny house community that has kind of the resort workforce and 55 plus.

Ethan Waldman [00:18:11]: Right, right.

Betsy Barbour [00:18:12]: And to me, the interaction, the multi generational interaction is really, it's really important, at least for me. I mean, I don't necessarily want a young family living next to me and I'm going to trip on their roller skates when I go out my door, but I want them nearby so that we can share our lifestyle and we can be together and that type of thing. So the model that I would love to see is having a pilot 55 plus community where you've got four or six houses and we are like a pocket neighborhood community and then we're in a bigger community that is multi generational.

Ethan Waldman [00:18:53]: Nice. A community within a community.

Betsy Barbour [00:18:55]: Yeah, yeah. And I think, see, that's one way that we're going to avoid this problem with the resort kind of high end places.

Ethan Waldman [00:19:04]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:19:04]: Because we have a high end place. Actually where I live there is a high end tiny house place. And I'm not going to mention names, but there. But it's very close to me and they. And it's not affordable. I mean that's the bottom line. For a lot of people in my demographic, it simply isn't affordable. But in mobile home parks here my rent is one third the site rent, what they're charging like literally three miles down the road.

Ethan Waldman [00:19:33]: So this is a luxury. This is a luxury tiny house resort. But people live there full time. It's not like a short term rental resort.

Betsy Barbour [00:19:41]: It's a community. No, they live there and own their houses. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

Ethan Waldman [00:19:46]: Interesting.

Betsy Barbour [00:19:47]: So just that juxtaposition, it is quite interesting and it shows that both are possible. I mean, my owners here in a small home park have said bring more tiny houses. We would love to have a couple more. So we could do what I'm talking about right here and, and we could, you know, you could do it in different places. One of the big problems, Ethan, which I'm hearing is one of the big roadblocks is infrastructure. And that's across the board in all building. It costs so much to develop a piece of property. So let's repurpose the properties that are already out there.

Ethan Waldman [00:20:26]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:20:27]: You know, it's a lot less to put in a new electrical system than it is to break ground on a. I mean, excuse me, to repurpose an electrical system rather than to break ground and put in a new electrical system. Same with septic.

Ethan Waldman [00:20:40]: Absolutely, Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's. I recently interviewed Deidre Kolb, who is a lawyer turned developer and is opening a community called Poplar Creek in North Carolina, Western North Carolina. And Deidre was able to find a defunct RV park to. To make that dream a reality because the infrastructure and the zoning was already in place. And. Yeah, you know, I think that Deidre is doing it because she really wants to create a community.

Ethan Waldman [00:21:15]: But unfortunately, I think that the kind of private equity and investment bank types have recognized RV parks as an asset and as. As an investment opportunity to. To kind of buy them and make them luxury.

Betsy Barbour [00:21:34]: Yes, that is happening. There is a very large national group that has bought fifty mobile home parks within. Well, in our region in the Tampa Bay area. And. But their design is not resort.

Ethan Waldman [00:21:52]: What group is that?

Betsy Barbour [00:21:54]: This is a national group that has bought 50 mobile home parks in our area. Five zero.

Ethan Waldman [00:22:00]: Wow.

Betsy Barbour [00:22:01]: But their design is not resort living. Their design is affordable housing.

Ethan Waldman [00:22:07]: Great.

Betsy Barbour [00:22:08]: So again, we have to get the word out there and public information. Everybody knows that's living and breathing right now that there is a housing crisis. Even if you're not affected by it, you know, it's there and it's only getting worse. So I think that unfortunately is playing in our favor for creative ways to approach it.

Ethan Waldman [00:22:36]: Well, in our last conversation, you mentioned Tiny Circles. Has that project developed further?

Betsy Barbour [00:22:42]: Well, the 55 plus is definitely part of that. That's a pilot model that I've kind of been putting together. The Tiny Living Coalition is one in Lancaster county. Went on hold for a number of reasons. So that one, not. Not the only reason, but a big reason that I moved out of Lancaster County. And I mean, I still have tide there, but. But my Tiny Circles, I do a weekly blog which is.

Betsy Barbour [00:23:12]: Which is moving along and I'm. And that's a lot of. That is just information, you know, real, real life, tiny living. Basically.

Ethan Waldman [00:23:21]: Nice.

Betsy Barbour [00:23:22]: And so just trying to get that out and get, you know, people to understand and hear about it. I'm going to launch hopefully a website here pretty soon to that effect. And then I am going to be working on establishing in my area here, first of all, a lifestyle consulting where I bring people to the house, I show them the house, we sit and talk about what they're interested in. It's not necessarily going to be just tiny house focused, but. Right. Sizing focused as well. Because some people don't necessarily want a tiny house, but they want to figure out how to right size with their possessions and, you know, their space and that type of thing.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:02]: So is there a place that people can subscribe to the Tiny Circles newsletter? I know I'm on it and I enjoy reading it every week when you send it. Or is that still. Still in beta? Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:24:14]: I mean right now. Yeah, for right now it's still. Yeah, it's still in the beta form. But certainly my. Just my email. If you could just post my. Even my Gmail account on with the interview people just let me know and I'll put them on.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:31]: How about this? I don't want to publish your email address because you're going to get a lot. You'd get a lot of spam. But people can go to the Show Notes notes page for this episode and comment and I will put you in touch with Betsy. Leave a comment.

Betsy Barbour [00:24:46]: That sounds good. Thanks, Ethan. Appreciate that.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:49]: Yeah, no problem. So with concerns about affordable housing growing, do you still see tiny houses as a primary solution and. And has. Has your view on tiny houses as a solution changed at all since we last spoke?

Betsy Barbour [00:25:05]: I would say I think it is a solution. I think it is the solution for some of us. I'm not saying that. That it would be the solution for me in 10 years.

Ethan Waldman [00:25:17]: Got it.

Betsy Barbour [00:25:17]: Because there may be another solution by then. But I think that absolutely it should be something people consider. And I have no hesitation to say it totally works. And it's such an adventure. I mean, it really is. I don't want this to sound kind of stupid, but it really is quite magical living in a tiny house. And when people come into my house, literally every single person that comes into my house, even if they're like, oh my gosh, this is small, it's just from through their eyes. It's just such a.

Betsy Barbour [00:25:55]: It's such an exciting, cool thing to be living in such a small space.

Ethan Waldman [00:25:59]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:26:01]: And every single day I experience that and I love it.

Ethan Waldman [00:26:06]: I love that. That's so great. And it's wonderful that you're able to still show your tiny house to people and to experience that, because I share that. When you live it every day or you're around tiny houses all the time, it becomes really commonplace. But then when you watch someone else see it for the first time, you kind of get to experience that, the magic of it over again.

Betsy Barbour [00:26:32]: The excitement of it.

Ethan Waldman [00:26:34]: Yeah, yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:26:35]: And I experience the magic every day in the sense that, you know, there's things that happen here, like how can you lose something in a tiny house or, or, you know, how can you, how can you manage with a sprained ankle and a sprained wrist after. After two falls that I took recently.

Ethan Waldman [00:26:53]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:26:53]: In a tiny house. Well, my tiny house is like one giant like physical therapy place because I, wherever I stand in my house, I've got something I can lean on.

Ethan Waldman [00:27:03]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:27:04]: Within reach. No, it's just amazing. I mean, there's so many. It's so versatile. It really is so versatile.

Ethan Waldman [00:27:11]: Is there anything that you would advise retirees thinking about, you know, because your tiny house. It sounds like your tiny house was able to sustain you and be, you know, a supportive place for you to recover from your injury and illness. But I could imagine, you know, had you built a tiny house with a ladder access loft and no downstairs bedroom, that it might not have worked. Is there anything, you know, having gone through this last year, any changes that you would make to your house or other suggestions you have to other, you know, folks who are looking to retire in a tiny house, design wise?

Betsy Barbour [00:27:53]: Yeah, I would say at least have an option of a downstairs bedroom.

Ethan Waldman [00:27:57]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:27:57]: It doesn't necessarily have to be your primary space, but that your house could, could be altered if necessary.

Ethan Waldman [00:28:05]: Right. It needs to exist.

Betsy Barbour [00:28:07]: And also your. Yeah. Your access point of the house. I have four steps up into my house.

Ethan Waldman [00:28:14]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:28:15]: So just leave room on your deck for a ramp, if you need a ramp, that type of thing. I guess for some people consideration would be the widths. You know, you don't need to make it ada necessarily, you know, American Disabilities act accessible. That's a lot of different stuff. But at least maybe look at your door jambs and make them a little wider in case you do have like a walker, for instance, or. And that's not just for people that retire. You know, people of any age can have a life altering accident or whatever where they need.

Ethan Waldman [00:28:47]: Absolutely.

Betsy Barbour [00:28:48]: You know, they're going to need some of this apparatus. And if you look at the kind of common things that happen, your shower, have a seat built into your shower, you know, those type of things that can be easily altered. Your bed, how high is your bed? Even on your first floor, Even in your master bedroom.

Ethan Waldman [00:29:07]: Yeah.

Betsy Barbour [00:29:07]: How high is that? Is it easily accessible? Those type of things I think are good considerations to make it more adaptable.

Ethan Waldman [00:29:17]: Very smart. So looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of tiny living and Sustainable communities. And how do you envision your role in shaping that future?

Betsy Barbour [00:29:30]: Well, I think generally it's just going to become more and more accepted. I'm hoping that we're on the threshold here of having some standardized zoning for municipalities, that it becomes much more accepted. The tiny house communities are going to be permitted and that permanent residents, tiny house living is going to be just become normal. And then also the ordinances for the codes. I think we need to stay safe. We need to be really careful about that. There's a lot of stuff on the market these days that's cheap and easy, but it's not safe. And so we really need to watch that.

Betsy Barbour [00:30:10]: I don't know if certification is the only answer. I think it's a good possibility if it's done right for the tiny houses. But I think safety is a huge issue. And anyone that goes into a tiny house, you need to be concerned about your safety factors in your house and also your air quality, you know, how your air works in the house. Those are. Those are huge. They shouldn't be ignored. As far as my role is, I see my role narrowing a bit just because of my personal, you know, increasing personal limitations.

Betsy Barbour [00:30:45]: I want to be a representative. And the longer I live in a tiny house, the more of a representative I am in terms of experience. Yeah, I mentioned you and I were talking a while back and I mentioned I want to take a trip around the country this coming year. It's a milestone year for me in terms of my own. My own personal development, and I want to celebrate that and take some time and travel around the country by train. And I want to be a representative for tiny houses living in communities. I would love to be able to do that. And I also see myself hopefully getting into some kind of a community setup that really is a true tiny house community somewhere, probably here on the Gulf coast and live in it for a couple years.

Betsy Barbour [00:31:42]: It'd be great.

Ethan Waldman [00:31:43]: Wonderful. Well, Betsy Barbour, thanks for coming back on the show. It was great to catch up.

Betsy Barbour [00:31:48]: Thank you.

Ethan Waldman [00:31:50]: Thank you so much to Betsy Barbour for being a guest on the show today. You can find the show notes for this episode, including a complete transcript, links and resources at thetinyhouse.net/312. Again, that's thetinyhouse.net/312. Well, that's all for this week. I'll be back in two weeks with another episode of the Tiny House Lifestyle podcast.

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