Tracey Dedicatoria [00:00:00]: Well, for the most part, it helped me find peace. And it helped me simplify my life so that I could handle other things and get things in order. It also gave me a place to heal and to grow and to find myself again. I don't have any regrets in doing it. There were some things that were very difficult, but I would still do it again, and it's always a learning process. So even now, 8 years later, living in a tiny house, there's still things that I try to make more efficient.

Ethan Waldman [00:00:32]: 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 have the pleasure of speaking with Tracey Dedicatoria. Tracey's journey into tiny living began after a 23 year marriage, and her tiny house has been a sanctuary of peace, healing, and financial stability for her over the past 8 years. In this episode, Tracey shares the transformative power of simplifying your life, the unique challenges and discoveries of living off grid, and her advice for those considering tiny living today. We also dive into the evolution of the tiny house market, including the rising costs and how to navigate the financing options. Join us as we explore Tracey's inspiring path to finding peace and strength through tiny living. But before we dive into today's episode, I wanna tell you about incredible opportunity that I am really excited about.

Ethan Waldman [00:01:26]: Do you remember my interview with Kenton Zurban? He's the permaculture expert who lives in an ultra efficient off grid tiny house in Northern Alberta. Well, Kenton is offering an amazing 7 day permaculture retreat in Columbia, and I think you might be interested. Imagine spending a week in a lush tropical paradise learning crucial skills for sustainable living. You'll discover how to choose the perfect land, understanding where to look, why certain properties are ideal, and how to make the best decision. Ken will teach you to set up your land for maximum efficiency, productivity, and even off grid living. But that's not all. You'll dive deep into food growing techniques, including gardening, food forestry, and composting. Plus, you'll learn about innovative home designs, incorporating solar power and rainwater collection systems.

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Ethan Waldman [00:02:46]: It's a win win win situation. You save money, I earn a little something, and we both support an independent educator. If you wanna learn more about this incredible opportunity, head over to thetinyhouse.net/kenton. That's thetinyhouse.net/kenton. That will redirect you over to Kenton's website. And don't forget to use the coupon code Ethan at checkout for your 10% discount. And if you haven't listened to my full interview with Kenton yet, you can check it out at thetinyhouse.net/133. It's packed with amazing insights about permaculture and tiny living.

Ethan Waldman [00:03:23]: Alright. Don't forget thetinyhouse.net/kenton. Use the coupon code Ethan when you register for the retreat. Alright. Let's get on with today's episode. Alright. I would like to introduce Tracey Dedicatoria. She was born and raised in New York, but always wanted to return to her roots in Virginia since her grandparents were born and raised in Farmville.

Ethan Waldman [00:03:45]: In 1999, she ended up on the Eastern Shore when her ex husband was stationed at Wallops. After 23 years of a bad marriage, the tiny house gave her the ability to leave and to survive. It allowed her to become financially stable and remain on the farm. She has lived in her tiny house for 8 years now and has 3 grown children, 2 daughters, and a son. Tracey, welcome to the show.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:04:08]: Thank you.

Ethan Waldman [00:04:09]: Thank you so much for being here. Tracey, your tiny house journey began during a sounds like a significant life change. How did embracing the tiny lifestyle help you navigate that transition?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:04:23]: Well, for the most part, it helped me find peace. And it helped me simplify my life so that I could handle other things and get things in order. It also gave me a place to heal and to grow and to find myself again. I don't have any regrets in doing it. There were some things that were very difficult, but I would still do it again. And it's always a learning process.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:04:45]: So even now, 8 years later of living in a tiny house, there's still things that I try to make more efficient. Try to make more improvements, make things more comfortable. So it's a constant process of making your space more comfortable and more livable for you, And it does change as time goes on, as you age and so forth. So, like, for the 1st few years, I didn't have air conditioning, and that was really hard. And I had, like, 4 fans up in the loft all blowing on me at the same time. And then I finally got air conditioning, and I was all excited. I got a mini split thinking that I was gonna be cool up there, but, no, the air upstairs is still, like, a 10 degree difference from downstairs.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:05:30]: So when it's really hot, even with the air conditioning, I have to sleep downstairs, and I was not expecting that.

Ethan Waldman [00:05:36]: Yep. Yep. I can I can echo that about the AC? It just does not seem to wanna make its way up to the loft. So you you've mentioned, you know, that you've faced several challenges when you first moved into your house, particularly with off grid living. Can you share any of those specific obstacles that you encountered and and how you overcame them?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:06:02]: Absolutely. One of the things I didn't realize is that the water pressure in a tiny house is much lower than the water pressure in a regular house. So when I first got my water heater and the plumber put it in, who was a professional. We couldn't get it to work, and I still couldn't take a hot shower. So I was really frustrated. I was like, I wanna take a hot shower. And we finally figured out that it was a pressure issue.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:06:27]: So luckily, the off grid water heater that I had had a setting where you could set it to low pressure.

Ethan Waldman [00:06:34]: Okay.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:06:34]: But most regular commercial water heaters that you put in a home are not gonna have that option.

Ethan Waldman [00:06:39]: Right.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:06:39]: So you have to be really careful about the appliances and the things that you select, to use in a tiny house. So once we did that, then, I was able to take a hot shower. But then I got, like, a little portable washing machine, which I was so excited I was gonna be able to wash my a little bit of clothes at home. And that one, I just couldn't get enough water pressure for it to work properly, so I had to give it away. So I washed my clothes at my son's house.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:07:07]: I do have a small dryer that I use sometimes, but it is very small, so you can't put very much in there.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:07:16]: Also, to vent it, I had to stick the tube out the window. So I put the dryer under a window.

Ethan Waldman [00:07:21]: Alright. Alright. Yeah. That's I mean, the challenges that you're sharing, I mean, so many of us face them, and yet they can feel so unique because they are so specific to each tiny home. But, you know, one that I'm hearing you hit on is just that the appliances that you put in a tiny home, they're not always designed for a tiny home, and they don't always work the same way as the appliances that you would find in a single family home or an apartment or a condo.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:07:54]: Exactly. So small doesn't mean compatible with a tiny house. Right. You have to look all the logistics of how it works and so forth.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:08:03]: And then for the heater, I tried to use a camping heater, you know, like you would use in a tent. Oh, wow. Okay. At first, because I was so desperate. But the fumes, because a tiny house is more insulated than a RV would be or a tent would be, it made me sick. So the fumes were building up. So that was not an option. So I had to get rid of that, and, that's when I got, help me.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:08:31]: The thing that goes on the wall, the propane, the one that they use in sailboats.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:35]: Oh, the Dickinson.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:08:37]: Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. I I got that. And that was great, except it doesn't have a thermostat. So you're either really, really hot or really, really cold. So I would use it to take the chill off. Yeah.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:08:48]: I wouldn't leave it on all day just when I come in. Yep. And then and then turn it off once the house got to a certain temperature.

Ethan Waldman [00:08:56]: Yep. So that it's it's it's I'm smiling here when you say this because, you know, I'm looking at your house, and I'm guessing that it's the tumbleweed fencel design.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:09:05]: It's yes. It was, you know, built by Perch and Nest, but it's a similar design

Ethan Waldman [00:09:09]: to that. Yeah. So my my tiny house was based also I started off with a set of fenceal plans and kind of went off the rails from there. But, you know, there's, like, a certain era of tiny house design. And, like, I also started off with a Newport Dickinson heater

Ethan Waldman [00:09:29]: And had the same issue as you. It's like, you need you wanna leave the house during the day and go to work. And you don't want the plumb the pipes to freeze, but you also don't want it to be, you know, burning up your entire tank of propane. So Right. I quickly figured that out as well. Are are you still on the Newport Heater, or have do you have, like, a Version 3?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:09:51]: I have the mini split. So the mini split is both a heater and a air conditioner. So last winter was the first one. Of course, it was a very mild winter, I must say. But I only use the mini split . For heat. Now the winter before that, we did have some below 0.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:10:08]: So I would kick the Dickerson on to take the chill off for a little while, get the temperature up real fast

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:10:14]: And then turn it off and have the mini split maintain that. Because you can the mini split, you can set at whatever temperature you want.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:10:20]: 74 or whatever you want, and I I do like that. But off grid, you can't run that. You know? So I had to use a generator. So at first, I got the air conditioning, and I got a generator in before I got electricity. So I was running the air conditioning with the generator.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:10:37]: That was the dumbest thing I did because I burned up so much gasoline, and gasoline is so expensive compared to propane.

Ethan Waldman [00:10:43]: Yeah.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:10:45]: So that was not a good idea. And then, eventually, I did get electricity, so I was able to use it when I needed to.

Ethan Waldman [00:10:52]: Nice. Nice. So, the reason that that we connected initially is that I read, an article that you wrote, for Tiny House Magazine a couple of months ago. I'm not I'm not sure what month it came out, but it was issue number 139.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:11:09]: It was July.

Ethan Waldman [00:11:10]: July. The the title of the article is My Tiny Life, Survival Strength, Finding Peace. And your your article touches on the personal growth you experienced through this process. I'm curious how has living in a tiny house changed your perspective on just life and what you truly need in it?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:11:31]: I feel less stressed, because things are very simple. And right at my fingertips and easy to maintain. From a financial standpoint, really helped me get out of debt, helped me put my kids through college. After a divorce where I had a coming out, had a lot of debt to get that all under control. And if I had had a regular mortgage of, you know, a 1,000 or a $1500 a month, I would not have been able to do that. And I and I wouldn't have been able to keep the horse, you know, and all that type of stuff, and that was something that was very significant to me. So I think tiny house living does give you the ability to maybe have something that you wouldn't be able to otherwise have.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:12:19]: So let's say you always wanted a sailboat or you always wanted to take a cruise around the world or something like that, having that big mortgage makes it much more difficult to achieve that. So it in that respect, it really did help me from a financial standpoint.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:12:41]: But now they are much more expensive than when I got mine.

Ethan Waldman [00:12:45]: Yes. They are.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:12:47]: And if I were to try to get what I have now, I couldn't get it. And that really concerns me because I feel like for the future of tiny houses, that's really gonna hurt us, and change the market completely. Because I like to just have it go for, you know, simple people that are just trying to do certain things or simplify their life or in certain situations. So I wonder how we could bring the price down of tiny houses to reach more people.

Ethan Waldman [00:13:21]: Yeah. That's that's a that's a tough one. I mean, I I'm curious, you know, if you if you don't mind sharing, what did what did your house cost you to build 8 years ago? And do you have a sense of what it would cost now?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:13:36]: Well, Perch and Nest built it.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:13:38]: It was a model that they had that they had taken all over the place. It wasn't like a custom built house that I had done from scratch.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:13:48]: And it was a little bit higher than what I qualified for my loan.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:13:53]: So I had them take some things out that were significant, probably not legal, but they took out, the electric water heater because I was gonna put a propane one in. They took out the toilet, and they took out the there was a mini split in there. They took that out so that I could bring the price down to 42500.

Ethan Waldman [00:14:12]: Wow.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:14:14]: But it had nothing in there. It had no stove. It had no Dickerson heater. You know, nothing. It was just very, very simple. So when I got there, the first thing, of course, was I wanted the hot water heater so I could take a hot shower. Yep. And then the regular heater went in, and then the stove.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:14:33]: So those were the three things that I I put money into it myself. Now I do think you save money by doing that. If you get a house that's very simple, doesn't have everything in it, do your own appliances, you know, have your local guy put in your water heater, put in your propane heater, whatever because there's contractors around that you know locally that will do that for you. So that, I think, helped me. And then the off grid part. So I probably put in another 10 grand, you know, after that. Yeah.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:15:04]: But if I were to get what I have now, you're talking about 80.

Ethan Waldman [00:15:07]: Wow. Yeah.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:15:08]: Yeah. And it's only a 20. It's only a 8 by 20.

Ethan Waldman [00:15:13]: You know? Yeah. The the prices have gone up, and I just out of, you know, curiosity's sake, I just pulled up, like, an inflation calculator just to see, you know, $42500 in 2016, what that would cost in 2024. And it came to $55743. So, you know, I think you're right about you know, a tiny house like that would be more like $80 now. And I don't know if it's because the business models of these companies have had to adjust just to stay profitable, or is it that the building materials themselves have, you know, gone up in price more than the average? I'm I'm honestly not sure.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:15:56]: I think it's bad that they do everything custom, frankly. Yeah. Like, where you have to do everything custom cookie cutter. I feel like they should build a base house and then let the person decide how they wanna finish it. Yep. I think that would cut the cost significantly, and then my house was also built with recycled materials. You do know that. Right? I do know that.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:16:18]: So Perch and Nest, years ago when they first started, they used to do a lot of remodeling of old barns and houses. And what they would do is they would take the materials from the remodels, and they would store them, and they would use them to build the tiny house.

Ethan Waldman [00:16:29]: Wow.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:16:30]: So, like, the cedar shingles on my house, the beams, they all came out of old buildings. And, you know, I don't have a problem with that. I think we need to do more of that recycling of materials, to build.

Ethan Waldman [00:16:44]: Yeah. I mean, doing that, though, is also, you know, time and labor intensive. So it's it's always a balance. So you've you know, you're you're you're kind of touching on this that you've seen the tiny house market evolve over the past 8 years. I'm curious, you know, what advice would you give to someone considering a tiny house today, given the current market conditions and given, you know, the challenges that you've faced with your house?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:17:14]: Take your time, shop around, see a lot of different places, different houses, make sure that it's built by somebody that has experience and quality. With Perch and Nest. He was a master carpenter. I was very comfortable with that, and it has had some inspections of some sort. And just go with your gut. Yeah. You know? I would say as well, there's some beautiful ones out there, but they are expensive. Then the financing is tricky too because you can't finance it like a regular house.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:17:48]: Yep. So you have to finance it in a much shorter term so your payments are gonna be bigger, and that affected me too. Yeah. Oh, the other thing that's crazy, Ethan, is, like, I finance with USAA. Right?

Ethan Waldman [00:18:02]: Okay.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:18:02]: But they don't finance tiny houses anymore. So, like, today, if I wanted to get a loan from them, I couldn't get it. So I would like to see more lenders be more tiny house friendly.

Ethan Waldman [00:18:14]: Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's another huge challenge in this industry is that it seems that the way builders are able to offer financing is through RV loans, which are, you know, much much higher interest rates and much shorter, you know Term. Yep. More shorter term. So what should be a really affordable 15 or 20 year mortgage ends up being, you know, a fairly unaffordable, like, 5 or 6 year RV loan.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:18:46]: Yep. And that's gonna hurt us. If we wanna keep tiny houses alive Yeah. We've gotta make some changes, you know. And then the the structural design I guess you're saying it's the era though. So the era when you and I were getting tiny houses, that was the typical style. But now they just seem like boxes. Yeah.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:19:02]: Like, very RV looking.

Ethan Waldman [00:19:04]: Yep. Yeah. I I think that we both have, you know, that gabled roof where the peak of the roof is in the middle. Yes. And it seems like it's very rare to see a house that has that design. There are, you know, for many reasons, you know, if you if you do that single pitch roof, it's simpler to build. But then you also get that that high side where you can put up a set of stairs rather than have to climb up a ladder. That's actually something that's actually something that I kinda wish that I had done.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:19:33]: That makes sense. Okay.

Ethan Waldman [00:19:34]: Yeah. I mean, that that shed roof gives you unlocks the the staircase possibility a lot. It's not like you can't have a staircase in a gabled roof tiny house, but it's it's gonna have to be right in the middle, which is not ideal.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:19:49]: I'd like to see more with bedrooms downstairs too.

Ethan Waldman [00:19:52]: Yeah. Yeah. And those age. Yeah. Yeah. You actually you mentioned in the article the importance of considering, you know, long term accessibility in tiny house design. Yes. You know, how how do you think the tiny house movement can better address the needs, you know, of people who are aging or differently abled individuals?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:20:12]: I would like to see, like I said, more bedrooms downstairs Yeah. And your door widths, you know, to accommodate at least 36 inches. Yep. Yeah. But I it can be done. I believe it can be done with design. It's possible.

Ethan Waldman [00:20:26]: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I I interviewed, probably a year or 2 ago, the founder of this company called Wheelpad that specializes in building tiny houses on wheels. But tiny houses on wheels that are completely accessible. And the idea is that it adds an accessible bedroom and bathroom to an existing house so that a loved one is able to stay in their home.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:20:54]: Wow.

Ethan Waldman [00:20:54]: Yeah. It's a really it's a really cool concept.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:20:58]: That is cool. What's the name of the company that's doing that?

Ethan Waldman [00:21:01]: It's called Wheelpad.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:21:03]: Wheelpad. Okay. I'm gonna check that out.

Ethan Waldman [00:21:05]: Yeah. And, I could, tell people that, if anyone's listening who is interested in hearing that that interview or seeing the pictures or anything, that would be episode 114 of this show. So you can go to thetinyhouse.net/114. And, you could read the transcript. You can listen to the episode. Or you can just scroll and kinda read the description and and see all the pictures. They're they're really beautiful too.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:21:34]: The other thing I love about tiny houses is they have so many windows. So wherever I turn, I see the outdoors.

Ethan Waldman [00:21:41]: Yes.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:21:43]: So my house has, like, 13 windows. And my regular house that I lived in, that I raised my children in has less than that. Isn't that crazy?

Ethan Waldman [00:21:51]: That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. I share that. I share that, that it's just so bright in the tiny house.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:21:59]: And that's important with your design too. They have just lots of windows so you don't feel so enclosed, you know. And you never have to turn a light on during the day because there's plenty of sunshine coming in and plenty of airflow. Like, right now, I don't I don't need my air conditioning. You know, here in Virginia, it's, like, high seventies.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:22:20]: I'm very comfortable with because there's always a cross breeze in the loft.

Ethan Waldman [00:22:24]: Nice. So have you ever had any issues with, like, the legality of the house, like parking it on the farm or anything like that?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:22:34]: Well, the main thing you have to be careful of is, like, it varies by state Yeah. Where you can discharge your gray water and all that kind of stuff. If you have an existing dwelling on the property, which I still have the other house, that my son lives in. It makes it a lot easier. So I encourage people to do that. You can also cover it with the insurance can be covered with the same house, but I have tiny house insurance, specifically. Yep.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:23:03]: Yep. So that but as far as parking it, no. Not because I'm in a very rural county where there's not a lot of regulations. I'm not in a city or anything like that. And I'm on a farm, large parcel, where I'm not really bothering anybody. Nobody can see me.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:23:21]: It would probably be different if I tried to do it in in a town or something like

Ethan Waldman [00:23:25]: that. Yeah.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:23:27]: And the toilets. Okay. All the compost toilet and the Laveo dry flush. I have a Laveo dry flush now.

Ethan Waldman [00:23:33]: Oh, okay.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:23:34]: I I did have a compost. It's a lie that they tell you it doesn't stink. It's a lie. It stinks. Yes. It stinks. Okay. So what I do is I take those Febreze plug ins

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:23:47]: And I take the tops off. And when I'm not using the commode, I sit them inside of it.

Ethan Waldman [00:23:53]: Okay.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:23:54]: And that actually cuts the odor tremendously because then I put the lid down, so it kinda, like, you know, keeps it out. But otherwise, yeah. It the the compost really smelled. I couldn't Do that.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:10]: I've you know, I I I have a compost toilet in my tiny house and I I my experience has been that it's that the smell isn't bad. But, you know, it's...

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:24:19]: Oh, man. You must be doing something better than what I did.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:22]: Well, there's a lot of different, there's a lot of different types of compost toilets for tiny houses. And not not all are created equal, I suppose.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:24:29]: Correct. I agree. But I like the Laveo dry flush. Yeah. I just push the button. Yep. And it seals it up and take it to the dump.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:36]: Yep. And that's great. There's you know, there are options for everybody for for how you how involved do you wanna be in in waste management in your tiny house.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:24:46]: Yes. And I did also install a reverse osmosis filter From Culligan.

Ethan Waldman [00:24:52]: Okay.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:24:52]: Because I had some nitrates in my water, and nothing else will get that out. That was a little tricky because I had to use the one that's tankless under my sink with my big 25 gallon water tank. But but we did it, and I love it.

Ethan Waldman [00:25:09]: Nice. So it's a tankless reverse. And now does that do RO for your entire water supply or just for No. Just the drinking.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:25:16]: Only for drinking and cooking, so there's an additional spout there.

Ethan Waldman [00:25:20]: Got it. Got it.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:25:21]: And I wish they had made the sink deeper. Because when you're washing dishes and or rinsing fruit or something like that, the water always goes on the counter because it's not deep enough.

Ethan Waldman [00:25:33]: Interesting. Interesting.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:25:38]: So lots of little things, you know, that you kinda learn along the way.

Ethan Waldman [00:25:42]: Yeah. Do you have you know, it sounds like you're just constantly improving your tiny house and and finding ways to make your your life there more convenient or easier. I'm curious what you know, do you have any projects kind of on the on the horizon that you're hoping to tackle in the house?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:25:59]: Well, we just built a deck

Ethan Waldman [00:26:00]: Oh, nice.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:26:02]: With a bench. And I enclosed the bottom, like, it was on cement blocks. But I put cement blocks all around it on the bottom now. And I planted a ground cover, which is like a really pretty vine with purple flowers. So that's covering up all of the bottom part.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:26:19]: So you won't really see the trailer or anything. So it looks more like a regular house and then landscaping. Also, carpenter bees are a pain, because a lot of times, the wood that is underneath around the rim of the roof is not treated, and it's not painted. So they like to go in there. Yep. Yep. So that has been a big problem. If I were to get 1 or build 1 again, I would definitely not have that design because it definitely attracts those carpenter bees, and you and they got they got all in my wall one time upstairs, And it drove me absolutely nuts because I could hear the buzzing buzzing buzz.

Ethan Waldman [00:26:59]: Yeah. That that sounds really unpleasant. I I you know, it's funny. Like, I have had issues with mice in my house. I've definitely had ants and bees too. It's a constant battle.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:27:12]: Yes. I haven't had mice though. I guess because we've probably got plenty of snakes eating the mice. Good. I haven't seen mice.

Ethan Waldman [00:27:17]: I'm glad I'm I'm happy for you. Well, looking back on your journey, is what what's been the most unexpected benefit, of living in a tiny house?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:27:33]: Oh, people don't come and live with you and never leave, to be honest. And and when I first got it, that was when my kids were just, you know, moving out of the nest, each one. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm gonna make it so they can't come back and live with mom. There there is no space for them to live with me long term, and it it kinda helps them find their own way a little bit better.

Ethan Waldman [00:27:54]: That's awesome. That's awesome.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:27:57]: Or if you have a friend, you know, an unwelcome house guest, you know, they're not gonna stay forever. Yeah. But I I have had house guests there, and we've had a lot of fun. One of my friends that I grew up with since middle school stayed with me for a week, and we did fine in the tiny house, and we had a ball. And then my daughters have stayed there. So Nice. And a big dog has stayed there.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:28:18]: So Alright. Alright. Yeah. So we've got some guests.

Ethan Waldman [00:28:20]: Well, one thing that I like to ask all my guests is do you do you have any resources, anything that helped you, you know, kind of on your journey to tiny that you'd like to share? Just really open ended question. Could be books or YouTube channels or really anything.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:28:38]: Just I did a lot of research.

Ethan Waldman [00:28:40]: One of

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:28:40]: the things I liked was our Renogy. They do a lot of, off grid stuff.

Ethan Waldman [00:28:44]: Okay.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:28:45]: And I bought a couple of their battery charging packs. One that's a really big one that I can plug a regular outlet into and charge my cell phone, my laptop, everything at one time. Because in a tiny house, you're not gonna have a lot of outlets to do too many things at one time. So that was but anything that I decide to get, I research it thoroughly, you know, and I read and look at it, because it is it is a challenge because it is different.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:29:18]: And then also, I used to have to take, like, jugs of water and pour them into my 25 gallon tank, which was really labor intensive, and then I had a pump that I would do it with. So one of the best gadgets I got from the RV people was it's like a thing that you screw directly on the house, and it has a tube that goes directly to the hose. So you don't have to hold it there, but you have to watch it as it fills because you don't wanna overfill it.

Ethan Waldman [00:29:44]: Overfill your tank.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:29:46]: Exactly. So I'll turn it on, and then I'll run-in the house, and I'll watch the tank. And then just before it gets to the very top Yep. I run outside and turn it off. But that has been a wonderful accessory.

Ethan Waldman [00:29:56]: Yeah. So is is your house completely fed by the tank? Like, you have to you have to fill the tank for your water.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:30:04]: okay. Yes. I think they call that boondocking.

Ethan Waldman [00:30:08]: Yep. Sure.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:30:11]: The RV people call it boondocking.

Ethan Waldman [00:30:12]: RV people call it boondocking. Well, anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners? Just any other insights or or lessons learned?

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:30:27]: I just like to encourage anybody that wants to try the tiny house thing to go for it. Don't be afraid. Just go for it. And it's a learning process. Reach out to other people that have done it and other resources to get you through it, but it is well worth it, and you will enjoy it.

Ethan Waldman [00:30:44]: Nice. Well, Tracey, thank you so much for being a guest on the show today. It was really great to finally get to to meet you.

Tracey Dedicatoria [00:30:51]: Yes. Thank you for your patience.

Ethan Waldman [00:30:54]: Thank you so much to Tracey Dedicatoria 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/306. Again, that's thetinyhouse.net/306. And don't forget to check out Kenton's Urban and all of his permaculture offerings. You can get a quick shortcut over to his website at thetinyhouse.net/kenton. That's thetinyhouse.net/kenton. And if you do end up signing up for that permaculture retreat, don't forget to use the coupon code Ethan, that's e t h a n, when you check out for a 10% registration discount. Well, that's all for this week.

Ethan Waldman [00:31:38]: I'm your host, Ethan Waldman. And I'll be back in 2 weeks with another episode of the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast.