Our Tiny House is Ours

2020 was quite the year, wasn't it? I think we can all agree on that at least. It ended on a very high note for us, but I will admit that this post is bittersweet.

So many people are struggling to make ends meet right now. So many have lost so much. Here at Small Home Family, we see you, and we try to help however we can.

For us, though, 2020 was different. It was lucrative. It turns out that logistics is a good industry to be in during a pandemic. Our household income increased by a whopping 30% year over year. Chris worked so much more than usual that life felt absolutely crazy beyond all the other insanity we experienced by just being alive in 2020.

And we're incredibly grateful for all of the blessings we experienced in the midst of the chaos.

When the last weeks of 2020 rolled around, we took a look a our bank account and said, huh. We have more money in the bank right now than we owe on our house.

So on the last day of the year, I cut a final lump sum payment to the bank and paid this baby off for good.

I can't even describe how amazing it feels to be free of a mortgage. To know that no matter what happens, we have a roof over our head that the bank can't repossess. That all of our conversations about the future that started off with, "When we pay off our house..." are now.

It's surreal. We own our tiny house outright. We don't have a house payment or rent anymore. (Still paying off that electric car, though!)

And suddenly that decision we made back in 2008 to buy a park model instead of renting an apartment feels so worth it, even more than it did before. Is our house perfect? Hardly. But it's ours, and it gives us even more freedom now. It's a glorious feeling.

But it's still bittersweet. I wish that every person out there had secure, affordable housing. I wish no individual ever had to wonder where their next rent payment was going to come from or if they are going to get fined for sleeping in their car or spat on for living on the street. This feeling of security--of safety and rest--this should be the norm for everyone.

But it's not. And in 2021, we have to do better as a society. We need affordable housing. We need safety nets. We need to see each other as people, and we need to care for each other.

We can do better. We need to do better.