| Swell Little Dwelling |

Matt and Elena built and live in a 188 square-foot tiny house in New England. They hope to live a mortgage-free lifestyle into their 30s, freeing up time and money for traveling and creating art, and are trying to be kinder to the planet. They moved in as of April 18th, 2015, with the help of friends and family. Ask any questions you have! xo

[swelllittledwelling]

After a Tumblr hiatus, here's an updated kitchen pic! Just a few fine tuned details but overall we've been living in and enjoying the house. Almost 2.5 years since move-in!

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Last but not least (it’s my favorite place) the tour ends in the sleeping loft. We watch movies before bed, drink our morning coffee, and snuggle with the doggy up here. It’s the coziest place I’ll ever sleep and I’m not convinced I’ll ever really leave it behind.

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I’m really glad we chose the color “island time” for our bathroom. Since you can see that color from anywhere downstairs, it adds a beautiful pop to an otherwise neutral palette on the walls. Combined with the warms of the stained wood surfaces, it’s quite lovely. You can see that our shower is made of wood as well - that’s a new project in process and will end with a really spa-like shower made of treated pine. Also didn’t clean up much for these photos because I’d rather everyone see how we really live and not the magazine version ;) The blue bucket holds mulch for our composting toilet and the bathroom door is a pocket door that hides in the kitchen wall. I still can’t believe we live in this sometimes. Last stop - the sleeping loft!

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And now we arrive in the kitchen, an adorable combination of chef station and art studio. We make great meals in this part of the house and have explored more vegetarian meals together here than ever before. As I’ve showed in past posts, the induction cooktop is stored under the counter and brought out/plugged in when we’re ready to cook. We have a few cast iron pans that we use and 1 stainless steel pot. Coffee is an important part of starting our days off right so we dedicate a few spots to hold coffee/filters/coffee maker. Just gotta figure out what you really use every day and then what else do you need?! Oh and DAMN is my husband a talented illustrator - here’s a peek of his latest drawing of a church in Providence, RI. <3 Next stop, the bathroom...

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Next stop on the tour - our stairs and wood stove! All of our clothes fit under those stairs, and our main heating source is an iron stove designed for ships. 

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Doing a bit of a photoshoot tour with our house this weekend. We’ll start with our living room, complete with a live-in puppy dog. :D

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Just posting some updates on our interior if you guys happen to wonder :) I have absolutely been neglecting this blog this year - because of less frequent visible updates and a love of privacy, I just haven’t made the effort! But, as summer continues, more changes are coming. We will be finishing up our shower as autumn approaches. The humidity made us decide to put that project on hold (and shower at the YMCA, hooray!) and we’ve also been using my parents’ pool to cool off. It’s been really lovely not having to worry about heating, and we totally have gotten the hang of using a composting toilet. Our new pantry has worked out, holds all the sriracha and tabasco we need, and the top unfinished shelf has become a TMNT display shelf... for now. I purposely left some mess around for these photos so you don’t assume we think we live in a magazine.. this house takes 0.5 seconds to get messy! And 0.25 seconds to clean. :D We are leaving the space under the stairs as is for now, with our Ikea furniture, but may update that space later on. In the next couple of weeks we hope to gain a new furry best friend (!!!!) but I’ll say more about that later even though I can barely contain myself. (!!!!)

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If only we could live the Swanson life...

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Bathroom walls are up and doggies and nephews are visiting. Ah summer ;)

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Got back from vacation and did some home improvements yesterday! Still working on our shower (photos to come, as well as plumbing tutorial) but this was a good change that adds some interest and makes our kitchen more comfortable. Our pantry is now closed with a screen door and the inside is painted my favorite color "Island Time" by Sherwin Williams to match the bathroom walls. All cubbies and built-ins will be painted like that eventually. At the top of the pantry will be a removable produce box - maybe will double as a picnic basket?? 😮👍🏻

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Some pics I don't think I've posted! Our upstairs stained glass window, our new loft layout, and this gorgeous b/w of our couch bench. Tutorial on our plumbing coming up soon. Stay tuned!

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Q&A

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to post answers to common questions that we’ve gotten about our tiny house. I’ll probably start up next week. In the meantime, are there any questions you have about our house or tiny houses in general? The lifestyle, the issues to overcome, the best parts? Let me know and I’ll give the best answer I can!

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Happy February!

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It's a toasty 74F in our house with our e-heater convection panel and Shipmate Skippy wood stove roaring during a good old fashioned snow storm in New England. Glad I don't have a 1500 square foot place to heat tonight!

[elemayna]

Rainy days are the best in the tiny house. We built ourselves a cozy little shelter.

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Presents take up lots of room in this little place, but it's the one time of year I'm totally fine with clutter! 🎄