Why is California a hotbed for tiny house builders? Its warm climate, attractive landscapes, and growing popularity of sustainable living are all factors. Builders can be found throughout the state, with widely varying styles and requirements. They are quite skilled, know everything about building new houses, and about home renovations.
Finding the perfect tiny house builder in California involves thorough research. But before you go looking for one, there are a couple of things to understand. In this article, I will give you an idea of what to do before hiring a tiny house builder in California.
The first thing you must do is,
Define your Vision
Picture yourself in your cozy tiny house. What do you see? Getting up to sunrise through a loft window, or drinking coffee brewed in a stove-top kitchen nook? How are you using the small interior? How are you spending your leisure time? Reading, strumming a guitar, watching movies with friends? The more visual you get, the better, because the builder will take inputs from you. If you yourself cannot picture the inside and the surroundings of your future nest, how would he?
Here is something very important that you must bear in mind. When you are conjuring up the image of your tiny house, always count your dreams, not square footage.
Now what does that even mean?
Let me explain.
As a client, your job is to visualize how your tiny house is going to look, and share the visualization with a tiny house builder in California. If the builder is competent and experienced, he would mentally calculate how much space the project might take. It’s his job to give you an estimation of the size of your dream home. Let him do his job, while you decide whether the house will be an adventure pod, a retreat from the business of life, or a campsite from which to explore the nooks and crannies of the state. By defining your purpose, you can clarify the features and put your happiness first. Let the builder take care of the rest.
Face your Financial Truth
Some may be attracted to tiny living for its delightfully diminutive footprint or its talk of a simpler life. But unexpected expenses may lurk behind the simplicity. Let’s peel back the layers and reveal some of those hidden expenses:
- You might as well forget waltzing into a bank with your tiny house blueprints. That’s because tiny houses are sometimes considered too mobile or too poorly constructed for traditional mortgages. Creative financing ideas or personal loans may be your only go-to options, but these usually come with greater interest rates than ordinary mortgages.
- The search for land could be exasperating and financially troublesome. You need to find just the right plot to land on, which could be difficult due to the zoning regulations that may prohibit parking mini homes on land you own. Sometimes, the only way out of this is to go looking for tiny-home-friendly communities or RV parks, most of which charge a monthly fee.
- A tiny interior requires miniaturized appliances, which may be cute, but are generally expensive. What’s more, hooking up to utilities such as water, sewer, and electricity might also require hookup fees and extra infrastructure costs, depending on your location. In a state like California, such expenses could break a bank.
- Hidden expenses are like a little army of tiny ninjas that rear their heads at just about any opportunity. In addition to building permits and inspection payments, there are towing costs and annual campground fees. If you do your homework and consider these factors at the outset, you can save yourself some serious trouble.
When reviewing your finances to build a tiny house in California, be cognizant of all the points discussed above. My intention is not to discourage you, but to give you a sense of reality.
The Role of the Builder
So, you have defined your vision, and taken a look at your budget. What’s next?
Now you need to look for a tiny house builder in California.
There are plenty out there. The one worthy of hiring must perform the following.
Remember, the tiny house builder in California will basically be your eyes, decoding your vision. Their job is to turn your dream into blueprints. This will let them pack as much function as possible into every inch.
Second, they’ll be your guide to the budget. They will also help you chart the financial land of your dreams so that the dream doesn’t wind up sailing into a sea of surprise expenses. They will cover everything from material selection to permitting complexities, getting you safely seated on your island of budgetary bliss.
Nevertheless, a tiny house builder in California isn’t just about blueprints and spreadsheets. The builder is your creative collaborator, and must be familiar with clever tricks to save space and install clever multi-functional furniture that gets the most out of every inch. The builder must be able to take limitations and turn them into assets, making something out of nothing.
Conclusion
Remember, when you hire a tiny house builder in California, you are hiring a dream interpreter, a budget guru, a fellow adventurer, and someone who has enough knowledge in California’s zoning laws. The builder will become your landmark, your encouragement, and the only one who can open the door to your piece of just-right happiness. Hence, hire carefully.