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$6000 Shed Turned Into An Affordable Tiny Home - YouTube
Channel: Kristina Smallhorn
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i've done numerous informational videos
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about living in tiny homes but i haven't
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done any where i actually interviewed
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somebody that's currently living in a
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tiny home today that's all gonna change
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we're gonna meet with ellen a 67 year
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old woman who took a six thousand dollar
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shed and turned it into a beautiful tiny
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home she's gonna be showing us a full
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tour of her house she's gonna talk about
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the trials and tribulations she had by
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putting it together she's gonna be
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sharing with us what it took to get all
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the utilities out there with the water
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and the electricity and the cable and
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all of that and all the issues that have
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come up since she's owned this tiny home
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since 2016. so let's go ahead and meet
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ellen you're gonna love her hi my name
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is ellen and this is my tiny home my
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story is i was living in austin texas
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for 14 years and i decided to move back
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home and i lived in a 1200 square foot
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condo and was trying to figure out how
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to come back and have an affordable
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living situation so i found out about
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this building that someone owned and
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they were going to turn it into an art
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studio so this house is probably
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eight years old now because i bought it
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i mean the building itself she had
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bought it on a lot that sells outdoor
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buildings that people turn into sheds
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but i made a house out of it i knew she
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wanted to sell it so i decided to buy it
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and move it here to my son's land he was
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letting me live on his property he's in
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california so i bought the house used
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and i basically gutted it out
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from what she had done to make it a home
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and my main focus was
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making it affordable they moved this
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house in april
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because of the
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rain water and then i didn't move into
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november of 2016. oh gotcha it took that
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long with trying to get people to come
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out to work and then the flood had come
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in apr in august
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the one i love sitting on my porch
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i used to have my bike
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it's on my porch but i moved and my
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neighbors are taking care of my bike now
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and i love i bought this at an antique
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shop last year and i love it um in my
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little
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wind chimes this
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this glows at night it's a solar light
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there here's my septic system
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and the other part of my split level ac
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right here before they had a porch that
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wrapped around it went into the house
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and the builders came and
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made the porch across and made a bigger
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living area inside that helped a lot i
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basically just went with an open concept
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living a living area with a bathroom and
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a closet and it's worked out perfect
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because it's nice and roomy it's only
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384 square feet it doesn't feel like i'm
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living in a tiny space as much but the
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main thing i built it for i made the
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build out for like 35 000
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which is what i wanted to put into it
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and so i'm 67 and
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it's like
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i wasn't going to be drowning in debt at
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this age
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now that we've seen the outside we need
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to go inside and she's going to be
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taking us on a full tour but i have to
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know do you think this is a good idea
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for her so far what do you think of her
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little plan that she came with pretty
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smart huh
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okay give us a little tour so here we go
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here's my finished product
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so yeah basically the cabinets were
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already here she had had put bought
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these at lowe's
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and i just used them and put a
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countertop on it i bought the stove in
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the refrigerator which is a nice size
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and i added this island
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and i bought that little cabinet for a
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pantry
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i've added this everything's for storage
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i've after sitting there talking to
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ellen for all that time on the back
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porch and she brought me in the house my
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mind just kept thinking how in the world
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does she know what to do how did she
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know how to turn this shed
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into an actual house it takes a lot of
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research that most people do beforehand
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and what her answer was was absolutely
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amazing to me i didn't know anything to
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do
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my
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my family helped me a lot my brother had
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a business dealing with
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contractors and stuff and he restores
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homes and elevates homes from floods and
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he moved this building for me
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and
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i just asked a lot of questions
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i'm really
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just fortunate i moved this when i did
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i'm so happy i did it that was tough my
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brother did help a lot because he knew a
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lot more than i did i knew nothing
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about any of this
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until i just jumped into it
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going through ellen's house i was
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shocked on how much room she actually
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had wait until you see how big the
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bathroom is in her closet space but i
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was really curious about the sleeping
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arrangements i basically slept on my
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couch for the first three years i've
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been here five years
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i moved in 2015 at the end of the year
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this house was moved in april
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of 2016. so now i sleep up in my loft
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and
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i have a nice sized
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bathroom here
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that's great um it's a full-size bath
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and bathtub you have a bathtub yes i
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have a bathtub
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it's my bathtub it's
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just a basic the tub was already here
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and so was the toilet i used everything
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that i could use that she had
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and
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for price wise i just
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wanted it to be economical and
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it was i wasn't looking into
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spending so much
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now let's get into the nitty-gritty how
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much does all of this stuff cost when
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you get a water well and you get
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electricity and you get gas how much did
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that actually cost her in her budget it
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was about 6 000 back then for the
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water well and
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it's a deep well
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and the septic system utilities
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didn't
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because they come to the line yes there
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was already a yeah it wasn't raw land
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there was already um
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there was already lines coming well i
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had get a temporary pole put up
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for construction and then they tied it
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in
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dixie electric tied it in later that
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part wasn't
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wasn't too bad and see i would have
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loved gas but i would have had to pipe
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it from the front it would cost me
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probably over a thousand dollars and so
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i just i'm all electric here
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but my electric bill is hardly nothing
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and i also have a tankless hot water
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heater it's
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little it fits on my wall under here
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if you can get a picture
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it's so compact
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i'm never without hot water at all no
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matter what how deep i
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fill up my tub
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it got clogged with some stuff at once
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and my son fixed it but
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even to replace it it's not that bad
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did the parish give you any trouble
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about putting in the house
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they
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did at first because it wasn't up to
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code i had to really rip out everything
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and bring it up to their standards the
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permits were kind of tough but nothing
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like now
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it was just you had to have a permit
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get the house up to certain code didn't
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have to have a permit to move it here it
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wasn't that big
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i had to get licensed contractors and
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things like that and then when it was
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finished i had to inspect it and so the
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parish came through
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yes
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and then wrote a completion
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certificate for me so i could possibly
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get insurance or whatever
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one of the downfalls is in bad weather i
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don't like staying here
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i'm getting a lot braver but
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if it's really bad weather i leave of
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course one of the biggest questions that
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comes up when it comes to tiny homes on
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my channel is about the insurance many
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people have expressed how hard it was
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for them to find insurance for their
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tiny home even a couple i interviewed
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about six months ago they had a hard
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time finding insurance but they did find
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it and it was quite expensive so this is
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what ellen had to say about insuring her
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tiny home yes i could not get insurance
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at all the first three years
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because they
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they didn't insure tiny homes in
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louisiana
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and
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i kept getting in touch with this guy
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that was insuring them all over and he
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said soon
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you know we'll we'll get it and finally
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i did i did get some
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but of course they don't cover anything
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to do with hurricane
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because we're close to the coast
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it's a tiny home and my house is tied
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down and
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my house is set on five or six one two
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three five footings of concrete instead
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of a whole slab with house pillars which
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i totally recommend also i feel like
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it's a lot more sturdy
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and it's tied down into the concrete i
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don't have flood insurance i
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would probably never flood
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this whole land had water on it but i
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had only a couple inches
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under my house i'm i'm good
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i don't need flood insurance
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now you know if the house the roof came
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off it would be
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probably covered unless it's hurricane
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i'd like to get that inspected and
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possibly i mean it's fine right now but
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i don't metal roof right it's a metal
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roof i love it i mean when he's washing
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it's held up great
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even during the hurricane everything i
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didn't have but
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water came through my front door had i
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you know barricaded it better
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it wouldn't even even done that so it's
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a very minor
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damage actually but
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nothing else
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happened no leaks anything well if
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anybody would
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know any other insurance in louisiana
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that would insure tiny homes i don't
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know of any
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i would like to know i mean i've checked
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in in mo home
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i've checked into this being a little
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building
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out i was thinking of even dropping it
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but
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just like any home doesn't matter if
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it's a tiny home manufactured home a
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regular stick built home you're going to
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have maintenance issues that come up
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ellen explains what issues she's had
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with her tiny home especially since it
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is a shed and it wasn't necessarily
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designed for long-term living use the
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things that are happening to her home
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may not be typical for a traditional
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type of home and maybe some of you in
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the audience could help her with some of
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her issues i know that she'd be really
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grateful for some of your answers yes my
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paint i thought i had a really good
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paint
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priming everything i bought my paint
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from a reputable paint company and now
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it's already peeling which i guess is
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not too bad
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it is peeling like this all the way
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around that's why i'm thinking i need to
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cover it
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or maybe rip that up and put
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aluminum siding or vinyl siding
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or just corrugated
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aluminum
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it's made to look
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really good on some of these homes so
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i'm just doing research right now
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thinking about adding little humidifiers
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dehumidifiers in my house just the small
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ones
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because it's a closed area and i don't
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have a lot of ventilation but
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that's something i'm gonna look into
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it won't cost much
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now she mentioned about the humidifiers
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and i actually have the answer for her
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so this is a surprise for you ellen look
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right here you can get them on amazon i
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have them in my bathrooms because the
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ventilation fan in my bathrooms isn't
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quite good enough and they work
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fantastic and you can dump them out
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about once a week they're perfect here
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in the state of louisiana because as you
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know the state of louisiana has a lot of
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humidity so those dehumidifiers they
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work fantastic that's for you ellen
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and anybody else that has a small
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bathroom the other issue about the
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termites i do not have the answer for
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when it comes to killing termites
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naturally yes i hated to put that poison
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um i haven't treated it for termite yet
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so
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i don't think i have any damage but it's
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something i need to look into
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is inspecting for termites and treating
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that
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so
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naturally i'd like to do more natural
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we'll see
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we'll see
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so yeah so i'm asking you as an audience
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if you know anything that would kill
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termites naturally or at least prevent
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them naturally with not a lot of harsh
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chemicals could you please put them in
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the comments section ellen would be
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greatly appreciative and she said that
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she would be reading the comments below
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you have good storage
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yes
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yes and i've added a lot of things i can
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think of i'm always purging
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so i've got a dresser here all my
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clothes in here
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my washer and dryer i love it
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it's full full size
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got this cabin i've got these
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so i'm how much was that washer and
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dryer do you know it was like 1100.
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that's not bad but
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it's perfect
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i don't want it ever to go out
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it's perfect
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um
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because it works great but yeah and i've
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got a lot nice loft up there
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and it stores all of my stuff is here
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everything i own is here yeah it's pros
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and cons because now i don't spend much
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money on buying things
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and i haven't decorated really that much
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because i don't have that much room
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and but sometimes i'll see something
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like oh if i just had a little more room
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but you really don't miss it it's i
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don't just every once in a while just
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have a little inkling i'm like oh i
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can't get that anyway i don't have i
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don't have the room for it so other than
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her having like the best storage for a
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tiny home i've probably ever seen the
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second thing i was super impressed with
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was her kitchen you only got a taste of
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it at the beginning so let me finish
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showing you what she's actually done and
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that's what i wanted i didn't want any
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excess and i'm a minimalist
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and i mean my kitchen all my dishes are
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up here
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which is perfect i don't even need
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half of those i can store things under
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here i've got a lot of my other pots and
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stuff some pots in there full-size stove
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and oven
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and before
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when the porch was not
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fully out
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they had like a wall here my my oven
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wouldn't have even opened really it was
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so small so i mean it was perfect that i
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let that out
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to add more
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living space it it was the best thing i
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did like i say i'm always looking for
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new
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new things to put things in and purging
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all the time
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so i learned i learned quickly you have
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guts
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yes i mean i i cried a lot it was a lot
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of sweat and tears but
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but a lot of help from my family and i
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asked a lot of questions i do wish i
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would have
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researched it more but i didn't have a
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lot of time i don't like clutter at all
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and it helps me to not be a hoarder
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and keep things neat yeah it's perfect
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it's perfect i have to tell you i think
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that ellen is probably one of the
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coolest bravest most ingenious
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retired women i have ever met my whole
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entire life how many people do you know
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that would take on a project like this
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not knowing a thing about it at this age
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i know my parents wouldn't do it but
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after seeing what she did i know i could
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do it let me know in the comment section
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if it's something that you could do to
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watch some more videos about tiny homes
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go ahead and click this video right here
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my name is christina smallhorn your real
[912]
estate whisperer and i tell you all this
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because good real estate information
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matters
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