From communal to tiny living: Why an RV?

If you don't know we bought an RV and have been living in it for 4 days already: well, in what world are you living? ;)
And if you know but can't tell by my RV spam on my social media: We are so excited for this new chapter of our lives that keeps unfolding in front of us!

Some people asked me if I was going to blog about it and seriously blogging lately hasn't inspired me as it did before, but THIS. This is so inspiring that I really want to share every piece of it with all the people that cherish this adventure with us.

Lets start from the beginning: Why an RV?

A couple of reasons:

1~Seattle rent
2~Pinterest~ if we are being honest.
3~HGTV Tiny homes show. (We always flirted with the idea of a tiny house & I STILL want Aaron to build our dream home but time was an important factor: we needed a home ASAP)

On February of this year, after living in Seattle for a couple of months, Aaron got laid off from the job we moved across country for. We were renting an open spaced one bedroom apartment in Shoreline (pretty much a studio with a wall dividing the room from the living area~ $1,500) and it became obvious we couldn't afford that place anymore.

We had to move but we didn't have enough money for deposits, first and last months. Brainstorming, we decided to humble ourselves and surrender to our situation: it was time to consider communal living. We found a single dad with a teenager, renting a room in their house. It needed to be a family friendly house for us to even consider it so when this person reached out, we felt it was our best option.

I am grateful that despite our very difficult situation we had a roof over our head, considering the alarming amount of homeless people living on the streets in Seattle~ including families. We lived there a couple of months while we figured out our next move but a few days into the situation it was SO obvious that it wasn't the place for us or a home for Che. This family was not vegan or careful about Che's allergies, they were constantly fighting & cursing at each other, the teenage daughter was always bringing noisy friends who would leave their weed out and reachable to little hands, once Che found drugs (that belong to the single dad) on the floor, Che started imitating very gross characteristics from them...and the list goes on.

We appreciate the idea of communal living, in fact, I think we thrive when living with others, but this experience pushed us to the edge of our limits. We were looking for other communal houses that would welcome us as soon as our patience ran out but people were not really interested in sharing their space with a toddler.

The idea of paying 1,000 for a micro studio with a shared kitchen wasn't on top of our list but: what was our option here? After looking at a couple places, it didn't feel right to rent such a tiny place for such a big part of our salary. Since moving to Seattle that's how it always felt: working so that we could survive, so that we could meet ends. Not working to create the life we wanted. We were not saving for our future or for the things we wanted to do, but instead the last cent of our check always had a name on it.

Aaron is the adventurer & the idea of getting an RV was always brought up but I was never sure about it. Then one day I was browsing Pinterest and the renovation of an RV popped up on my fee because I was looking at other tiny spaces & I fell in love with it. That night I sent Aaron the pin and told him I wanted THAT. The decision was made then, we started RV shopping for ours. Day and night we would browse, email, call, research until we found THE ONE.

Everything about the search, saving for it, day dreaming about it, down sizing EVEN MORE, felt so right in our hearts. Like: hell yeah, we are home owners of this badass cutie pie!

So, that's how we got here. Getting rid of layers of possessions with every move since we left Iowa has always felt like learning experience, especially for me who used to own so much. Living in such a tiny space I know will bring so many demons and angels out of me, & Im so ready to experience them all.

Now, if you have requests for new posts on a vegan family living tiny: Im all eyes! I have a couple topics I want to write about & I cant wait to share more.