Vernita and Travis live in an off-grid shed conversion in northern Arizona. They transformed a 10-foot by 16-foot shed into a 160 square foot tiny house on their multigenerational homestead. Impressively, turning the shell into a full-functioning home cost them less than $10,000. However, it doesn’t include a bathroom. They opted for an outdoor shower and outhouse. After growing up this way, indoor bathrooms feel strange to Vernita.
Everything inside their off-grid shed conversion is handcrafted. Flexibility to adjust the layout, as needed or desired, was a top priority. So all their living room and kitchen can be completely rearranged. Wheeled counters make it easy. The two ladders situated in the center of the home lead to the sleeping lofts. Their opposing installation ensures that no one gets trapped, which happened in the past when they only had one!
Inside their shed conversion home & homestead:
Returning to their historic family homestead after moving away.
Vernita and Travis returned to the Navajo Reservation to seek a life filled with experiences and family instead of just working to pay the bills. A tiny house documentary inspired them to pursue a simple lifestyle on historic family land. However, Vernita points out that this isn’t an entirely new concept—many Natives live tiny and without power or running water.
“It felt like most of our time that we had was just working. We would try to keep up with bills is what what we were working for; we weren’t living. And now that we live this way, it’s like most of our money is going towards things we want to do, traveling, things we want, or things our son wants to do like events.
There was a time in our life where it was really stressful, and we did only have $10 to our name for dinner and gas and stuff. It was just nuts. And it felt like we were going to go homeless if don’t keep paying stuff. I’m glad she saw that documentary.
Now, this just feels right for us. It feels like we were groomed to live this way. It’s like a lot of weight off our shoulders right now from the way we lived before.”
-Vernita & Travis, @our.tinyhouse
“It felt like most of our time that we had was just working. We would try to keep up with bills is what what we were working for; we weren’t living. And now that we live this way, it’s like most of our money is going towards things we want to do, traveling, things we want, or things our son wants to do like events.