‘Tiny’ isn’t about the price tag

RALEIGH, North Carolina — Has a binge watching session of HGTV’s Tiny House, Big Living got you daydreaming about a massive downsize? Imagining a life in which your home has wheels? If you’re tempted to go small, here are a few misconceptions clarified:

• Tiny does not mean cheap These petite homes can be as fancy as you wish. That means the price tag can bring a little sticker shock. Jeff and Carol Marlow, owners of Free Spirit Tiny Homes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, splurged on several luxuries in their model tiny house.

Jeff Marlow insisted on a hot shower whenever he wished; a tankless water heater cost $2,000.

Final price on Marlow’s 199-square-foot tiny home: $55,000 US.

• Not willing to climb a ladder to bed?

Many of the modern models offer beds or bedrooms on the ground level — a true comfort to potential buyers such as Janene Shackleford of Durham, North Carolina. Shackleford imagines aging in a tiny home, but worries that as her bones and muscles age, too, the ladder will prove daunting.

“No ladder, no way,” she says of homes with loft beds.

Think of a tiny home as a Lego board. You build what you want.

• Mom’s dining room table won’t fit Tiny homes are, well, tiny. That means that you aren’t going to simply move from your suburban “McMansion” into a tiny home without doing a lot of purging.

Most people equip their tiny homes with brand-new tiny things, Matthews said.

As the market grows, so are the vendors catering to the tiny market.

• Go ahead, splurge Unwilling to make do without a full-size refrigerator? No problem. Need a shower you can sit down in, go for it.

Just as tiny doesn’t mean cheap, it also does not mean roughing it. Carol Marlow insisted on this luxury in her tiny house: a double-sided deep-basin kitchen sink.