During the past several years, the tiny house craze has been sweeping the nation! With super high home prices and a recent financial crisis, millennials, especially, have been dealt a tough hand when it comes to home ownership. Amazingly, many folks have decided to turn lemons into lemonade—taking small spaces that they can afford and transforming them into their own unique havens.

During a transitional time in her life, Michelle de la Vega started to focus on her needs, and how she could create a more sustainable lifestyle for herself. The artist made the bright decision of buying a home with 2 different structures on the property— one main house and one garage. Guess which one she moved into?

These days, the main house is reserved for renters and she occupies her tiny home full-time. De la Vega tells FYI: “I rented out the main house and re-modeled the garage as this financial strategy because rental income is the best!” Her re-purposed garage is only 250 square feet, by the way!

Michelle says that it only took her about 9 months to build the interior of her new tiny home.

So the question is— does she love it? Well, she’s been living in her tiny garage home for about 8 years now, so it is definitely a place that she cherishes. “I really love living in 250 square feet. It’s a creative lifestyle.”

Michelle explains that when she set off on her quest to build a frugal and environmentally friendly home, she was completely unaware of the tiny house movement. “I just kind of had this idea (that) this is how I’m going to live. And, then after I built it, this movement just kind of started to emerge.”

This tiny home has literally all of the essentials of a normal one, including a sleeping loft, a day bed, a kitchenette, and a full-sized bathroom.

One of the coolest features of this tiny home is how creative Michelle got with the decor and storage. For instance, she repurposed an old row of lockers and uses it as a closet. This gives her space a hip industrial feel. Though there are some impressive features in Michelle’s home, the most awe-inspiring is the bathroom. This house was, of course, built with space efficiency in mind, but she chose to splurge and make this room a bit bigger. You won’t believe that she actually can fit a FULL free-standing bathtub. “It’s kind of my sanctuary in there.” Yeah— it would be ours too! Michelle even heats her tiny space with an uber-efficient wood stove. This results in something that most people can’t say they have— a cheap electrical bill!

As for the furniture and decor, Michelle explains that they barely even made a dent in her budget. “A lot of the stuff in this house is either second-hand, found somewhere, free, or made myself. I’ve been living my life as an artist a very long time, so it’s sort of an expression of my creativity.”

Watch the video below to get a full tour of this tiny house triumph!

Do you live in a tiny home? What are your experiences with downsizing? Tell us your stories in the comments section below!