I live in a tiny converted military storage building my micro house may be tight, but its helping me save big money

Tiny houses are the epitome of cute and affordable when it comes to a roof over your head.But they also come with a huge question: Can you really squeeze in there and be happy?For Jacqueline Urick, who lives in a 540-square-foot home in Sturtevant, WI, with her beloved dog, Spice, the answer is a resounding yes.“I had never stayed in a tiny home before I bought mine,” she says.

“But I have always been attracted to unique and unusual properties.”And her house is definitely one of a kind: The Quonset hut was originally built as a storage unit for the military during World War II.Today, only a handful of huts remain and have been moved to the 2800 block of 97th Street, where they were converted to residential housing.When Urick, who is head of Organic Growth at Realtor.com, first saw the two-bedroom, one-bath tiny house perched on a tenth of an acre, she was intrigued—particularly since it was priced at a mere $35,000.But she also saw that the property had been lingering on the market, run-down and in need of a lot of work.“My dad really did not want me to buy this house,” she admits.

“But as I looked at other more traditional homes in the area, I kept coming back to it.”As a person who travels frequently for work, she says “a smaller home seemed like a logical choice.I don’t need a lot of space.”So she decided to go with her gut, and in March 2023, she moved in.Urick relocated to Sturtevant from St.

Paul, MN, where she owned a 1,000-square-foot loft in Lowertown.She was relieved to discover that living in half that square footage wasn’t a difficult adjustment.

In fact, she immediately noticed some significant benefits.“The biggest advantage of living in a small space is that it’s not a lot to clean and maintain,” she says.Another huge plus? It’s easier on the wallet when it comes time to pay monthly bills.“It’s not a lot of space to heat and cool, so the utilities are very reasonable,” says Urick.Reducing her carbon f...