Family Builds A Private Tiny House Village Where Their Teen Kids Have A House Each, Shows What’s Inside
There’s no better feeling than setting foot inside your home, sweet home after a long day. Beware, the king (or the queen) of the house is back! The sofa is your throne, and your scepter—a remote control. Imagine: there’s one lucky family that runs a whole kingdom of houses with a teeny-tiny nuance.
The Brinks family owns 6 houses, each one only 160 square feet in size, that look as if Dad from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids had shrunk their home instead. It all comes down to having more room for air to breathe in privacy. Mom Keli confessed that her “husband wanted us all in one cabin” but she stood for the kids and “their own privacy.” Plus, it turns out that tiny homes produce less waste and require less heating. Where do I sign up?!
Scroll down to see what Lennox Brinks, the daughter of the tiny house village, told Bored Panda about what it’s like to live like this!
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Five years ago, the Brinks made a $57,000 purchase of a 21-acre property in Kentucky and turned it into the sustainable tiny house village.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
4 family members share 6 tiny houses in total—the parents’ house, two separate houses for Lennox and Brodey, a double bathroom house, a pool house, and a guest house.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
The parents’ house is not only the most expensive in the property, coming in at $9,000, but also the most spacious at 280 square feet.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Bored Panda spoke to Lennox Brinks, the girl who lives in this tiny village, about what it’s like to be part of an alternative lifestyle. “It’s absolutely amazing. I love living in a tiny house and am so glad my parents decided to move us into this arrangement. I lived in a regular house for the first 14 years of my life, but now that I have a taste of a tiny house, I love it. I think I’m going to have a regular house when I first go out into the world, but maybe when my kids grow up, I would come back to this type of living.”
“I love having my own space and being able to customize my house to my liking. Not to mention, if I stay up late at night or have friends over, I don’t have to worry about being quiet because my parents are across the yard. I think this arrangement has helped me become independent and has helped me ease into the college atmosphere because I am used to having my own space.”
Living with less is both cheap and friendly to the environment
The most important advantage is that “we live more sustainably now in this system. We use much less energy, because when a house is not being used, there doesn’t need to be any heating or air conditioning used. Our electricity bill since moving has gone down drastically. We have a garden and produce a lot of the food we eat from our own hands, and we also compost almost all of our food, recycle, and produce much less waste. This was the most important aspect of this arrangement to my mom and was one of the reasons we decided to live with less.”
Bugs and critters are the only thing Lennox doesn’t like that much
“Because our homes are separated, bugs fly or crawl in with much easier access than in a regular house. Nobody else in my family minds, but I’m scared of the creepy crawly things. Because we have animals and live in the middle of the woods, they drag little rodents in sometimes, but that’s not that bad. When I first moved, it was pretty scary to be in a house by myself in the dense wood of outside, but I’ve gotten used to that.”
And what about that bathroom, which is placed outside? In fact, it’s pretty convenient! “One disadvantage that everyone thinks of is the fact that the bathroom is separate from my house, so if I need to go in the middle of the night, I have to go outside. When I tell people this, they think it’s worse than it is, when in reality, it takes me like five seconds to run over there.”
The living room feels cozy and has plenty of natural light.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
The kitchen is well-equipped with plenty of shelf room for kitchen appliances.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
You wouldn’t expect a full-sized bathtub in a miniature house!
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Bored Panda also talked to Stephanie McQueen, the content manager of the Tiny House Community resource center, about the pros and cons of living in a tiny house. “The pros of living tiny are the benefits of your environment, which is to say that most people that live in tiny houses spend more time outdoors. This naturally increases overall health and happiness when you’re in nature and absorbing vitamin D on a regular basis. The cons of living tiny can be the lack of indoor entertainment space and the legality of parking tiny houses on wheels (or even building one on a foundation). Having family or friends over for holidays or dinner parties probably aren’t the most comfortable, especially if you live in climates where outdoor entertainment is not a viable option during the winter months. While we’re all still working on local zoning laws with our governments, tiny houses are still a gray area and some cities refuse to allow them.”
Is a tiny house better for the environment than a regular house? “Tiny houses are a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, intentionally live, improve health, and increase income. While it is a very eco-friendly way to live compared to a standard house, it also offers huge benefits in other aspects as well. Many houses use a fraction of energy compared to average homes, plus many are setup for solar power.”
Stephanie suggests starting from your current home. “Taking the plunge into tiny living isn’t for everyone. If you’re considering it, start by working on your current home. A tiny lifestyle can be achieved by anyone, no matter the size of your house. Get rid of excess things, reduce the amount of space you use in your house, learn to be intentional when shopping, and start the mindset shift. It may sound complicated, but it’s really not. If tiny living is for you, these transitions will be smooth and logical. The next step is learning how to get into a tiny house. At Tiny House Community, we offer guides and tips for beginners wanting to build their own tiny house.”
Lennox’s and Brodey’s tiny houses don’t have bathrooms, so the kids need to step outside and use one of these two bathrooms.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Can I be your guest in this cozy guest bedroom, please?
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
The Brinks love taking a dip in a private pool house which measures 180 square feet.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
This lounge area is perfect for family gatherings and game nights.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Brodey is the proud owner of his own tiny house with a king-size bed upstairs, a couch, and a TV.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Lennox’s house has a barn-type door.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Lennox’s tiny house has everything a ‘normal’ house has—from a dresser to a full size bed upstairs.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Playstation, anyone?
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
This 64-square-foot building is the family’s private office, which mom Keli and her husband can use to work from home.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
“It seems much worse than it is. I just put a coat on if it’s cold or raining. I’ll just bundle up and run over there,” said Lennox about the bathroom, which is outside.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
A private barn is the cherry on top of the family’s sustainable lifestyle.
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
Fresh air, outdoor exercise, and s’mores roasted over the firepit are always just a step away!
Image credits: LennoxBrinks
What do others think about this alternative concept of living?
How is this sustainable? 6 small inefficient heating/cooling systems instead of an efficient bigger system.
I was just thinking the same. These houses seem really flimsy and ramshackle, too, and with a lot more exposed walls they're probably wasting a great amount of heat.
Load More Replies...So basically a really big house without the advantage of the effects of shared walls on insulation.
Compared to one big house the ratio of living space to outside wall surface is terrible. Heating during harsh winter days must be very expensive.
Load More Replies...The parents ' living room looks anything but comfortable. Is there a communal dining space? It all looks isolating and lonely to me.
I believe the common communal area is the pool house/lounge.
Load More Replies...I think it's ok. The kids aren't 10 years old. They probably still socialize with each other and eat meals together and have family time. This is no different than kids having their own rooms. Just spaced out a little. I would need my bathroom closer, though. aNd when they get older they can pay rent and still be nearby. Maybe.
I like this. Must be great having that own space. Don't get why it triggered so many people.
I think because the article claims that their tiny homes are sustainable and require less heating, but that's not true when you're replacing one house with 6 tiny houses - 6 tiny houses require more building materials and require more energy to heat/cool than a single home that's the same size (or 2X larger) than the total size of the 6 tiny houses.
Load More Replies...Does the dog have a special house to itself, or does it get to crash wherever it wants?
No way, that has to be so annoying when it's cold. It's also kind of creepy, but I have a mistrustful nature. Like I wouldn't want people to know the children stay in their own separate homes. Sure they are teenagers but it's just not knowledge I'd want to share with the entire world. Maybe I read too much true crime.
Awesome! The kids get a sense of freedom and responsibility without being far away!
I think it's a great idea to prepare kids for living/responsibilities after they move out or go to college. They will already know how to maintain their own space.
The house is so small that it's essentially a bedroom (the kitchen is in the main house, bathrooms are in an outhouse, etc). I don't think it teaches any more responsibility than each child having their own bedroom.
Load More Replies...My husband and I have wanted to buy land and do something like this for years. Our children are adults and married or in a long term relationship. We want to build our house to be small, not tiny at least 800 sq ft. For the kids houses we want to make sure they have bathrooms and everything they'd need. We look at is as they can come and visit us but no one has to feel uncomfortable or under foot. Also, they're not "obligated" to spend every second with us if they don't want to. Everyone gets their privacy. We've planned for 4 houses total. The main house, the kids houses and an extra guest house. We've thought about a communal dining area too.
I don't see anything "sustainable" about this. It's all the rooms of a normal house, but inconviently spread across a yard. Plus, I don't see a dinning room. Where do they eat? The livingroom is too small to hold everyone all at once too. How do they spend time together as a family? This seems cold and isolating to me.
My family of 7 has traveled in an rv fulltime for over 5 years now! We went from a huge 2 story house with 4.5 bathrooms to a 38 foot TV with 1 bathroom and it was the best decision ever.
Go outside in the middle of the night to use the restroom? That's a 'no' from me.
They said that, it turns out that tiny homes produce less waste and require less heating. So that should answer everyone's questions and statement below in other comments. I just don't know why they didn't add bathrooms to the kids houses instead of two separate detached bathroom or put them between the boys houses. just weird. But I've been talking about doing this for years so when the kids come to visit. And a big common area with an outdoor kitchen to gather. why are some saying these tiny homes are flimsy and ramshackle with more walls exposed, and wasting heat, these tiny home have drywall, insulation, many different kinds of heating and cooling can be used. they appear to have electricity and water, you can see their lamps, tv. I think its great...
You can make tiny houses well-insulated and create sustainable ways of heating/cooling them. There's a young woman with a YouTube channel called Fy Nyth (the name of her house) who lives in the mountains of Wyoming in her tiny house and it is totally sustainable and warm even in the coldest winters. I've watched dozens of vids about tiny homes, and they can be quite comfortable and store a lot. What I DON'T get about this one is, why make the kids have to go to another building for the bathroom? They could totally have built bathrooms into their rooms. But otherwise, this is a pretty neat concept. If you have good, responsible nearly-adult kids, no reason not to do it.
Plumbing is expensive, not only to build it into each tinyhouse, but also do trench the waste lines to the septic or sewer system, and may have required more permits/inspections. So they probably offered it as a tradeoff to the kids - you can have your own cabin, but you've gotta go outside to reach the bathroom.
Load More Replies...This is cute! But people who have the most upvotes make some valid points about it's shortcomings
Seems alright.... except for when you have go to the bathroom in the middle of the night you run the risk of running into bears or wolves.
So 6 homes each with exterior walls that need to be insulated and independant window AC units? Super sustainable.
We live as they do in a similar climate in Missouri. I cannot speak for them but we have used industrial insulation in some buildings and spray foam in others. Solar for electric and fallen trees used for firewood. They didn't say but we use a dry sink and a composting toilet. For us it is very efficient and we are good when people in town loose power even in snow storms.
I don't know what the actual sq footage and combined materials come to, but wouldn't it be more effective and nurturing to the family dynamic to just have ONE NORMAL HOUSE?
I would need at least a large family room to share meals and some fun together besides a fire pit.
All the negative comments really show that a lot of people seem to have problems with alternative life styles. The prejudice is really overwhelming. Why shouldn't a 16 year old kid be able to run his own household? Who said he doesn't have enough interaction with his parents and siblings? It's another typical case of : "That's not how I would raise my kids, so it must be so wrong ."
On a t.v. program years ago in Europe, it is a great idea if it works, some people couldn't be comfortable in tiny spaces, me for example, interesting comments about more cost to heat, if walls were not insulated enough, some I had seen with incredible ideas that multiply storage, difficult to describe, very important as I see it , also much would depend on the location for climate, and weather, here in N-west Canada, no way !!!
Kinda neat, I like being alone, so something like this would have been cool to have growing up.
Kids need supervision. Kids need human contact at all times, especially in this day and age. They are not yet adults and desperately need to learn how to have healthy, appropriate adult relationships, conversations and interactions. To do that they need to see those modeled by watching and listening to the adults in their lives... this includes home life and school life, and work life. Living a camp like set up will not properly set them up for learning how to appreciate certain boundaries we should all learn from sharing personal space.
How are parents appropriately supervising their children when they can't hear/see them alone in their cabins, over 50 feet away, at night?
Load More Replies...It's 2020 and ppl still refuse to understand that ,what may seem wrong (bad) to them,for others is not like that! We are different on so many levels and we need to understand and accept others that are different than us, than jumping on conclusions,judging and/or talking bad about them just bcs we dont think the same way.Beeing different doesnt make you bad!
It would have been cheaper to build and maintain a small regular house for the whole family with as much outdoor space as they liked. This seems impractical and dividing.
This is brilliant! It's "Camp" all year round! I would love to do this, but I'd add two more tiny bedroom-houses (four kids), a big dining hall and kitchen (four kids, plus want to have friends in) and another guest house. Maybe one more bathroom house. I might put it all a tiny bit closer together, too, for those cold winter night trips to the toilet!! :o But sure! Kids go to camp by age 8, so why not! If they have no one to blame for their mess but themselves, and they have to either live in their clutter or clean it up, that might make a difference! I'd keep the super-young kids in with the parents, but sure, age 8 or above? Why not! If you can survive at camp and be responsible for your space, you can have your "own" tiny house. It teaches responsibility and cooperation. After all, when you go for meals, that's not "your" space, so you have to help keep it clean as a team. <3
This is the way some African villages operate (although it's a big place and I forget exactly where). Each child has their own tiny hut in a circle, and they get together at one of the bigger huts at meal times. In one variation I read about, all the sons live together in one hut and the son's wives got their own hut in the circle. They would take it in turns to host a meal.
I think this is totally great, step outta your comfort zones and live a little different however I am a bit stunned and puzzled why you would make the kids step outside to use the bathroom...it MUST have been a city/county, money, zoning issue cuz I'm SURE it wasn't intentional.Besides all that I think it teaches the kids independence and prepares them for living on their own - great head start - kudos to you parents!! Pay no mind to the other negative comments!!
This makes no sense. First..if you're going to let them live on their own, at least give them their own bathrooms. Second...it's not really living on their own since the only house with plumbing or a kitchen is the parent's house. You've basically stuck the kids in their own sheds. Way to parent. Maybe this was less about giving their kids an ability to live on their own and more about the parents not wanting to..well..be parents.
How Much Do These Cost? it may be cheaper than an apt ~ I'd love for my grown kids to have one of these!!
If you've got the land, they are very inexpensive, since these have no bathrooms (so no plumbing to deal with) you could probably build one for under $25K
Load More Replies...This is the kind of thing I would do if I lived in the right area and had the cash, very cool.
This ist awesome! And the kids are learning keeping an own household already.
RIDICULOUS!!! So much for family bonding. What a horrible, twisted idea. These parents should be ashamed of themselves. They think they’re being cute, but they’re not.
I think it would make the kids stay in their own houses more, and not being with the rest of the family.
So affordable... I am still paying for my apartment loan which i dont see the balance moved down.
How is this sustainable? 6 small inefficient heating/cooling systems instead of an efficient bigger system.
I was just thinking the same. These houses seem really flimsy and ramshackle, too, and with a lot more exposed walls they're probably wasting a great amount of heat.
Load More Replies...So basically a really big house without the advantage of the effects of shared walls on insulation.
Compared to one big house the ratio of living space to outside wall surface is terrible. Heating during harsh winter days must be very expensive.
Load More Replies...The parents ' living room looks anything but comfortable. Is there a communal dining space? It all looks isolating and lonely to me.
I believe the common communal area is the pool house/lounge.
Load More Replies...I think it's ok. The kids aren't 10 years old. They probably still socialize with each other and eat meals together and have family time. This is no different than kids having their own rooms. Just spaced out a little. I would need my bathroom closer, though. aNd when they get older they can pay rent and still be nearby. Maybe.
I like this. Must be great having that own space. Don't get why it triggered so many people.
I think because the article claims that their tiny homes are sustainable and require less heating, but that's not true when you're replacing one house with 6 tiny houses - 6 tiny houses require more building materials and require more energy to heat/cool than a single home that's the same size (or 2X larger) than the total size of the 6 tiny houses.
Load More Replies...Does the dog have a special house to itself, or does it get to crash wherever it wants?
No way, that has to be so annoying when it's cold. It's also kind of creepy, but I have a mistrustful nature. Like I wouldn't want people to know the children stay in their own separate homes. Sure they are teenagers but it's just not knowledge I'd want to share with the entire world. Maybe I read too much true crime.
Awesome! The kids get a sense of freedom and responsibility without being far away!
I think it's a great idea to prepare kids for living/responsibilities after they move out or go to college. They will already know how to maintain their own space.
The house is so small that it's essentially a bedroom (the kitchen is in the main house, bathrooms are in an outhouse, etc). I don't think it teaches any more responsibility than each child having their own bedroom.
Load More Replies...My husband and I have wanted to buy land and do something like this for years. Our children are adults and married or in a long term relationship. We want to build our house to be small, not tiny at least 800 sq ft. For the kids houses we want to make sure they have bathrooms and everything they'd need. We look at is as they can come and visit us but no one has to feel uncomfortable or under foot. Also, they're not "obligated" to spend every second with us if they don't want to. Everyone gets their privacy. We've planned for 4 houses total. The main house, the kids houses and an extra guest house. We've thought about a communal dining area too.
I don't see anything "sustainable" about this. It's all the rooms of a normal house, but inconviently spread across a yard. Plus, I don't see a dinning room. Where do they eat? The livingroom is too small to hold everyone all at once too. How do they spend time together as a family? This seems cold and isolating to me.
My family of 7 has traveled in an rv fulltime for over 5 years now! We went from a huge 2 story house with 4.5 bathrooms to a 38 foot TV with 1 bathroom and it was the best decision ever.
Go outside in the middle of the night to use the restroom? That's a 'no' from me.
They said that, it turns out that tiny homes produce less waste and require less heating. So that should answer everyone's questions and statement below in other comments. I just don't know why they didn't add bathrooms to the kids houses instead of two separate detached bathroom or put them between the boys houses. just weird. But I've been talking about doing this for years so when the kids come to visit. And a big common area with an outdoor kitchen to gather. why are some saying these tiny homes are flimsy and ramshackle with more walls exposed, and wasting heat, these tiny home have drywall, insulation, many different kinds of heating and cooling can be used. they appear to have electricity and water, you can see their lamps, tv. I think its great...
You can make tiny houses well-insulated and create sustainable ways of heating/cooling them. There's a young woman with a YouTube channel called Fy Nyth (the name of her house) who lives in the mountains of Wyoming in her tiny house and it is totally sustainable and warm even in the coldest winters. I've watched dozens of vids about tiny homes, and they can be quite comfortable and store a lot. What I DON'T get about this one is, why make the kids have to go to another building for the bathroom? They could totally have built bathrooms into their rooms. But otherwise, this is a pretty neat concept. If you have good, responsible nearly-adult kids, no reason not to do it.
Plumbing is expensive, not only to build it into each tinyhouse, but also do trench the waste lines to the septic or sewer system, and may have required more permits/inspections. So they probably offered it as a tradeoff to the kids - you can have your own cabin, but you've gotta go outside to reach the bathroom.
Load More Replies...This is cute! But people who have the most upvotes make some valid points about it's shortcomings
Seems alright.... except for when you have go to the bathroom in the middle of the night you run the risk of running into bears or wolves.
So 6 homes each with exterior walls that need to be insulated and independant window AC units? Super sustainable.
We live as they do in a similar climate in Missouri. I cannot speak for them but we have used industrial insulation in some buildings and spray foam in others. Solar for electric and fallen trees used for firewood. They didn't say but we use a dry sink and a composting toilet. For us it is very efficient and we are good when people in town loose power even in snow storms.
I don't know what the actual sq footage and combined materials come to, but wouldn't it be more effective and nurturing to the family dynamic to just have ONE NORMAL HOUSE?
I would need at least a large family room to share meals and some fun together besides a fire pit.
All the negative comments really show that a lot of people seem to have problems with alternative life styles. The prejudice is really overwhelming. Why shouldn't a 16 year old kid be able to run his own household? Who said he doesn't have enough interaction with his parents and siblings? It's another typical case of : "That's not how I would raise my kids, so it must be so wrong ."
On a t.v. program years ago in Europe, it is a great idea if it works, some people couldn't be comfortable in tiny spaces, me for example, interesting comments about more cost to heat, if walls were not insulated enough, some I had seen with incredible ideas that multiply storage, difficult to describe, very important as I see it , also much would depend on the location for climate, and weather, here in N-west Canada, no way !!!
Kinda neat, I like being alone, so something like this would have been cool to have growing up.
Kids need supervision. Kids need human contact at all times, especially in this day and age. They are not yet adults and desperately need to learn how to have healthy, appropriate adult relationships, conversations and interactions. To do that they need to see those modeled by watching and listening to the adults in their lives... this includes home life and school life, and work life. Living a camp like set up will not properly set them up for learning how to appreciate certain boundaries we should all learn from sharing personal space.
How are parents appropriately supervising their children when they can't hear/see them alone in their cabins, over 50 feet away, at night?
Load More Replies...It's 2020 and ppl still refuse to understand that ,what may seem wrong (bad) to them,for others is not like that! We are different on so many levels and we need to understand and accept others that are different than us, than jumping on conclusions,judging and/or talking bad about them just bcs we dont think the same way.Beeing different doesnt make you bad!
It would have been cheaper to build and maintain a small regular house for the whole family with as much outdoor space as they liked. This seems impractical and dividing.
This is brilliant! It's "Camp" all year round! I would love to do this, but I'd add two more tiny bedroom-houses (four kids), a big dining hall and kitchen (four kids, plus want to have friends in) and another guest house. Maybe one more bathroom house. I might put it all a tiny bit closer together, too, for those cold winter night trips to the toilet!! :o But sure! Kids go to camp by age 8, so why not! If they have no one to blame for their mess but themselves, and they have to either live in their clutter or clean it up, that might make a difference! I'd keep the super-young kids in with the parents, but sure, age 8 or above? Why not! If you can survive at camp and be responsible for your space, you can have your "own" tiny house. It teaches responsibility and cooperation. After all, when you go for meals, that's not "your" space, so you have to help keep it clean as a team. <3
This is the way some African villages operate (although it's a big place and I forget exactly where). Each child has their own tiny hut in a circle, and they get together at one of the bigger huts at meal times. In one variation I read about, all the sons live together in one hut and the son's wives got their own hut in the circle. They would take it in turns to host a meal.
I think this is totally great, step outta your comfort zones and live a little different however I am a bit stunned and puzzled why you would make the kids step outside to use the bathroom...it MUST have been a city/county, money, zoning issue cuz I'm SURE it wasn't intentional.Besides all that I think it teaches the kids independence and prepares them for living on their own - great head start - kudos to you parents!! Pay no mind to the other negative comments!!
This makes no sense. First..if you're going to let them live on their own, at least give them their own bathrooms. Second...it's not really living on their own since the only house with plumbing or a kitchen is the parent's house. You've basically stuck the kids in their own sheds. Way to parent. Maybe this was less about giving their kids an ability to live on their own and more about the parents not wanting to..well..be parents.
How Much Do These Cost? it may be cheaper than an apt ~ I'd love for my grown kids to have one of these!!
If you've got the land, they are very inexpensive, since these have no bathrooms (so no plumbing to deal with) you could probably build one for under $25K
Load More Replies...This is the kind of thing I would do if I lived in the right area and had the cash, very cool.
This ist awesome! And the kids are learning keeping an own household already.
RIDICULOUS!!! So much for family bonding. What a horrible, twisted idea. These parents should be ashamed of themselves. They think they’re being cute, but they’re not.
I think it would make the kids stay in their own houses more, and not being with the rest of the family.
So affordable... I am still paying for my apartment loan which i dont see the balance moved down.
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