Karl and Hari Berzins came to Floyd after their restaurant in Orlando, Florida went bust in the recession and they decided that downsizing and living smaller was better in surviving life.
Determined to live within their means, they bought three wooded acres and built their own eight by twelve house with 336 square feet and moved into it with their two children in May 2001.
“The economy made us do it,” they say but now they can’t imagine going back to living large.
Hari wrote an e-book about living small and Ladies Home Journal saw it and featured the Berizens as one of three couples in an article: The Joys of Living Small: 3 Families Share Their Tiny Houses.
On Monday, they appeared on The Today Show to talk about living small but also revealed Karl, who build the first home, is working on a new one — with 1,400 square feet, a master bedroom and separate bedrooms for the son and daughter.
3 thoughts on “The joys of living small”
Living small? We need an addition the size of Shea Stadium for Preston and Cooper. Maybe something they could drive to…
Hey Doug, when I first moved to my 10 acres here in Meadows of Dan back in 2007, I had one of those little barns set up like everyone has in their back yard. Mine was 10×20. I arrived Oct 14 and stayed in it until the completion of my 975 sq ft house on April 14, 2008. I insulated it, built a loft and had a full size mattress and had a tiny wood stove from a sailboat that took 12 inch wood. Everybody thought I was nuts but it was a very special time for me. All of my “stuff” was in storage and I had a few pieces of necessary furniture. Table and 2 chairs, my grandmother’ such air and ottoman and I built a Martha Stewart to die for kitchen in the back corner. I had no electric until my temporary power came the first week of Jan. My Dad had built a little outhouse over the pipe for the septic field and it was about 75 ft from the building. I used Alladin lanterns for light. I can tell you that I was never cold except in the mornings ( the coldest I woke up to was 25 inside!) many evening while sitting and reading I thought what a nice setup I had compared to so many others in the world. It was a vey special time that I cherish. We get too hung up on all of the stuff we drag around with us! Hey Rob I will rent it to you cheap for your guys and you can come visit anytime you want. It has been unfortunately used for storage but I am getting all of that “stuff” out and turning it into a cute little guest house this summer.
That would work for me if I could figure out where to put all of my books. 🙂
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