Daunted

I have been exploring my options for tiny housing.  I know that I should be looking at the next step, not 40 steps down the line, but the part that interests me is the building of the house, not the job to save money for the land, or the apartment to get out of my parent's house while I save the money.  There are literally thousands of decisions to make between now and when I finally finish my house, and I'll let you in on a secret.  I'm not really very good at the details.  I like big picture, and by big picture I mean, I can make a decision on the size, and the location, but siding, or roof shape, or windows just kind of give me anxiety.

I would have liked to have built my house to be 9' x 15', but due to zoning laws and the like, I would have had to have hired a contractor, or at the least had inspectors come out to make sure it was up to snuff.  While being up to snuff is not necessarily a bad thing, inspectors and contractors cost money, and my plans would have needed to be approved (not bloody likely).  So, now I'm thinking 8'x20', so I can put it on a trailer.  I like the idea of a loft, but unfortunately I don't know how to design that myself, and I haven't been able to find plans that work with my idea of what I want my house to be. 

I think maybe I've been going about this bass-ackwards.  I have actually drawn up the floor plans, and I'm deciding what furniture will go where.  Maybe this is limiting me in certain aspects.  No, I know that it's limiting me, because I know how I want things to look, and where I want things to go, but I can't find a blueprint that will accommodate that.  The biggest problem I'm running into is road clearances.  I'd like to have the bed on a loft, because it's a separate space, and I feel like I'm more likely to sleep better, and be productive if I have to climb to a loft or out of a loft in the morning.  But, I'm not sure how tall I can build it.  I don't know how I can appropriately pitch the roof, or really anything about it.  And thinking about it is giving me stress.

But, to give you all an idea of what I've been working on, here are my drawings of the floor plans.

(Ok, I have scanned in my drawings, but I accidentally scanned them in the wrong format, and I've been planning to re-scan them, but I'm lazy.  So, most of this post was actually written about a week ago.)

Another option that occurred to me today: buying a pre-existing tiny house.  There are a few in a friend's neighborhood in Olathe.  I wouldn't have to worry about zoning, and I could renovate it.  It doesn't allow me to do the whole "mini-homestead" thing, but I could do a small garden, and maybe it would be a good compromise between tiny house lifestyle and city living (or suburb living, as the case may be).