Considering the small/tiny house route in the desert

[Savoir Faire]

Hello everyone....

I've been into simple living for awhile now....but I had a period or two where I let things get away. (Basically, we moved out of state for a job and got more $$. My idea?? Let's get a big house!)

Luckily, our big house (2200 sq feet) is a rental. I've come to the conclusion that while I REALLY LIKE our house (nice blinds, tile, kitchen, etc.) I do not like having a big, huge house. Three toilets with hard water? Upstairs carpet? Ugg. A pain!

We live in AZ and I'm not thrilled with how the market is here--  house prices are not steady and there's tons of foreclosures. Besides.... I do not need another McMansion and a McMortgage.

We just got another pay raise and instead of increasing our lifestyle to match...I want to reduce it! I'd love to save an extra $1k a month so that we can do fun things such as visit my SIL in Europe, go on vacations or just save for retirement/college.

I've looked at a variety of small houses online (I'm hoping to find a bit of land under $25k-- land isn't cheap here!) and get a 3-bed small house (we've got a boy and girl and I'm thinking puberty around the corner). Only problem is that most of the houses I'm seeing aren't adobe.

Anyone know how necessary adobe is for the desert? Everyone here (think 112 degree summers) has adobe...so maybe it is a must?

Also...if anyone has gone the small/tiny house route, do you know the length of time needed for the process??

[lookatreestar]

i dunno where you are in az, so not sure about the adobe style housing. but is say go for it! we got a pay raise and downsized and it rocks. the kids don't care and we save so much every month for vacations, retirement etc!@