\u201cMy daughter Amy came to look after me and said to me \u2018Mum, have you ever thought of downsizing?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked, I\u2019d never thought of downsizing, I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever get old. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a few days, and I thought \u2018it\u2019s not such a bad idea\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started exploring.\u201d <\/p>\n
Molloy looked around her and realised her large house and pool needed some work and ongoing maintenance.<\/p>\n
At the time, she was also inspired by American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau\u2019s book Walden about the benefits of simple living, self-reliance and connecting to nature.<\/p>\n
She began researching. <\/p>\n
\u201cI liked the idea of a tiny home and found a local company called Ruru. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time they [owners] were living in a tiny home with four kids in Kerikeri and I went to have a look and loved the quality and design.\u201d <\/p>\n
Molloy put her house on the market and started the next step in her move to tiny living.<\/p>\n
This involved \u201ca massive decluttering\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a journey in itself … going drawer by drawer, cupboard by cupboard and room by room,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long process; it was a trip into nostalgia. <\/p>\n
\u201cFinally, I had a weekend where I invited friends to come and have a beer and take what they felt like.\u201d <\/p>\n
Molloy moved into her tiny home in March and couldn\u2019t be happier. <\/p>\n
Her new home is two storeys high, and about 10m long and 3m wide.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a spacious kitchen and living area on the ground level, which open out to a partially covered deck.<\/p>\n
Up a small set of stairs are two bedrooms; one for her and one for her guests, who are, more often than not, her granddaughters. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a happy tortoise in a shell,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Molloy has found living in a smaller space easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe breakfast nook in the kitchen is used as a studio, office and sewing room. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there\u2019s space for my granddaughters to stay.\u201d <\/p>\n
Like any new build, the process of building a tiny home was complex, Molloy said.<\/p>\n
There was the same amount of decision-making, including window placements, benchtop surfaces, plumbing, flooring and a myriad of other fixtures and fittings. <\/p>\n
Keri Molloy\u2019s tiny home may only be 30sq m but there is plenty of space inside. Photo \/ Jenny Ling<\/p>\n
But the whole thing went smoothly, even with Molloy\u2019s requests to make the odd change from the original design. <\/p>\n
Her kitchen has bifold windows opening to a rural view, there are plenty of windows and the large deck provides added space for outdoor living. <\/p>\n
Molloy loves it, yet warns \u201cyou\u2019ve got to be organised\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve rearranged things in the kitchen lots of times to get the most out of the space. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve got windows and sun on both sides of my house.\u201d <\/p>\n
Overall, living in a tiny home is a state of mind for Molloy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learned to enjoy small things; I take such joy out of enjoying breakfast on the deck in the sunshine. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a glass half-full type of person. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a problem closing one door and opening another.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy daughter Amy came to look after me and said to me \u2018Mum, have you ever thought of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[271587,271588,74,1628,8615,32130,2109,6101,1345,20915,16571,4188,107455,111,43,139,31469,69,230367,45396,5970,4499,6035,44263,780,12025],"class_list":["post-552820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-190sq","tag-30sq","tag-after","tag-artist","tag-come","tag-embraces","tag-family","tag-good","tag-home","tag-keri","tag-kerikeri","tag-living","tag-molloy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northlander","tag-nz","tag-packages","tag-proven","tag-really","tag-small","tag-things","tag-tiny","tag-trading","tag-wellknown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}