hey guys jenna here welcome to my channel where i take you on tours of creative spaces
and feature people living alternatively today we're traveling to central florida to take a
tour of circle pond tiny house village this village has been turning heads within the tiny
house community as one of the top new tiny house villages in the country and what if i
was to tell you that one of the reasons why this village even exists is because of a lonely turtle
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hi i'm debbie and this is circle pond tiny home community
i'm the president of a non-profit organization i was getting a lot of calls for workforce housing
affordable housing that sort of thing living in a small space can be comfortable you get
your needs met it costs less and it just kind of came together and it just was like
wow i could actually provide for people in smaller spaces that's what started the idea
i had a lot of community members look at me like i lost my mind when i said what i wanted to do
they were used to a mobile home park that was what everyone had in their mind so when
i said tiny homes on wheels it just didn't register so i purchased this tiny home
and did tiny tours for tiny donations and so that started to create some acceptance
i have not had any resistance everybody realized that it was a good idea
this started back in june of 2017 and at that time it was an old
migrant work camp mobile home park and so there were six mobile homes that were kind of melting
into the ground i came out and the gauntlet was thrown and i thought okay that's it i can do this
little pond in the center had a six foot fence all the way around it you couldn't even see the
water and there was a turtle in there this big he would come up poke his head up trying to get
air and had no place to even get up on land and i thought oh god i got to save that turtle
so yeah circle pond came because of the need for workforce housing in a turtle
each lot space is 30 by 30. when someone moves here their rent is 475 a month and that includes
water sewer garbage lawn care and electricity the property is four and a half acres and because
we only have 12 tiny homes there's a lot of open space when i first got the place it looked nothing
like it does today there was a fence all the way around the pond and everything was just really
overgrown with the help of a wonderful community landscaper give a plug freddy he's done a lot of
work here and me too we've planted 40 fruiting trees i've got olive trees and cherry trees
guava and tamarind we have probably 10 different avocados and maybe eight different mangoes there's
a variety so you might have some that fruit in july you might have some that fruit in may
so that way my goal was to be able to have free food for everybody year round when you
think about food the first green container here not really a tiny home it says the box
eco urban farm so a gentleman named dario owns that and he's growing microgreens in there and
they're delicious and healthy and organic and all that we've got 12 tiny homes when i first started
this was the only side of the pond that i was able to have homes on because the other side was
kind of rugged and until i was able to get the land cleared we didn't have those so now this
is capacity i don't have space for any more until i'm able to connect to county utilities and then
the pond we've got turtles and fish so it's a nice setting and it's quiet i mean i think it's quiet
you could probably hear a little bit of traffic there but for the most part to be as close to
city and town and arts and things like that it's a really good location
so this is the fire pit i know it's kind of casual space the residents all come out and
hang out friday night saturday night and enjoy it it's a nice community space a lot of the residents
have their own little garden spaces out if you can see in front of ashley's home they're the little
raised beds which i've purchased and then everyone is growing their own things right in front of
their doorstep which makes it easy because i've got hose bibs for everybody to be able to water
and then just beyond the fire pit i've got 16 beehives and so we have free honey and it's the
best honey you'd ever have i have a wonderful beekeeper he actually got me into the bee suit
and i got to do some of the spinning of the honey so i know how the whole process works
and then in the back that one's my tiny home i presently just pretty much use it
as an office space so if you'd like to come on inside we'll take a look
i love my tiny home i love the way it smells i feel like it's breathing with me because
of all the wood and there's no plastics or anything it just makes me happy you've got
living room a futon sofa that folds out if you want to have a place to crash
my television right now is in the shop but typically i've got the tv up on the rack
that turns so that you can actually see it in the loft or down here in the living room
table here folds down make for a little bit more space the chairs fold up as far as the
kitchen goes you know it just kind of meets all your needs with the microwave the refrigerator
and then of course we have the bathroom right nearby here and one of my favorite things
is the bathtub it's small but it sure does fit your needs and you can actually sit and soak in it
we have the propane water heater you know regular rv toilet and then up above is a queen size bed so
i mean your your basic needs can be met easily and it's comfortable
i want to encourage anyone else who might have this coming into their community
to be open-minded and to be accepting a challenge for us in this area which i imagine is probably
nationwide right now we have families who have children who are being raised up to go to school
and they're leaving because there's no workforce housing for them we're an aging population here
with no hands to do the work and no no young people to absorb the knowledge of the past
and it's just a shame so i think we all need to be accepting of accessory dwelling
units of infill of opportunity to create housing for the cnas for the teachers for
police we all play a role and we need to be nice to each other and allow each other a space
thanks for watching this week's video make sure that you check back soon
though because i have a video publishing about two sisters who have two tiny homes
parked next to each other in this community you