Hi, my name is Kelley Lewis, affectionately known as The Cabin Chick and at 29 I was
a single mom with three children.
I built a tiny house and along the way created a blueprint for others and started
a movement.
So before I started building my tiny house, back in 2008, I went from making $10 an
hour working at the bank to a home daycare provider and then, in 2014, I actually
franchised the concept. That's allowed me to have a higher income, more flexibility
with time and more available resources to seek adventure with my kids.
I think that it's really important
to empower women to make money.
As I got older, I understood that there's ways to have money work for you because
you can only work so many hours.
Just having that peace of mind of having income gave a lot more joy and less stress
to my life.
And when I started Cabin Chick, I was a newly single mom with three children
now
going through a divorce.
I wanted to do something that I could just pour myself into.
There was an opportunity to buy this piece of land on a Lake. Because I had a mortgage
on my normal house
I couldn't just like go get a conventional loan.
So, I actually reached out to the developer and we came up with our own agreement
where I pay him directly. For me, I wanted to own that land. Real estate,
I found really interesting and really powerful to have that money work for you.
I called the city to see, you know, what are my limitations? I could build up
to 200 square feet.
So my cabin's actually 192 square feet with a loft, and it's right on the water.
I remember my tax return was just around $5,000 that year, and that is what I used
to start building my tiny house.
I would say all in, I'm talking about finishings, electric, generator, wood trim,
betting, like even furnishing it,
I'm about $30,000 in.
There was no mortgage. There's not any debt associated with it, and I did all
with cash over a span of five, six years. I would spend tax returns or just putting
$500 a month into it throughout the time
and then having friends help, too. When my kids are with their dad,
then I would work on the tiny house.
The Lake that I built the tiny house on,
my mom actually also lived on it. So, sometimes they could just go down the
street and hang out with my mom. What I took away most personally was empowerment.
I jumped into something not knowing how I was going to even do it, but
I empowered myself to just have the confidence that, you know what, I'll
figure it out.
I wanted to give back to the community that had gotten me to that point.
I met with an architect and, you know, residential engineer to actually put plans
together that I could sell, and I, to this day, still sell those plans.
I've really
been putting more time into my YouTube channel.
The older I've gotten, the more open I've become and the more I understand how
difficult it is to provide for your family as a mom. Because I had kids at a young
age, I had to figure a lot of stuff out very quickly.
I understood that
whether you're an employee or self-employed, you can only work so much.
My family is really into investing and so as I got older, I tried to find other ways
to invest.
There's so many things you can do with $1,000, $5,000 or even $10,000. I feel like I
get more done now than I ever did when I didn't have kids.
I don't use motherhood as an excuse.
You have time to make time
because you only get one chance at it all.
You don't need $1 million or even $1,000 to seek adventure.
It comes down to just connecting with your kids.
Real estate has probably helped me out financially the most.
That's one of the reasons I wanted to buy the land that I built my tiny house on
because I knew the value of owning something versus renting something, and I
want to continue to figure out ways to use real estate in my advantage.
I was always taught to save 10%. Try and save as much as you possibly can
because you're just taking care of your future self.
I just don't think there's that many vehicles out there that give women a
platform to talk about those things.
If helping someone else build a house impacts their life to give freedom in some
shape or form to them and their families, then that's what this whole thing is
about.
It's about being a part of a community and making a difference.
When you build something yourself
it's not just the end result.
It's this whole journey and that's really what I will always take away from our
little tiny house.