Between the rental fee and my mortgage, I pay about $2,000 a month to live here \u2014 an especially good deal if you consider just how expensive LA can be<\/a>.<\/p>\n Houses in my neighborhood regularly sell for upward of a million dollars, and it’s almost impossible to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the area for under $2,000 a month \u2014 and forget about getting one with perks like in-unit laundry or a dishwasher.<\/p>\n My home now is also far nicer and better-equipped than anything I could afford to rent in the area. I have two parking spaces, a fenced-in yard, in-unit laundry, and a dishwasher.<\/p>\n Although my home isn’t perfect, it’s comfortable and works with my budget.<\/p>\n I don’t have much space, but I make the most of it \u2014 especially my yard<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m so thankful to have my home for several reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Laureta<\/p>\n One of the best parts of my home is the private outdoor space, an incredible feat in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n By adding camping chairs with cupholders and a projector, my tiny backyard has become an especially great spot for the monthly outdoor movie nights I host with friends.<\/p>\n We drink wine, share snacks, and watch a Hallmark movie<\/a> on the large pull-down screen that’s mounted to the side of my house.<\/p>\n I love hosting friends and spending time outdoors in my own little space.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Laureta<\/p>\n My home’s only real drawback is the limited storage: I have just two closets and a crawl space.<\/p>\n One closet contains most of my clothes, and the other has to hold, well, everything else: bedding for my guest bed, board games, offseason clothes, cat carriers, suitcases, craft supplies, holiday decorations, a Bissell, and much more.<\/p>\n I store my shoes, clothes, and other essentials in a variety of ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Laureta<\/p>\n The crawl space under my house isn’t big, but it does at least provide a home for my Christmas tree for the nine or 10 months of the year I don’t have it up. (Listen, if you lived alone and put up and took down your tree solo, you’d leave it up for at least two months, too.)<\/p>\n Since storage is lacking, I’ve tried hard to make the most of the dead space in my home with shelves, cabinets, and furniture that can pull double duty.<\/p>\n I’ve decorated my house with a lot of fun colors and patterns.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Laureta<\/p>\n The hallway to my bedroom has my washer and dryer, plus a wall-mounted unit to hold my shoes. Another hallway has a nine-cube storage unit, where I keep a lot of household necessities<\/a> like tools, extra chargers, and lightbulbs.<\/p>\n I’ve gotten creative with different storage solutions and designs in my space.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Laureta<\/p>\n Since my guest bedroom also functions as my office and gym, I’ve gotten creative to make the space work.<\/p>\n I have a special queen bed that folds into a cabinet and a rowing machine that can be mounted on the wall when not in use. My table can collapse to be just a few inches wide and rolled right out of the room to make space.<\/p>\n It can be a pain to rearrange everything in the room for overnight guests, but it’s worth it to have a comfortable spot to host friends and family<\/a>. Guests get their own full bathroom to use during their visits, too.<\/p>\n Honestly, living with minimal storage <\/a>doesn’t feel so bad when I remember my mortgage payment is less than $900 a month.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, I love my home and am grateful to live in it<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m so incredibly grateful to have been able to purchase this home for $140,000 at the end of 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Laureta<\/p>\n My storage troubles and limited space also don’t seem like such a big deal when I look at my neighborhood and remember what I paid for my home.<\/p>\n For reference, an adorable 830-square-foot bungalow around the corner from me recently sold for $920,000. It’s not much bigger than my place, and it only has one bedroom and one bathroom.<\/p>\n Sure, the resale value of that house is likely going to increase and mine probably won’t \u2014 mobile homes<\/a> tend to lose value over time \u2014but I can’t imagine shelling out close to a million dollars for a few extra square feet and much higher property taxes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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