Check Out This Incredible Tiny House Village Tour
Hi, we are Mark and Linda, the owners of MarLin Tiny Home Village in Bayfield, Colorado.
Today, we want to show you around our modern tiny house village and tell you how it came to be. Let’s dive in!
When we started this project, it was going to be just a mobile home, a driveway, and a well. What it looks like now is a total transformation: we are within walking distance of town, and there are restaurants, a gym, a laundromat, and even a post office.
We offer 15 lots, each of them in a different size and shape, so we can accommodate just about any size tiny home you have. We have 30 and 50 amp power availability, high-speed internet and of course water and sewer. We also provide trash and snow removal.
Here in MarLin Village, the rent for a lot is $650, which is very reasonable compared to most other lot rents in our area.
If you need a storage unit, there are two sizes available, 4*4 and 4*8. The smaller units cost $28. Instead of numbering them, we gave each a name, most inspired by mining terms.
One of the cool things that grab your attention is our village’s fencing. We rusted up corrugated metal, my wife Linda used a plasma cutter to form the mountains, and I installed it.
This fencing gives us some privacy for our neighbors and is beautiful to look at.
There is a guest tiny home right on site. It works as an Airbnb, and sometimes it hosts the residents’ family and friends, while at other times other people come stay here to see how they like the area and the village itself.
It is 12 by 36, roughly 400 square feet, and it is called the Ruby Lantern, which is also a mining term. We had a deck put around it, and it overlooks the wetlands, where there are always birds and frogs. It is so nice to sit here and enjoy that.
There is a pavilion area, which is a space for the residents to gather, talk about the day, make barbecue, whatever they want to. It overlooks our wetlands.
There are steps that lead to a nice quiet place near the river, where you can put your lawn chairs in the shade, enjoy the water and let your dogs roam.
There is also a community garden. We believe in repurposing things, so we filled some old skid steer tracks full of topsoil for anybody who wants to use them.
We also have a storage building that has wheelbarrows, shovels and spades and whatever they would feel they need for gardening.
Our vision was to have people come here, sit down, talk and share their gardening knowledge with each other.
We are trying to fit more trees in. We have a red maple, an apricot tree, an apple tree and a peach tree, as well. Once they grow, they are going to give lots of shade to whoever is around.
We bought this property in 2003, originally as an investment. The kids were grown, and we needed a new project, so we needed to decide what to do with it. We thought of condos, and that did not feel right.
Then we just happened to see a tiny home, and what struck us was the fact that this fills a niche. Houses around here are $400,000 to start, and it felt right to give people an opportunity to become homeowners even if they do not have that much money laying around. There is pride and growth in homeownership, and owning a home is just so different from renting all the time.
We saw that first tiny home in the spring of 2021, and within a month we were in Bayfield with a sketch plan. Many people had not even heard of tiny homes, so we had to explain everything, but it was really exciting because this is an opportunity for more affordable housing around Bayfield.
We had to annex into the town because we were still in the county, then we had to get an engineer and engineer all the utilities and the layout.
In November we started our meetings with the Planning Commission. Then with the Board of Trustees, who give the final stamp of approval. There is a lot of bureaucracy involved.
As the owner, you have to talk to the fire department, the county road and bridge, the power company. Still, everything went pretty smooth, and even though this process took some time, we were able to make it happen. As far as the cost, we stayed between $400,000 and $600,000 for everything we have here so far, not including the land itself that we had already bought.
Many people our age are looking to downsize, so this fits their needs. There is minimal maintenance, so they can have the time to go hiking, fishing, traveling, or whatever, and they do not have to be home to keep it up - mow the lawn, tend to the weeds, etc.
Tiny house village
This lifestyle is not for everyone, but it is perfect for some people. The village unites like-minded people with similar stories and creates a wonderful sense of community.
People can turn to each other for help, they spend their free time together sitting in the pavilion, they sing and talk, invite their friends, and it is such a pleasure to live here.
Would you live in this Colorado tiny house village? Why or why not? How did you first come to hear of tiny houses? Let us know in the comments!
Next, Here's Dorie's Experience of Downsizing to a Tiny House.
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