living small

According the 2010 census, the average American home is 2,392 square feet. However, when Ryan Wennell, DO, a physician at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Physicians Sports Medicine and Family Medicine Crooked Oak, and his wife, Sarah, were looking to purchase their first home, an unusual request topped their wish list: The smaller, the better.

In July 2018, the couple moved into a 32-foot home in Tiny Estates, in Elizabethtown. They named their home “The Lighthouse, a reminder to clear our minds and remember what means the most to us,” Wennell said. The home has full-size kitchen appliances and a claw-foot tub, as well as two lofts – an office and a bedroom. Features like storage drawers and folding tables that pull out from the wall serve to maximize space.

The Wennells plan to live in the tiny home — and use the cost savings to pay down their educational debts and save money — for about three years. “It’s all about choices,” Wennell said. “It’s honestly not as hard as you think.”

Read more about the Wennells in LG Health’s Progress Notes online.

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