COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — When it comes to buying or building houses, not everyone is thinking big. In fact, some people are thinking very small.

“I used to pay $1,000 a month in rent and I worked as a waitress,” said Elizabeth Patterson, a tiny home owner. “I would count all my cash out and then just drop it in an envelope and it would go away and I just decided I couldn’t take rent anymore.”

So Patterson took a job at Tumbleweed Tiny House and decided she would build her own tiny house from scratch.

“It took me 6 months to gather up all my supplies,” she said. “I found a trailer on Craigslist and then I just started building down here.”

Tumbleweed Tiny House is the largest manufacturer of tiny homes in the country, producing roughly 125 homes per year. The company creates four models of homes ranging in length from 18 to 26 feet and 170 to roughly 230 square feet.

Nearly every home is custom built and can range in price from $61,000 to over $100,000. All of the tiny houses produced by Tumbleweed are also RV-certified, meaning you can enjoy them anywhere without any trouble.

“You can live in this bad boy 24/7/365 (days per year) or if you’re just choosing to be part-time or recreate in it — same options,” said Justin Hall, the human relations manager at Tumbleweed. “You’re not restricted to spring summer or early fall.”

Finances and freedom are two of the biggest reasons behind why the trend is growing.

“I don’t want to be ruled by money anymore,” said Patterson. “I want to be able to go wherever I want to go and be able to go out at night and not worry about having to pay my rent anymore.”

“You hitch up your Tumbleweed to your vehicle and take it to the next city that you maybe want to live in for a couple months, a couple weeks, a couple years,” said Hall.

The company says part of the mentality is going with less space, you go for more quality and that can apply to either aesthetics or life.

“By downsizing, what am I giving up?” said Hall. “For me, it’s going well… space in the sense of where you’re living but not in the comforts of what you’re expecting.”

“I think a lot of people are really into the big houses – the American dream – and it is kind of weird to say that I don’t want any of those things,” said Patterson. “That I want to live in a 96-square-foot house — it’s different for people.”

For those that are interested in trying out one of the houses, the company does rent out the homes by night at Garden of the Gods RV Resort.