Architect Sarah Deeds used to live alone with her cat in a 700 square foot attic floor apartment. To create a guest room in her one bedroom space, she built a bookshelf ladder up to a loft (She’s not a carpenter, but she’s spent years learning to build her own furniture and tinkering on her home).

Then her boyfriend, carpenter John McBride moved in with his dog. To create a home office (for her) and a practice space (for his beginning cello), they built a 120-square-foot backyard studio from salvaged self-milled redwood (see our video Architect & carpenter craft tiny backyard 120-sq-ft studio).

Last year, they added one more to their household with their baby Willa. Her bed is in their room, her changing space is in the living room (and to keep the litter box out of the baby’s way, they built it into the closet with a cat door through the wall for access), but for now, they’re still happy with their small home because it helps them keep life simple.