Living in 600 square feet

Welcome to our home!

I have written a book about how we retired early and are now living in the tropics, in a small one-bedroom condominium on a seaside beach. This blog is a companion piece to that book, and provides a few photos to better illustrate where and how we live and how we try to make the most of the little bit of space that we have.

You can find the book, "More Than a Parting Gift - Early Retirement in the Tropics" on Amazon.
(Available in e-book format only).

If you are interested in the book, you can click on the following link:

https://www.amazon.ca/More-Than-Parting-Gift-Retirement-ebook/dp/B07P2NLFPR/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=cankata&qid=1551153164&s=gateway&sr=8-3

We have one of the top units.

The layout of our unit.
Plus we have a rooftop terrace of about 40 sq. m.

From the sales brochure -
shows the proximity to the park, beach and sea.

This is back in 2011, before we made any changes.

Discussing the deal.

Looking right at home.

Loretta after enjoying her first dip in the pool.

A view from our rooftop terrace.

The sun catching some clouds in the north at sunset.

The view out our front door on a misty morning.

Our view of the pool area.

Stairs to the rooftop.

Looks comfortable, but we could use a few plants.

That's better.

We could use a little privacy.

Ah, privacy.

No bathtub, just a shower.

The unit came "equipped". This is before I added our stuff.

Utensils have to share drawer space.

Another "before" photo. Where do I put the canned tuna?

Shift the glasses,
add a shelf,
now room for tuna and more.

The possibility exists for an extra shelf, don't you think?

With the extra shelf.

Looks like lots of space, but we needed more.

An extra shelf + some plastic bins = better organization.

Our front door screen.
It hangs on the wall when not in use.

Come on in!

The screen at rest.

In our front entry - a rock ornament in memory of Darrel's parents.

We bought a small table & chairs set for when the mosquitoes are biting outdoors.

Ceiling fans help us avoid using the air conditioners. We installed three.

The blue pods were once red.
We changes color schemes.

Darrel made this from recycled materials.

Changing the color scheme.

The bathroom before we added cabinets.

We added two medicine cabinets.

We added a towel cabinet
above the toilet.

The bottom door is access to the water meter.

This is our "rags, old towels and
whatever" shelving unit hidden
behind the toilet door.

Our apartment before we changed the color scheme.

First iteration. The red has since been painted over.

Ditto. We were entirely unhappy with the bottom iteration.

The bedroom cushions also got a makeover.
We can't have pets so we have a stuffed bear as a guard.

Plastic drawers sufficed until we could get proper ones built.

Much better.

Darrel drew the plans for the carpenter.

Making sure a couple of lazy-boys would fit.

They fit just fine.

We added shelves for computer accessories.

Another added shelf.
Plus we moved fancy glasses up top
to give us more room for day-to-day stuff.

And another one!

The new convection oven can cook lasagna.

We don't have sharks in our bay,
just sometimes in our pool.

This drum and the basket came
all the way from Canada on our boat CanKata.
Still useful as a coffee table and
a storage box.
And, someday, parting gifts.

Our unit in 2019 with darker wood and no more red, an added drawer unit and a computer desk.

THE END