SAN DIEGO — Dan Hines is a husband in El Cajon who refuses to shop with his wife.
"She likes to go shopping. I don't like to go shopping. She wanted to go furniture shopping. I'll do anything anything other than go furniture shopping with my wife. It's true," said Dan Hines.
Dan and Diane, who fell in love 23 years ago, invited Jeff Zevely from the Zevely Zone to see the result of Dan's new hobby, which is now sitting in their front driveway.
"He built a tiny home. I came home from bingo and there was a trailer in the yard and this was the result," said Diane.
Dan comes from a background in construction. He built the tiny home on wheels for less than $10,000 in just three months. The median price of a full size home in San Diego County is about $540,000.
"I just think the younger generation with some proper training could build affordable homes for themselves," said Hines.
Meanwhile, Diane, who at first didn't know what to think, loves her new home away from home. On a tour of the one bedroom and one bathroom structure, she showed Jeff the finer points of living small.
"This is the couch that turns into a bed. You can put your TV up here on a nice swivel," said Diane. "We have the tiny house refrigerator and a stainless steel sink, you have to have that."
Dan says in the early years of their relationship when Dianne got mad at him, she gave him the silent treatment.
"Then she found out she was doing me a favor," said Dan with a chuckle.
Hard to find any quiet time in a tiny home, even on the second level that takes a ladder to reach.
And to think, this all started on a Diane's bingo day.
"Yeah, I came home and he was hammering away. It was driving me nuts. I asked him, 'what are you doing?' He says, 'I'm building a tiny house.' I said, 'why?' He said, 'because I want to' and I fell in love with it," said Diane.
Diane wanted to take their new home and park it on the top of a mountain.
"But it's not in the cards for me. I am slowly going blind. I don't want to get off of ground I'm not familiar with," she said.
Dan and Diane plan to take vacations in their front driveway.
"He put a lot of work into it... I'm sorry, I'm just attached to it," Diane said with tears in her eyes.
"Just pull it in the backyard, park it and fence it and I'll move in. I think he did very well."
She may be losing her vision, but anyone can see, Diane and Dan share a love that's anything but tiny.