When Yeli Heidecker and her husband, Benjamin, both 32, decided they were going to downsize to a barndominium — a building designed to look like a barn, but with a traditional living space inside — they started looking for the perfect lot.

In early 2024, the couple purchased a two-acre lot in west-central Texas for $45,000 and began construction on the barndominium. Around the same time, they convinced Yeli’s mom, Liliana Villanueva, to move down and live in an RV on the property.

Yeli says Villanueva was experiencing some health issues at the time. And because she is a stay-at-home mom and content creator, Yeli says it would be easy to be around to help her mom. Plus, the idea of having her kids’ grandmother close by sounded amazing, she adds.

But shortly after the couple moved into the barndominium in late 2025, they began considering a more permanent living arrangement for Villanueva, Yeli says.

“We were afraid she was gonna trip and fall and hurt herself or something. We had the bright idea to do a tiny barndo like ours, but we’ll do it ourselves,” Yeli tells CNBC Make It.

Before taking the DIY route, the Heideckers obtained quotes for a small barndominium measuring about 400 square feet. The quotes ranged from $63,000 to $93,000, so they decided the best option was to do it themselves and stick to a $30,000 budget.

On top of that, Yeli and Benjamin decided to surprise Villanueva by building the tiny home while she was in Mexico visiting family for six weeks.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it was chaotic,” Yeli says. “It was definitely hard, but at the same time, it was so incredibly fulfilling and amazing to see all the work we did.”

The couple hired contractors to handle the shell, electrical work and concrete flooring for the barndominium. The rest of the work, including installing the kitchen, painting the house and putting up the walls and drywall, was done mostly by Benjamin, Yeli says, but she helped out when she wasn’t taking care of their four young children.

“It was special because we built this for Abuela,” Yeli says, using the word for grandmother in Spanish. “It was emotional seeing it finished because of all the memories of my husband and I working on it. It feels like it bonded us on a deeper level.”

When Villanueva returned to Texas in November 2025, she moved into the tiny home even though it wasn’t fully finished.

“It was the most beautiful surprise I could have found after getting back from my trip. I am very happy with it,” Villanueva tells CNBC Make It. “I laugh because the house is small, but I have absolutely everything I need. It’s perfect. I love that I’m close to my daughter and my grandchildren. I feel protected and feel safe.”

“As immigrants, when you come here, you’re fighting the American Dream, and while she’s never owned a home on paper, just seeing her have that for herself was very emotional,” Yeli adds.

The one-bedroom, one-bathroom tiny home fits a washer and dryer as well as a full-size oven, stove and refrigerator. The Heideckers created the layout of the home with Villanueva’s specific needs in mind.

As of January, the only remaining task is tiling the bathroom, which Yeli says will happen soon.

Here’s a breakdown of the major expenses for the tiny home, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. All expenses are rounded.

• Trim: $250
• Paint: $350
• Flooring: $600
• AC mini split: $750
• Cabinets: $1,300
• Plumbing: $1,500
• Drywall and lumber: $1,700
• Electricity: $1,775
• Appliances: $2,000
• Insulation: $2,100
• Miscellaneous: $6,500
• Barn shell: $12,500

In total, the home cost $31,325, including a number of miscellaneous expenses, such as power tools, countertops, lighting and faucets.

Because the tiny home is on the same property as the Heideckers’, it doesn’t have separate utility bills. Instead, the couple covers all monthly expenses, such as water, electricity and gas, while Villanueva pays about $100 a month for cable TV.

Since Villanueva moved in, Yeli says the only thing the couple regrets is not making the tiny home a little bigger, specifically in the bedroom. But for the mother and daughter, the best part is being able to live next to each other.

“It’s nice to see my kids being able to have Grandma just there, especially after we lived away from family for a very long time,” Yeli says.

Although the tiny home isn’t officially finished, Yeli and Villanueva say the barndominium and tiny home are their forever homes, respectively.

“I’m doing very well here and have no plans on ever leaving,” Villanueva says. “I have it very good here and get to enjoy it alongside my family.”

Despite how chaotic the process was for the couple to get the tiny house done in such a short amount of time, Yeli says she would do it all over again — and recommends it to others, too.

“It’s definitely worth it if you have aging parents, but even if you don’t have an aging parent, having a special unit for someone, or when you have family coming over, or something like that, it’s nice,” Yeli says.

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Building a healthy romantic relationship takes time and intention. Over time, meaningful experiences, personal disclosures and authentic conversations create closeness and intimacy.

To genuinely know someone, you must understand what matters to them — their likes and dislikes, passions, limits — and respecting those traits even when they differ from your own.

In fact, many strong couples come to appreciate differences, recognizing that a person’s history, quirks and tendencies are what make them unique. Here are eight phrases couples who are truly close use when talking about each other, and they should be relationship goals for all of us.

Your partner’s mistakes aren’t yours to carry, and their successes aren’t yours to claim. They are their own person living alongside you, not an extension of you.

Similar phrases:

• “She’s always been like that.”
• “I know that’s one of his favorite things to do.”

When you really understand your partner, you’re not likely to be taken aback by what they say or do. If friends are shocked by a comment or action they make, you might just smile and shrug. 

Similar phrases: 

• “Oh yeah, that’s my mate alright!”
• “That’s totally her style.”

Everyone has their own quirks, odd habits or routine preferences, from how they drink coffee to how they fold their towels. These are little things that no one else probably knows about them. But if you really know your partner, you notice those details and often find affection in them.

Similar phrases:

• “They sneeze like a train!”
• “His hiccups are kind of adorable.”

Deep knowledge builds trust. When you know your partner, you trust them to act authentically and responsibly, whether you’re together or apart.

Similar phrases:

• “She can be a little intense, but I trust her to make good choices.”
• “I know they’ll be respectful.” 

Intimacy means understanding your partner’s fundamental ideas, beliefs and principles. Even when you disagree, you can acknowledge what truly matters to them without dismissing or demeaning it.

Similar phrases:

• “I know this is really important to them.”
• “He’s very passionate about politics.”

Knowing someone deeply means understanding their fears, vulnerabilities and emotional triggers. When those struggles surface, you respond with empathy rather than judgment or defensiveness.

Similar phrases:

• “I know this is painful for them.”
• “I see her struggle and want to support her through it.”

Knowing your partner means accepting that you can’t — and shouldn’t — try to change who they are, even if it’s something you really dislike about them. True growth only happens if they choose it.

Similar phrases:

• “They’ll change only if they want to.”
• “I accept that we see this differently, even if I don’t like it.” 

Even in long-term relationships, there’s always more to learn. When couples truly know each other, discovering something new feels like an opportunity to grow, not a threat.

Similar phrases:

• “I never realized they felt that way.”
• “Even though we’ve been married for years, I’m still learning new things about him.”

Here are a few ways to start:

• Ask open-ended questions with genuine curiosity.
• Practice seeing situations from their perspective.
• Speak with respect during difficult conversations.
• Use physical touch, like hugging or holding hands, to bond.
• Show presence by putting down your phone, making eye contact and prioritizing time together.

The answer to real intimacy is simple: You have to understand and choose each other, every day.

Dr. Cortney S. Warren, PhD, is a board-certified psychologist and author of the new book “Letting Go of Your Ex.” She specializes in romantic relationships, addictive behavior, and honesty. She received her clinical training at Harvard Medical School after earning her doctorate in clinical psychology from Texas A&M University. Follow her on Instagram @DrCortneyWarren or Twitter @DrCortneyWarren.

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When I was in college, in between my English and creative writing classes, I would race a few blocks downtown to volunteer at an animal shelter on the east side of Manhattan. 

Getting lost in books and spending time with shelter dogs were the twin pillars that held together the chaos of my twenties, and what kept me sane and motivated day after day. The north star of my career has been telling stories about animals in need. 

My first job out of college was working for a dog photographer. I followed him around New York City, and then the country, and then the world, helping to carry camera equipment and making notes of all the dogs we met that day. I didn’t make good money, but I loved it. 

After seven years, I was unexpectedly let go.

It was the eve of my 30th birthday, and I was suddenly without a job. I had two options: I could find another position, or I could try to make it on my own. The choice, for me, was simple. I had to at least try to make a name for myself, doing what I loved most, which was helping dogs.

This upheaval all coincided with me moving into a new apartment with my now-fiancé, Jacob, and our special needs rescue dog, Simon. 

This apartment was special because after living in seven New York City apartments, I had a backyard for the first time. I had fostered some dogs over the years, but with a big yard and a rare dog-loving landlord, I decided it was a great time to really lean into it again.

We welcomed our first foster, a Heeler mix named Ken, a few months after moving into the new apartment. On our way to pick him up, I handed Jacob my phone and asked him to take a video of me. I had an Instagram audience of about 50,000 followers, where I posted videos about my dog. 

But I decided that I wanted to highlight the process of fostering, every step of the way. I wanted to show people exactly how it was done, so it wouldn’t be so intimidating for people who might want to try it themselves.

I spoke to the camera and explained what we were doing in the sweltering subway tunnels, my excitement and nervousness bubbling off me. We recorded the entire thing: Ken coming off the transport van, bringing him back to our apartment, and introducing him to Simon. 

Afterwards, I edited the clips together and posted it to Instagram and TikTok. Miraculously, for whatever reason, people loved it. The video blew up. On TikTok it got 257,000 views, 27,000 likes, and over 500 comments. 

I was in shock by how people responded to it, and the immediate emotional connection these strangers on the internet felt with Ken. So I continued: a video of us giving Ken a bath, a video of Ken playing with Simon, a video of Ken chasing bubbles I blew for him in the backyard. And, finally, a video of Ken getting adopted by his new mom.

Over the week that we had Ken, my audience grew. People wanted to see his journey, and the process of fostering a dog in New York City. But, more than anything, I think people wanted to see a happy, feel-good story play out in front of their eyes, to feel a piece of magic that happens when a dog is loved for the very first time.

After that first foster, I decided to focus on fostering primarily medical and behavioral cases. Simon has struggled with idiopathic epilepsy his entire life, and my experience caring for him completely shifted the way I interacted with the world and the level of patience I have.

Plus, most rescues and shelters cover all costs associated with fostering: supplies, food, and any medical procedures a dog might need, so the only thing I needed to sacrifice was my time and heart.

I wanted to tell the stories of the dogs who would otherwise be forgotten and show the world how incredible they are. 

Since Ken, I have fostered nearly 30 difficult medical cases and found them all loving homes. I’ve raised over half a million dollars for animal welfare organizations. I’ve worked with brands like Toyota, Chewy, The Farmer’s Dog, and Williams Sonoma. I’ve grown my audience to over two million followers across platforms. 

And, my greatest dream came true. I wrote a memoir called “Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About,” and it will be published in the spring.

I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have made a career doing exactly what I’ve always dreamed of: helping dogs and telling stories. I have more freedom, I make more money, and I’m making a bigger impact. 

My biggest advice for people who hope to make their passion their full-time job is to start small. Before I went out on my own, I did freelance content creation for a year and a half. I reached out to every dog brand I could think of and asked if they needed help creating content or managing their social media.

My biggest client was Adopt a Pet and Kinship, where I got to travel to shelters and highlight adoptable dogs. It wasn’t until it became unsustainable to work full time and do content creation that I actually stopped those jobs. But the connections I made absolutely helped forge my way as an independent creator.

Every day looks different for me: Some days I’m picking up a dog from the shelter and scrubbing feces off of them, some days I’m doing a photoshoot with my previous foster dogs for Oscar de la Renta, and some days I’m sitting in a coffee shop, hoping to meet my writing deadline on time.

What has become most apparent to me, through every foster dog and every journey I document, is that dogs are one of the greatest human connectors that we have. 

They represent life, love, loss, joy, sadness, and living each day in the moment. They ground us, motivate us, and when you tell their stories, people can’t help but listen. Never in a million years did I think that telling my stories could turn into a career. But as I sit in my Brooklyn apartment with my rescue dog snoring at my feet, I am eternally grateful that it did.

Isabel Klee is a dog owner, writer and content creator. She shares her experiences rehabilitating foster dogs on social media @SimonSits. She lives Brooklyn with her fiancé, Jacob and her rescue dog, Simon. She is the author of the upcoming memoir ”Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About.”

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For many of us, procrastination comes with a lot of emotional baggage, says neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD.

“We’ve been taught to associate procrastination with laziness and lack of willpower, and so whenever we procrastinate, we start blaming ourselves for not doing the thing that we said we were going to do,” Le Cunff says.

Those negative feelings only make it harder for us to get back on track, according to Le Cunff, the author of “Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World.”

From her perspective, procrastination shouldn’t be a source of shame — it’s “really just a signal from your brain that something is not working quite right at the moment,” she says.

“Instead of ignoring that signal, instead of trying to push through and blaming yourself in the process, what would it look like to just listen to that signal?” she continues.

A better approach is to “get curious” about the root of your procrastination habits, Le Cunff says. Here’s her strategy for overcoming procrastination.

Le Cunff created a “triple-check” system that helps her evaluate why she might be avoiding a task — in her words, whether “the problem is coming from the head, from the heart or from the hand,” she says.

If your procrastination stems from the head, it means that “at a rational level, you’re not fully convinced you should be working on that task in the first place,” Le Cunff says.

The heart refers to your feelings: “If the problem is coming from the heart, it means that at an emotional level, you don’t feel like this is going to be fun or exciting.”

Finally, “if the problem is coming from the hand, it means that at a practical level, you don’t believe that you have the right tools, the right skills, or the right support network in order to get the task done,” Le Cunff says.

Once you’ve identified why you’re avoiding a task, “you can systematically find ways to get unstuck,” she says.

To tackle “head” problems, Le Cunff recommends taking a step back and evaluating what doesn’t feel right about the work.

For example, if you’re dragging your feet on finishing a task because you’re not sure whether it aligns with your project’s strategic goals, “you can go back to the drawing board and kind of redefine the task and see if that’s the right approach,” Le Cunff says.

For tasks you’re avoiding because they don’t feel sufficiently exciting or stimulating, Le Cunff’s best advice is to “make the environment fun,” she says.

“Maybe grab your favorite colleague and do a little co-working session, or go to your favorite coffee shop to do the task,” she says.

If you tend to procrastinate when you feel overwhelmed or unprepared, Le Cunff recommends reaching out to trusted friends or colleagues for advice.

“I always tell people, raise your hand, ask for help,” she says. That support could involve coaching, mentoring or asking your company to sponsor an online course — “whatever it is that you need to feel like you have the resources in order to get the job done.”

The triple-check system helps circumvent the ‘shame’ component of procrastination, Le Cunff says.

“It’s really going from this vague sense of dread and self-blame that you’re not doing the thing that you should be doing, to acting a little bit more like a scientist, like a detective, and seeing it as a puzzle to solve,” she says.

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You need to have the right skills to do the job you’re hoping to land. But your ability to communicate that you have them — and can use them to help your prospective employer become more successful — is just as important.

“The things that make us good at communication also make us very, very attractive in an interview,” Charles Duhigg tells CNBC Make It.

Duhigg has studied hundreds of people in authoring three books on productivity, habits and communication. His latest book, “Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection,” examines what sets the most effective communicators apart.

Duhigg shared three communication tips that candidates should take into their next job interviews to connect with the person on the other side of the table (or screen) and make a stronger impression.

Interviewers know candidates are eager to impress. But if your answers to interview questions sound too polished or canned, you could be doing yourself a disservice.

“They know that you’re performing; they know that you’re there to try and get a job,” Duhigg says. But the more we can “genuinely convey who we are,” the more the employer has “a chance to see whether we’ll actually succeed there.”

Answering questions genuinely, but tactfully, can help you stand out, he adds. “The interviewer is going to remember that answer,” he says. “The best communication is the most genuine communication.”

One of the toughest questions to answer in an interview is “Tell me about your weaknesses.”

If they ask a question like this, Duhigg says, “and I answer it as honestly as I can, it doesn’t mean that I have to expose my flaws, it doesn’t mean that I have to say something out of line.”

Career coach Madeline Mann previously told CNBC Make It that an ideal answer would briefly explain a genuine weakness, but not one that’s “core to the job,” before laying out steps you’re taking to address the problem area.

“Think about how many people go into an interview and the person asks them, ‘Do you have any questions for me?’ and the question they ask is completely predictable,” Duhigg says.

The best communicators typically “ask a lot more questions” than their peers, Duhigg says. They also ask what he calls deep questions, or those that center on a person’s values, beliefs or experience.

For job candidates, that might mean asking an interviewer how they got into that line of work, or what their favorite part of working there is.

Some of the most important communication is silent. Body language can be very telling, and mirroring things like your interviewer’s posture, gestures and expressions can make you a more attractive candidate for the job.

That could be as simple as smiling back when they smile during conversation or noticing when they lean in and doing the same.

“The more we are prepared and comfortable doing that, the better off that interview is going to go,” Duhigg says.

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