A mum was able to buy a house after moving her family-of-nine into two SHEDS.



Jennifer Olsen, 50, purchased her first 120sqft other 200sqft sheds for $3,000 and $5,000 in 2018 when her husband, Matthew, 49, was made redundant from his job.



Their entire family of nine moved into the wooden sheds - which were set up on a friend's property - for a year until January 2020 to and buy their current four-bed home with 1.5 acres, which came complete with an extra shed.

Jennifer's children - Serenity, 29, Michael, 26, Isaac, 24, Sam, 19, Tristan, 18, Kaden, 15, and Sadie, 12 - have all lived in the sheds at some point starting with Isaac who wanted "his own space" away from his siblings."



Currently, daughter Sam lives in a shed part-time when she's not away at college, with Tristan and Kaden using the remaining two full-time.



The sheds are all insulated with everyone still eating dinner together and doing homework on the desktop in the family home.



Mum Jennifer says the sheds are "good practice at being independent" for her kids, and are a normal thing for the family who she describes as "out of the box"."



Jennifer, a home maker, from Washington, USA, said: "The sheds are really just like bedrooms, just detached."



"They've all kind of cycled through the sheds and when one leaves they're like 'can I move into the bigger shed?'."



"We've kind of given them free rein with the decoration - some children run with it others don't care."



"I think it's normal for us as we're kind of out of the box as a family anyways and do a lot of things that are not mainstream."



"My teens friends all think it's great having a space away from the younger children and family to watch movies and eat popcorn."



"It's really important they are learning how to be by themselves."



"The thoughts are once they all leave I'll turn one into a shisha for me, all zen and cosy." "

Jennifer has spent $8,000 on the three sheds - each costing $3,000, $5,000 and the third included in their new land - over the years that sit at the bottom of her backyard.



She said: "I think because they [the kids] start to develop like a bit of independence of 'this is my place I have charge of it, this is where I'm learning'."



"They learn how to clean, or not to clean, their room."



"I hear people say 'my kid is scared to go to college and have a room to themselves' or 'my kids don't like sleeping away from me'."



"It's a transition between being with the family full-time and learning to be by their self."



"They wake themselves up in the morning and put themselves to bed. "

"They still come in the house to do homework on the main computer and we eat dinner together as a family still."



"It's not like they're isolated they just have their independent space." "

Jennifer shared videos of the sheds online, and found the reaction from commenters to be "really both ends of the spectrum"."



"They either love the idea and want to support it or hate the idea and threaten to call the authorities for child neglect and abuse," she said."



"As far as how we handle it we've had great entertainment from it."



"I don't think any of us really are upset about it we find it funny."



"We'll sit at the dinner table and the kids will scroll through the comments and say 'did you see this?'."