My name is Ivan Nanney and we are at what i like to call Chateau Ivan and it is the tiny house
that i built over the course of a few years which acts as not only my income property but my home
base while i travel. I caught the travel bug my last year of high school 2007 i got invited to
go on a senior cruise. Got just a taste of what the travel life could be. It was my first experience
outside the country and i just kind of went down this journey of wanting to see more, explore more,
capture as much as i could on youtube and yeah it's become a part of my life for the past decade.
So i was out traveling having an amazing time and my dad and brothers were going through a really
hard time back at home. They got evicted from their place, they had nowhere to go. That situation
pushed me to start looking into options of having a home base. One for myself
but then also as a backup if friends or family or someone needed it.
You know for me to keep living my life a tiny house just made sense. You know i can
i can find a little piece of property, i can build something and not have a mortgage
that's going to require me to like make x amount of money to pay for it which then
takes away from my freedom and flexibility. So i was on Zillow constantly for like the next year
just constantly looking for properties looking for lots and that's when i happened to find this place.
I tore down the structure that was here, it used to be like this old shop that had probably been
abandoned for probably 15-20 years and then i tore it down. I tried to reclaim reuse all the material
use the concrete slab as like a base for things. And then yeah i built my shed, get things out of
the weather and just practice framing. And then slowly work through the process of what i
needed to do in order to make this thing come true. Really i learned how to build by reading
just a couple of books and then a lot of youtube videos and and then i definitely had
some people i could call and like bounce questions and ideas off of. But for the most part i just
learned as i went. So the picnic table was a lot of leftover stuff i had from the demolition a lot
of like the big beams and all those joists in the covered area out there those are all from the
demolition. This deck my dad went and disassemble it off of craigslist for free. It's redwood
and it wasn't good enough for them but it was good enough for me. My shed's probably
about 80%-90% reclaimed materials from that demolition i mean this structure was like
2500 square feet so there was a lot of wood in there and some really nice big beams. I used
craigslist, facebook marketplace, to try and source everything. The second-hand stores to try and keep,
one try and keep costs down, two i think it's just better environmentally to try and use reclaimed
materials it can be really beneficial. It sucks like spending so much time looking for it but
when you find something good it's super rewarding. People always come over and you know they're
like, "Oh you should have done this, or maybe why don't you do that" and i'm like because
that was like five thousand dollars. So it forces you to be creative, forces you to be
resourceful and you know in the long run it helps you save a lot of money. These are all black walnut
trees on my property and there were some big dead ones that i cut down or i pulled and so i
took them and had them milled so the floating shelves in here were actually from the black walnut
back here. Even like the frames around my window this was all milled from the trees back here.
That backsplash, i honestly like, it was secondhand but it was still like ,they made you buy like a
whole bunch of it. But luckily i was able to sell what i didn't use for almost what i bought it
for at the second hand store so it almost you know paid for like 70 percent of it i would say. I got
really lucky on my stoves, i was able to find those where they were brand new but just like
weren't used. Like someone bought them, couldn't use them. My tiles, my Mexican tiles in the bathroom the
talavera that's actually from amazon but the sink i brought back with me from mexico after
spending six months down there working and stuff. So i mean for me i'm not a big tv guy but i love
watching movies and i do think it's nice to be able to have that experience when you want it so
tiny space but i was able to find a good projector and put up a projector screen which also works as
a blackout window for those upper windows. So it's one of those things that worked out
to be super practical and this couch converts into a bed so you can pull it out, put your feet up,
kick back and watch a movie. And in a small space you're so close to it it actually feels
like you're on like a big screen. There's a loft space with the bedroom some people like it some
people don't, i think it's fun. It can get a little warm up there sometimes though but in order to
save space i put it over the office area and the bathroom. It creates like a really cozy
environment. I tried to make it big enough so at least average size people could still sit up
in bed. One of the things that is kind of unique about my tiny house is it is fully functional.
There's not a compost toilet which i almost did. I originally wanted to be off grid
but actually off grid at the time would have been way more expensive and because of my big
trees back here i just don't get enough sunlight for solar so for me i did connect to the grid
and because of that it allows me to have hot water, have a heater, have an ac unit, have a refrigerator ,
and so you're not really skimping on anything but space. I wanted a space where i could bring
people together, where i could host so since it's so small inside i had to bring the space outside
so i tried to make it reflect like things i like to do. That hammock space that was probably one of
the first things i even did to the property. While i was tearing everything down i saw that little
space up there with the trees and built like a little landing platform, put the hammock in
and it's been kind of like a little sanctuary ever since. I mean i really always feel so grateful
being here and just realizing that so many things aligned to make this dream a possibility
and i definitely don't take that for granted at all. The American dream is something that i think a
lot of people have been reflecting on a lot lately. There is that notion that if you work hard
enough you can you can get a house, you can start a family, you'll have that security to take care
of yourself. People are trying to embrace this tiny house movement but what they're finding
is there's a ton of red tape and bureaucracy standing in their way because the old system is
not built for this kind of a movement yet and so unfortunately because of the way leadership runs,
because of the way the financial incentives are, it's going to take time to change the rules
to make this possible for everybody. To stay in Ivan's tiny home yourself visit the listing in
the description below. For more unique stays check out this playlist and subscribe to the channel
for more adventure travel in Idaho and beyond. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.