Like in last week's video this week, we're traveling to tiny tranquility,
tiny home park to learn how people are downsizing to minimum square footage for
maximum happiness. This time,
Ken is going to take us on a tour of his craftsmen style, tiny house,
which he constructed himself after building dozens of tiny homes for others.
So let's take a tour,
but first I'd like to thank nomad internet for sponsoring this video.
Nomad is the only truly unlimited internet you can use in rural areas.
And while on the road stay connected wherever you are without any extra fees
to find out, more, check out the link in the description.
Good morning.
My name's Ken Lee. I live here in tiny tranquility in Walport Oregon.
And I'd like to invite you into my home and listen to a story or two that I have
to tell.
Before I moved into my tiny, I was living in a friend's house in 2015,
and that's where I built my first tiny,
the tiny jam burry was in Colorado Springs. And I wanted to go to that.
I left Maine and headed West could not find a place to park my house.
So I went online and I found Mitch Kraft, tiny homes,
and he was a builder in Fort Collins,
got him to come look at my house and know to see if he had space for it.
And he had space and I asked him if he had any work. And he said, yeah,
I spent three years in Colorado building tiny houses.
Once.
I came to Oregon and saw the coastline and saw the ocean,
my goal was to get out of Colorado as fast as I could.
Then I sold my first house and built this house.
I've been building since I was 22,
but building tiny houses is completely different from building, you know,
a 3000 square foot home.
You're dealing with inches and quarter inches where instead of feet,
I'm of the belief, if someone wanted to build a house and they wanted to do it,
the more that that person does on their own home,
I think the better they'll feel about it. This is a lot of gratitude.
When you sit back and you look at what you've created,
this is the first tiny house community I've lived in and it's enjoyable.
The owner of tiny tranquility has set it up really nice as a commons building
here,
there's a lodge that has a fireplace and laundry before the pandemic hit once a
month, there was a potluck where everybody came together. It's good.
It's a good community.
Well, with a 27 foot fifth wheel on this house,
a wheel just pulls so nice behind a truck trailer came from trailer made out of
Colorado. When I was working back in Colorado, building tiny homes, basically,
that's what we used double axle because of my weight.
I think I'm somewhere around new 12,000 pounds
in this size house. Double axle works really well. I mean,
if you were going to go with a longer house, which would be more weight,
you'd probably want to add a third axle. Now, the windows of Jeld-Wen,
I went with a casements and as you see up top there, awnings,
the awning ones are great because you can have them open when it's raining the
casements, not so much,
you can all depends on which way the wind's blowing Cedar sided,
which holds up well, you know, and weather here in the Northwest.
And if you're going to build a tiny in the Northwest,
and if you're going to use a Woodside and you want to put a good seal around it,
I used Pena fin, which is a transparent, clear sealer.
The salt air has changed the color of my house so much.
If you look underneath the windows, how light this is right here,
that was the color of my whole house. And within a year,
the salt there penetrates the wood.
The septic is hooked up to a tiny tranquility system.
So everybody here pumps all to the same place. No,
here on this part of the house, I'm creating these two storage places,
which on a tiny house is not much storage. So as much as you can create,
it's good as you see, you know,
I've got my power in here and I can put whatever I want here.
I've got a little shelving unit over here. I've built and it's all insulated.
And over here, you know, I have my propane,
I went with two 30 pound tanks,
a 30 pound tank will last me two to three months.
What I like about this is they're out of sight and they're protected.
Now another little detail, which is important is when you're siding your house.
And if you're using two different materials like clapboards and wood shingles on
your corners, you want to be sure that you line everything up.
So when you look at it, it all flows together. It's a real nice detail.
It really makes us stand out. Now in the back of the house,
I went with the red Cedar shingles and a little bit of metal just to change it
up a little bit.
The deck.
It folds up, it's hinged onto the house. So when I'm traveling or when I travel,
I can fold the right up. It covers the window, covers the door, wherever I go,
I've got my deck. I did a little overhang here,
two foot overhang as I'm going into the house,
because it just gets me out of the rain. I can put groceries down or whatever,
and open the door and get in my exterior door is a fiberglass door.
I think it's one of the better doors, better than metal metal, sort of,
you know, it gets cold. And in this club, if you chip it or scratch it,
it's going to rust. And then there's another option of building a wood door,
but that takes a lot of work because it shrinks and it swells with the
fiberglass, you know, a coat of paint every couple years, and it's all good.
And the reason I put my door on the back of the house was to give me more space
on the inside. I can have two full length walls for kitchen place to sit.
So I like it on the back instead of putting it on the sidewalls.
So let's have a look on the inside.
I like building rustic, you know,
going on in the woods and finding pieces of wood and, you know,
bringing it back to the shop and sit with it.
And it's sometimes it's the piece of wood will tell me what it wants to be.
And in this case, I built this mirror. It was a fork and a maple tree. I cut it,
cut it in half, and then did some nice little detail. You know, where the,
the two pieces came together.
I used a little mahogany and just to create this beautiful piece that can hang
vertical or horizontal. It's really nice. I like it.
It's a good mirror to check yourself out when you're going out the door.
And then it created this nice set T here it's 70 inches long by four
foot. Two people can cuddle up on this thing. And at the same time,
you get the gas fireplace right here to enjoy it.
For installation on this house, I use what's called Roxul,
which is mineral wool and lava rock. And it's a two by four wall.
It's very dense water repellent and inspire retired.
I've held a match to it and it won't burn.
And water just rolls off at like off a Duck's back. Now,
the colors in this house that I chose,
I wanted to something with sort of earth tone.
So I went with this nice yellow on the wall and then a nice green with a
highlight on the ends. And then I chose a blue for the ceiling for the sky.
So I feel like I have, you know, the trees and the green,
the sun where the yellow and the, and the blue of the skies. And it's,
it's just, it makes it real cozy. I mean, it's, I'm really comfortable here.
I really enjoy this. The kitchen is on both sides of the house.
It's beautiful because you have the sink on one side stove on the other
refrigerator and you just go back and forth and it's real comfortable to work
out. This is some country.
It was a gift given to me from an older gentlemen, long time ago.
And it's beautiful. I mean,
it's just a piece that's been with me for a long time. I really enjoy it.
I have a pullout cutting board, which gives me more countertop space.
And you can also put your computer on this and watch a movie sitting on the
couch. And one of my favorite things, and my first house that I built,
I had a trash can. That was like a size of a gallon jug.
But in this house I created recycle and trash
with a cutting board. You can pull this out and you can be cutting.
And it just goes in.
I use this mesh metal mesh for the upper is all the knobs.
I have a friend back East and she collects stones on the beaches.
She mounts them on a little nice piece of stainless steel.
And they're great for knobs
I like the color, a nice deep sink. Except
this part of the, the base cabinet up. So if someone bought this house,
they could put a washing machine in here. This is the right size.
Instead of doing that, I just have my pots and pans down here,
silverware in here, Here,
I recessed my a spice rack.
It's in the wall that separates the bathroom from the kitchen. On this side,
I have the stove, more cabinetry exhaust fan.
This stove.
I like it. It's three burner, 17 inch oven.
You can get a good cookie tray in there.
I can have all three burners going at the same time.
There's more storage under the stove. And on either side and more drawers,
there's a triangle it's trying to create. When you're building a kitchen,
this is about 40 inches,
which is very nice because you can open the oven and open another door and you
could still walk through. You want a kitchen that really works well.
This one does. We also have the refrigerator on this side of the house too.
That's 8.5 cubic feet.
It's a decent refrigerator and it has a decent freezer in it.
And then more storage up on top.
For whatever. Then.
Then up here, more storage up here where I keep my instruments, my guitar.
Bathroom. It's full bathroom, full corner, shower, big sink
so you can get your hands and face in the bowl. Same time.
It drives me crazy when these little sinks in these tiny homes that you,
you can't help, but splash water all over the place with just two hands.
You can't get your face in the bowl.
And it has a flush toilet, a little rustic.
Mirror here that I've created back was one of my first pieces when I was doing a
rustic, this is a stairway to the bedroom.
And what I've done is I've created a storage space. I really like this.
It's a comfortable walk to, it's not your standard seven and a half inch rise,
but it's eight and a half.
And another thing that I created just make it more interesting was this nice
little bookcase here that I put my little chotskies books, you know,
little things that I collect, and it just gives the house more depth.
Instead of having two solid walls. I just kind of liked that. What
I like about a fifth wheel is I can stand in my bedroom.
I'm six foot and I have at least a couple more inches in the center.
I can't do it on the outside edges of the, of the house,
but I can get up in the morning. I can get dressed.
Most of these tiny houses with loft, it's just a mattress on the floor. I mean,
you roll out of bed and then you throw your clothes downstairs and get dressed.
I created this bed, it's a queen size bed.
And I made it to look like a bed that I installed here.
It has a headboard and it has a footboard clean.
You can put your glasses up there and you know,
it's great for reading and it's comfortable too.
Another thing I like about this, but the bathroom in front of the bed.
I have a lot of privacy up here too. You know, it just,
just a stairwell and you really can't be private.
It's like being in another room, which is kind of cool.
I was able to keep this nice Oak chair, which was with me for 30,
40 years. And then my three legged rustic table.
Another piece that I made. I've
created this space for me, which to me is cozy. It's warm, it's safe.
I love the detail that I put into the build.
And those are the things that I would like someone to walk away and feel what I
feel, I guess I would say, if you wanted to build a tiny house, do it.
I enjoy it. I never thought I'd be in a space like this. Now,
four years later here I am and very comfortable and very happy.
And I'm having a ball too. It's a great way to live.
Thanks for checking out this video.
If you'd like to see other video tours from this tiny house community,
you can see them here on this channel,
as well as plenty of other unique and tiny tours.
See you next week with an all new video.