Designing and building a tiny house on wheels as a couple can be a real challenge
There's a lot of cooperation and compromise that goes into creating a space that can work
Well for both parties today
we've traveled to the Blue Mountains to visit a tiny house built by a couple who thanks to some wonderful teamwork have created themselves an
amazing home
Hi Lisa, right. How you doing? Good. Thank you guys to meet you get a met. How's it go? Mate? Good. Thanks. This home is
Absolutely stunning. It is very sleek. Stylish and modern, isn't it? Thank you now. Absolutely
I want to talk about the home but first let's talk about the land that you're on because this is something very special
Isn't it? Yeah, it's 16 acres and yeah, basically goes down to a creek
There's a little swimming hole down there and back up the other side of that Ridge there
So yeah, it's nice and secluded and how did you come to be on this property?
Basically about ten years ago, maybe eight years ago
there was a big bushfire that came through this area and
Burnt down a lot of the homes in this street and and in this area so we scored this block out of it
basically
And then this area that you've built onto the house as well creates a really lovely space outdoors to enjoy it all doesn't it?
Yeah
I think it's pretty important with tiny living to be able to expand outside and get that bit more use out of it
You know, can you get people over knurl in the tiny house? It's very cramped. You need to come out you can spread out
Yeah, not to mention. It's a nice view. You mean on a sunny day. It's really nice out here now
Let's talk about the tiny house. As far as Tiny's go. It is not very small
Is it I guess as far as Tiny's go, you know, it's a lot smaller than my full-sized house that I came from
But yeah, it's pretty lofty. What size is it?
the floor is nine meters long by
2.5 meters wide but because of the rakes on either end the roof is a couple of meters longer
Yeah, the height is four point three on that side to the bottom
Burying there's the chimney to take into account and some are multiple stuff
But yeah
I think one of the things in our loft we wanted to be able to stand up and walk around
Because we didn't want yeah, I'd have to crawl in or or anything like that
So I'm happy with it anyway
And now talk to me about the style of the house because it is really interesting how you've created this entirely black exterior
I guess it is a bit stark, but I just like black
and
I think it actually kind of blends into the valley. Like there's a few black features obviously from the file
And yeah, I think it kind of suits it and it looks quite striking here
So I think you've done a really good job with that. Thank you
What was it that actually inspired you to build a tiny house on wheels. That was me
I've been obsessed for a while watching reality TV shows about tiny houses. Googling them Instagram Facebook
You name it, you know hooking him up
Sort of wanted to build one or at least buy one at some stage and then I met Matt. So now I have one say
We met online
It was one
evening at the pub with my best friend and she wanted to play with my phone and my online dating apps and
It sort of sparked from there. We had a date at a very seedy pub. Yeah, that was her idea. Yep
I needed to get away play music. Yeah, yeah a
Station. Yep, and
Yeah, she really just wouldn't shut up about these tiny houses and I really hadn't seen much about them
But she's showing me all these Instagram accounts and I thought I didn't really think much of it at the time
but ya know she kept on about it, so
Yeah, once I've been - it seemed achievable, you know, and I do like a challenge so I thought no give it a go
What's the worst that can happen, you know throw a bunch of stuff out?
Yeah, it's so I guess I convinced you to build a tiny house build me. It's not here's actually hmm. Yeah, she did
Give me full full disclosure. I even gave him quite some time to bail out
No laying in bed and I said, are you sure you want to do this? I?
Absolutely positive you want to do this after the trailer was born. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Once the frame was on that was it
And now this project was done as a DIY build wasn't it? Yeah majority of it
I did myself or with some help from friends and colleagues and stuff. So yeah, they did hate a lot of it, but I
You know in the end, I think everyone's pretty proud of it and you have a background in construction, don't you?
Yeah, I do run a bathroom and kitchen
renovation company and so a lot of it was sort of
Ideas that I'd seen around or things that I'd really wanted to try out, but I couldn't get anyone to go for so, okay
Yeah, I thought I'll do it myself, you know
Now before we go inside, I want to talk about the contraption at the back of the house, which I noticed walking down
What on earth is that?
that is my
Custom-designed cat Ron it seems simple when I first began doing it
But definitely had to lean on the notes to give me a hand with it
basically, I've got these two cats and they're my children and I didn't want anything to happen to them moving to the bush or I
Didn't want dead birds on my bed
and
Also, I didn't want the key litter inside because it's too small. So yeah works. Well, they love it actually
What a great idea. That is very clever
Well, can we take a look inside the house and check out what you've done on the inside? Let's do it. All right
Thank you very much after you
This is absolutely stunning you really do notice the extra height in here, don't you? Yeah you do
Now the design in here is really interesting and quite beautiful
I really love all the artistic features that you've put in this light feature at the top here is really special
Isn't it? Yeah, it's fun. Yeah good. Oh really a couple of lights fairy lights and some plants me
I did get it up there by myself somehow which was a challenge
But yeah
I think it came out pretty well for a couple of old rusty sheets of Steel Westover it certainly did and
Now tell me about the lounge area that we're in right now. This is very spacious
Yeah, one of the things that we just like to sort of lay on the couch and watch TV of the most most evenings
So we definitely wanted a full-sized couch, but we had to make it because we couldn't find anything with decent storage
so
Yeah, I traded my couch from my other house to my sister and she made these cushions for us
And yeah, the kitchen guys made the drawers pull out and everything. So yeah
Definitely no compromise on the size of the TV here. No, no compromise. There was a bigger one intended
But well, there was a compromise exactly. I only bring my larger one, but
In truth. Yeah, even this is potentially like pushing it for being too big. Yeah, I can admit
Yeah, and lots of room for a book storage and a few knickknacks as well
Yeah
Just bits and pieces some of my favorite some of the ones you can't really go past cookbooks
University textbooks those sorts of things and then the rest they're all giving away or put in storage or loaned out, you know
And you are studying at University at the moment
I am I'm doing a bachelor's degree in Indigenous Studies through the University of South Australia
And you've got plenty of space to study in here. Yeah
so most of the time we watch telly down here and we have a loft I
Can go and study and just take some noise-cancelling headphones me. Everything's good
Fantastic, and now this over here is that your cat door it certainly is those little suckers come up a shoot out
Through the side of the couch and then out this door just here and 2:00 in the morning when they go in and out flat
Out it's pretty entertaining that is such a clever idea. And then you've got a really nice wood fire here as well
Yeah hasn't been cold enough yet to really get it going. But we did one test runs and it yeah, it's pretty great
Yeah, and then the kitchen this is very spacious
Absolutely, no compromises in here other know we wanted a full size kitchen in here
I came from a very small house with no kitchen and Matt came from a very big house
We've quite a large kitchen. So it sort of meet in the middle. You've even got these spectacular marble bench tops
Now, this is something you do not often see in a tiny house. No, definitely not
Yeah, I think I potentially would have just done it in timber if I could do it again
I just gotta get some used to you know, designing things that way so yeah, I'm stoked for them though
Absolutely now, can you walk me through the design and the features in this kitchen?
Yeah, so we have a full size stone
We've got a full size microwave and oven and afraid to be asleep. And then we've got our Butler sink
We've got our pots and pans in there
dishwasher I
Don't necessarily know what's in that drawer. They skirt
His glasses glasses and tea towels in there and help away top away and then we could elect crockery
Things like that upstairs and I really like how you've managed to build a lot of the appliances into the stairs
Yeah, we've noticed a quite a few tiny houses
Sort of in and around that have their storage in their stairs and all something that we thought would be good for us
You know
we have pantry in these sort of four drawers and then we've got our
extra stairs that do have more storage in them for knickknacks and bits and pieces and again the lighting in this space is very
Well done. Yeah. Thank you
We wanted a bit of understand lighting when you get up at 4 o clock in the morning
You do want to be able to get down the stairs. So that's one. It also doesn't wake the person still in bed
And then moving over here what is going on with these mirrors?
There are wardrobes right? She's in hers
Hey good lots of hanging storage
And then we've got a bunch of drawers
which open up all on soft clothing so you can slam a wall much as you like and
then we let's take a
Walk in wardrobe light now that really does give you both quite a lot of closet storage, doesn't it? Yeah, we do
It means we've got 1h, and we're not fighting over hanging space or anything like that and mine is obviously more messy
That's not paranoid about mine
Quite a clever idea doing that as well and sort of having that as a transition between the bathroom and the living space
Yeah, definitely means you're not sort of walking straight into a kitchen. You've got a bit of something in between
Absolutely, and now I have to ask you about the floors because this is really beautiful how you've done this transition from the timber floors
And to the tiles this must have taken forever
Yeah
It did so first step was the Tyler doing his bed
and he basically tiled it flat and chiseled them all the ones that I marked and then the next step was the
carpenter and I
Making up paper templates and jigsaw hang out the timber to fit so I don't think he'd do it again in a hurry
But I'm happy with the way it worked out. I
Bit, I mean you can see how much work has gone into that, but it really is a very artistic result
So well done on that
and then behind us is your bathroom and wow, this is very
impressive
It is definitely a feature of the house
Yeah something I definitely had to try and get right building bathrooms for a living. So
Yeah few ideas in here. I've always wanted to sort of try but the raked wall was a challenge and yeah
I love a double shower. Just someone our mind each day
Yeah, I never thought I would see a tiny house with a double shower. You know, the only one who said that
That is really impressive now
Obviously the home is a little bit bigger
But you've definitely given a priority of space here in the bathroom heaven here
You do actually spend a lot of time in here surprisingly
You know you get dressed in here you get undressed in here
you have a shower you often in front of the mirrors doing whatever shaving or
Whatever. So you need it sort of a nice space and somewhere that we can both be in at the same time lots of mirrors
In here as well lots of mirrors. These are actually storage as well so you can open them up
That's he's in hers again means they're not sort of in each other's spaces a tiny house often you are saying
If we sort of keep things separate like that
Then we're not gonna sort of clash in any way and then you've got a flushing toilet in here. We have a flushing toilet
Yes. Yeah, we used the existing septic so we didn't have to do a composting toilet
Much to lose his disappointment because she really wanted one but there was no way I was gonna do that. So
Yeah, definitely a flushing toilet
Well, I guess it had to be some compromise this somewhere you did get the tiny house after all do you get the tiny house?
So yeah, I'm happy fair enough and then should we check out the upstairs?
Absolutely
Now it's really interesting to me how you have divided up the loft areas into two different
Sections and then been able to connect them via this walkway here
Yeah, we made our master loft. Obviously. It's a king-sized bed in it with two little side tables
There's not a whole lot of room beside the bed thing. You can squeeze in and out
You still have to shimmy down the bed to get in and out of the bed. That's okay
I think having a walkway makes this can loft a lot more usable
Just having to get your mates to get up a ladder or maybe your mom or whatever. Some people probably wouldn't make it so
Yeah, I think overall makes that a lot more usable space here as well
This is where you really notice the extra height and it's not that much extra height
But it's enough to enable you to stand before you get into bed
And it really just makes this whole area feel so much more spacious
Yeah
it does mattaniah particularly tall but being able to stand up was really important in our design rather than
Somewhat feeling like they're just an additional space. I think it really makes this feel like a second floor to the place
So, yeah, absolutely
I mean, I'm six foot four and I can almost
Stand up in here without touching my head. And in fact when I'm under the skylight, I absolutely can do that
Yeah, so it really goes to show there's a lot of extra room that has been created in this
The roof windows as well
What a great feature in here. I mean, it's lovely how you've extended them along the entire line of the roof
So you've always got a very dynamic view of the changing sky, don't you? Yeah, you do at nighttime
It's really lovely. You can see them stars during the day
It does create a bit of an oven, but we'd have put the blinds on so it's not so bad
But yeah, it really creates a lot of extra space. You don't feel so enclosed now
You've been living in the tiny house for four months is the home living up to your expectations
Absolutely. Yeah
I came from a small house. So it was the transition was pretty easy for me coming from a bigger house
Yeah, it did take me some convincing to sort of wrap my head around the idea at first
but I can genuinely say I don't miss anything from my
large normal house
Designing it and building it together was a fun thing to do as well, you know
Yeah, I'm sure we learnt a lot about each other in that process. So yeah, we did good
Well, and I think one of the things that you've done really well is in the design of this house
you've
obviously really taken a lot of
consideration into what your individual needs are and the things that were
Important to both of you and combine them to make sure that they were present in this home
That was the whole idea is like if you are going to move in together
You do need to make sure that you both have spaces that are specifically for you or that you specifically need
So yeah, it's important. Even if it means you have to end up with a flushing toilet
Even if it means I've done it with a flushing toilet
No, no place is perfect. No, that's right. And now can we talk about the budget not including the land?
What was the cost of realizing this home? That's a good question?
I did not add up every sort of nickel and dime
There were a few favors and stuff in there and a lot of that I did myself
So, yeah, I think it probably worked out around
eighty
Ninety thousand or something like that
I think eighty thousand dollars is a remarkable budget and obviously that also does reflect that you've put a lot of Labor into it yourself
And no doubt a few boxes of beer in the process
So the tiny house is pretty much a dream come true now
I'm gonna find something else to want and come true for you. Yeah, it's an achievement for me. Yeah
We love the space
we've only been here a couple months four months, but
With making it out
Now, I think it's starting to feel like home
Yeah, it's actually being really nice just being able to be in the space finally finishing the space off. And yeah
I can't really imagine wanting any more house
No more house, isn't it? This is all you need. This is all we're getting. Yeah, the design of this home is absolutely
Beautiful. I can really see how much love and attention you have poured into the construction of this home
The features are beautiful. The land that it sits on is truly spectacular. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful home with me
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming. My pleasure
I am so very impressed with the quality of design that's gone into this house
Every inch has been incredibly well thought-out
Met and Lisa both knew exactly what they wanted in a home and they've worked hard to make it happen
And the result is this a beautiful modern and very functional home that is perfectly meeting both of their needs
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