Hey Jenna here with Tiny House, Giant Journey,
and I'm here with Katie and Jayden.
They're from goodandtiny.com and they're going to take us through their tiny
house. Let's go check it out.
All right. Here's our tiny house. We really wanted a big living room.
We actually have a full sized couch in here, which we love. We can watch movies,
relax, and we almost got a sofa bed,
but sacrificed others comforts for our own. You can sleep on there in a pinch.
Yeah. Jayden wanted a bigger TV,
but that's what worked for the space that we had set aside for it.
So it's mega screen, but it works for us.
Yeah. Yeah. It's all, it on the bracket,
so can pop out anywhere in the house. Nice.
Do you guys mostly watch like Netflix and stuff? Yup. Netflix and Amazon.
All of this stuff is hidden in the cleaner.
it doesn't really, it's just all trimmed in there and screwed up and get into.
So this is kind of the workstation Hangouts, um, eating, uh,
it's a collapsible bar. So at this does pop down. So if you want to,
if you're having a bunch of people over any room to hang out,
if you can really just spread out and open up.
Otherwise we kind of leave it up most of the time for eating and working.
Now did you guys build this yourself or? We did not.
We went with a company called mint tiny homes. Um, they're out of Delta,
British Columbia, um, but they do everything custom.
So we got to design a whole floor plan, really work with them and um,
really put everything that we want to in the house. Cool.
Did you make any customizations? Yeah,
well pretty much we looked at one of the designs that they'd already done and
then we just kind of manipulated it to have like bigger spaces and like the
whole bathroom is probably pretty different from anything they've done before
once you see that.
Yeah. And then once we got it, like I said, you know,
we put the stuff on the wall for the TV and that box and we built all the
shelves and the closets and put the flooring in the loft.
And so we did some of this stuff ourselves once we like some of the little odds
and ends once we got in the house.
So you had some experience with the building process as well? Yeah,
I did my dad,
built the houses we ever lived in and I did some summers of rough carpentry
and love working with different projects and wood and everything.
Yeah. Yeah. It's,
there's been more things to do than we ever thought there would be in this
house. Like just getting it up to, you know, livable thing, you know,
what we wanted in the space. So it's a 26 foot trailer.
Yup. Um, it's about 265 square feet.
I think the sleeping loft might add a little bit more,
but it's definitely under 300 total for the little thing. Um,
it fits all the legal road specifications. So eight and a half wide,
13 and a half foot tall at the tallest point.
So, uh, this is kinda my dream kitchen.
It's a lot bigger than I think some apartments we've lived in, which, uh,
was very exciting for me. Yeah. There's plenty of counter space which we love.
And actually since stove is over a wheel
well it's actually a Marine stove that you find in boats.
So it's a Dickinson model and it's been working really good for us.
You can actually lift this up.
And this is where the propane heaters are for like cooking on a skillet or a pad
or is that, that's been working really well.
Propane, both the oven part as well as the stove top. Um,
the refrigerator is also electric or propane. Um,
so if we have a less options for electric job, we can't go propane,
so we're not pulling as much amps,
It's a 10 cubic foot fridge. It's a unique brand. Um,
they do a lot for RVs and smaller, smaller spaces.
Is it a Canadian brand?
But it was nice because the builder like added like little drawers and stuff
where we didn't think they would really add them in there.
So that's really nice. And you've learned how to work them with your feet.
I see. I'm holding a dog and you're,
and you're wearing special socks for it, me too.
Cabinets are soft close, which is also really nice.
We also learned quickly after about a week we could not live without a
microwave. Um, so we went out and grabbed the smallest one we could find.
Yeah. How's it working for you? Really good. Yeah. There's no problems at all.
And we definitely needed one.
We kept having dreams of just using our oven to heat stuff up and that never
happened. How about the sink? That's a big sink. Yeah.
So this has been working really nice for us. Um, I think it's just an Ikea.
Yeah. The, the cabinets and the countertops and stuff is Ikea. Um,
but it all works really well. I mean, it's,
yup.
Another little custom thing that Jayden added in was the trashcan that's comes
out, which we really like.
Actually we've noticed we have a metal roof so the rain is a lot louder than I
think we thought it was going to be or no, we don't have,
well we, yeah, we know we do have a metal roof but it's not too bad. We have um,
Oh there's the house has walls,
ceiling and floor has the spray foam insulation.
so it's not as loud as a plain tin roof,
but it is definitely louder than normal.
Maybe it's just cause the loft, you'll see the roof is right next to her head.
I kinda like it. I think it like lulls me to sleep. Yeah.
But you have to like that. And in Washington you really have to like that.
Absolutely.
We got here, we found out the precipitation wise,
this is the worst winter in I think 20 years in Washington has,
so we definitely know this house was waterproof.
Right? So we have a nice little divider here.
So now if anybody who needs privacy in the bathroom, they can open that up.
Nice. Which is nice. So we use that a lot. Um,
one of our things is we,
we saw a bunch of different tiny houses and all the bathrooms were always really
small and we're like, you know what, you spend a lot of time in a bathroom.
We don't want a small bathroom.
So that was one of the big things when we were designing that layout with Mint
was a room you could actually get ready and walk around in. You know,
if people are over,
they can come back here and use the bathroom and get changed and not feel,
This is an enormous,
the biggest bathroom I'm going to say I've ever seen in a tiny house. Yeah,
we love it. I mean, to be honest,
it was just one of those things where I wanted to just get ready in the morning
and feel like I allowed a space. You just spend time in here.
I mean it's kind of like the foyer when you walk in this door here.
So we want it to also feel kind of like another mud room. Um,
and it also allows for closet space. So, sorry,
my closet's a little messy, but I mean there's more than enough room in here.
Jayden added in all these drawers, this cubby here. So I mean we've can fit,
I mean this is my closet.
I mean it's like I'm not wanting for anything in here really.
And even our backstairs too is they go up forms with full closet too.
So this is also a big huge full closet, which goes the whole way back in there.
And then I added all the shelves in these as well,
just to kind of have a drawer dresser space.
Yeah.
We just knew we wanted just big storage spaces for our clothes and other things
and not have to worry about where to put all those things, I guess. Yeah.
And along with clothes we wanted to be able to do our own
Oh yeah, yep, yep. So we've got a, this is a combo washer dryer unit.
We will say we do like it,
but we wish it maybe could handle delicates a little better.
Yeah, it washes great. Um, if the regular,
if you need your clothes completely dried, it works pretty well.
But anything you want done delicates, it's kind of not so good.
There's really no setting for those mild.
So that's why we've got these, we've got some hotel dryers up here,
so these were kind of awesome. We've got three of them.
So anytime we do need something with a lighter dry,
this becomes a closed forest and you have to duck under close. But it works.
We stayed at the houses, um,
and we were kind of testing out tiny houses and when I got in the, uh,
32 by 32 in shower, it just was not for me.
I couldn't bend over and like wash my feet without smacking everything.
Yeah. He's 6'1. So he needed it.
So we decided to go for the upgrade.
So it's a 36 by 36 shower and it's also the way they make their,
the way it makes theirs is the square corners. So I mean it's a completely full,
huge shower. Um, I mean I love taking a shower in this thing.
Quite a shower head. We were very surprised, like they went above and beyond.
All we did was asked for one that you could lift up cause for washing the dog.
We wanted to just have that and that's what they, we saw and were like, Oh wow,
Along with the propane stove and fridge.
We have a, a tankless propane hot water heater.
So I mean you can stand in there for hours and you never lose hot water.
It's awesome.
Yeah, it's been really great. And do you have a composting toilet? Yeah. Yep.
Uh, nature's head, composting toilet. Um, when we first heard the idea,
we thought that's nuts and we would never do that. Um,
but then once we kind of started exploring, you know,
the limitations on where you can park if you always need a sewer hookup,
we wanted that option to be able to, to move around more spots. And so honestly,
it's really easy.
It's not as intimidating as we thought it was going to be.
It's really easy to use.
Yeah, it's easy to, easy to change, easy to clean. I mean,
there's no smell whatsoever. I mean,
I could take off that lid and you could look right into it.
Put your face here and you're gonna smell dirt. It's absolutely crazy.
We use a core, um, to,
for the solids and change that out about every three weeks and then liquids
every like three days.
Yeah. And that's with living and working here. So we're here every day, all day.
So it might even be less of, you know,
when we're back in the office and things like that. So, yeah. Great.
Um, so under the stairs, one of the things that we,
we didn't want was the stairs that come down in the living room just because for
us, they didn't really serve a purpose for like the only people using the stairs
pretty much are us. Um,
and so we wanted to keep our living room as big as possible.
And Katie happened to stumble across a blog that had this kind of a design for
stairs and I've never seen it in another house,
but the designs were out there and again,
we gave it to our builders and they're like, yeah, we can do it. Um,
increase the footprint by a foot. Yeah,
it was supposed to be a little bit more compact,
but they to flow with their headers and with everything else they kind of
modified it a little bit. Um, but honestly it just gave us more closet. Um,
on the way up all the stores, the drawers is messing all the shoes, kind of our,
again, our mud room. So it's able just to come in here and,
but that was one thing that builder added in that we didn't even ask for and
we're like, I can't believe we wouldn't have asked for that.
But it's provided like, like it's almost like a second medicine cabinet,
shoe holder or all those other things. It's worked out great.
We designed the loft initially with the shed style because our bed went this way
and that was our plane the whole time. So that way you can sit up,
there's a three and a half feet.
So 42 inches from the floor to the tallest point here,
which is more than enough room to, to sit up in. Um,
but once we actually started living up here,
Katie was on this side and she works Midwest hours.
So every morning she gets up early and she was had to climb over me every day
or if you have to use the bathroom in the night,
and I was crawling over him. It was, it was not, it was not fun.
So this is kind of our second trial to see if we like this better.
Yeah. And actually so far we are, I mean, and this does look uncomfortable but
you're never sitting, this actually works out fine for us. Yeah.
Cause once you get back to your pillows,
it's very rarely in bed that you sit all the way up. So I mean
it works out fine. I mean I lay down and read and then that's kinda why,
what our little nook is there for like if we actually do want to hang out in
here,
this is kind of where I usually go to read a book or take a nap and Maisy loves
sitting next to that window and watching people outside and the fishermen and
deer. Yeah. One thing we were surprised about in this area,
we were surprised how hot it gets up here. Um, we were like at night,
so we'll open both the windows that lets him
with all the insulation the whole way around.
We'd normally turn off the heat and open the windows. I mean,
and that was in January out here too. We were on that.
We turned off. Um, let's see. But we've got lights up here.
We got a lot of outlets. Um, we've got, don't we have USBs
with outlets
and you got lights for upstairs and downstairs you can control up here as well.
The builder did put in a bookshelf,
but you can see it's not really getting used that much. Um,
once we switched our bed this way, then it kind of goes to another bookshelf.
So if we decide we want to keep it this way,
then I'll probably do some customizing up here to make it a little more
comfortable for us. Make it look like we did it this way. On purpose. Yeah,
exactly.
The one thing that was really high on my want list with,
with the such a tiny house. You know, I'm like,
I want that more space just to spread out and to move around. Um,
and we love, you know, having people over, hanging out outside in the summers.
And so having a porch that could travel with us, um,
there's only so much we can fit in our truck.
And so having it attached to the house makes it really nice. So these panels,
I'll just unscrew the awning rolls up and comes off and then this porch actually
just folds right up against the house. And then the
that metal thing on the side is that would hook hooks on right there.
Um, there's little bumpers. I took this one off,
a little bumpers that keep it from smacking up against the house as you're
driving down the road. Um, and actually while it's up, it actually,
since the hitches under here and it comes this way,
the porch actually protects the whole front French doors as we're driving down
the road from getting any rocks or anything,
we just really wanted a mobile house that we could just take from one place to
another whenever we were ready. And that's kind of what our plan is.
Every six months we're going to go to a new location and part of the year.
It will always be in Wisconsin since I want to be there in person for my job.
And so that Jayden can keep shooting weddings,
we can probably get an RV cheaper and towed around a little bit easier.
But yeah, we wanted to feel at home everywhere we went. Um, and I mean these,
just the quality of the build and the feel and the style, I mean it,
it is a normal home. It's just a little smaller.
You can just connect you to, to like a whole different like-minded community,
like people who enjoy what you're doing,
like what you're doing and like we've just met a lot of really cool people that
way, including Jenna. Well I thank you. Um,
how do you guys feel like the tiny house has played into your relationship as a
couple living in a tiny house? That's fine.
I really like it cause I feel like we, we've never gotten to like work together.
So every day we've got our laptop side by side, we get to be together all day,
which before that never happened.
Yeah, it's really fun to me because it's a new area.
One of our favorite things to do, even where we're from,
is to try new restaurants,
explore things in our city that we haven't done before.
So that's what we love about here is every day, every weekend, everything's new.
So we really get to just kind of go around and
Almost like a vacation every weekend. So that's been really fun for us as a couple. And,
I mean you're kind of in a tinier space.
So we bumped into each other a few times and that's obviously caused a little
bit of, get out of my way.
But I think it's mostly been good and we're connecting more than disconnecting,
so yeah. Yeah. How about traveling with a tiny house? Any tips for that?
They're not aerodynamic, so especially when you get to ones this size, um,
Empty. This was I think almost 12,000, um, just under,
so with all of our stuff and it's definitely about a 14,000 pounds house. Um,
so we had to get the big huge Dodge Ram 3500, uh, to tow it. Um,
but even with that, our top speeds are normally around 45 going down the highway
And a sway bar is like a must.
Yeah.
We got a really nice big hitch that's equalizer and sway bar cause it is the,
the bumper hitch. Um, and so, you know,
if you just slap it on the normal bumper hits,
your truck would be down like this. But the equalizer,
I mean it literally sits completely flat from that hitch.
So that was definitely a good, a good buy.
So for us,
like I honestly like I was surprised how slow you have to tow it and how long it
does take. I mean that is something that surprised me. I mean,
I think it's going to take six to eight days to get back,
like at a nice pace to get it back to Wisconsin.
Yeah,
2200 miles normally would take like 30 to 35 hours of driving and now it's going
to take closer to 60 some hours of driving to get it back.
Part of the adventure. All right guys,
that was a quick tour with Katie and Jayden of goodandtiny.com.
Make sure you check back soon for more tours. See you later.