For the past year, Jaco and Dom have been on a huge journey,
building their tiny house from the ground up.
Are you ready?
Are you prepared for this?
No.
To stay on schedule during a wet winter,
they decided to build inside, resulting in a dramatic move
to get their house onto their Raglan site.
I'm super, super happy that it's out,
and just to see in the light for the first time.
Having worked hard to get their finishing touches in place,
their tiny house is now home.
It just looks phenomenal.
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It's been a long 12 months since I first
met Jaco and Dom, who were full of enthusiasm
but lacking in any real building experience.
I'm sure they've got some great stories to share
and I can't wait to see what they've achieved.
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Ever since the house has been on-site, we've been quite busy.
We've built the deck.
The balustrades have gone up.
We've done the landscaping and done all the finishing touches
inside.
We've got a bit of furniture.
We've put food in the cupboards.
Essentially, it's a fully livable house.
It still seems like a dream, doesn't it?
Like, is it real?
It does seem like a dream.
I absolutely love this house.
I think it's beautiful--
tiny, or not tiny.
I just love coming here.
It's luxury.
I like the tiles in the bathroom, real nice fittings.
Tiny doesn't mean that you have to compromise any of that.
You can almost have more of that luxury
when you've got a tiny house.
I'm really excited about showing the house to George.
I hope he'll be blown away by what he sees because we are.
I think he'll see the more unique features, the thought,
and the processes behind it.
And I think he'll really enjoy it.
Dom and Jaco, so nice to see you.
Are you well?
Yeah, great.
Thank you.
Good to see you.
Hello, mate.
How are you?
Good to see you.
It looks fantastic-- absolutely stunning.
We absolutely love it.
It's more contemporary than I thought it was going to be.
It's super slick.
Our vision changed quite a bit, didn't it--
when we got stuck into it?
But the main thing is we wanted it
to fit into the environment, which I think it still does.
You've got that lovely balance between contemporary materials,
like the glass balustrading up their on the terrace,
with the beautiful timber.
I think it blends in really nicely.
Thank you.
We love it.
We're really happy.
Does the inside look as beautiful as the outside?
We think it does.
Do you want to come see?
I'm sure it does.
Come on, let's have a look.
I can't believe the sense of space.
Look at it.
Your ceiling is right up there and I can hardly
touch it, actually.
Because it's so low here, that it kind of just opens it up
and it seems a lot higher than what it actually is.
And the colour is beautiful.
That lovely colour green, it just adds to the layers.
The lawn, the bush, the trees beyond--
it's really connecting the outside world, isn't it?
Yeah, so it's just lots of tones of what
we're surrounded by anyway.
And I can see you've designed in a few tricks--
pull-down bed?
Yeah-- pull-down bed.
And I love all the details.
You've even put the same cladding down here
as what you've got outside.
That's all the off-cuts of the house.
And you've got loads of storage, which is amazing.
Oh, look at that--
wine in there, which is compulsory.
And I love what you've done with the doors.
Because you could have gone for one
single panel of the same timber, all looking the same.
But instead you've just mixed it all up,
which is quite a brave move.
But it works beautifully.
And then in here this is what-- the shower room?
The bathroom, yeah.
Oh that's incredible.
You haven't compromised at all.
You've got a toilet, sink and a massive walk in shower.
How have you managed to get all of that into a tiny house?
Lovely finishes.
And then the ladder takes you upstairs to your bedroom,
is that right?
Yeah that's the adult's area.
Oh, that's neat.
For someone who's six foot three,
Yeah you're a good person to test it out, aren't you?
I can stand up completely straight up here.
And that means you've got an area where you can get
changed and not bang your head.
Yeah.
What more do you need?
And then when you're in bed--
perfect.
Oh, that view--
You've made this space work really hard.
And actually, to make it work hard,
and make it look so simple is very talented.
If you put more stuff in here, it
would have felt too cluttered.
I think the design choice that we
made doesn't make it feel so much like a tiny house.
No.
We realize that the space is small,
but it doesn't feel inhibiting.
We feel very comfortable within the size of the house.
And that's with two kids, one being a toddler that
wants to destroy everything.
So that's saying something.
So I've got to clamber out?
Yeah, you've got to clamber out the window.
In time, we are going to have an external staircase.
I'll tell you what, when you get up here, look at that view.
Pretty amazing, isn't it?
You know, I remember the first time I came to see you.
Standing right down there, and we had a chat saying,
do you know what, it would be really
lovely to be kind of elevated at a higher level
to be able the look out.
And you've done it.
Yeah, we've had some time.
It's definitely better than what we imagined.
We didn't imagine it to just come together like this
and be as beautiful as what it is.
Yeah.
We're starting to feel at home in the place.
It almost feels more like home than
what our home is in the city because we
put our heart and soul into it.
And it's got a lot of stories behind it as well.
It's a very special place.
What was the process like?
I haven't seen you for a year.
It was a bit of a roller coaster ride, I reckon.
But it was very quick as well.
I think we only had six weeks in the end to build it.
It was built in six weeks.
The frames were up.
This was up.
That was up.
It was so quick.
The two of you, from doing nothing before to achieve this
is pretty incredible.
You probably haven't even realized what you've done,
but you have done it.
It's a reality.
It is here.
It was also really rewarding, like you're saying.
Really rewarding--
A lot of the tasks, I feel that I could go and help
my friends on the weekend now.
You do realize that they'll be watching this now and picking
up the phone and going, all right get yourself over mate.
We need some DIY work.
The amount of favours I owe after this, to people--
I don't think the phone is going to stop ringing.
It's been a challenging experience, definitely,
but it's achievable.
I'd definitely encourage people to do a tiny house.
It was great to be a part of something that's
going to be in our family for a very long time.
What a place to sit and have a drink at the end of the day.
That was a hint, by the way.
Yes.
It's about that time.
What an amazing project to be part of.
It's such an inspirational finish!
Obviously, Jaco and Dom set out to create
themselves a very lovely house.
But in fact, they've gone way beyond,
to create a place that they could have only ever dreamt of.
They've got themselves a tiny house truly to be proud of.
But you know what?
I'm proud of them too.
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