I first heard about tiny houses 5 years ago. I watched
YouTube videos and I got obsessed with the idea that
you could actually build your own house. My name is Marie, and
I've been living in my tiny house for almost a year now.
I grew up in France thinking that to do anything you needed
some kind of qualification or experience, but you actually
don't. The only thing you need is to be willing to make a lot of
mistakes, because you can teach yourself anything. I ended up
in New Zealand 7 years ago when I told my mom in France
that I needed an internship for the end of my studies so I
just wanted to get out of France and travel. We had a
restaurant at the time so she said "You know what why don't
you just put a note on the mirror in the bathroom? There's
so many people going in the toilet everyday, saying that you're
looking for an internship in another country. And someone
came up one day to my mom and said, "I just did an internship
in New Zealand, if your daughter is interested, I can
just give you the details. That's how I did it. I came, did
like a few months internship, fell in love with the country,
came back to France, finished my degree, and I was like "I'm done
just gonna go back to New Zealand and live there." I just had
that instant feeling as soon as I arrived in New Zealand, I
felt like it was my home. After thinking about a tiny house for
years, I saw on Facebook that there was a workshop that was
teaching how to use the tools and the basics of building a
tiny house. I was really happy at that workshop.
It's really cool. You didn't learn how to build a tiny house. You just
learn how you're gonna struggle building a tiny house. That was
really interesting. So when I did my study, I really just
wanted to save the world. That was the idea, but I wanted
to just work outside and change things. I wanted to help and
make a difference. Building a tiny house, it's like you build
your tiny house, you help people having like another lifestyle
as well. And it's just like, there's results straight away.
Suddenly like you consume less, waste less. I think the two
happiest moments I had while I was building a tiny house was...
the first one when the walls were up, and then the
second one, when I moved in my tiny house, it was nothing. It
was just the walls, and I had a mattress on the ground. One of
the biggest challenge during the build was probably me
trying to go too fast. So you really have to take your time
to do things well, and when you set up a deadline for
yourself, often it doesn't happen. You don't know how long
things are gonna take, and you're trying to be like "okay.
I'm gonna do the cladding for my house. It's gonna take me a
month." It's gonna take you way longer than that. So yeah, take
your time. And don't set up any deadlines for yourself. The
biggest mistake I made was probably with my roof. I
went to visit one of my friends, and her boyfriend is a
roofer, and I told him how I installed my roof, and I was so
proud, and I was like, "Yeah I put the little screws in there" and
he told me "This is illegal in New Zealand. You can't do that."
So he told me "You know what, like, I'll just come next week
and I'm gonna do it for you." So that was like, a massive
relief, but I was so proud and he was like "No... Probably have
to take everything down." So that was one of my biggest mistakes.
Something I'm very proud of is probably my pallet wall and my
round window. So I've got that feature wall in my tiny house
that I really love. I really wanted you to have some kind of
like WOW feeling when you come in straight away. Even if
you do it wrong, it's still gonna look good, because that's
the point, it just needs to be rustic. So if you wanna build
your own tiny home or going off grid, I think my advice would be
first just start! Once you start something, you know, you just get
the momentum, and it's gonna be okay. But also make sure you've
got the right people around you to help. So a good electrician, a
good plumber, a good solar system company, and some friends,
a good builder, and you'll be all good. Really early on in the
design process I needed to decide what was I gonna do
with energy, and I decided to go with solar because I really
wanted to be independent, and I wanted to be part of the
solution because I studied environmental science and that was
just really important to me. GridFree was the company I went with because
their website was full of resources to understand how
solar works, and their kits are DIY, which is really empowering. You
can just do it yourself. And they were really with
me along the way, answering all of my questions if I had any.
I chose a tiny house kit, which has three solar panels, two batteries, and I
also got a hybrid inverter. I chose to have a hybrid inverter
because I wanted to have the freedom of plugging my house into
the mains if I needed to. I have a mix of gas and
electrical appliances inside my tiny house. For example, I've
got a fridge. I've got a washing machine, a gas oven and
a cooktop that is gas as well. I also have a laptop that I
have to charge, and I installed a wireless charger inside my
desk, and I also have a projector. It feels so good to
be independent, energy-wise. The dream is to be completely off
the grid with my water as well as my waste, to really create a
closed loop where I can control everything and have zero
footprint. GridFree allowed me to get closer to that goal. I'm
very happy with what I created here. I feel like I built a
the sanctuary for myself to get away from everything.