- What's up!
- Hey, what up? - Hey, Curly!
- How are you?
- This is the show, it's called Worth It: Lifestyle.
- Yes! - And this is our friend.
- Yes, finally we're here!
Here we are.
I'm so excited to be here with you.
- What do you mean finally?
- I've been wanting to be on the show for forever.(laughing)
- Oh, It is your debut!
Today we chose you because we know you have good taste,
first of all. - Yes, thank you.
- And we're lookin' at houses.
- Yes! - But not just any houses.
Tiny houses.
And we are bringing Andrew Ilnyckyj,
- Ah! - Producer of the shoot.
(car doors slam)
Today on Worth It: Lifestyle,
we're gonna be checkin' out two different tiny houses
at two drastically different price points
to find out which one is the most worth it at its price.
- Worth it. - Worth it.
- I'm just happy to be here.
I'm happy to go look at some tiny homes.
I'm born and raised in LA and Hollywood.
The real estate has gone up so much.
- It has. - I can't live
in my own neighborhood,
which makes these small houses fascinating to me.
- The first tiny house, it's up in Ventura,
and it's called Humble Handcraft.
- I mean, it's all in the words.
It's humble and it's handcrafted.
(modern upbeat music)
- I'm Ryan O'Donnell, I own and operate Humble Handcraft.
We are gonna check out my personal home, the acorn.
- It already sounds fun, that's a good name.
- Yeah, it's just as tiny as an acorn, pretty much.
- So how did you get your start into building tiny homes?
- [Ryan] I was working as a carpenter
on big custom homes, and there was a lot of waste,
so I wanted to build something small,
more reclaimed materials.
- Do you mind defining what a tiny home is?
- Tiny home to me is something that you can move.
I'd say probably you're under 500 square feet.
People can actually own their space, take it where they want
at a much more affordable price.
- Can you describe the interior of the acorn to me?
- You walk through the back end of the trailer,
which is the front door.
You look to the right, there's a kitchen counter.
There's a sleeping loft, there's a lower hangout
with an entertainment room.
- Can you cook in there, and all that stuff,
or? - Got a stove,
oven, sink. - Oven?
- Yeah, yeah. - Can you use the bathroom
in there? - Yeah, there's a shower.
- [Curly] Oh, wow!
- We're trying to represent the green movement,
and if we can build these things completely
without the man's help, I think that says a lot.
- That's right, who is The Man?
- I don't know!
I'm still tryin' to find him.
(laughing)
- What are the prices like for these tiny homes?
- Typically, they start at around 50,
and go up as high as 200.
- Wow! - It just ends up
what kind of systems we install,
what kind of materials we use.
- How much does the Acorn cost?
- The Acorn itself is 50 grand.
(jovial music)
- We are here. - We're at the Acorn.
- The Acorn!
Not just any Acorn.
Ryan's Acorn.
- It feels very magical.
Come here, get your spells in here.
Would you like me to find you a girlfriend?
I'll cast a spell.
- Curly and the Acorn.
It kinda looks like a giant birdhouse, you know?
And if I was a bird, I'd wanna live here.
"Remove Thy Shoes", I like it.
- We might be here for another half hour.
(laughing)
- [Steven] Yes, oh wow!
You know the fine line between a good hug
and strangling? - Yeah.
- I was not sure where it was gonna land,
but this is a warm hug where I feel like I could live here.
Weirdly, I've been in many kitchens that are bigger
but still feel smaller.
- My kitchen's definitely bigger than this,
but this has more counter.
- Probably 'cause this sink looks awesome.
- [Curly] That sink is amazing, yeah.
- It's like a perfect bathtub for a baby!
- I wanna see what he eats.
- Is this the fridge?
Ooh! - Yeah.
That's more than what's in my fridge right now.
- You wanna check out the shower?
- Sure? - That's a very important.
- That also sounds like wanna check out the shower?
- Oh!
- Ooh, pretty cute. - Okay.
I'm six feet tall, and I'm totally in.
- I wanna be six feet tall.
But if you look right down the drain,
it goes right down to the soil.
I always think am I wasting water
that water can go do something.
- Is there a bathroom here, by the way,
or is this the bathroom?
- There's a bathroom in the back.
- Oh, to the entertainment center.
Okay, so this is bit short.
A little bit short.
- He has a little TV in here.
Look, he has books!
He has enough space for his clothes.
He can entertain, he can get his little guitar.
- Do you have siblings?
- Yes. - Did you ever build,
like, blanket forts?
- Yeah. - Oh, yeah.
- That's what I was thinking.
This is kind of like the ultimate kid imagination space.
I would have moments when I was younger
where all I wanted to do was just chill,
watch a movie, eat, and then take a nap,
wake up, chill, watch a movie,
- Yeah, yes. - And eat and take a nap.
- This is the perfect combo 'cause everything's so close.
You could roll from your bed to the oven and be like
yup, I'm back.
- He has a fireplace!
Having a fireplace is a luxurious thing to have in a house.
The introvert in me is loving this.
- [Curly] Yeah! - It's not even just cozy,
it's comfortable.
- So it's like an introvert's dream come true.
- Wanna go upstairs real quick?
- Yeah. - Finish it off?
- Everything sounds like you're tryin' to flirt with me.
You're like wanna check out the shower?
(laughing)
Wanna go upstairs?
(laughing)
- How do we get upstairs?
- He mentioned that he's working on a ladder as of right now
but that he uses the counter to jump up onto the bed.
- Oh, so down for that!
(laughing)
Parkour!
- [Curly] A little worried about doing that
'cause I feel a little gassy and I'm like uh oh.
(laughing)
- You good?
You need help?
- It's scary for me and I'm like aw man,
I gotta go back down there.
- Actually, that would be a deterrent to getting out of bed.
- If I had a date, I'd be like "Well,
you gotta climb down, now."
- This is where you get creative!
This is where, I was gonna say the magic happens here,
but that's not the magic.
- You're just flirting with me
this whole time. - No!
(laughing)
- It's a playground.
You can customize and you got your own fireplace
and it's like, oh!
- Yeah, I love that.
- It's a lot bigger than I thought it was gonna be.
- You can have everything that you need in life
as a human being and not cause such a strain on the Earth.
I think it's cute, I think it's cozy.
- I don't think it should be called tiny home.
It should be called cozy home.
- Cozy home. - Parkour!
You know, that actually made me feel like
maybe I can live in one.
- I mean, I definitely am not 100% convinced,
but I wouldn't be mad.
- But are you a high-maintenance person
or a low maintenance person?
- I'm super, super chill, but I also feel like a lot
of my own upbringing has always been like, yes,
you made it when you have an island in the kitchen.
- Preach away, please!
(laughing)
Preach away!
Tiny house fact time! - Yes!
According to a recent poll by the National Association
of Home Builders, 63% of millennials
said they would consider buying a tiny home,
less than 600 square feet. - Wow!
Okay first of all, you should just
be our given fact deliverer.
- Thank you. - You have a very good voice.
- Side bar, I wanna know
which millennials they're talking to because I'm like, who?
- 600 square feet is a lot of room,
actually, in New York City.
So before we go to our last stop, Curly,
we're gonna go talk to some people
who live full-time in a tiny home.
Uh-huh. - I'm interested to see
how they do.
- How they do, yes. - Yeah!
(relaxing music)
- I'm Julie Akins, founder of Vehicles For Changes,
and we are in our first buses in Ashland, Oregon.
- And why are we in a bus?
- We are in a bus because we turn buses into homes
for homeless children and families.
- [Steven] Will you tell us about your company
and just how did it all get started?
- I was a journalist, and my project was
to interview homeless people and see
how they became homeless and how they live.
Along that track, I met a bunch of families,
which I didn't really think was out there.
I didn't know there were a bunch of little kids
sleeping in cars and homeless.
In Oregon, there are 24,000 kids
who don't have a place to sleep at night.
- It's heartbreaking, but sometimes I feel lost
'cause I don't know what to do about that situation
or even how to help, so how did you then turn that idea
into something that's tangible,
and that's actually able to help people?
- I literally had a dream, where I pictured a school bus
with these pretty window boxes with flowers,
and I just was like, could that happen?
And through that process, I discovered Schoolies.
- So what is a Schooly?
- So a Schooly is a school bus
that's been converted into a home.
And then I wrote a blog about it.
With my aspiration, I would love to make a home
for homeless children and families out of a schoolbus.
The very next day, I got an email
from a woman I'd never met who said she would fund me
for five years to make buses.
- Wow! - And then I went
into panic mode and went now I have to do it!
I don't know how!
- Wow, offer 'em a dream.
- And I met Cody, who builds these beautiful homes
pretty much by himself, and then money comes in
and then you can build more houses.
- [Curly] How many have you created so far?
- We name our buses, the first one was Betsy.
This is Matilda, and our next one is Alexis.
- Did they already have families that they're going to?
- We create first and then we have an
application process for folks.
The way it works is they move into the bus,
they live in it for one year as a tenant
but there's no rent,
and then if they love bus life, we create a buyer's program
and they can buy a bus, and then that's it
and they own their home and they're good to go.
- And so now we're gonna go meet a family who lives in one.
- It's the Flood family, David, Jennifer,
Raylee, David Jr., and little Noah.
- [Curly] And then now they live in?
- Now they live in Betsy, the wonder bus.
People need a space that's secure and warm and kind to them.
- [Steven] It has to be home.
- [Woman] It has to be home, right!
Exactly. - But these are not for sale.
- No, they're not for sale.
These are made specifically for homeless families.
(gentle acoustic music)
- Well, thank you so much. - Yeah!
for having us in your home.
- [David] You're welcome, thank you for coming.
There's a lot of school buses out there,
but the ones that Julie Akins and Leo have done,
it's amazing.
- I think it looks small on the outside
but when you come in, it opens up.
- [Curly] Let's go look at the kitchen!
- Right, can you tell us a little
about what's goin' on here?
- Yeah, so we've got a nice, - Whoa!
Sorry. - That's dope!
- [Raylee] Kitchen sink, stove top, oven.
We've got the microwave, we've got the cabinets.
- This is beautiful wood.
- We got the marble top counters.
- There's a lot of craftmanship that went
into making this kitchen!
- Do you ever use this stove here?
- Yep! - Okay.
I don't think I turned on the stove until I was like 18.
(laughing)
- A lot of natural light in here, too, a lot of windows.
- Yes, refrigerator. - Oh, yeah!
That's a good fridge.
- I have one criteria for a kitchen.
- Mmm?
- When I look at it, does it inspire me to cook?
- Mm-hmm.
- This one does, yes. - Yeah.
- Alright, Raylee, why don't you guys tell us
about where we are here?
- Okay, so this is my sister's bunk.
- [Steven] Do you guys share the closet?
- Yeah, we all share basically.
- The clouds are really beautiful up there.
You painted them? - Yes.
- We've got these storage under the beds.
- Oh! - Wow.
- [Curly] Kind of wish I had one of those for me.
- That's really smart.
Thank you for letting us hang out in your room
with you guys and thank you for talking to us.
- We are now in your bedroom.
- Mm-hmm. - Yes!
- The master.
Tell us a little about what we have here.
- It's nice, we've got a very big mattress.
It has a lot of storage room under.
- [Curly] It's like a little sleepover
slumber party, always.
- [David] Whimsical, we definitely look at it that way.
The door opens so you can put stuff
under the bed from there, - Oh!
- too, or get stuff out.
This is the bathroom, it's kind
of a neat little sliding door.
- [Steven] Oh wow!
- I like it better than a flush toilet.
I felt it was kind of amazing that they put a shower in here
and not just a tub. - Wow!
I grew up with a tile shower,
so this kind of made me feel good
- Yeah.
- We were blessed enough to get this.
- You come all the way in and it's like the safe space.
- This is the cubby hole
- Yup! - Or the nook
or the safe space,
it definitely is. - Yeah.
We have now circled back to the living room area.
The very front.
Well, the whole family's here.
- Tell us about this beautiful mural.
- [David] This was done by a local artist.
We were camping at the Rogue State Park
quite a bit during the summer.
This looks exactly like a tree that was out there,
as if it was, kind of, telling us
what was going to happen.
- Is it functional as a bus? - Yes!
- [David] It is functional as a bus.
- [Curly] Anybody ever stood up here?
- This guy does! - Noah does it the most.
- [Steven] You've been living here for,
you said how many months now?
- [David] Since, Thanksgiving, November.
- [Steven] How's that experience been?
- Its spacious compared to what we were living in before.
- Yeah - So deeply grateful.
- Thank you again so much, for having us in your home.
- Yes thank you so much, its really nice to meet all of you.
The kids are brilliant.
- Thanks, Noah. - Thanks Noah!
- You're the star of the show now, we're done take our job.
(laughing)
- Here we go, the final spot.
It's a company called New Frontier
and you know, its a life of luxury.
You'd think tiny homes can't be luxurious,
well you thought wrong Curly.
- It sounds fancy already, I like it.
(upbeat music)
- My name is David Latimer,
and I am the CEO and Founder of New Frontier tiny homes.
And today we are gonna look at the orchid tiny home.
- Will you tell me about how you got started?
- I came across a tiny house movement,
and its just a confluence of a lot of things
I'm passionate about.
Design, also the do it yourself ethos, sustainability.
- [Steven] Give me a little tour of the orchid.
- [David] A lot of my design inspiration
comes from Scandinavian design.
You've got this cedar siding that's raised off of the side.
But the pieces of siding carry over in a perfect line,
all across the roof.
I've got this cantilevered deck and it has a LED light,
that spans the entire shape of the home.
The lighting in this house was inspired
by the Solar Eclipse.
And its the ultimate balance light,
it means you don't see the source of the lighting.
You've got this wall of glass,
where that garage door opens up,
and it gives you that extra living space.
- Have some drinks, have a little picnic
but you don't leave your living room.
- Right, this sofa is an actual full size bed,
it slides out and then you get a bunch of storage
in the actual bench itself.
Custom made, walnut closet/covering of the air conditioner.
- I noticed that, that's a fancy AC right there.
- And one really cool thing is this house runs on solar.
- So you could like, cook over here have guests stay over.
- [David] Yeah, you got a king size bed in the loft.
- [Steven] King size bed?
No way.
- [David] Yeah absolutely. - Wow!
Oh my god, I feel like
I can't even fit a king size bed in my bedroom in New York.
- It does bring out just that I feel like a child again.
- Its like bouche tree house. - Exactly!
(laughing)
- How much is the orchid if I wanted to purchase one?
- About $165,000.
(upbeat music)
- Its beautiful. - Okay, okay.
- Alright lets try the bed couch.
- Lets do it, I definitely want to try this out.
- Oh okay. - Its not bad.
What, is that how you sit?
- Yeah you don't sit like this on couches?
- It feels good.
- Yeah and there's a bed underneath this thing.
- Whoa, nice!
- Yeah this is comfy, there's a little bookshelf in here.
- Do you want this pillow?
- Yeah you can like nestle yourself.
- Is this for your eyes so you can sleep?
- You don't know where that's been.
- Whats cool about this tiny house is that,
design with restrictions, creates the most beautiful thing.
I want this in my normal home. - Me too.
- You don't do that because your like,
oh we have plenty of space we can do whatever we want.
- Why can't every apartment have a bed that I can put away?
- Why does my apartment not have floor to ceiling windows?
- I know, why don't I have a giant garage coming in?
(laughing)
- Why don't I have this thing?
- You really do feel like your in nature,
without having to interact with the nature.
Like I'm about this, but I'm not about that bug life.
- So lets move on to the kitchen.
- Lets go, beautiful steps there.
- And now we're on the second floor!
- This is dope, this is really cool.
- It makes the space feel so much bigger.
- It does, it feels like little surprises,
like those little dolls when you keep opening them,
and they get smaller but its the opposite.
Like they get bigger.
Do you wanna sit next to me? - Okay.
- So certainly somebody can be cooking while your here,
or I could just watch you sleep from here.
You could use this as a desk.
- I do a latte and I journal, that my morning.
- Today in my tiny home, I sat at this tiny desk.
- Is that how I sound in my journal?
I'm gonna just pop this out.
What do you want for breakfast, Curly?
- Some eggs, I'd like some eggs.
- Okay, crack them eggs.
(Sizzling)
- Not bad. - Flip, flip, flip, flip.
Yeah open your mouth.
(laughing)
- Kinda want to see what the water would look like.
- Oh! - That's a good one.
(clapping)
- Well done.
- And you kind of have to put everything away right away
I feel like, because if you let this place get messy
its like, what are you doing?
But I want to go check out the bathroom,
because it's super important to me.
- Of course!
- And I know it's super important to you.
- Watch your step.
- [Steven] I did not expect this,
but I guess that's the theme of tiny houses.
Every real estate hack,
throw a mirror in there, and the room gets twice as big
so you got two mirrors.
- This toilet is huge. - Wow.
(laughing)
- It looks futuristic.
- Do you hear that noise?
- [Curly] Drawer space.
- [Steven] Hey, they obviously need a hair straightener.
Do you have a hair straightener?
- No.
- You telling me this is your hair?
- This is my mother and the lord at work.
- I hate that I keep saying this,
but it's bigger than my shower at home.
- This is bigger than my shower.
- You think tiny house, you think like tiny cooking.
- Yeah. - Tiny food,
but it more like no hallways house.
- Yeah, only space for things you actually use.
- Necessity house, should be called a necessity house.
- Yeah, although I really love my hallway.
- What do you do in your hallway?
- I pretend I'm a runway model.
I have fashion in my hallway, that's what I do.
We're gonna go find the roof. - The loft.
- Lets go to the loft.
So how do we get up there?
I think there's a ladder in there.
- Yeah, and it goes here right?
- [Steven] Wow, look at that closet though.
- Here it is.
I don't know if that will fit all my clothes,
but it fits a ladder.
- Who wants to go first?
(grumbling)
This is a king size bed.
- Yeah this is nice, definitely the funnest room.
Like if you and your significant other just wanna cuddle,
and you kinda wanna be alone
from your friends or whatever, this is perfect.
- Uh huh. - You know?
- Is your bed room the furnished most in your home?
- Um, yes.
- Ultimate efficient use of space.
It is literally a room with a bed.
My bedroom is actually more of my sanctuary, my safe space.
My own house warming party, I ghosted it,
it was just to much you know?
- And you went into your bedroom?
- So I went into my bedroom, closed the door.
- What a diva. - I know, I know.
(laughing)
- Rolling over, bye.
- I do not wanna leave this bed though.
- That was fun.
- [Curly] That was fun!
But also I'm afraid for my life right now.
- Lets get the shoes back on, one hour later.
(upbeat music)
Okay, finally the deck.
Oh, there you go.
Woooh!
- This is exactly the same space
as like a regular apartment.
- I love how we just literally popped the wall open.
Indoor, outdoor, indoor, outdoor.
You wanna try it?
(laughing)
The way you sit on the couch is so amazing.
- Who doesn't sit on couches like this?
- Curly! - Hey, we did it.
That was fun.
- I'm gonna ask you a very difficult question.
- Oh, tell me.
- All the homes are worth it, particularly
there price point. - Yes.
But which tiny home was the most worth it to you
at its given price?
- I think my city boy vouge ness.
(laughing)
I think I would pick New Frontier.
- I saw that coming a mile away though.
(laughing)
- I'm a fan of space, I'm a fan of open windows.
- You wanna here my winner? - Yeah.
- So my worth it winner has to go to Humble Handcraft.
It was just so homey,
and it just had that nook you can get away in.
And I just felt like that was perfect for me
as an introvert, to get away.
Tiny houses are very lovable.
- Yeah, and when you do have limited amount of space
there are clever ways to use it,
and make it really pretty and beautiful.
- Its speaks to my New York soul.
(laughing)
Little space, big heart.
- We both know that the real MVP
of all of this is Vehicles for Changes.
- [Steven] We need people like her in this world.
- [Curly] I agree.
- [Steven] Who see a problem, see a need and they are like,
I'm gonna make it happen by just going out and doing it.
- Andrew who's your worth it winner?
- [Andrew] Vehicle for Changes.
- You can't choose them, that's not how it works.
Okay, alright, he's chosen.
(laughing)
And it just panned to nothing.
Time to go home Curly.
- Lets do it, I'm excited.
- Thanks for being the best guest in the world.
- Thank you for having me! That was so much fun.
- Your better than Andrew as a Cohost.
- Thank you. - Yeah, bye Andrew.
(laughing)
Just kidding.
(upbeat music)