$10,000 Off-The-Grid Tiny House With HUGE Solar System

I think what attracts so many of us to the idea of tiny houses and off-the-grid living is the concept of freedom being able to break out of the daily grind and do something in the world that you're truly excited about and that is exactly what's happened with this next young family who have built a beautiful off-the-grid tiny home that's allowed them to explore their passions [Music] hi Chloe how are you hello Thank You ru good thank you lovely to meet you get a Glade how's it going very well thank you yeah this house looks absolutely brilliant well thank you very much I have to ask about the solar system here are you powering a tiny house or the whole neighborhood preparing a tiny house manufacturing business and an air conditioner and an electric oven and so we've basically max the thing out the tiny house is not currently that mobile it can move around the property but we're not planning to move it further so that's the compromise we make just trying to follow everything we've got and it certainly looks like it for the size of the home I have never seen a solar system like this before how much power is this actually generating so it's a four kilowatt solar array we have 36 kilowatts of lead-acid battery storage of which we use about 18 and there's a four and a half kilowatts electronic inverter as well with it so it's a serious system that just keeps going and going and going and it's been in operation for about four and a half years and we've never had any trouble that certainly is a very serious system so you're powering the tiny house and then you're also powering your workshop over there yeah that's right yep so welders angle grinders whatever I need to power during the whole day it does it so we figure it's pretty well sized the system to what we need and this property is completely off the grid so what are you doing for your water here we actually have another dwelling on the property and it has an area of catchment as well and a 10,000 litre tank attached to it so that has a pressure pump and it pumps water up as we turn the tap on here in the tiny house the property this place is absolutely beautiful and you actually own this land don't you yeah we owned the land before we knew about tiny houses and we're actually chatting to a friend who kind of mentioned well you could build a tiny house on your property and then we looked into it I first poo-pooed the idea I said now that sounds like a caravan what's different and then I looked into it and I think I saw a couple of your videos and I realize that you can really make it livable and you can make it something that you don't want to move out of in 15 minutes like you would a typical carry head so I guess living in this house here rather than teaching us something new it's brought us back to what we already knew about ourselves we kind of got a little bit caught up in real estate things and we had influence from people around us that were encouraging us to sort of continue in that direction as well and there's nothing wrong with that but we took a year in France when ebony was very little and we reflected on everything that we really really deeply wanted and and we came up with something which was much simpler and being off the grid and producing and having contact with what we eat and in the way that we live was where we arrived after that year it was really really clear to us I was just a parent let's just do exactly what we want to do you know because we're not going to get a second chance I don't believe our passion is leaving and this enabled us to live and to do what we really wanted to do and you've done a wonderful job on the build of this house can you talk to me about some of the materials and the style that you've built in the whole style was derived from hard rubbish and basically just recycled materials we had things on the property I ripped a window out of a shed over there I had friends with these windows and so we just did it there was a means to an end this cladding it's all cedar plywood cladding which came out of a house about three kilometers from here it cost me 35 bucks the doors were hard rubbish there the whole thing nearly aside from a couple of packs of timber for the flooring etc it was recycled yeah the idea is to actually build our home on a block and we just really wanted to leave in this glaze and look at the Sun and how the whole thing worked the seasons watch the kangaroos come through and then really design accordingly lumber stonemason as well and I have a passion we both have a passion for stone living in France and Italy and Switzerland hence the stone that we have prepared from that work which we'll put into a study house and how long ago did you build the tiny house so he built it two and a half years ago yeah I fell pregnant with more singing little one so we had a good little start we're here yeah wonderful in your family of 40 in Alban that's right I see you've got a really nice playground there for the kids as well yes they keep longing to be outside they're just living outdoors whether it's not bad weather in any kind of season they're just going outside well from the outside this place looks absolutely brilliant it is hard to believe that all of the materials come from the hard rubbish I cannot wait to see what you've done with the inside of the place can we check it out look thank you very much this place is just so cozy with all of the temper in here it really has that cabin feel doesn't it yeah we both have an affinity with timber I used to build guitars and have done that for quite a few years so obviously that's sort of a passion you know we want to see timber so you used to make guitars is this one of yours yeah that's one of mine I built that when I was about 19 years old so just to the other year really yeah well I can see when you got your absolute love of working with timber from and the design in here is really nice first of all let's talk about the spectacular staircase because this is really interesting how you've done this yeah that was just an open staircase we figured with steel you can actually save a lot of weight in a tiny house it really depends on how you're engineer but you can save a lot of weight by doing that and also I guess there's a bit of an open feel as you can see through the risers do the speakest and sometimes to block it off a bit what's especially if you have to so we thought well just to leave that open and can still sit on the couch and talk through this bit somebody else absolutely I can see why that's very important and it looks like you've built in a lot of storage in here as well and I'm guessing that is all accessed via that ladder over there and it works it's mostly for things that we don't need often you know dehydrators things that you pull out every now and then and then here behind me right now we've got your lounge and seating area yes posted I sketches and we've just created the two drools and the modern one I've got the clothes of the the little baby one and then the toys because the toys always end up in the catch anyway so I thought well might as well just make a draw and just throw them all fantastic and you find the couch space to be big enough for when you're chilling out with the family that is probably something I do differently now when I build tiny houses but like everything you just make it work and it does yeah I was gonna say because it looks like you're about the same size as me and I don't I think I'd probably barely fit on that that's why you're always in the corner and the kids have to deal with us just to get what's left good thinking I like it and I really like what you've done with the dining table here because of course living in a tiny house as a family having those family meals together is so important isn't it yeah that's exactly right that was our original thought yeah so it was crucial and the ability to actually have people here we can seat a people including to your kids seated here we have an extra table there we love entertaining some of our lots of friends and obviously got kids and yeah so we liked it to open up that possibility to keep doing that inviting people over absolutely and it looks like you've even built additional storage into the seating here - that's right it's a pretty good idea cause gliders working as a standing Mason he wanted to see just comfortably on the chair when he come back home so that was the idea he didn't want just a stool and then that's nice storage for my dirty washing so extra jackets for the kids and you know cameras and things that you might not use all the time but thanks well and I can really tell that you love to entertain and that you love to cook because you have put a lot of time and effort into this kitchen having you yeah that was a big priority for us to something that was actually usable as a regular house kitchen is now it's possible in a tiny yes yeah it is and I got Italian blood so the kitchen is speeding toward --n and I like to do the whole lot myself as much as I can my my fermentations my bread pickles and you name it so I really didn't want to get sick of having a small kitchen and I wanted that to be right sorry have powerful size benchtops double beam with a composting in the bottom here I normal oven electric the stuff top elected gas and have a dishwasher like a small little washer yeah and double sink just when needed so we've got storage in the top of the sink there as well storage and drawing so in Italian style we did it that way excellent and then is that your bathroom through there that it is can we check it out go and have a look alright this is a nice bathroom composting toilet there nice vanity yeah it has everything it's pretty pokey but you know that's what you get in a tiny house understandably yeah and how do you find the bathroom works for the family that's absolutely perfect we've got a raised bottom on the shower it's a fiberglass shower so that we could actually have bobbing and things like that in there as well so it works perfectly and then upstairs we've got the sleeping lofts I'm guessing ones for you and one for the kids yeah that's right yep fantastic should we check out the kids one first absolutely this is really cute you've even got the stars on the ceiling here yeah she loves it it's pretty it's pretty cozy let's a little corner it's got all the little books and her little lights so it's just the oldest kid sleeping this loft in that's right yeah we designed the tiny house when she was with us and then the other little one came around so if she's still with us so she's still pretty little so is the plan to extend this loft so that both of them can eventually sleep in this space or are you hoping to be in the other house by that time Oh we'll see I'm not very sure about that but we would definitely have some plan as to how we can extend this loft and just create a her own little nook behind this cupboard here yeah we probably will end up doing that so enough will should we check out your sleeping off a good idea ah this is a comfy looking loft glad you're already settled enough here hi I'm good thanks and how do you find the sleeping loft works out for you okay well it's my first king-size bed ever and I'm a king-size bloke so this is perfect it's absolutely very very comfortable one fear that I had was that it was gonna be too tight here and I was going to feel claustrophobic in the loft and I think it's just worked out so naturally I think I just have not felt that one little bit in here and the way that the stairs work by the time you're up here you horizontal anyway so it's just really really kind of natural it feels good so is this the side that you're each normally on one is with us he used to be the tall side of these but I was gonna say just yes err yeah yeah after swap widowed and you've got lots of clothing storage up here as well yeah I mean we've sort of have a few sets of clothes and that's about it and it creates a bit of a privacy as well and for the kid it's a bit of a safety you get back downstairs yeah yeah certainly now it's been about two and a half years since you've built this tiny house how are you finding it I think it is absolutely fantastic and it's a lot to do with the functionality of it and it being completely off the grid we spend about 15 bucks a month on gas bottles and that's our bill it is so good that I decided to share that with other people and offer my skills in that area to build tiny houses basically yes so basically the whole career changed for me I came from something which was there was a lot of financial potential and a lot of chances to move up in the ranks whatever there that is and it was a great job too with great people and I pulled the pin on it to do something that was actually totally sitting right with me internally also for the other advantage of being able to spend time with my family and it was very effective because it's worked perfectly and I have been president I've been affairs father and I'm really proud to set it now obviously all of the labor in this house was done by yourselves and it sounds like you've managed to recycle and upcycle a lot of materials and have billed at this one but all of that into consideration what was the budget for building this house really tricky to say because I guess it was built with labour and going and sourcing materials so I don't exactly know what the overall cost was I'd say without the solar array and everything I might have spent ten ten thousand fantastic a really great result for this home well I can really see that this is a house that was built with a tremendous amount of skill and love for what you do thank you both so much for sharing it with me thank you for us thank you for coming Cheers this really is such a wonderful home I love the use of solar power and renewable energies but most of all what I really love more than anything about this home is the way that it has allowed this family to really come together it's it Glade on a completely new path where he gets to do a job that he loves but most importantly he gets to be around his family he gets to watch his kids grow up and there is absolutely no dollar sign that can be put on that [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 2,179,785

Rating: 4.9203258 out of 5

Keywords: tiny house, tiny home, off the grid, off grid tiny house, solar system, tiny house solar system, solar panels, solar array, off the grid living, tiny house living, living big in a tiny house, tiny house australia, small home, small house, tiny house movement, tiny house melbourne, small space design, small space living, small spaces, renewable energy, rainwater collection, tiny house tour, tiny house 2019, small house tour

Id: s-MmdTfhxf8

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019