Incredible Round House And Abundant 1/4 Acre Food Forest

I've always loved the philosophy of less house and more Gardens and that's exactly what this next inspiring couple have accomplished where they have minimized the size of their incredible roundhouse and maximized the size of Their Food Forest all on a quarter acre section [Music] hi Carmen how are you great price lovely to meet you good day Tim how's it going mate yeah good and what a spectacular home you've got here thank you yeah so this is a roundhouse yeah it's a roundhouse with 24 sides as opposed to being a full circle like a year right at 1200 millimeters per side creates a diameter of 9.2 meters therefore we have a decent size house to raise our family of five and can you talk to me about what it was that inspired this project just trying to come up with a solution that meant we had more floor space for a family of five that didn't take up too much of a footprint on the land because our real Focus was about trying to grow food and fruit and experimenting with that and then to experiment with the space of a round dwelling as opposed to a conventional square or a rectangle fantastic yeah because the gardens were that you've set up around this house these are really exceptional aren't they they are and we're fortunate because we've got a great growing climate here so we've put trees in and they've just gone bang amazing so we don't really have to do anything yeah and we have close to 50 fruit producing plants on the property at the moment plus other medicinal herbs and ornamental plants because we enjoy flowers and stuff as well so you know we've tried to get a bit of a mixed Garden going on yeah you don't just have to have an ornamental Garden for your Landscaping it's like how do you incorporate food into your living landscape around your house so that that becomes the beauty of what presents you land in your house at the same time and all of that just on a quarter acre is incredible yeah and I think now again we have a cost of living crisis we're coming into recession possible depression on the horizon and all of a sudden building this kind of resilience into your life is taking on new meaning yet again isn't it yes absolutely absolutely I mean that's what it is just Josiah to grow food and know what it is that we're putting into the soil and and what it is that we're eating and now with everything that's happening on a global scale it's actually well it's become a lot more valuable than just that you're in a great position yes yes and then of course an extension to your own wonderful garden is this incredibly imposing landscape that we're surrounded by here this is magnificent it's very beautiful we'll sit out here and we can see deer and tar up the mountain the Roar and the Autumn is incredible the deer roaring you know so it's just it's just this really raw environment it's beautiful yeah and now let's talk about the house because this is something really special isn't it first of all what size is it it is 60 square meter footprint these walls are 4.6 meters high into the peak of the roof that's a little over 5.6 meters great we wanted to build the smallest footprint house possible in with the most space possible so that then is a circle a circle has more space inside it than a square or rectangle of the same size it's 30 size difference and can you talk to me about the materials that were used in the Homes Construction we have used Douglas fur Framing and it's all untreated because you don't actually have to treat Douglas fir if you build an eve on your house right and then we've skinned the whole thing with Plywood And then clad it with Siberian latch and then we've got New Zealand Redwood under the eaves like this effects and then Canadian Oregon fascia boards externally we have aluminum plaid Timber window frames and then we've got color steel Roofing and guttering system that's pretty much the exterior and you've done something a bit different with your rainwater collection here haven't you because we're trying to build living systems we have one down pipe coming off the house so it collects to one point and it goes into two pawns which over summertime fill up with frogs and tadpoles and insects and the birds go there and drink from it yeah so that was part of yeah that design for bringing more life into the ecosystem around the around the building yeah fantastic and you constructed this home yourself didn't you yeah you know fully reliant on the south I did have help from Carmen and help from my father he had recently retired so he came up and gave a hand and uh he's a plumber so he did all the plumbing work and so very handy so I was the Plumber's laborer and he was the Builder's laborer yep great yeah and then Carmen helped out wherever she was required and yeah there were a few neighbors come down and help here and there it was quite a joint effort at some points absolutely that's really exciting yeah well The Gardens are magical this house is beautiful from the outside and I'm so excited to see what you've done on the inside can we check it out sure all right come on in come on thank you oh this is stunning all of the Timber really just hits you when you walk into this space it all just feels so natural that's the effect that we wanted didn't we we wanted a a really natural feeling home I was all about the red line plywood because it has a great color when it's oiled I think it matches the Redwood ceilings as well we've lowered the ceilings so we've got two two ceilings instead of standard two Falls right and so that's created this sense of stagness we've got the Earth floor and so over summertime it absorbs heat and then over winter time it releases heat and we also heat it up with a hot water system from upstairs and the Earthen floors just feel so good under your feet that's amazing and you hear people talk about clay floors and Earth floors and how good they feel but you have to experience it for yourself yeah and then you've got the bathroom through there and I see you've even got the claw fit bathtub that's a bit of luxury yeah that was one of those lucky finds eh yeah you couldn't help but buy that and our bathroom's quite small at seven square meters but because of the shape of it it's like a wedge yeah it opens out and so because it's a wedge shape we've managed to get a bath or shower and a toilet all side by side in that room and it all fits really really well yeah and again it's just styled so beautifully I especially love what you've done with all the plants in there lots of plants in the house you know it just helps to soften the interior I think it's healthy too you know for the environment and all throughout the house you've got these wonderful Earthen elements the warm Timber colors the Clays and then you've got the copper as well it's such an elemental space yeah yeah absolutely yeah the copper was a natural progression really wasn't it with the tones and all the wood and Tim will always guys wanted a heated towel rail didn't you yeah so we're putting it here towel rail my dad made that and axel my son helped him so you know it's a bit of a joint project yeah great it's really beautiful and we flow water on it from the heating system that also heats the slab right so that hits that as well so it's yeah so it's actually hot water flowing through there it's not electrically heated and that's off the wet back from the fire yeah yeah that is so clever and you've got the composting toilet there too yes we produce a lot of compost good for the garden you've got a food for us to grow right it is it's amazing you know for our Gardens for the fruit trees the compost we don't actually produce that I actually think you're going to produce a lot of waste but yeah we don't it's been an adjustment for the kids especially the older to 15 year olds right but they're all right with that now yeah it's just a little learning curve yeah that's right and through there I'm guessing we've got all of the bedrooms can we take a look at that sure come on through all right oh this is just so cool look at that that is amazing I love the way that you've created this window right through to the upstairs and then to the sky that is just so neat well this is the central Hub of the wheel so the structure of the mid floor is like a bike wheel so that's why we get the effect of the ceilings being the way they are down here with the angles on the end of each one because the ceilings direct fix to the joists yeah yeah but we also knew that this area here would be quite dark so we wanted to you know create a light well yeah create a light well from the roof and it actually works really well and I really like the way that you've done all of the bedrooms down here it's just such an economical use of the space yeah because of the shapes we have to think about well where do we open the bedrooms from and so the logical point of view was to use the structure so there's a post and beam structural detail in here in the center which holds up a lot of the floor as well for the upstairs and we're like oh they just become doorways and so that became the natural progression for getting in and out of this bedroom right yes so this is our bedroom so we've designed our bedroom and our daughter's bedroom to eventually be one big master bedroom at some point so this wall here can come out but actually I don't know if we need to do that because the space itself it's more than enough room so this may end up becoming like a studio or an extra space for us at some time in the future and our daughter can take one of the biggest spaces yeah and the positioning of the doors and the windows is really great as well because again it sort of gives you that feeling of expanse and then each and every one of these rooms is just so wonderfully connected to the outdoors that's right yeah we weren't sure how it was going to work downstairs because we knew we had to lower the ceilings and because of the shape light was an issue wasn't it we put a lot of thought into that because we didn't want it to feel like it was was dark and so we knew that we needed to put more or less floor-to-ceiling windows in and then just to have the the doors as well so there's excess there's that beautiful flow from the bedrooms yeah absolutely yeah and all throughout this home I'm noticing all of these really beautiful Stones can we talk about those I've seen you've got some which are even into the concrete and just these wonderful little accents all over the place yeah yeah well some of us in this family have um have a have a bit of a thing for stone Collections and so from time to time Stones tend to show up and so yeah there's a bunch we sit in the concrete floor in the bathroom and then I've got a bunch that I've polished up just as pieces you know decorative pieces for in the house yeah yeah yeah I think it's just really cozy the way that you've done all the bedrooms downstairs and I'm excited to see what you've done with the living space upstairs can we check it out sure all right foreign this is just so cool I love the way that you've kept the space up here really open yeah the design was all about letting in as much light into the building as possible in having a sense of not being constricted yeah yeah when you've got towering mountains around yourself you know having spaciousness in your environment is is important so it's a big part of the upstairs here right yeah I completely agree because you were not joking about the views from here they are spectacular and you certainly have capitalized on that with all of the glazing up here adds a lot of light to the space as well and just makes it feel just really uplifting yeah it's almost like we're in a tree house yeah and we have established rhododendrons that were planted maybe 30 years ago and so that was a big feature for the placement of the windows we have Mount Turner which is just in the backdrop there so it's just borrowing all these beautiful elements of the landscape so we can sit here and really enjoy it and it's just it is it's really beautiful yeah absolutely gorgeous shapes created by the wooden floors hey there's something about circular geometry that just encourages such wonderful Woodcraft yeah yeah so the floors are recycled remu Carmen and I we went and got that from uh demo and Dunedin and we denailed it all by hand ourselves packed it up and got it shipped up on the track and it was so worth it and I was really happy to run my skilly along it and make some 45 degree angles on each end so that it sort of works out the lines that are in the floor are actually the north south east and west so you know we've got that sort of thing going on as well yeah so that the north side of the house over there is between the two French doors you know so it's yeah there's a lot of geometry going on indeed yeah I really like that yeah and that is a serious kitchen you've got there you are not mucking about with that one it's almost like a commercial cooker yep that's right kitchen's the heart of the home for us we cook everything from scratch and preserve a lot of food and so the kitchen was a really fundamental part of the design of our place as well because we knew it was going to be in open space so we sort of had to think about how we're going to incorporate it and how it would look with the rest of the living space as well so we're really fortunate we have an amazing Joyner Craftsman who have been spare neighbor just up the road and he was willing to help us with the kitchen so he's done a lot of the joinery helped us with the design line of the kitchen island there so on the end are greater blades which we found on the property here so before they put the tar seal down on the road they used to grade the road all the time sure and then they'd just Chuck the greater blades onto a section and so they've ended up as a feature on our kitchen table so yeah it's really cool and also the metal and the the wood element as well you know it's just really earthing and it feels nice yeah absolutely and then of course the wood stove would be a Cornerstone of this house yeah it's uh very essential for this house it keeps us warm upstairs here actually it gets too hot from that but it has a really good wet back system in it which Heats yeah hot water cylinder around our underfloor heating great over winter time so yeah it's really is essential and we cook on it excellent and do you have a secondary method of water heating for the summer yeah it's just um at the stage it's on electric oh yeah we hear the cylinder that has a solar coil in it so it's yeah a progression yeah lovely and spacious Lounge as well yeah so with the open plan area in the round circle it's like you have to create spaces within the space and so we have a lounge space we have a kitchen space we have our fire with our computer space and then we have the stairs and so the spacers have to really Define themselves I like records and I like my analog stereo and so I'll get into that from time to time and you know it's nice to have a couch and you know just have something that's comfortable you know because there are five of us here we've got three children so you know having a larger space that we can all fit into because downstairs is quite compact so it works really well in that respect as well yeah and it can have her toys and she can be playing and one little section and build a Hut there and it doesn't impact anyone else you know there's enough room for us to do our individual things and so how long have you been living here now just over two years we've been living in this house we moved in when it was just finished enough to move into we're really happy to be in here now and we're still finishing things like we've not finished you know we've still got things that we need to finish yeah I think that's what they say though when you're an owner Builder your house is never finished exactly once you build your own home and you learn what that takes then there's a lot more gratitude for what you have because you're connected to it it's not something that you you then want to exchange or use for commodity because you've put your heart and soul into it yeah because the commodification of houses is I think is wrong because they're primarily shelter and a place to raise your family and living or you know however you want to use that space it's not a piece of money in a bank account or something that can be exploited so when you've made it yourself you know that it's not something to be exploited yeah there's no disconnect and this is such an unusual and really special home that you've created here can we talk about the cost that was involved in making all of this happen because I built it myself there's no labor costs there's no Plumbing costs because my father generously helped out with that too but all up it was about 250 000 to realize this building you did exceptionally well with that because you can see that quality really just emanates from this house it's right yeah and so now with the house relatively finished with some ongoing Improvement projects what does the future hold for you both now uh well just enjoy the space yeah grow more food well my goal is to get a garden going that we can eat from on for an entire year so that's where we're at with that and just keep improving and just enjoy being here yeah well this home is just so beautifully built you have done such a wonderful job with the space and now I just can't wait to watch your forest grow thank you so much for sharing your home with me thanks Bryce yep cheers thanks for us so nice to be here yeah pleasure comment interim have created the most exceptional home for their family here this is such a beautiful space it's made with such amazing materials and you just get a sense of the quality and craftsmanship in this home from the moment that you enter it but what I think I really love about this space is their desire to minimize the impact of their home on the landscape surrounding it to maximize space for their Gardens and for their abundant food for us to grow and all of that working harmoniously together really has created the most exceptional place for them to now call home [Music] thank you foreign

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 508,269

Keywords: small house, round house, alternative building, small home, small house tour, permaculture, food forest, quarter acre, forest garden, alternative living, diy, living big in a tiny house

Id: caUJuAwwNBI

Length: 20min 2sec (1202 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023