Our Urban Tiny House In New Zealand

years ago now I started building my very own tiny house on wheels that project is finally finished and today I'd like to show you around [Music] so welcome to my tiny house on wheels we've only recently completed the build of this tiny house and it's just been moved on to this new property where I'm paying a little bit of rent every month to park it here in the driveway so all of the landscaping and everything that I've done around it is absolutely brand-new designing the tiny house to be really mobile I think has been a really good idea and I'm glad that I made it a little bit smaller so that it's easier to transport on the roads we don't own land yet we are in the process of saving up for our own plot of land so being able to save on rent by owning our own home and being able to channel that money instead into saving up for land I think is a really good idea the home is roughly 15 square metres and it's all completely off the grid on the roof I have a 1.2 kilowatt solar system which is charging a 240 amp hour battery bank at 24 volt as you can see we're also collecting rainwater here all of the rainwater is collected by the spouting that comes down into this tank here which is a stainless steel tank which is collecting about 200 litres of water now 200 litres is not a lot of water so we will have to be very conscious of water usage whether in this home but I'm hoping that it's going to be enough to get by in the worst-case scenario I do also have the ability to both plug into mains power to help charge the batteries as well as plug in a water hose so I can also use mains water in the house if I need to aside from the off-grid features one of my absolute favorite features about the exterior of the home is my outdoor shower we live quite close to the beach here so there is nothing like being able to go for a surf or go for a swim come home and get all of the sand off before you jump in your house in the future we're going to be doing another video where I can talk in more detail about the off-grid systems and the way that the house was constructed but this time around just because the house is brand new I'm really excited to show you so let's get inside and check it out follow me so here we are I am so excited that this house is now complete I've waited for this for such a long time and it really is a dream come true to have it all completed now as you can see we're only just starting to set things up and move things into the house so it is all completely new first of all coming into the house we're right in the kitchen now the kitchen was designed to be very simple and very utilitarian one of the first things that I really loved about the kitchen is the high bench top we've actually built the bench top to a meter as you know I am not the shortest person ever to have lived in a tiny house and so being able to raise up the countertops has been a really nice way of making the house fit me a little bit better I did make a deal with Russa that if she ever wanted me to do the dishes then I had to have a higher bench top otherwise it was all on her so that was how I managed to give that compromise into the house one of my pet peeves in any kitchen is when it has a really small sink I think it's really important to be able to have a sink where you can put things away get them out of sight or where you can comfortably wash your dishes so with this house I decided to have a really big sink there are actually three sinks in here and two of them are covered most of the time with these chopping boards which have actually been routed out of the bench top what that does is it gives us lots of prep area but also the ability to lift these out and wash up when we need to the bench top here is 600 deep which is pretty conventional for a kitchen here in New Zealand that gives us really nice deep drawers forage so we've got lots of storage space in this kitchen one of the things that we did compromise on in size a little bit is the fridge so we only have an 80 litre fridge in here which does mean that we potentially need to do a little bit more frequent shopping but that's really no problem we have shops that are two minutes down the road and I quite like having fresh produce plus one day I want to be growing it all on my garden anyway so I figured don't worry about the big fridge just go for something that's enough so one of the things that you'll probably notice about this kitchen is there is no built-in cooktop the for their being because it's an off-the-grid home sometimes I'm going to be generating a lot of power and I'll be able to use an induction cooktop and other times I might have to resort to a gas hob or something else so I wanted to build flexibility into the home plus I really like barbecuing anyway so whenever I can I think it's actually nice to get cooking outside of a tiny house because cooking odors and small spaces really can build up so unless you go absolutely crazy on fan's in your tiny house I love whenever possible cooking outside that being said we do have really great ventilation in this home within this home one of my real priorities and the design was insulation I wanted to make sure that this house was always going to be nice and warm in the winter and nice and cool in the summer so all of the windows are made from thermally broken aluminum which means they have a little strip of plastic that breaks up the aluminium meaning they don't thermally conducting side they're all double glazed and give a really nice warmth to the home and that's been paired with polyester insulation and the walls which gives us a really nice r-value in the home and keeps everything toasty adding to keeping everything toasty in the home is our little wood stove this is the Sparky wood stove which is actually a 10 kilowatt wood stove which for the size of this space is potentially a little bit ridiculous it will cook us out of this in the winter but what I really like about this model is that unlike a lot of other small wood stoves it does have fire bricks in it it's got a little bit of thermal mass so it means that when you light the fire and let the fire go out it will continue to radiate heat throughout the night which i think is a really nice feature now moving over here we have our stairwell so the stairs the kitchen and all of the beautiful built-in furniture in this house was done by friends of Al's Jake and Casey from varient spaces they have a little business which is specializing in designing custom cabinetry for small homes and they are doing a phenomenal job and I just am so thrilled with what they've done for us in this house especially this very intricate staircase so as you can see this is our loft access it's built to be able to comfortably access the loft but also is shaped in a really great way which doesn't enclose off the space in any way there is a tremendous amount of storage so all of these drawers open up we've even got hanging clothes storage in here and if you take a look in this cupboard we've even got all of our off the grid system so we have our fuse box our inverter our solar controller and our 12 volt transformer so everything has nice easy access before I move further into the home I have to talk about some of the artistic elements that our builder Brinton has put into this home one of my favorite aspects of this home is the power inlays Brinton like me is a little bit of a geek when it comes to sacred geometry I call this house the seed of life because I love the seed of life in terms of geometric proportions and design but also for me it's a little bit symbolic because this tiny house and this project really was the seed of my life this gave birth to a whole new life for me which i think is really beautiful and to celebrate that brington has gifted me this panel where he has created the seed of life pattern in power inlay we call it power here in new zealand i believe in north america this is known as abalone but it's just such a gorgeous aspect and it has this wonderful iridescent shimmer that just catches the eye over here we have our couch area the couch is a really comfortable space it's not too big but not too small it's just enough to be able to comfortably read a book or sit down and maybe watch a movie built enter this again as lots of storage so as you can see both russer and I do have drawers and here where we can pack away clothes and other things the top of this also lifts up to provide more storage over the other side is the office the office again is a very important area for us we do work from home we spend a lot of time when we are in the country sitting here editing videos so it's really important for us to be able to have a nice working area I do love my books as well so being able to have a bookcase was another really essential element in this home in pride of place here on the bookshelf right now you may notice the living big in a tiny house book this is something that I haven't talked about a lot on the channel yet because it hasn't come out yet internationally right now this book is only available in New Zealand but be sure to look out because soon it is coming to the rest of the world again we have lots of storage in the office we really have put little storage nuts into each and every place that we could in this tiny house including even these little squares here which cover the wheel well which lift off and give us little areas for more storage I think I'll probably put computer cables or things like that and those included in the storage is this here this again would beautiful seed of life power inlay is our chair when we're sitting at the desk it also allows us to easily access our storage loft above the kitchen which right now is completely empty and when we're sitting here at the bench it also doubles as a table so it can lift up and we could either bring the laptop over here or when we're sitting back move it over here and it can wrist a glass of wine and then we have the bathroom the bathroom I think is pretty luxurious as far as tiny house bathrooms go we've got our really nice low-flow showerheads including a rainfall showerhead this has all been designed custom to fit into the space I wanted to have a decent sized shower but the square boxes just really weren't working and fitting in with the unusual shape of this room so by custom building the shower we were able to nicely fit everything in and get it all looking harmonious the bathrooms pretty simple we have the shower we have a vanity the vanity mirror I think is a really nice element in the home I think it's important to have a mirror with really nice lighting so that I can shave also that russa can do her makeup so this has again been custom done with the seat of life pattern in it and if I turn it on you can see it has a really nice light coming from it the basin and here is really lovely and this was a custom-made basin by our friends Jake and kasya which is a real treasure in the tiny house I don't yet have a composting toilet installed in this tiny house but that will be coming in the future one of the kind of quirky things that we did in this tiny is we put toilet brush holders on the wall I've actually used them as plant holders in essence with a composting toilet you don't need a toilet brush so this has been a really cool kind of funky element and I would love to get more plants in here in the future unfortunately right now it's really difficult for us to keep house plants because we're not really home or even in New Zealand long enough to keep them alive but we do have a few which can be babysat by my friends or parents so that's okay but one day I will have more now the bathroom door again this is very beautiful and on the inside it has a full-length mirror which i think is a really nice feature that about wraps it up for the bathroom so let's take a look at the sleeping loft but before we do that this here is a real treasure and something that I had to give pride of place in the tiny house this is our gold play button which we received for passing 1 million subscribers on YouTube 1 million is just such a crazy number it is incredible that we're now fast approaching 2 million subscribers and I really can't say how much this has completely changed my life it's changed Russ's life when I started building this tiny house I was an unemployed actor I had recently been killed off of the television show and I was struggling to make life work in a city that was really expensive I wanted to be able to keep doing a job that I loved but that I wasn't always getting paid for and I was definitely struggling and that was why I built this tiny house on wheels I saw this as a way that I could simplify my life minimize my expenses and have a small simple shelter that was enough so that in here I didn't have to worry about mortgage I didn't have to worry about rent and where I would be able to continue doing a job that I loved I looked around and I saw so many others who were in my situation and that was why I actually started the YouTube channel originally I wanted to share this thing that I had become so excited about wanted to share the concepts of alternative living with people so that they realized there were other options out there and I never dreamed back then that building this home would have been the start of all of this and I just can't express how grateful I am for that anyway let's go check out the sleeping loft come on up the steps here are designed to be really comfortable to come up and down as you can see the last step is double height which makes it very easy to come into the sleeping loft kneeling and because we've got the gable roof here I've also designed it to have this 45 degree angle coming off the loft which allows us to come in to where your head height is the highest so being able to make the axis this way makes it a lot more comfortable so this is the sleeping loft again there's not a tremendous amount of space up here it really is just for sleeping but this is also one of my absolute favorite places inside the home and that is because of the two roof windows here there is nothing like being able to lie in bed and look at the stars at night so this was one thing that I always have wanted to do so both russer and I have our very own skylight so we get a great view of the sky at night you'll notice in the home that we have no blinds no curtains yet those are definitely still to come because while it's maybe not such a big deal if we were parked up in a beautiful remote property right now when we are in the middle of the suburbs we're feeling pretty exposed so we're definitely going to get curtains in here so let's talk cost of this tiny house this home was not cheap we're in New Zealand which means we pay a lot more than other countries for both materials and labor and all throughout the home I've worked with high quality materials and really talented craftsmen so that has come at a little bit of a premium it's completely off the grid and so I've had to pay a little bit more for my electrical appliances as well as even just things like the wiring and the house and all of that sort of thing so all up right now my home has cost me around $100,000 mark now that's New Zealand Dollars that being said I'm in a city where the average house price right now is 1 million dollars so my home is roughly 1/10 the value of an average home in this city so for me this makes complete financial sense and although it's been somewhat of a painful process chipping away at the build bit by bit over the last few years by doing it that way it has meant that I haven't had to pay one big chunk all up front so I have been able to pay it off as I go which is fantastic because it now means that I do own this home without any debt so I hope that you have enjoyed this first tour of the home we're definitely going to be making more videos in here later showing you more of the features and giving more in-depth information right now this evening we are about to jump on a plane we are heading back to North America to continue filming for the show so this year there is going to be lots more content coming from around the world and in the summer when we're back here in New Zealand we'll be making more videos here so until then I'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 6,773,657

Rating: 4.9387078 out of 5

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, tiny home, tiny house on wheels, tiny house movement, small house, small home, home on wheels, off the grid tiny house, off the grid, simple living, tiny house living, bryce langston, small house movement, minimalist home, minimalism, tiny house tour, tiny house 2019, solar power, rainwater collection, small space design, small space living

Id: LvGXer4NsEw

Length: 16min 46sec (1006 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Gareth321]

Some of you might remember this guy from Shortland Street or Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Bryce Langston started this tiny house channel some years ago, showcasing people with tiny homes all over the world. This video is his own tiny home, parked up in someone's driveway somewhere in Auckland. My wife loves the channel and the houses are pretty cozy. Just thought I'd share.

[u/[deleted]]

Did you get a consent for that?

[u/DOOMBOT_NZ]

where do all the rest of the family live? not much room for all the lost cuzzies and bad uncles

[u/[deleted]]

That's so 2018, its all about being homeless now.

[u/Gabe_b]

100% read that as Tinny

[u/camoshka]

Dude! That is one sweet caravan.