Tiny House Gives Financial Freedom In Expensive City

Vancouver and British Columbia is one place where people are really struggling with the cost of housing and today we've traveled to the outskirts of the city where one family has broken completely free of the housing market and all of its traps by building a tiny house on wheels [Music] good eye look how's it going night great thanks are you good thank you what an absolutely beautiful tiny house you have here thank you how long have you actually been living here now it'll be a year I guess the end of August and what size is this tiny house not thirty-four feet long by eight and a half feet wide 13 a half feet high right sighs what was it that inspired you to move into a tiny house on wheels basically we got tired of doing the whole living you know for the mortgage and living kind of what the norm is and we thought you know once their kids were moved out or at least graduated which happened last year we thought you know let's take the plunge and sell everything and do our dream and this has been about five years in the making getting the KERS to actually take this huge leap of faith and we have not had a regret yet and we're just tickled pink we recommend it to anybody looking to take extreme jump we regret not doing it sooner yeah totally totally it's wonderful it's super interesting hearing about moving into a tiny house as taking a leap of faith what was it that you were worried about when you were deciding to downsize just the fact of you know going from say 2,000 plus square feet into just under 500 square feet and going you know we're gonna have to really downsize a lot of our stuff and are we gonna be tripping over each other we have a dog and four cats you know and our teenage son still lives with us so is this gonna be an issue and smoothly seamlessly it has worked out great and can you tell me about the materials that this home is made from yeah it's just made from cedar siding we added the corrugated metal for that industrial look but ya know it's just all natural wood stain corrugated metal we just wanted to keep it simple very nice now I noticed you've got some solar panels on the roof and there's a good sized water collection tank here as well as this home off the grid it's on the grid as we speak with the potential of going off grid once we figure out the solar system and what-have-you and get her up and running and the parking spot this location is absolutely stunning was it difficult for you to find a parking spot here this location no I kind of fell in our laps but before this place came to us yeah it was a real challenge we were finding in the Lower Mainland it's very difficult to acquire property to put a tiny home on so we got really lucky we searched probably about six months we honestly almost just scrapped the whole project but yeah we were getting down to the wire and we're like we commit to you know getting a contract and putting money down for this build without actually having somewhere to put it that's a huge gamble right but it did work out in the end so we're really grateful for the place that we have to put it so beautiful surroundings couldn't ask for much more and you're doing some lovely landscaping around here also yeah when we first moved here it was pretty much an empty blank slate lots of overgrown blackberry bushes and just marshy bits in the backyard so we had to wait till the weather cleared up after the winter where we could really hunker down and get into it so the backyard we've got an about 90% done but yeah we're pretty happy with the way it's turning out we have quite a bit of bears that come around the property so we have to be careful of you know making sure my fruit plants aren't going to get eaten before we get a chance to eat them because the Bears are quite happy to help themselves so and you've got the cat run out there as well to make sure the cats are all kept safe it's really important for us because we're big animal lovers and we like I said we have four cats and a golden retriever so you know the cats are always willing to come out they hear the birds and they love all that but it's not safe out here with the amount of wildlife that's out here so they're like your children so yeah so with the things that we had done when we first moved here is get the catio built so that they had that safe space where they could get in and out so yeah well the house looks great on the outside and I am very intrigued to see what it's like on the inside can we check it out absolutely all this is absolutely gorgeous yeah I really like how you immediately come right into the kitchen space yeah it was one of the big things with the layout of our home what we decided is you know originally our plan was to have our master suite downstairs because we thought you know do we want to be crouching into her bedroom and then after we did some thinking and did a couple tours we realize it wasn't a big issue our main focus is we'd love to cook and be together in the kitchen so having a nice open kitchen space was really important to us so this is how this kind of concept came with the open floor space in here so we have a gas range which is wonderful we used to have electric so this is just a treat beyond treats cooking with gas the farm apron sink double sink highly recommend having two sinks you could imagine doing it with one to be honest little little things that I really love about this is we have double lazy susans in here which works as a pantry so that's really important lots of storage space lots of cupboard space they're all soft clothes so that's a really nice treat you know have to worry about slamming all the time the fridge is also gas propane as well as electric so if power ever goes out we have the option of going on to propane so that's a real nice bonus not having to worry about anything spoiling and then in the stays here as well it looks like you've built in a little bit of additional storage - yeah the neat thing with this is because it is low to the ground it does keep quite cool so we keep our bread and our perishables that don't need to be refrigerated either it works really well the second step opens as well and that's just kind of a mystical aeneas junk kind of extra storage space over here which is a really nice feature add-on is they call it a breakfast bar so there's these neat little angled arms and this man shut pulls out so we can sit out here have a nice coffee look outside watch nature it's great and then when we're not in using it easy enough to fold away and then that opens up our our space of our little walkway hallway through into the living room and you definitely have a really cozy lounge area here yeah the second biggest spot for us was besides the kitchen was having somewhere that we could sit lounge and relax after hard day's work but yeah this is our main couch as we sit down and we are definitely not lacking in a TV no the TV is huge it's a little bit of overkill and now that we see it it I spoke with the Builder I'm like how big of a TV can I put in this small space so they pulled up a chart and they're like well the biggest you can get is 65 inches done now in hindsight but you definitely have a very immersive movie watching experience it is beautiful it is very wonderful we enjoy it a lot yeah let me show you it's neat as well how you've connected the house with the catio through this window contraption yeah that was probably one of the first things that we did once and moved here and they're really entertaining to watch too and you're sitting here watching TV you can look over your shoulder and let some acting like monkeys in there it's almost more entertaining than in television at times it really is that really is I've it I think that's a really lovely feature thank you and then we've got your bathroom through here do we yeah we have the laundry room that you first enter through to if you follow me here we have a full size apartment size washer and dryer which is really a neat feature to have in a tiny house as well as on the other side here my husband built these custom doors and the nice little hidden secret here is this is a trap door for our one of our cat litters for our cats so it kind of hidden away and it's nice in our bathroom we have this very spa-like bathroom which was really important for us to have a full soaker tub so we were really happy to be able to have this tub that you know both of us could enjoy we have a composting toilet which is quite standard in a tiny house it's wonderful no smell very easy to use and clean come your full-size think with your cupboard space I even have a little table to even store extra towels and what not so for a bathroom it's a good size for us it certainly is and especially with that soaker tub it's very luxurious that's our favorite feature yeah I think probably twice a week we have a nice hot soak and we light our candles we even put up little twinkle lights battery-operated twinkle light so that we can have a soft glow in here while we have a nice roll sing hot tub so yeah it's really really awesome and then you've got two sleeping lofts in this one don't you that is correct our son does live with us so this is our son space for him the way he gets up into it is quite unique he has a ladder that hooks onto this rail that we use for the barn door slider which also works as the privacy door for the bathroom which is kind of important up here you can see these two white walls here they're actually the backs of them our shelving which is really good for him for his clothing and it also exits a bit of a privacy barrier for him so when he's up there he feels like he's not exposed to the rest of the house which was really important to him we have a skylight up there as well as in our loft and plenty of light up there lots of room so yeah it works out great it's a good space the diamond window up there as well as such a lovely feature yeah the diamond windows originally they were supposed to be a traditional square where they would pull open but I like the idea of kind of having something a little different and with the way that they're shaped in the diamond it actually looks really neat when you're upstairs or even down here looking up you see the beautiful foilage outside and it's almost like a picturesque frame for the outdoors so it's just something a little different that I wanted to do with the design of the windows upstairs very nice and then up the stairs here must be you're sleeping yeah this is our our humble abode up here so so as you can see you do have to crouch but you know for us it's not a big deal we have a full-size king bed in here which is is really exciting to be able to still keep the king because we're spoiled that way with our space we have a beautiful skylight which adds a lot of light and fresh air and the side windows as well in the dead of the summer we found with this skylight and the two side windows open you get a beautiful cross breeze so it actually doesn't get as hot as one would think as heat rises into a small space this is just really lovely especially the color of the timber on the ceiling here it really makes the space just feel so welcoming and cozy yeah we almost look at the space as like a bit of a tree house you know you get a little bit of your child back up here a lot of people comment that it feels like a tree o sup here so neat and we really enjoy that aspect of it and the monstrous television downstairs wasn't enough you had to have one up here as well yeah you know without having a teenage son he likes to do his video gaming so you know as being nice parents we let him have the TV at times and then we can come up here and lounge back on their bed and still have our TV time so yeah it works oh great so you've been living in the home now for a year how's it working out for you you know what it's been wonderful we would never go back to traditional home living in a traditional home we love this it's like we actually still get excited after all this time every time we come home we just kind of look around smile going this is like us like it really is us put into a home were like our personalities in this space and we really were really happy with it well when we first moved in here I think for the first three months we were like we're gonna have to get out and give it back because we thought it was an air B&B you know it's just so awesome yeah it was nice and then once you're finally hearing you if it's settled in and it's like hey this is everyday for us this is great yeah and then how old is your son our son is 19 so when we took this plunge doing this tiny house journey our plan was always once our children rather moved out or graduate so our son graduated last year so yeah that's when we decided to take the leap actually it's funny at first he was kind of like I'm not living in a tiny house this is insane like you guys are nuts you know and all this kind of stuff I'm not gonna have privacy and once we actually moved in he was just instantly converted he was like he's designing his own now yeah that's what he wants to be as he sold he's like I want to contain your home I want a custom build a container home and this is like brilliant like yeah and obviously we're here in Vancouver Vancouver is actually one of the most expensive cities in the world real estate wise can you talk to me about the cost of building this tiny house and maybe how that compares to average real estate in the city absolutely so the build what was the pasta bar build originally with the solar included it was about a hundred and fifteen thousand taxes in you know and when you're comparing your average home here in this you're looking at starting eight hundred nine hundred thousand dollars so you know we're just a little better than a tenth of the price it's a no-brainer yeah and I mean for this beautiful space that we have you know we paid $500 a month rent and that is including right now because we're not technically off-grid that's including our power and our water so you know it's very very cost effective opens us up to travel and do what we want to do mm-hmm sounds great so I think living tiny has definitely opened up our future into doing the things we want to do you know we got married quite young we were 19 and 20 and I you know we jumped right into the real world where the mortgage and kids were soon to fall so living tiny has just allowed us to free up time and space and even money to just do what we want to do you know our kids are almost grown up and moving on and it's time for us just to kind of chill out and enjoy life and travel and see the world exactly almost like we've around the clock we almost feel like we're more youthful because we're less stressed out in a lot of ways right - Ellie house wise it's just you know there's a lot less maintenance on a tiny house but doing this whole tiny house jump for us allows us now our game plan is with five to seven years we want to be able to just pick this up and move it to a more permanent property and just be retired early in life and just start just having nothing but free time there's a lot of Forest Service roads that need to see our truck so you have places I go well it is such a beautiful home and it's great to know that it is working so well for you all thank you so much for sharing it with me my pleasure thank you thank you Luke and Leah have done such a brilliant job with the build of this tiny house it's beautiful it's functional but what's most incredible about this story to me is the fact that this home has set them up for early retirement and that is something truly wonderful [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 2,036,141

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, tiny home, tiny house living, retirement, early retirement, financial freedom, debt free living, tiny house canada, tiny house vancvouer, tiny house life, tiny house tour, tiny house 2019, small home, small house, small home design, small spaces, small space living, home design, tiny house design

Id: bqJ7BeESSa8

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2019