Urban Industrial Tiny House is a Tiny Mansion

one of the things that I love about tiny homes is that they're always as unique and individual as the people who built them and today here in Auckland we're about to visit a house that is absolutely packed full of super clever design ideas [Music] hey Chiron great to see you hey Bryce good see - and I am really excited to check out the tiny house yeah thanks absolutely love it here first of all tell me why was it that you decided to build a tiny house well I've been following a lot of different aspects of what's going to be happening in the future of real estate my background is property investing and as I was following it obviously the tiny house movement is something that couldn't be ignored and as I followed it more and more I was like this just makes sense I was living in Bali at the time moving back to New Zealand I wanted a base I travel a lot and this just made a lot of sense to have something affordable nice when I am home but also I can just lock up and leave if I ever go traveling again and tell me about the design of your home yeah I wanted something urban industrial style and so I really spend a lot of time on what the color schemes were going to be this nice sort of this stain here with the black just pop and I actually built it knowing I was going to park in the spot so being able to tie it in with a lot of the nature we've got a lot of native trees around us and just it's hidden but it still stands out yeah the parking spot that you've got here really is something quite special because you're so close to the beach and then you're in a suburban area but it's like you're in this little woodland paradise back here it's seriously amazing so I'm actually at the bottom of the friends property and they were just parking their cars here and exactly right and I looked at those like this would be amazing for a tiny house and she was like you wouldn't want to live there there are mosquitoes and so what I actually did is I drew up this ad right and I sit when I was like I just found this on the Internet you know close to the beach surrounded by nature perfect for a tiny house and I showed her and she's like that sounds amazing you should go for it was like this is your place and she's like okay you can do it but yeah I mean the brilliant thing about this place I think is because her land here is actually zoned to be able to put three houses but if you were to do that you'd have to chop down all these beautiful trees whereas we were able to just slide in live the tiny house and we only cut down one there is just such a cool idea doing that with the ad and everything and this place is super idyllic you've even got the stream here and everything exactly it's constant trickling water and then we get the birds these are all pretty much native trees around us we get to ease we get Kitty Lou and it feels like you're so far from everything yet we're only 12 minutes to the CBD and so you originally built this tiny house yourself expecting to live in it by yourself but you've recently been joined by your partner haven't you exactly and I absolutely love it it's so cozy having her in here and it's what makes at home and of course to capitalize on the location you've built this really good deck onto the tiny house definitely this is probably one of my favorite parts you know the indoor/outdoor flow this almost doubles the amount of livable space and then of course being in this environment we are amongst all this nature I love to be able to spend time outdoors it makes it magic and so what size is the tiny house it's 10 meters by 3 meters by 4 point very high so took it to most of the extremes as I can and it is a little bit bigger than the more traditional tiny house I actually call it a tiny mansion but you know I could have gone actually bigger I do think just having those extra couple of meters has allowed me to be able to design it in a way that it's a little bit more livable I've got just that little bit more space and I think that really shows the house looks great from the outside I am super envious of this wonderful parking spot that you found and I am very excited to check out the inside should we take a look definitely come on in all right brilliant walking end it really does feel incredibly spacious in here it does it really does feel just like a normal house and sometimes they even like trick myself right because inside it feels huge and then you're outside and you're like well that fits into something so compact totally and so immediately upon entering we are now in your lounge this is where I'd spend a good amount of day over on the couch working or at the breakfast bar working and even just you know eating here struggling up here and so this folds out into a bit as well yeah it does folds out into a double bed which is great for win friends stay over really good open space so that it would be super versatile for entertaining and everything as well I actually built this with entertaining in mind as you probably could tell from the outside of my deck and just because I live in a tiny house doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to have friends come over and you should should tell me about some friends exactly exactly yeah and of course one of the things that I really like about this lounge space is that it's all been designed to just completely open out big double doors onto that dick and just really capitalize on the indoor/outdoor living definitely again I knew I was going to be living here when I built it and I knew I'd want to be looking at in fact every window and here looks out onto green space and I really like what you've done up here on the wall with all of these plants yeah the first goal was to have Japanese Shoji panels but they were going to be extremely expensive and so I created this instead which i think looks cool I've been when Natalia moved in she's like we need to put a bit of something here which is how the plants came to be there and then you've got the jewel stairs here both going up into loft spaces can you talk to me a little bit about the layout in here yeah originally we're going to have two bedrooms so because of that the kitchen and the bathroom needed to be the same size so I've got the kitchen with my bedroom up here I mean I've got the bathroom with the spare bedroom up here because I didn't end up needing the spare bedroom I actually turned it into a bit of a TV dinner fantastic what a great idea and of course you used to be a chef in a past life and so this incredible kitchen has really been designed for cooking definitely this is my pride and joy I still make the joke bed I designed a kitchen and built a tiny house around it this is where Natalia and I love to spend a lot of time a lot of eating a lot of cooking a lot of tasting playing and this is definitely what I do for fun fantastic so talk to me about the design of the kitchen here kitchen is probably bigger than that what you'd find in most standard apartments I deliberately designed it in a way so all the food has just thought in one area all the prep stuff is stored in another area all the cooking stuff in one area cleaning in one area in all the plates and crockery so we've had three people in here cooking not an issue so obviously in a functional kitchen storage becomes really important can you talk to me a little bit about what you've built into the cabinetry here yeah I think one of the key things is first off the pantry with their sliding out drawers absolutely key great another side is if you're loved cooking you're gonna hate dishes so dishwasher is one of the most important things and then of course further to that idea of designing the house around entertaining you've built this really nice breakfast bar in here as well definitely this allows us to be able to serve food straight over have breakfast have dinner we do most of our eating here when we can eat outside obviously and also this gives us somewhere to work from when we are working from home and then over the other side under this loft we've got your bathroom yeah definitely got a nice pocket door keeps things nice and easy and here we have the bathroom and this is a really great sized bathroom isn't it yeah definitely again because I wanted the same sized bedroom above it it's resulted in quite a big bathroom but I actually do enjoy having so much space in here yeah definitely having that bigger bathroom just gives you so many more options including in this case being able to put in a whole washing machine exactly this is actually a washer/dryer combo and one of my favorite parts about all of us is I've got this tiny little washing line here too very cool and then you've got the composting toilet here as well yeah so this is a actually dehydrating one so it's got a little fan which sucks all the air and all the moisture out and this will last me about two weeks until I need to change it nice and easy really nice sized shower in here as well this is standard house size services 900 x 900 and so especially being here in quite a suburban area can you talk to me about what you're doing with the gray water here the grey water actually goes out into a tank where I've got a pump on it which then pumps it up to the main house and just taps into this or there that's the way to do it well should we check out the TV then upstairs then yeah come with me let's take a look and then it's good to see you have as well built and some storage into the stairs here of course of course every tiny house must have it and because it's hidden by the couch this is where I keep all my camping stuff and you know things you don't use too often fair enough - this is super cool definitely we're here nearly every day a bit really neat couch that you found to fit the space as well as soon as I saw it I knew it and actually to be honest this is one of the things which I think has worked out so well in my tiny house just buying normal furniture and not putting the feet on yeah that makes a lot of sense when you're looking for a lounge space you want a place where you can come relax and this feels completely separate from the rest of the house and just so cozy in here doesn't it coupled with the trickle from a stream outside it is it's just magical here yeah and then a good size TV you've got up here as well yep a must right probably could have gone bigger looking at it now but I think it does fill the space quite well and then what on earth are those these are our onesies you've got to have a onesie I mean in a den you've got to have a onesie right chilling out and the din and a onesie super cool what I like about this house as well is that you've created really good private spaces that are separate from the rest of the house and creating zones like that goes a long way to making the space a lot more livable and a lot easier to share with someone else as well exactly you know even though we are a couple we still sometimes want a bit of space especially I'm now doing a lot of my work calls from up here and it gives me that space for her to work down there me to work up here and then over the other side we've got the sleeping loft yeah let's go check it out again it's super cozy up here isn't it yeah and here we still have you know two windows outside and we've got green spaces out of each window the other thing I really like about it is my beard as a normal beard I've just taken the feet off and I've also sunk the mattress down into it a little bit so again you know being able to just go to the store and buy a normal beard made things a lot more affordable and then of course in this tiny house you have built 2 3 meters and one of the places where you really feel that you have that extra space is the loft doesn't it and especially in this area we're and now you can actually get out of bed you've got room to stand in the well here and actually get dressed get changed and makes things a lot easier and then you've got all of your clothes storage up here as well yep so this is my half over here nice little easy cupboards and of course we've even got room to be able to hang all our clothes so you moved in about a year ago is living in the tiny house living up to your expectations oh it exceeds it by five so we love living here us living together in the tiny house it's brought us so much closer together one you know you can't run away from each other it is you know we're constantly seeing each other we're able to communicate with each other and no I think if we had a really big house we'd almost just lose that connection with each other yeah and if we really need to have some time or you know we have to get some work done or something we have different area so we can go to so yeah it's really working great and now can you tell me a little bit about the cost that was involved in building this house yeah I arrived back from Bali with absolutely nothing so for all the fair that turn appliances plus the build it cost me around about $200,000 and obviously that speaks to the quality of the materials that you've used the construction and the additional size that you've built into this house as well exactly and for me it was it was about being able to afford those decent quality materials rather than just trying to build as cheap as I possibly could and comparing that to the cost of the average house around here yeah if you were to buy a house anyway around here you're talking about 1.5 million and what do you see the future holding for you now well I really wanted to live in a little tiny house community with other tiny houses and people who have been able to get back a bit of their life stop working the 95 and start working on really epic projects so that's my next big goal so for me I think one of the most important things that tiny house living has given me is this idea of decreasing your footprint increase the impact so talking about the physical footprint which means the size it makes more affordable but also the impact we leave on the planet so once I remove this once I take it away from this parking space in a year's time you'd never even know we were here it's a much more sustainable way of living it also means we're able to create the impact with each other we've got more time for each other we're able to have more quality time for each other it means we've got the time to start impacting the rest of the world the planet the community and for me that's what it really comes down to decrease your footprint increase your impact Karen I think you've built such a beautiful home for yourself here I think you've built so much of your own character into the space I love how you built everything around the kitchen and really just focusing on the things that are important to you thank you so much for sharing it with me thanks Brad this really is a very well designed tiny house you can tell that Karen put a lot of thought into what he really needed in a home to make it work for him and he built those elements into this house now joined by Natalia there is no doubt in my mind that this will serve as a wonderful and functional home for the couple for a long time to come [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 2,946,132

Rating: 4.948 out of 5

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, tiny home, small house, small spaces, architecture, home design, urban tiny house, city tiny house, modern tiny house, urban industrial home, eco home, tiny house tour, tiny house 2020, tiny house new zealand, alternative living, small space design, tiny house design

Id: eYJIfHYEdTw

Length: 14min 53sec (893 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020