Woman Living Off-Grid in Her Tiny House in Northern Canada

[Music] I've been living in my home it'll be two years in November so I'll be spending my third winter in my home I definitely would like to live in it for as long as possible I'm completely off grid I'm leasing the piece of property that I live on currently and I was lucky enough to get an acre and it's pretty secluded I have some neighbors but we don't really see each other and I also have a little lake in the back that I could just walk through the forest for about a minute and I get to a little lake that's pretty private and so yeah I'm really loving where I am [Music] [Applause] I grew up in a small town and I spent a lot of time in the woods my dad was a trapper an outfitter a guide so I kind of grew up around all that kind of stuff and I really love the outdoors so it's important for me to be close to nature I feel the most at home in nature even when I'm alone kilometres away from anybody grouse hunting or picking berries or whatever so for me I'm always gonna live in the woods no matter what the further and the better the less neighbors the better it's just who I am my house is eight and a half by 28 so it's 238 square feet not including the lofts I had a contractor framed the home and then Sheeta and then the rest of it was built by my dad and I with the help of a few friends along the way okay so this is the kitchen I really wanted it to be open-concept so I decided to go with just a shelf on the top to be able to see everything that I have and also to feel like the space is less enclosed I went with the same concept underneath so I have my pantry underneath and it also has little containers you can pull out and get whatever you need from I also have my kitten so this is her little eating area too and I have a little stool so I can actually get to the things that I can't get normally up there I really wanted the things in my kitchen to look good to have a purpose and also to meet a lot to me so when I was moving I found the box of dishes that I had inherited from my grandmother so I don't know if she'd be rolling around in her grave knowing that I'm using her Christmas dish very but that's what I use every day now so this is the stove that I chose I really like the fact that it's a full size even for the small space it doesn't feel like it takes up too much space and this is actually a propane stove so I could use it all just solely on propane without using any of my solar energy for it and this is my fridge it's kind of built up on a box and the box is there because the wheel well went too far out and I actually liked the idea of having it built on a box because it elevated the fridge this is only an apartment size fridge so it's nice that it's higher so I don't have to go too low to grab whatever from the bottom and it's a really good size it has everything I need lots of condiments and then the freezer too is a really good size so this is my living room it also serves as my dining room [Music] so dining room living room and also my spare bedroom which I also called my apartment B so when my nieces come sleepover they sleep up there and then if I have other people sleeping over as well this is good for about two people to sleep on it's a size of a twin bed I really like the white and the blue because if I ever want to change my colors all I have to do is change a couple pillows around so it's less expensive and underneath the couch is storage it also holds all of my electrical panel my inverter for my solar and it has about four totes with stuff in them all my seasonal stuff is under there basically and then in this area as you can see down there it's like a little nook right there the cat is sleeping under there once in a while but it's actually made for a dog so I'm hoping to get a dog in the next little while so that'll be the Nook for the dog so it takes up about a third of the couch so it goes up to here for extra seating I thought it would be a really good idea to have it named or swing so I picked this up at flea market and I can actually hook it up right over here when I'm not using it or I can also tuck it up onto the closet when I'm not using it it's just great for extra seating I usually have tea in the morning answering emails from it and yeah it's really comfortable so this is my little catwalk when I first moved in I didn't really want the cat to be up in my loft so I didn't have the catwalk up and she was really upset with me about that so she'd yell at me every night kind of looking for me so I said that's enough I called my dad and I said dad can you come over help me try to figure out a way to get her up to the loft so we built this little ramp for her we added a little bit of carpet here for her to be able to go up and down smoothly and she goes up all day every day she just goes back and forth so it's nice that she has that space up there as well I'm glad that we put this up for her so this is my heat source so basically if it doesn't have a thermostat but it goes from one to five and then high so I usually from December to about March I put it on high and it's just propane operated and it heats the whole space really nicely I don't need anything else to supplement for heat this does the trick for me the AC I hook it into the window it's just like a little portable one and I only use it probably in July for like three weeks maybe and the space keeps pretty cool during the day as long as I remember to open up my windows at night to let that cool breeze through so my solar system is four panels and so it gives me nine hundred and sixty watts I also have a backup generator so I have a 3,000 Honda and so from April until about November I'm using my solar system primarily the other months from November until the end of March I'm using my generator almost every single day so I plug it in the morning and I turn it on for four to six hours depending on what I'm using that day so it works out really well I think it's you get into the routine of things and it's just like a part of your life my other source of energy is propane so the propane is for the washer/dryer hot water on demand my stove an oven and my heating source so I get filled up with propane about four times a year and each time cost me about two hundred and eighty dollars so yeah it's pretty affordable and I really like to be self-sufficient it gives me more satisfaction and I'm more appreciative of the power that comes into my home my water is actually from a Sand Point well I share it with one of the neighbors so I have running water through my home and I also have a septic system so I have all the amenities of traditional home for winter it's kind of tricky because I live in Northern Ontario so what I did was I ordered a heat trace line from healing calm it's something new I don't think it's been around for more than about like five six years so it actually goes from the inside of your house it plugs into the wall and it goes inside of your water line so that heat line warms up the water from the inside and also on that I wrapped it with a bat of insulation and then I made a box with two inch foam all the way around it Plus that end of my house underneath my bathroom is also insulated all the way around and then during winter when we have a lot of snow I Bank the entire house just to make sure I'm never gonna have a moment where I don't have water because of freezing my house is spray foam insulation keeps my home cool and during winter it keeps my heat inside the only thing with the spray foam installation is that apparently it has new acoustic value so you hear a lot more than you normally would inside of your home let's say if cars driving by or a dogs barking so you hear it a lot more than any traditional home the first home I ever owned was 3,300 Square feet it was a big beautiful home but as soon as I moved in I realized that I wasn't spending any time in it and also the bills are also expensive so I went through some changes in my life I ended up being on my own I didn't want another mortgage I didn't want to spend money on rent to pay somebody else's mortgage so I looked into tiny homes and I thought that would be the most ideal for me also because it's on wheels so I have the opportunity of living kind of wherever I want with my job especially I'm a photographer so I have my own business I've been in business for nine years now so I do that full-time so it takes me a little bit everywhere in Ontario so it's nice to be able to have a job like this and live tiny where I don't have a lot of money to spend towards my cost of living so if next month for some reason something happens and I'm not able to work I'm not gonna worry too much about the bills so it takes a lot of stress off of me I used to kind of like I call it hoarding jobs so I'd take any job that would come to me because I would be afraid of not making enough money in the next few months so this allows me to be able to work and take that stress off so this is my closet I have a nice big organizer in here basically just everything is folded and tucked away in the middle and then I have all of my stuff that I need hung on both sides and a couple little hooks on the sides here for tank tops and whatnot instead of using hangers for that all my outdoor clothes my coats and everything are also here so this is all seasonal so I don't have anything for a winter in here so I have it little shed at the back that I use to just like switch out my seasonal stuff a summer to winter but yeah most of what I own is in here when I initially put all my clothes into my closet I put the hangers on this way so one side use a piece of clothing I just put it back the normal way like we'd always do and so at the end of about six months I went through my closet and every hangar that was still hanging this way I knew that that was a piece of clothing that I never used so I was able to take that piece of clothing and donate it I also have my camera gear all my paperwork I have bins up there for other random things shoes things for the outdoors my hunting stuff in that corner even a vacuum in there so it really holds a lot it's pretty much the same size as a normal closet would be in a traditional home this is my really big tiny house bathroom it's very spacious I have a lot of area for storage so I have all my Linens make sure toilet paper all my stuff and then everything else like medicine cabinet would be up here I also have washer/dryer which is really nice to have the washer/dryer is actually propane I think it's a full size washer dryer so it'll do like my whole bed set in one shop which is really nice and then cat litter box you can't avoid that and I have my soaker tub I always wanted a soaker tub I really like the idea of it but everything was so expensive out there you're looking at about like 700 up for a soaker tub and I needed something really compact so I actually went to the local hardware store and I asked them I showed them a photo of a horse drinking out of one and they ordered me one and I didn't tell them for what and when it came in they called me and I went inside the store and actually got in and I sat in it they all laughed at me and they asked me what I was doing and I told them that it would be my bath tub and so I have a flushing toilet and I have a nice little sink it's really convenient I don't have to do an outhouse or anything so this is my bathroom door I'm planning on putting some kind of like frosted glass in here just so you can't see through but for right now I have a little curtain in the back here so what I need it to be when I needed more privacy that I can just pull the curtain in the door this door was actually donated to me by one of my clients she was using it for a prop at her wedding and it's really nice that it's on the rollers so it doesn't take up too much space I decided to go with a painter's ladder for my ladder I feel like it's really sturdy and I had a local welder take it apart and then put a plate on top that has a sort of little lip on it so it actually attaches to the bar right there this is my loft I ended up getting a mattress that is thinner than normal mattresses just basically a foam but it's super comfortable it's just high enough for me to be able to sit up in bed and be comfortable and then I have these skylights so I love the skylights because I'm able to see the stars that night which I think is a really cool feature but also because when I'm up here I don't feel claustrophobic the skylights also came with little shades so once I installed the shades it'll be nice in the morning instead of getting woken up by the Sun but I don't really mind it right now so it works out really well this space holds pretty much everything that's very near and dear to me I really wanted a headboard sort of and I decided to go this way so then I could have all those little trinkets and not have them all over my home so little things like my dog that passed two years ago I have her collar and then I have stuff from my travels or things that were given to me over the years [Music] being able to be a little more free financially and not have to work as hard as I used to it's allowing me to do a lot of different things within my community in my family and volunteer time to help people out in different ways for example I am a farmhand on a reindeer ranch I do that a couple of times a week so that's really important to me to have those connections with people and to spend time with people spend your life doing the things that you really love and with the people you really love so I really implement that in my life every single day [Music] please share this video if you liked it also be sure to subscribe to exploring alternatives and check out our playlists for more stories like this thanks for watching

Channel: Exploring Alternatives

Views: 2,140,450

Keywords: tiny, house, tour, lifestyle, interior, design, Canada, Ontario, living, living in a tiny house, tiny house on wheels, affordable, budget, housing, home, off, grid, solar, power, panels, propane, generator, DIY, pet, cat, dog, single, woman, Exploring, Alternatives, Carole Lyne Robin, experience, documentary, micro, cabin, cost, real, winter, heat, insulation, rural, remote, reindeer, canoe, living off the land, tiny home, minimalist, minimalism, sustainable

Id: iPR9QRXbeAI

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 07 2019