Young Woodworker Crafts Stunning Off-Grid Tiny House

for somebody who loves making things there really is no greater project than building your own home and today we're about to meet a young woman who turned her love of woodworking into a beautiful place to live [Music] hi Flo how's it going yeah good thank you lovely to meet you and it is wonderful to see your home this is absolutely adorable thank you so much what was it that actually inspired you to build a tiny house lots of things I'd seen the movement growing a lot in the States and in Australia and I stayed in a few and I've always wanted to build a home for myself as it's a yeah basic thing to do and yeah I've done a lot of bits and bobs of carpentry and bodging things together and I just kind of seeing the movement growing and being really inspired and building my skills I thought maybe I can do this so so this really was a DIY build how did you find the process of building your honour I mean it was amazing it was there's a lot of blood sweat and tears lots of tears but it was the most rewarding thing I've ever done and it was amazing so I built it with my cousin who helped me like you know so much and I couldn't have done it without him so yeah he's very talented and amazing so it was a really nice project to do with him as well and that was great and I had loads of friends helping and it was yeah real labor of love it was a big learning curve like threw myself into it and I didn't really know what I was doing and had very few tools and same experience I just thought oh well I just did and what site is the home so it's 2.4 meters by four point eight meters but it's quite tallest 3.8 meters off the ground and tell me about the materials that you've used to build on so it's all Western redcedar and that all came from about ten miles from my boy I built it and I got to go and see the trees before I got felled which was a really yeah really cool experience and all the windows and the door and everything and a lot of the stuff inside is reclaimed or secondhand or found in Skip's things so I was doing it on a budget and trying to do a really low low waste build I knew use the most local and sustainable materials and you're doing a carpentry apprenticeship now aren't you yeah so I work as an apprentice timber framer and joiner so I'm learning how to yeah make windows and doing beautiful oak timber frames and things and you're quite lucky aren't you because with the parking spot that you've found here you actually have a little workshop area right next to it yeah so I'm staying on a friend's farm at the moment and I was lucky enough for them to let me use this little stone barn to keep some way see some witty things in so I've gotten a really nice space that I can yeah be creative and make things in and what was it like for you to try and find a place to park the home yeah so it's because not that many people do it in the UK I went into it a bit blind I didn't really know how to go about finding somewhere so I had some friends that had this farm and their work and they said I could pop my house here for a bit so I was really lucky and you're off the grid with this home aren't you yeah so I've got a really good solar setup and I'm connect to the water here but it's all spring fed so it's technically off-grid and then I've got gas for my cooker and my wood heater and I really love the stable door as well that's such a nice touch I always really wanted one it was that and a round window I was like gotta have a round window yeah and I found it on eBay it was like I think it's like a fiver so that's great that this like bottom half of the door was all rotten and it was really broken so I like rebuilt it and then had some shingles that were left over from a project at work so put those on them brilliant well the exterior of the home is completely charming and I am very excited to see the inside can we take it out yeah cuz thank you [Music] this is absolutely beautiful thank you it's quite lovely just walking right into your lounge here and then being immediately greeted by that fireplace isn't it yeah I love this I love the little squirrel it's quite oversized for the house I think but it keeps me nice and toasty and this whole home it really does kind of open out in front of you I think you've done a really good job of keeping it quite open plan and very spacious yeah the ceiling height makes it feel a lot more open as well which I really like and yeah I went through so many different designs of layouts and crazy schooling's in my notebook of where to put everything and yeah I'm really pleased with how I decided to lay it out you've got a lovely comfortable looking couch area here yeah it's really cozy so I've got like storage underneath the sofa and all in the stairs cuz we'll see there's not much space to my stuff but it's great and talking about the storage how did you find adapting to living in a tiny house did you have to downsize a lot a bit yeah it definitely felt like a really natural transition for me and it was quite easy but I moved into the house and moved the house very quickly so it all happened yeah I just kind of had to go for it but it was a really nice process of finding everything's place and finding out what I could bring in what I had to say goodbye too so yeah and the stair design looks quite clever it looks like you have managed to build in quite a bit of storage there and especially the live edge timber on that it's really nice yeah so it's all this lovely ash that my dad gave me and same the kitchen I thought about having a ladder and and I even thought about having like rock climbing holes of the wall that one void and then I went for sort of block stairs cuz having storage is obviously really useful and I really liked how I designed it so that the stairs turn as you go up which I really like so it's not just like it's straight stairs and yeah I'm really glad we got to keep the natural edge on it and then as you said this lovely timber is continued into the kitchen what a great-looking design here thank you yeah I really wanted just a nice big surface area so I was really lucky that I had these really nice big pieces of wood I could use and so tell me what were your kitchen essentials the biggest thing was having an oven because I used to work as a baker and love baking and yeah so I really wanted an oven but it's not easy to find a small gas oven and Hobbs so the cooker I found I was so pleased with because they don't make them anymore than that like a really old stove but it works amazingly and so that was that was a big thing and I really wanted a Belfast sink which I'm really pleased I have I just hope that was another one absolutely and actually the cookie you've got there's a wonderful match to the sink as well isn't it that was a striker luck yeah both eBay fines as well so I did not some driving around the country and picking up windows and shelves and my sink and things like that of yeah stuff that people didn't want anymore and now have a really nice place in my home absolutely isn't it wonderful just being able to give things a second life like that yeah I really wanted to do that with this house actually and I didn't want to buy anything new if I didn't have to and bringing something to life that would have been thrown away otherwise and I think I've done that so it's nice absolutely especially when there is just so much phenomenal old stuff out there and half the time that's better than the new stuff you can get anyway yeah exactly and then you've got all of those lovely wooden spoons and that's all your work isn't it yeah well I am a spoon cover but I have lots of very talented friends who also makes things so a lot of those are made by friends and yes I might be one of the only tiny houses with a spoon rack of them all yeah there's a bit random but I love it and it's really nice to have a piece of all my friends on the wall and being able to choose who I you dinner with that yeah I think it's lovely being able to display some of your friends artwork in the home yeah it definitely is it's an art form it's not just a utensil very true and then we've got your bathroom in here can we have a peek in there yeah come in there's no door more space all that tub is seriously cool yeah it was a real find it was out of an old canal boat and yeah it's a little hip bath so you can sit right in it and gets really deep and yeah it's great especially on a chilly day like today that is especially inviting as ya get home after work and get cozy in my bath I love it and what you've done over here with all of this pipe work is incredible I love how you've made the rainfall showerhead out of the copper yeah that was a yea stroke of genius by my cousin we were trying to find a showerhead that had a low enough profile that I could stand in the bath and you know not have to duck and we couldn't find one and then just last minute we thought well let's just make one out of copper because we had all this planned out anyway and then yeah we just drilled a little holes in it and soldered it together and it works amazingly it's really good very very clever and then we've got your composting toilet back here and I really like the way that you've reclaimed some space by building into the stairs as well yeah I thought that was quite a stroke of genius because this space you know you never you never like sit back come on the loo like this so it's just a space that you don't need above your lid and then we've got your sleeping loft upstairs yeah this is just so cozy and I really like how you've included all of the stained glass windows in the home that just adds so much character yeah they're from the 30s actually you have some really nice old old windows but it's really lovely when the Sun comes through and get the coloured light yeah it's quite a spacious and comfortable feeling loft up here isn't it yeah I really wanted to be able to stay up in bed I'm a bit claustrophobic actually so a sort of really small head room in the bedroom wasn't really an option so that's why I kind of made the house so tall because I really wanted to be able to sit up in bed so yeah it does feel quite spacious actually so how long have you been living in the home now so I've been in it for about six months yeah the kind of teething problems I've kind of worked through and yeah the life finally now is is very different to how I've lived for fall but it feels really right and I'm kind of finally living the life that I've always kind of wanted to live so it feels really good so here in the UK tiny house living is still something which is a little bit unusual there are not too many people doing it what did your friends and family think of this project everyone was really supportive which was amazing and yeah I couldn't have done it without thanked the help of some really talented friends and family helping me build it and just being supportive emotionally as well as in a practical sense it's definitely unusual and lots of people yeah I think a bit skeptical about this sort of way of living but I think more and more people are coming around to the realization that actually I think a lot of people are going to have to start living like this because there's such a huge housing crisis in this country and yeah but I was very lucky that I had support when I was building it and now living in it and had lots of people going to visit and everyone loves it which is really nice and now let's talk about the budget what did this cost to build so it cost around 15,000 pounds I think I have entitled it all up my solar system is all quite expensive so that's a large chunk of it and I was really lucky that I got on my word for free through my dad donated it to me so that was yeah a huge chunk that I don't have to pay for which was great and yeah all the reclaimed stuff didn't cost me much but yeah and to others out there in England and the UK who loved the idea of tiny house living there maybe a little bit afraid right now to take that leap what advice would you have for them I think I can just do it I think that's the thing I can say I am such a warrior and I went through so many stages of doubt and then I just thought I'll just do it and I haven't looked back it's been the best decision I've ever made and yeah it's given me this really amazing like freedom and independence and I own my own home at 25 which is crazy it's really special the amount of like hard work and time and effort that went into building it it's a really amazing feeling waking up every day and yeah like I built this now I live in it and yeah I really built up my skills and now in my job and doing lots of woodworking in my spare time doing this build has helped all of those skills and yeah and I've learnt so much so yeah I'm excited to kind of take take the skills forward flow I think you've done such a wonderful job with this home you sit at this you're 25 years old you know on your own home and you are helping trailblaze the movement here in the UK thank you so much for sharing with me so much there really is so much to love about this very little home it truly is compact in size yet is filled with so many wonderful things like all of the salvaged elements and the tremendous woodworking skill that flow has poured into this home this really is a place that she can be tremendously proud of [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 2,013,154

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, tiny home, tiny house movement, tiny house england, tiny house uk, diy tiny house, tiny house design, tiny house living, small house, small home, tiny house tour, tiny house 2020, tiny house tours, woodworking, woodworker tiny house, timber tiny house, off the grid, solar powered tiny house, architecture, home design, interior design, diy building, solar power

Id: YTRiH_rzDUw

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020