Our Urban Tiny House In New Zealand
This week I am so excited to be able to share something really special with you all. A full video tour of our very own tiny house on wheels
in New Zealand. For those who have been following my journey from the very beginning, you’ve been waiting a very long time for this reveal
and I’m so happy to be able to finally share the completed home with you after almost 5 years!
If you’ve been following my build journey since the beginning, you’ll know this project hasn’t all been smooth sailing. It hasn’t come easy and there have been many trials and tribulations along the way. From budget stops, to relationship break-ups, builder hold-ups, overseas travels and everything in between. Still, I’ve been chipping away at the house over the last years, and the slow progress has been very frustrating for me, as I’m sure it has been for many of you too! Hopefully, the end result is worth the wait. It sure is for me!
At 15 square meters (160 square feet) this tiny house on wheels is completely off the grid, collecting rain water and generating power through solar panels which sit on the roof. The home is designed to fit within legal road dimensions for safe transport and easy relocation on New Zealand’s roads. For a detailed breakdown of the construction of this tiny house on wheels and more information about its workings.
I was first inspired to build a tiny house on wheels while working as an actor and musician in New Zealand. My job didn’t always come with a steady pay check and I was finding it really difficult to live and pay rent in such an expensive city as Auckland, which is one of the worlds most expensive cities according to the housing affordability index, with house prices around 1 million dollars and the average city income of around $70,000 before tax. For many of us, traditional housing was simply outside of the reach of possibility. Those in my circles who did manage to purchase a home, were often burdened with so much debt, that their quality of life significantly dropped. That debt is likely to stay with them for the majority of their lives.
For me, the idea of a small and simple home which would allow me to own my own home without needing to own land and without crippling debt, which was affordable, simple and provided the basics of what I needed to live in terms of power and water made perfect sense to me and that’s what started me on my journey.
Life has changed a lot for Rasa and I, as we now spend most of our lives traveling and filming for our YouTube series, Living Big in a Tiny House. This home now will serve as a beautiful home base for us we are back in New Zealand, and will hopefully be the start of our small homestead one day, as we are currently saving up for land where we can one day start our little micro homestead and my life-long dream of land regeneration.
I hope you enjoy the video tour of our home.