Her Gorgeous Tiny House For 15000£

Hey y'all, today we are in England and visiting Lara. She has been living for a while van life and then she decided to build her own tiny house and today she's gonna give us a tour of it. Let's have a look. This is my tiny house I built from scratch. It's larch clad which I always wanted. When I planned it I was like I'd really like it to have like a kind of cabin vibe and have the live edge on it and it was really hard to find that around here so I ended up learning how to run a sawmill. I used a sawmill and I did it all myself. But yes I've got larch cladding which I fitted wrong so I'm gonna have to redo it all again but that's fine I've learned. So you basically did by yourself even the material? Yeah because it's partly because of cost. I could bring the cost down if I was doing it myself but also just because I'm really inquisitive and I really love to learn and it's just like yeah I'll try do that for a bit. Try and do it all myself see how far I get. This is Monty and he had an operation yesterday so he's feeling a bit weird today. How old is he? He's just turned a year. He was a year in July so he's still a baby just figuring stuff out. And this cozy window is recycled? Yeah so these windows so this these I've got two panes of this glass which I got out of a skip in Bristol and someone was throwing it away and I was like so beautiful can I have that? I was like yeah so I just had to make the frame for it which was fine it was interesting learning how to do but yeah all my windows have come all of my windows are second hand which has been great. And here in the front you have a storage? Here in the front is storage this is like the garage area which is gonna have all of my batteries and like my solar stuff and then in the second bit I've got a like a gas boiler it's like not yeah built in yet yeah but so this and there'll be a flue coming out here and it will be connected into this gas which is also the gas for my cooker so it'll just have a split split way on it. So when did you start to build your house? I started building last June last summer. Okay so it has been one year and a bit? So one year and a bit. But you have been living in it already? And I started living in it at the beginning no I started living in it in kind of November last year but living in a building site when you're also working on it has been quite challenging. So you're about to finish your tiny house? Yes I'm really really close but I'm still definitely building I'm kind of living in it and building at the same time but yeah I still need to hook up my solar I need to buy and hook up my solar and then hook up my water and run my water through it and hopefully there's no leaks. And do you know how much so far have you invested? Yes so not including the trailer it's 10 grand just under 10 grand and then add the trailer onto that which was three grand four grand I think it was about yeah about roughly so quite a lot of money all my savings which I think is why it's been going slower than I thought because you kind of do a thing realize that's probably not how you should do it and then have to yeah redo it or do it again or yeah and and I and I have to work at the same time so. And you had no previous experience? No I had a drill and a driver and a lot of friends with a lot of opinions but no I had no previous experience of building a house before. And you still did it? And I did it and it's doable like yeah I just figured if other people can do it why why can't I? Right. You just learn and it's been a really interesting process and I think everybody thought absolutely mad going into this. All right let's have a look inside. Yeah come on in. This is my living room so I've got seating built around this corner and like it's all storage seating so I can put loads of stuff in there. Got a record player and like controller for my underfloor heating which I'll never be able to run because I won't have enough solar but it's there for the future. And you got recycled door as well? Yes yeah this is a secondhand door which again came out of I think it was Faceit marketplace but I really liked it because of the stained glass window and I'm going to paint it I think I'll paint it to just give it a little bit more weatherproofing. You stayed already one winter in the house and you have heated floors. Yes. How was that? Heated floors are the best thing ever it's such a luxury and the dog absolutely loved it. I absolutely loved it. Yeah it made a hell of a difference because I've not had my burner put in yet and so that will be the next thing that will be the thing before this winter is to get the burner in because it'll be so nice to have a fire in here. And then it can live off-grid as well. Exactly yeah being able to live off-grid is like the aim but I had a I had an electric point here so I was like okay well I'll just run my underfloor heating for this winter and it'll be really nice. And all the sofa is a storage as well. Yeah so that also so the cushions just lift off and then it's all hinged or will be hinged and then I can keep all of my stuff in there because you kind of forget how much stuff you've got like I've been living in a van so I've been living really small for a while and then you're like oh I could I could like store my tools in here and I can store my yeah my clothes and like it's been interesting designing it's been really interesting designing the house around my stuff which I really love because like like this little nook here is the perfect nook for my record player which is like I don't know it brought me a lot of joy it's a small thing but makes a difference. And you got very high ceiling do you know how much is it inside? I don't off the top of my head I could find out um but yeah that was the aim the aim for building this house was to be able to put my hands above my head which is a really basic thing I guess but living in a van I can't really stand up and I'm quite tall I think I'm 5'10 and so I've been cooking like this for four years so it's nice to be able to like yeah have a little space I can do yoga in here I can kind of yeah it's a bit more headroom. What are the dimensions of the house? The dimensions are so it's five meters I think it's five meters 40 by two meters 44 outside outside I don't know what it is inside but it had like 10 centimeter insulation I've got two by threes so it would be three inches and then this nine mil and then 12 mil bit rock and my 10 mil cladding there's not much to it it's funny it's like it's yeah it's quite basic and still was warm and still is so warm warm in winter and it's been really nice in the summer like not too hot kind of it's done its job and that was really satisfying because you're like it worked it worked I'm warm or I'm not too warm which has been great and also I think having a lot of windows is really lovely for the light and also just to like get the sun in yeah especially in a small place yeah yeah I was a real outdoorsy kind of person like to be outdoors with the dog or walking or whatever so it's nice to have good views and be able to get some light in here and you got some rustic recycled wardrobe yes these doors are from I was working on a set a few years ago and they had a load of doors shipped in from India and so these doors were in a skip they threw it all away at the end of the job I was like can I have these doors that'd be really I've done quite a lot traveling around India and so it was nice to have a bit of yeah history from somewhere else did you make cushions in India as well yes that was the most ridiculous thing ever because foam foam is really expensive like why is foam really expensive and the guy in the phone store was just like yeah phone prices have gone up these days I was like yeah it has I'm not paying that much money for foam here and was going to India that that month so I was like I'll just have a look I'll take the dimensions and just have a look and it was like crazy cheap over there and and made friends with the tailor and they were like we're really happy to make the cushion covers for you so I was like I'm just gonna do it out here like I've got nothing to lose um and then packaged them kind of like a surfboard to get them back and no one batted an eyelid it was amazing so but yeah had had such an adventure doing that kind of yeah lots of foam on top of the tuk-tuk and like lots of people going she's mad she's not gonna get that phone back through the airport and then it went and like you know it got lost in Dubai and like it was a real process so to like have it here is really nice because it's like traveled with me which is such a weird thing to travel with and was it much cheaper than so much cheaper yeah like like less than half the price like crazy cheap and that and obviously like it's flown so that the carbon footprint of it's not great but um so much cheaper which is brilliant and he got nice and then I didn't have to cover it because I was like oh I'm gonna have to make cushion covers and like really don't want to do that um wasn't a really boring job so I'm really glad I didn't have to do that either which is great welcome to my kitchen I really love this kitchen this is um a friend helped me so I milled all the ash this is a hard ash work top um which goes through and also becomes two of the steps and I bought it thinking it was two years seasoned so I've been down for two years so it wouldn't move and I'm pretty sure that that was not true because the movement on this has been so extreme um it's kind of it dipped and it's warped and it's moved which is the nature of the material which I love but also super annoying because when you're making a built-in kitchen you don't really want it to walk back from the wall like 10 mil um and so a friend helped me help me kind of wrangle it into some kind of um worked up which was really helpful because I was really struggling but yes it's hard it's it's it's ash and it's got a live edge and all of these little bits were holes and I've resined them in and I still need to go back in and do like all the sanding back and then I need to oil them still which is really bad by just kind of putting it off you can see I'm chopping but how much yeah like it's crazy how much that's moved and also like this was this was like sort of and like it's like look how much it's moved away from the wall crazy I'm gonna have to like do a little slice I think and put that in and I'm gonna do like a kind of up stand all the way around in a slate which is down there which matches the slate that's under the burner at some point I'll do that and you've got proper three gas burners yeah I've got three gas burners and I've got a little oven and a grill which is just dreamy absolutely dreamy because I've been in the van with two hobs but no oven so to be able to like make pizza or make bread or it's really nice and it's made for campers yeah so this actually came out of a friend's it's a really sad story it was a friend who converted their van and then wrote it off in the first week someone drove into them and so they were like then they just stripped the van and were selling everything off and he was just like I'm not doing this again so I actually bought it off him which worked really well because it was like brand new but not brand new like he'd only used it once or twice or something but I got it for less and you got the 100 litre fridge or something there I don't know how big that fridge is it's teeny tiny and I love it it's so nice having a fridge again in the van I didn't have a fridge so it's been a while of like just kind of eat like I eat I'm veggie so I eat basically just vegetables and pasta and like quite easy to do so there's no fresh food yeah which is great but no to have a fridge has just been amazing and a tiny little freezer which is wonderful and this all cabinets and you build by yourself yeah this is all built by me I'm not sure I'd do it like this again it's too big I've used 18 mil for everything so I made all of these drawers out of 18 mil which is an absolute just the most foolish move when this is something that needs to be under a weight limit so they've been remade out of 12 mil it's great it's great to have so much storage and then I have like a front here which I've just not attached yet and that just slides out so it's like more food more storage um pantry yeah kind of a pantry which is great but I need to put a front on it to like match and then he made like a double door under the sink yeah the double door doesn't open though so please don't ask me to it's just it's literally I was like shit I should wedge that in because he's coming so it's like wedged in but yeah it will open like that and then you have access to like under the sink and all of the kind of stuff you need to put under there bins and things yeah so you're still in building process yeah this is very much still in process and here is a bathroom yes with lights hanging all over the world because it's just yeah still doing it and you've got the bath I've got a tiny little bath which is an absolute dream still very much building and the composting toilet I'm gonna extend it out and like curve it round and then like fascia it with copper so that it kind of matches the arch and I think fascia that with copper as well and you'll put here just a curtain or yeah yeah I was originally gonna have a pocket door and then decided to do the archway I was just like I think that just makes it far too more complicated so yeah I'll probably just do a curtain of some kind to divide because it's just me but I guess if guests come then it's nice to have some kind of division but they're usually anyway afraid to use composting toilet so yeah they'll probably hold it in and go elsewhere fine with me all right and then you have a loft yeah it's very beautiful stairs yeah I love these stairs so much it was a real headache to try and get it done and I had a friend help me with this because I was like this is really important it's going to hold up the whole of this corner and I was kind of doing it but it was like I kind of needed someone to be like yeah that's good or like no do it like this that was really helpful the ash the kind of the countertop I wanted to continue through so that you could like get the light through when you were sitting in the sitting room wow that's a loud play but yeah so this is this is ash and then this is yew which I've milled and it came from Cornwall and then this is spalted beech and it's so beautiful and I've never milled anything spalted before so it was kind of the guy that was teaching me was just like oh just mill this and just like practice on this and then it like opens and it's these beautiful patterns and I was like I wasn't expecting it at all so that was kind of cool so he let me have two bits of that for my top steps and it's definitely not strong enough for a step so I've put through I've got um kind of metal rods running through it to just give it a bit more strength because the great you is a really hard wood so like that'll be fine as a step but these guys are already already going so I just thought I'd put some metal rods through and strengthen it a bit and how big is the loft teeny tiny I don't have any of the measurements but I've got a double it's just a normal standard double bed yeah um and then I'm gonna do I'm gonna build some storage along here for like books and records and you know just general stuff and also just to have a bit more of a division I think from kind of when you're sitting in the sitting room looking up it would be nice to have like a bit more of a division between the bedroom and even got the roof window yeah got got the elect which is amazing it's so nice and I know it sounds really mushy but it's really nice to be able to see the stars definitely need to put a curtain on it though because in the morning it's the brightest place in the entire world um but no that was that was one of the things I really wanted to have in here and that round window you made by yourself round window yeah got off Facebook marketplace really lovely lady in Devon who was pulling a shed apart and just had a round window and it's nice it's kind of um it's not it's not perfect glass it's kind of got a little it got texture too which is nice but yeah round windows are complicated round peg and square hole and all that but you still made it and it doesn't leak doesn't leak it's a miracle it's an absolute miracle my first door leaked and that was so disheartening I mean it literally like water poured through it it's like a waterfall which is horrible watching that happen but it was recycled as well it was recycled yeah so I think I would probably but I really wanted it to be that I wanted to be this kind of mishmash of things that people didn't want um because it makes it cheaper and it's nice to give things a bit more of a life um people throw away the crazy stuff it's nice to kind of like shove it all into a thing and call it home and if you would do it again would you have done something differently so many things I do so many things differently okay I hope I get the chance at some point because I think building this you realize how not to do certain things and like I love this home this is my home like all of my stuff is going to fit in here and it's and it's great it's been a really interesting process but yeah I definitely do so much different things like I would probably invest in a new door um because of that leak thing and it was such a nightmare and just take my time a bit more so less of a rush less stubborn just like it'll be fine I'll just do it like this and then you do it and it doesn't work and you're like oh man I thought about that a bit more but stuff like with the cladding on the outside I should have left an air gap it's really important to leave an air gap for insulation but also for like air circulation um and I didn't do that so I'm now gonna have to redo my cladding probably next year when I've got the money to do it um and like oil it when it goes up so that it's a bit more protected by the weather because we've had some crazy storms this year and it's it's weathered so quickly it looked so fresh and lovely when you put it on and I wish I'd oiled it to just give it a little bit more um protection from the weather yeah I mean I could go on with so much so much I do differently but I think the main thing is just you do it and you learn and you figure it out along the way and it's been wonderful and I've made a lot of really good friends through this process and it's kind of changed my career like I used to work in costume as a costume maker and I still do that's still my job but it's been really nice to take on more build projects and more set build projects because there's people who have seen me build this and be like do you want a job working with wood like or like we'll teach you how to weld and you do some welding for us and stuff like that's been it's kind of opened up a lot of new doors which has been great so that would be one of the pros yeah the people the community that you get from this and even just online like there has been you know there's parts of the building you're like I don't know what I'm doing and you kind of look online and see how other people have done it and it's nice to be able to reach out to people and be like can I just ask for some advice and it's been a really lovely community to be a part of especially in the UK there's not many of us doing it and so it's been really lovely to be a part of that and what is the most favorite part of the of your build I think putting the walls up like I built all the walls flat and I was building it in the barn I had intended on building the whole thing in the barn and then rolling it out on this like fabulous day and it all being done and then being like ta-da and going off and living in it um and I didn't realize that the barn wasn't big enough which sounds so silly but so put two of the walls up and was like oh yeah okay the roof won't fit on in here so I'm gonna have to bring it outside so I brought the trailer out and it was this glorious sunny day and my mum and dad and one of my best mates came to help and it was just really satisfying to like see the walls go up and then be able to stand in the space it was like a tangible house it was really special and then also actually which is a really basic thing was when I hooked my gas up and being able to make my first cup of tea in here because it was like I've done it I can make a cup of tea in a house that I've built which is um which sounds really silly but that was a really big moment that was nice so basically without any prior experience you built a house yeah and I mean it might all fall down still there's nothing to say that it won't but yeah yeah no no experience and I've built a house do you have any tip for someone who is looking just reach out talk to people we're all a really lovely community I would happily tell you how not to do it no I'd happily I'd love to talk to people about their builds and offer any advice or any kind of opinions and yeah tricks and it's just do it it's been so rewarding and and now I get to live and like build a porch and build a deck and like have a lot of vegetable garden one day all right thanks for showing around of course I hope one day when everything is finished to be able to visit you again yeah of course come back a little I'll have new cladding and it'll be really pretty it's kind of yeah be finished maybe one day all right thanks for watching I hope you found this video informative Lara has instagram account where she is documenting life about her tiny house so if you have some more questions feel free to reach her out I will leave the link in description below and let us know what you like the most about this house in the comments and see the next one cheers bye