This Natural Minimalist Tiny Home Is a Pinterest Dream Come True

When you build your own home, you're building memories, you're building a place where you wake up every day, a place where you share meals together with your family and really you're building your life. And this next tiny house that we're about to visit, what a life that is. Hi Madison, how are you? Good thanks, how are you? Very well thank you. Hey Kyle, nice to meet you mate. You too. This house is an absolute stunner. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a labour of love hasn't it? It has been, yeah. It's been a big last year getting it all together and yeah. It's liveable. Yeah, I feel like there's still little projects we would love to work on but for the most part I think this is home and I think like that's something that will always be there, there will always be something you know that you want to do and I kind of love that. Absolutely, well especially for you where you're DIYers, so you've got all the skills to create whatever you want. Yeah, no it's been very handy, had my brother help out with this so well he did a lot of it. He's the carpenter and he's the builder yeah but we did it together. We had a vision and he kind of brought it to life. We were like this is what we want to create and he translated that to all the building code, how you can make it happen and yeah here it is. Amazing and it really is a beautiful home. Obviously I have lots of questions about the home but first let's talk about your journey into tiny house living and why you chose to go tiny. Well a little bit of a backstory, we actually spent nearly two years traveling Australia in a sprinter van so in terms of tiny I feel like that's extra tiny and this feels big for us. For us I think the big driving factor was we just wanted to not have a massive mortgage, we wanted to be present with our boys for these early years while it really really counts we feel. So yeah we chose tiny, it meant that we could be at home more, we are closer to nature, like we've had little breaks and periods in a normal home between the van and this happening and it's crazy just how much you just stay inside because everything's inside. It's like you don't really need to go out unless you've intentionally set the time whereas with this I feel like we're outside 80% of the time and inside like 20%. You know we sleep, we eat, we do all that inside but everything happens out here. Yeah and a big part of living in the van for a while and traveling was searching for your perfect parking spot wasn't it? Absolutely. This was always the goal but we were unsure where we wanted to build it, where we wanted to park it up. We didn't complete a lap but we did enough of the places that we wanted to see and then we ended up turning around and coming back. Ended up where you started. Well it's good to have that confirmation that you're in the right place. Yeah I feel like we found this spot and we were like oh no we're good this this is it like yeah. And it's been literally everything that we wanted that's kind of perfect. Kind of the best of both worlds. Yeah it sure is and how did you find this parking spot? We actually used the Park My Tiny House website. Oh great. So we were looking all around Australia looking at all the listings and yeah connected with our land owners here and yeah. Yeah well this really is such a dream parking spot and to help you enjoy it even more you've built this wonderful outdoor area. This is palatial. Yeah. I kind of went a bit overboard with it but that was my biggest thing. I wanted the indoor outdoor space. Yeah. So I pretty much would sleep out here if I was allowed. Well we all spend literally 80% of the time out here. Yeah the kids often play. This is all their toy box behind us and that's where they're out here playing and we have dinners on the table there and mornings here having coffee like yeah. We designed it into a build as well. Right. So we designed it. We actually put a grid in so there was never any water coming in. Like the water was always going to sit in the middle and run away. Rather than dripping. Yeah. Yeah very clever. And the butterfly roof just looks so good doesn't it? Yeah. I think it's just such a nice profile. Yeah well we didn't want to lose our view either. So that was always in our planning from early on. You don't lose any of the view. I wanted to see the top of the hill. Yeah I wanted to see it on that couch not just outside. So yeah. And then you've got these wonderful garden boxes. I love how you've done those. They look so good with the sort of live edge timber and the all of the bark still on it. It looks really nice. Yeah well the bark actually helps protect the logs. So I could have debarked them all but then you got to treat the log. So yeah we're hoping we'll get a good few years out of them. Oh yeah. And that timber's all from the land as well. So our land owners were clearing some pine plantations which supposedly they're not super good for the soil and the ground. So then they had all these excess offcuts and we were like hey we'll use them. And we've just kind of created this little garden beds, nature play space, you know everything. Nice. And as a landscaper it must be so nice to finally have your own chunk of land to play with. Definitely. I've been waiting for this for a long time. And you're off the grid here aren't you? Yeah completely. So rainwater and solar. So yeah. It's been a learning curve. Even coming from a background of being in a van off grid I feel like being in a stationary home off grid is totally different. Like you can't just drive to you know get your water, get your services. It's like you're really relying on nature here. Didn't really think about the South Australian drought. So rainwater has been a bit of a tough one. Yeah we've actually had to truck in some water a couple times over summer. But in saying that like people around here have been saying this is the driest summer they've seen in years and years and years. Our landowners never had tanks this dry ever. Right. So yeah. We were okay until I put in a outdoor bath. And yeah. That'll do it. Yeah we're fine. And then I put this bath in and then I was like all right well Madison and the kids just. Every night. Ham and the next thing I was like oh we're dry. Yeah. I'd say that's worth trucking in a bit of water for though. Yeah definitely. That's what I said. And now let's talk about the tiny house. What size is this? The house is eight meters long by 2.5 and then it's 4.3 high. Our trailer is actually 10 meters though. So where the bath is there was a little bit of overhang. So we got this trailer on Marketplace actually second hand. And yeah just with the weight the 4.5 ton we could only build to eight meters with the double lofts. Right. If we did the full 10 we would have been overweight. And can you tell me about the design of the home? Of course. So we wanted timber on the outside and if I had it my way it would all be timber. But coming back to the weight we crunched those numbers and we were like no we're going to need some iron in the equation. So we went for the the color bond that that wraps around. We've got a color bond maxi line for our tin. But yes Madison wanted a lot of timber so I had to do a lot of research. We went back and forth. I'm like can't have timber. The weight center wears down. She wanted all timber doors and windows. Which I get because it looks so good. But we found a company that does this aluminium fake timber look. This is aluminium? Yeah. No way. Yeah. So they're really light. Really durable. Yep. Brilliant. So all our windows are the same product. And then for our side it's called Weathertech. It's all recycled timber crushed down and then pressed into a real timber look. And it's probably about I think five to eight mil thick. And it's just like a sheet. Yeah. And it's super light. You whack it on. You glue it on. You can stain it. Yeah. You can do whatever you want with it. It's great. And then we have our copper. So there's copper all throughout the home which you'll see. That just looks so good. Yeah. And it's aged quite a lot since we've been here. And I love it. Like I love the rustic look. Yeah. Well already from the outside I can see that you have crafted an absolute dream home here. And I am so excited to see the interior. Can we check it out? Yeah definitely. Let's go. Thank you. This is absolutely beautiful. This tiny house it actually looks like a Pinterest board that's been brought to life. Oh thank you. It really kind of has. I feel like I've just been saving away things that I love for years now. So it was pretty surreal to get to compile everything and put it all together. I was a little nervous like picking some of the things thinking like how's it all going to flow. But now like it's just an amazing feeling walking in and knowing like every single thing we chose so intentionally. It's exactly as I envisioned. The choice of the materials in here as well as the use of all of the curves just give this house such a softness as well. Yeah that's what we were really going for. Earthy, natural, warm and soft. And it's funny like these curves a lot of these weren't actually in our plans to begin with. A lots of these were kind of decided on the day. Like so our builder Jake, that's Kyle's older brother, he basically made these things all happen. Like what did we start with? We wanted the curved bench and then he was like why don't we curve the couch and then why don't we curve here and then I think this needs a curve. And before we knew it like everything had this soft edge and I love it. Not only is it like super practical for little people but it's beautiful and soft and it just flows I feel. Yeah and the color choices in here as well. I love the sort of the off-white colors and the way that that blends in with the timber. It really does make the house feel almost it almost feels as if I've walked into an earth home. Oh that's the goal. I feel like long-term vision I would love to build like a hempcrete home or something like that. So I was like how can I do that in a tiny home version? So yeah the micro cement benches, the lime wash on the walls and something else as well as we really tried to be as low-tox as possible with the build. Obviously new builds have a lot of chemicals that can be involved with like adhesives and paints and all of those things so we really tried to look for natural cleaner alternatives wherever we could even to the lighting. So our lights are blue light free and they're also flicker free so these are flicked to three different settings. You can do you know your daytime, your evening and your bedtime so just to really not disturb you know your circadian rhythms and sleep. And then bedrooms are just night time. Yeah they're just a really warm amber light so yeah the evening ones. Great idea. Very cozy looking little lounge here as well. Again the curves love the shapes and the timber that you've used here as well just looks so good for the shelving. Yeah well funny thing about these timber shelves these are all man-made. I've literally de-stressed them and yeah we've got a lot of funny stories about them that's for sure. They were actually like plain pine weren't they? Like leftover off cuts? Yeah yeah everything's leftover from the build so haven't gone out and bought more stuff it was just like oh cool I've got this piece yeah I'd love a shelf here. Awesome. Yeah just did what I could and it didn't matter what they turned out like at the end of the day we were it was either we find something else or we could use it and no they've turned out great literally everyone that comes in here mentions the shelving so it's kind of cool. Yeah it definitely makes a real feature yeah and again this just looks like such a cozy space to sit and relax. Yeah we made it big enough for if we did have visitors so it is like a small single bed. Underneath it's actually all storage as well so this actually lifts up so you know we've got our linens and toys and board games and you know all those things that yeah you kind of just want to tuck away and grab just every so often. One thing that's impossible to ignore here is that window what a stunning feature that is. Yeah that's Madison headache. Yeah for sure. That was the one thing I was like okay guys I need a lead light window a stained glass window and when we mentioned it to Jake he was like okay okay we can do that and I was like it's gonna be a circle though and he was like okay. Oh yeah builders love round windows. That's what started all the curves so right it was funny when the window actually arrived me and my brother put it off for so long and Madison was always coming out going is the window in yet when you put the window in we're like yeah yeah we're getting there but then when that day came it was yeah. And I think the great thing about Jake was he obviously he didn't say no to any of my ideas he made it happen and we had a beautiful woman actually custom make that for us everything was very intentional with that as well and I had some friends actually say you know the four little petals it's like our family of four so it feels very symbolic and beautiful that that is kind of the center of our home. Yeah I completely agree what a gorgeous feature and then your kitchen this is absolutely beautiful again I love the use of the micro cement I just think it's such a nice material to use in a kitchen it looks so good and offset against the timber look windows and the copper it just really works. Thank you. Also I'm a massive foodie I love my cooking yeah I've designed it as a little working station as you got your fridge your cupboard and then you got your prepared bench space and you cook and then your dirty dishes and then you dry the dishes and then away there you go. He was very particular about the flow of the kitchen and we wanted it to be big and spacious we just wanted it to feel luxurious and it does because you know we spend so much time in here cooking three times a day yeah we've had so many people in here cooking with us as well dinner parties and you know we've had like someone on each little corner someone cooking someone cleaning and it still feels like there's so much space. We got the bifold windows which obviously we have our bar out there and so that just opens up and when you're having a little dinner party it's food's ready on there and then it gets taken out or we have our breakfast on the bar. Yeah our son loves to play and come around and order his No it's worked really well. I love that and again just so much style in this kitchen as well I love the knobs that you've got on the cupboard doors. Thank you I looked for so long that was one of the last things we actually added in I was umming and ahhing whether I went with the copper but then I just wanted something that brought back a little bit more cottage warm character and it fitted with the tiles and I was like score I think these were Etsy or something like that yeah some little handmade store but no I love them. Amazing it looks like you have plenty of kitchen storage as well. I think after once again the van we just wanted heaps of room for food and you know our pantry is so big we have only three cupboards for food and the bottom two are just other things art supplies like homeschool things and other my camera stuff like it yeah serves as everything storage. Pretty much all of it's empty we've got four plates four bowls. Yeah but it's amazing having the option. Yeah for sure so you homeschool your kids here as well then? Yeah so our eldest he just turned five and he has one day a week that we go to a play group then the other days we're here and we do lots of arts and crafts and stories and we're very much just following his lead right now that's what feels good for us and you know in a couple years time that might shift but I think we feel really good going down that path. Great idea you've got this great walkway here as well connecting the two sleeping lofts and is that your son's loft up there? Yeah so we did the hallway connecting the two bedrooms because obviously living in the van we're all cozied up together so this was actually his first bedroom he was super stoked with it super excited and it was actually funny designing the whole thing he before we got gyprock up there's actually all these little drawings all over the floor and the walls and cute so yeah we had to put the walkway in because we obviously didn't want him climbing down steep stairs at night. We stayed in a lot of tiny homes before we built this and lots of them had the little ladders up to the lofts which is great you know you save the space in the living but with little people it was just yeah yeah and to be fair he has not come out of his bedroom. He loves it and we've had so much fun designing that space you know Kyle's made a little desk that you can see up there that is just under the window and a little bookshelf that you actually foraged for a little stick out here and built it together and that's where his books are so yeah it's coming together. And I think he loves his own door as well so we put a door on his room obviously living in the van when we put our son to bed we had to be quiet lights off because he was right next to us type of thing but when we designed this we're like nah we we still want our time he loves it he goes in there closes the door he draws he plays and yeah it's good. Yeah so with the sleeping arrangements in my son's bedroom it's right now it's a double bed and that's because we've co-slept for most of his life so we it's there if either of us need to jump in with him of an evening and then when our littlest is older we're hoping to transition it to two single beds so that loft is actually bigger than ours it has that little overhang over the bathroom and yeah we did that so we could hopefully fit two singles while they're you know younger and can share a space together. Makes sense nice and it's actually the only closing door in the house right now isn't it? Only door. It is. Only door. Yeah so we are hoping to try and find a sliding barn door for in the bathroom that you'll see it's always a fun talking point when we have people visit it's like it's it's a communal experience but we pull this curtain across and we're usually out on the deck and with the curtain across you know no one no one can see that. Fair enough to another task to sit your brother on to then. Well that one's actually a task for me probably why it's not done. And you've got this neat little hallway that leads to the bathroom over there. Yeah I always wanted a little hallway in a house and I guess having a hallway. Tiny version. Hey it's still a hallway. You got it. You got it. Well can we check out the bathroom? Let's do it. Let's do it. Oh again this is just such a cozy room. The material choices just sing in this room. Look at that floor that is beautiful the tile work is exquisite. Yeah you you guys did that didn't you? We we actually had very similar ones in our van for our backsplash behind our kitchen so yeah it feels a little bit nostalgic like looking down at the floor. Yeah so Kyle and Jake hand laid these one by one and our little one actually helped put all the little pieces in between so every time I look at it I think of Reef as well. Oh that's so cute and then yeah the micro cement looks so good in the shower as well you've even got the little arch to match. Yeah another curve. I had a lot of fun doing that. Yeah and the timber carries throughout so Jake actually handmade this this was all reclaimed timber and then we roughed it up a little bit stained it and yeah. Yeah same story really roughed it up and yeah made it look like we found it. Yeah what a cool approach to take something build it from new and then have that process of distressing it to just make it look like it has a hundred years of history. Yeah I love that and in the basin as well that looks like it's got to have a story. Yeah the basin was one that I fell in love with when we were first looking for a basin I found this one and I showed Kyle and he was like mad like that's a bit excessive don't you think and I was like okay yeah maybe you're right like I'll leave it and then we were looking and looking and just couldn't find anything similar to this and I looked on their website and it said they had a six to eight week manufacturing time like they hand make them and I was like no the basin and so I was like I'm gonna call and if there's a basin it's ours so I called the woman and she was like you wouldn't believe it we actually have one left in that and I was like done that's our basin. Yeah lovely beautiful backlit mirror too. Yeah a fun little feature I just wanted the curve and then I realized it had the light behind it and I was like amazing. Yeah and you've got the composting toilet here as well. Yep so that one has been really good it's actually surprisingly easy I feel really straightforward and it's always a funny talking point when we have visitors everyone's like so how do we use your and give everyone the rundown but yeah it's been great. Yeah and then the window behind you is a little feature as well obviously it's a slide upside down and it we have a dog so it kind of works as a little doggy door as well because it opens up. Yeah perfect and through the window here as well I can see your solar trailer that is a cool design. We actually had a old rusty car trailer and I was like why didn't I build a solar trailer and turn it into a shed. Yeah. Because we've got kids he's got a bike I've got my surfboards. And yeah so I ended up once again drawing a little solar trailer up using this car trailer and then taught myself how to weld and built this little shed and yeah it's come out really cool. Yeah I totally agree I think there's a lot of great reasons for building your solar onto a trailer or onto a separate structure as well because it means you don't have to put the penetrations in your roof which is a huge advantage way easier to clean when they're sort of close to the ground level like that and then as well you just have that freedom and flexibility to sort of change them out add on to them a lot easier if anything's not working I think there's a lot of reasons why building solar into a trailer like that just makes sense. Yeah. Yeah you've got the laundry in here as well especially with little ones that is a must-have isn't it? Definitely the loads of laundry that we do it doesn't end I could run it every day honestly we wanted to make sure that it tucked away nicely so we were kind of weighing up having drawers in the front of the stairs out the front or having this whole open space back here and we opted for this open space back here with a little bit of extra storage next to it as well which is is really good otherwise I feel like it would just be such a dense space otherwise. Yeah nice and then upstairs we have your bedroom can we take a look at that? Yeah let's do it. Okay it's quite a steep stair design that you've got here. Yeah well kind of had to be to maximize the floor downstairs. Sure we changed it on the day we originally in the plans had it to be a little wraparound so that it was going to be a corner stair that would go in front of our couch but then we were kind of stepping it out and we were like actually with little people we would much rather the extra floor space and couch space so we just made the stairs a little bit more of a steeper step up and then that also meant we have like more space behind for the laundry as well. Yeah that makes a lot of sense and then this is just such a nice area up here it's great that you've got the walkway beside the bed as well. Yeah we really wanted to be able to stand and maneuver and yeah continued obviously the curves in the wall and we kept this like a little half wall because I still wanted to try and get the natural light coming in here and yeah I love it. Yeah beautiful I like the storage wall that you've built along the back here as well. Yeah so this is all of our wardrobes so we have hanging space here then Kyle has one of those little pods and then I have one and I also share with our littlest so I just love that everything's tucked away neatly you can just shut the door and you don't need to look at it. Yeah and you've got a large bed up here as well which is obviously important because you're co-sleeping with a little one. Yeah so this is a queen and it's yeah such a cozy mattress we love it. Yeah it was probably all I really cared about in a bedroom was a big bed because I like my room. Yeah and so how long have you been living in the tiny house now? I think we moved it here in October last year and we weren't actually 100% finished when we moved it so we still had probably a month left of work. We moved it early because my brother he's a truck driver and he actually towed it for us and he was going overseas so we had this little window where it was like if we don't move it this weekend it's going to be in a month's time. Gotcha. So we were like okay we'll move it so we brought it here in October and yeah have been living here ever since. Yeah great and how are you finding life in the tiny house? We absolutely love it it's so quiet and yeah the sun rises this way and sets over here and it's just so beautiful and you know we're close to town we're close to all of our boys friends and yeah and family as well. The nature you can sit on this decking and kangaroos come yeah kookaburras sit on the pose like yeah the wildlife in Australia is incredible. Definitely there yeah there's so many little creatures what did we have we had an echidna in the paddock and blue tongues coming through. Lizards, snakes, lots of snakes. I feel like tiny house living like we really learn in the van how little you need to be happy and I think we just carried that mindset forward into this space knowing you know we want everything to be so intentional we want everything to have a home and to not just accumulate things you know you don't need all of the things to be happy like the simpler the better I think and I feel like just calm I feel grounded like I yeah just being able to spend the days with our boys and to not have to move it's like a massive exhale you know just being being home yeah definitely just being home is like the biggest word true it's the same spot yeah and Madison I have to say that you are doing such a beautiful job of documenting your tiny house journey on your social media. Thank you so much it's something that we kind of fell into doing like I think I started capturing when I was younger in high school and I've always had a love for cameras and you know film photography and then when we picked up and left in the van and started our trip naturally I just shared a lot of that you know for family and friends back home and then yeah then we did this and I wanted to share the process so I've done a little build series where I tried to capture as much as I could of the guys doing absolutely everything from the trailer up to be a little bit of like a resource for other people that might want to build and yeah just shared all the products and little things that we found along the way so yeah and can we talk about the cost that was involved in building this home? I think all up everything was around $150,000. Great yeah including solar trailer, rainwater tank, decking yeah that's just yeah that's the finished product today yeah so we did really well I reckon so great and so with your tiny house now so beautifully finished what does the future hold for you now? Good question. Relaxing yeah living we haven't been still for a very long time even before the van it was always travel like I met Madison traveling and we traveled together so this is the first time we've ever had something that doesn't move or we don't move so totally I think what's next is we're probably going to pour a lot of love into the garden and hope to grow a lot of things and you know maybe one day get chickens and yeah just really focus on what's here. Well I just think this is such a dream home that you've created for yourselves and I cannot wait to see the way that this place continues to evolve. Thank you so much for sharing your home with me. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Great to be here. This is such a bespoke home what Madison and Kyle have created here is something truly special you can tell when somebody has brought a dream to life and here in this house I can see that this is a dream that's been brought to life and parked up here in this stunning location what a place for kids to grow up what a place to explore and what a place to grow together as a family.