UK Actors' Spectacular Tiny Home On London Outskirts!

I want to say a huge thank you to Audible for sponsoring this video and helping to make what we do possible. New members can get a free trial by clicking the link in the description of this video. Building the perfect home isn't just about creating a physical space for ourselves, it's also about creating space that allows us to interact with the wider world in a way of our choosing, and this next tiny home that we're about to visit here in the UK is a phenomenal example of just that. Hi, Harry, how are you? Good to meet you. It's great to meet you. Hey, Joe, how's it going? Good, mate, how are you? Very well, thank you. And what a place you've got here. Thank you. Thank you very much, mate. Thank you. This is an absolute stunner. Yeah, it's fantastic. We've been in here three years now, and it's the best decision we've ever made. Oh, by far, yeah. And what was it that made you decide to build a tiny house? We were rented in London, and we just couldn't afford to continue living the way we wanted to. We were living in a sharer house. It was great, it was fantastic, but we were really craving our own space, really. Yeah, so this was sort of the conclusion we came to. Yeah, didn't want to be in a sharer house, couldn't afford to buy anywhere, so we went, I know, let's build one. And nobody stopped us. Fantastic. And you're both actors as well, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, both full-time actors. I tour out the country a lot with a couple of stage shows. I do a lot of audio work, so I do audio books, and we've built a studio here. So we've created a space that I can also work in, which has been fantastic. Brilliant. Now, impressively, this was a DIY build, wasn't it? Yeah, it was during 2020, and it was the two of us and my dad who'd just retired from building, and we went, we've got something for you today. I think it was like the day before he retired, and he was like, I've retired, I'm putting down the tools, I'm stepping away. And we were like, Nick, we've got a project for you. No, you're not. Yeah, not yet. We're going to build a tiny house. What's one of those? I don't know. I love it. And what was the process of building the home like? It was amazing. So we started in September 19, bought the chassis, and then sort of had to get it watertight by the November, because you were going on tour. And it rained every day from September to November. Every single day. So that was a really wet period. And then we went on hold for you to go on tour, and then picked up again at the start of the pandemic. Perfect lockdown project. And the house is beautiful, but I love what you've done here with the outdoor space as well. This is so nice. Yeah, we've slowly been creeping out into the field a little bit. We've got our veg that we're growing for the first time properly. Yeah. Harry's been growing loads of herbs and like each day just waking up and going, oh, let's have a lemon balm tea or something, going like, who are we? What is going on? But absolutely loving it. Yeah. But yeah, just adding a splash of color and it just completely changes the space. What I've loved as well is by having it this year, we've seen like, you just see so many bees and insects and butterflies, and it feels really nice to like be able to do something that's like bringing that wildlife back to this area. So that's been really exciting to see as well. Absolutely. And the parking spot that you've got here is just beautiful as well. Yeah, it's fantastic. Like the views we get over these fields, the sunsets right there in the summer, just over there in the winter, the sun rises from the other side of the house. So it keeps it cool and we get the light through in the morning. And then as it comes over from midday, it comes through all the skylights. And then we've got the evening sunset, set out in the deck and eat some food and watch the sun go down. Perfect. And you're in this lovely sort of rural looking setting, but we're actually very close to town right now as well, aren't we? Yeah. So we're sort of a 10 minute walk down into town and then it's an easy like commute in and out of London if we need to. So we've actually very much got the best of both worlds. You certainly do. And what size is the tiny house? The house is 30 foot by 10 foot. Brilliant. And can you tell me about the design? Yeah, well, we sort of just made it up as we went along. Like lots of people use loads of different programs to design the house on. And I had the back of an envelope and just drew a shape that I liked. And it's sort of based on the design that the two top bedroom areas can unbolt off. Right. So then if the trader got loaded onto a low loader to be transported somewhere, it still only sits at a certain height and can easily get under bridges and things like that. What a good idea. Yeah. So it kind of allowed us to future proof it basically. So we can take those off. And then we just went for a really simple cladding on the outside and sort of let it get to this ashy colour to try and sort of tie in with the other colours of the existing buildings here. So it ties in with the space. The windows and the doors were just things we got offline, like Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree or other places do exist. So just got things online for cheap that people were selling off. And that's how the house sort of based itself right now. Because we did it, we had the flexibility to change designs. And that really is one of the huge advantages to a DIY project is that you really just can roll with the punches, take advantage of opportunities. And the design can evolve based on the different materials and also just the changes that you feel are necessary. Yeah, absolutely. It was interesting because when we first started the process of are we going to do this, we looked into having it built for us or at least having the shell built for us, do you remember? Yeah. And we realised that it would involve a lot of compromise because things, you know, have to go in a certain way. Whereas we were able to completely change it as we went along and work out how we wanted to live in the space, which has been lovely. Yeah. We had the luxury of time. We always say like we're money poor and time rich. So we had that on our side to build as slowly or as quickly as we wanted to and to have the flexibility to change design on the fly. Absolutely. Well, from the outside, what you have built just looks incredible. And I am so excited to see what you've done inside. Can we take a look? Yeah. Come and have a look. Thank you very much. Oh my gosh. What a beautiful home you've created here. Thank you. I love the style of this place. Thanks. Yeah. It just got thrown together with what we had available to us. And most of the stuff we've got in here we got online that people were getting rid of and throwing away, and we could just restore it a bit. Like the floor is a 200-year-old oak. Yeah. That was the 10% wastage from someone else's door upper in London. Wow. And it was online. I think they were wanting 800 or a grand for it. And Harry just wrote, will you take 100 quid? And they were like, if you can get here in an hour, you can have it. And we were exactly an hour away. Go, go, go. So it was like, tools down, get in the van, we get in that floor. Brilliant. We wanted to have three separate areas downstairs. We wanted the living room, we wanted a kitchen, and we wanted a bathroom. And it was just figuring out how to separate those things. Do we close it off with a wall? Do we leave it open? The luxury of building it ourselves is we could play about with it. So we could put up a wall and have a look at it and see how we felt, but it felt much better having it wide open. But yeah, most of the design came from what is free. So there were so many things, you'd go on Facebook Marketplace or things like that, and people were giving away a TV unit for those chairs. They were part of a fit up for a coffee shop or something, was having a refit. And they were just getting rid of them. So we were like, right, so now we've got orange in the house, how are we going to make that work? And speaking about the lounge, I love the way that you've designed this. It just sort of pulls you into the space and it just has this sort of aura of coziness and comfort. Yeah, we really wanted a space that was cozy. The fire is the only source of heat in the house. We don't have any other way of heating it. So it was important that we had fire. And so it was then really nice to be able to focus the lounge around that. And it's so cozy in the winter. It's just so lovely. And I especially like the way that you've got the lounge downstairs, but then you've also got the lounge loft above it. Yeah, it was important for us to create these separate spaces within a small environment so that we could have, as much as we love each other, it's sometimes nice to have those times apart. In a tiny house, it's near on impossible. We've got one door that we can slam and it's the bathroom door. And if someone's gone in there having a bit of a mare, then you go, excuse me, can I get in there? Arguments are very short lived. But yeah, it was important for us to have these separate living spaces so I can be down here playing computer games, Harry coming up there, having a little read. Yeah. When we first built it, so at the loft up there, the two back doors are cupboards. And the one on the right was my recording studio. Initially, it was this tiny little sort of space that I could just about sit in and record in. And I recorded one book in there. But because of the structure of the house, if Joe just walked across the floor, it'd pick up on the mic. So that didn't last very long. And now it's a couple of doom, you know, everyone's got one of those. Everyone's got one. It's just where we chuck all our stuff and close the door and forget about it. And then the kitchen, this is just such a nice design. I love how you come into the house and you've got all of this space, which just makes the kitchen so roomy. Yeah, we went for a higher ceiling. We thought about putting like a little mezzanine level in here. And we thought, no, let's keep the double height. Let's get the windows in. Let's get the light pouring in. It's just made it a really nice open space, which is great to cook in. Yeah. You've got a great amount of prep space here and lots of cupboards for all the storage. Yeah. I think one of my favorite things about the kitchen is the worktop. These are the scaffold boards that we used to do all of the work inside the house, which then we repurposed to use as our kitchen tops. And I especially like the butler's sink you've got there. That is such a good find. Yeah, we were really lucky, actually. That came about next door had loads of butler's sinks that they were using as planters. And when they found out we were building, they were like, well, come and have a look and see if any aren't cracked. So we were there like digging through all their planters until we found this one. Another freebie that we just polished up and stuck in. Brilliant. And you've done something a bit special for hiding the drying dishes as well, haven't you? Yeah. It's come about from touring quite a bit and experiencing different kitchens in different countries. And it's just one that a lot of places have this. It's just you have all the dishes drying in a cupboard, you catch all the drips underneath and everything's off the worktops and you can hide everything away. Very clever. And I like the way that you've got the fridge and the freezer so they both neatly fit under the bench top. Yeah, we had a play about with a few different possibilities. We had a stand up fridge that went here, but we just felt we needed more surface space, which allowed for the extra surface space by moving them underneath the and because we do quite a lot of cooking, it was quite important to have a full size like under the counter fridge and a full size freezer as well. You've got a great size oven there. And I like the way you haven't used a built in cooktop because it just adds a little bit more flexibility, doesn't it? Interestingly, we'd started with a built in one that was, again, a freebie from someone and it didn't last very long. And then we went, right, well, what can we do instead? And the beauty of this is we can take it like out if you want, you know, sort of a really posh And also then by tiling that, it's again just given a small work surface so you can just move it out of the way if like you're baking or you're doing something that needs a lot of space. Great idea. And you've got a table here as well that you can sit up. Yeah, it was important for us to be able to sit down and have a meal together or have guests over rather than just sitting down with it on our laps. The legs screw on so we can hide the legs underneath the kitchen and we can hide the tabletop in the living room. But it's just something that can fold up and fold down quite easily. Yeah, brilliant. And I'm guessing through there we've got your bathroom. Can we take a look in there? Yeah, of course. All right. Thank you. Hey, this is actually a very spacious bathroom. Yeah, it was quite important to us to have a big space. We didn't want to compromise on the bathroom. And it's where we keep all of our clothes so that you come down in the morning and you get ready. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things about tiny house bathrooms is they tend to be the only place in the house that does have a closing door. And so there's a lot to be said to sort of turning it into a sanctuary space. I love that feeling of it being like a sanctuary, sort of a bit of a self-care kind of space. So I wanted that sort of slight spa feel. And so that's kind of why we prioritised it in a way is to give us that space. And one of the things that I love about the design of this room is all of the mirrors, because it really does just add to an even greater sense of space in here. Yeah, we're really lucky with that. And it sort of helped because we've got the one window, but then it really reflects off the light. So it does feel like a nice, bright space, which has been great actually. So we've got these sort of double mirrors here. We've got that one. So it's sort of on every wall, almost, you've got that reflective space. And conventional flushing toilet there as well. There's a septic tank on site. So that's what we're able to tap into. It's cool. I mean, it broke the other day. So we've re-figured the flush handle. So it's now a hook on top. Right. But it's all just part of it, isn't it? It's like it's accept and build. It's going along with it. Part of the character of the home. The flush doesn't work. Of course, let's use a hook. And I really like the way that you've done the shelving in here next to the toilet as well. We really wanted to be able to get some plants in here and we couldn't really compromise on floor space. And so it was just a really nice way. It's then got the light on there and it just, it's just a nice little design feature. And upstairs, we must have your sleeping loft. Can we take a look at that? Yeah, sure thing. All right. I really like the way that you've done the stair design here. This is very clever. Yeah, we tried the stairs in different configurations and then we found it was important to enter the loft through the middle. So we went for going this way across the doorway. Didn't know whether we'd fit or not. And it's actually designed perfectly to fit my shoulders and my head fits perfectly in that top gap there. Brilliantly done. Well, should we hit up? Give them a try. Yeah. All right. Oh, wow. From downstairs, I was sure this was going to be a pokey little loft, but it is actually amazingly spacious up here. Yeah. We've got a king size bed that we've got up here and it was just important for us to have that space and it not to feel cramped in or like a crawl space and having the window directly above the bed gives that extra head height. Open up the window. You've got no roof. You can set up as high as you want. And yeah, it was important for us to have as much space as possible. This is an ottoman. So we've got storage under here. We've obviously managed to get two test drawers in here. So then we've still got a lot of storage up here, which is great. Absolutely. And even a record player. Yeah, it's just a nice like area to sort of be able to sit, listen to a record and kind of chill. Yeah. And it's great having this circular window here as well, because it just gives you this lovely view into the rest of the house. Yeah, we wanted to try and capture a way where you could see the whole length of the house. And we've managed it with this internal window. You can lie in bed and you can look all the way down and actually see like the dying embers of the fire at the end of the night. Beautiful. And there's definitely some wizardry to the design as well, because when you're in the main part of the house, you look at this line here and expect that that's where the loft would end. But of course, you've got all this additional height that's been built into the space. Yeah. I mean, this is the point at which the roof bolts on. It's essentially like the floor of this space. So it just gave us that extra height. Yeah. What a great design. So you've been living in the home now for just over three years. How is tiny house life working out for you? Brilliantly. It's such a nice pace of life and it's given us the flexibility to sort of take risks career wise and try other things. And it's just really chilled. For me, it's that important thing of not having to hit rent every single month or not being tied into something, which then at any point, it can skyrocket and all of a sudden you pay in thousands to live there. Like Harry says, it's just given us that freedom to do stuff like in between our acting gigs, we can go off and catch up with friends. We can go on and catch up with family, which is incredible. Waking up each day in a space that you've made yourself is a feeling that I don't think I'll ever get over. And it's interesting when we first built it, the cost of building it, we worked out was essentially three years rent. And so we always had this three year plan. We were like, we've spent this money, we'll live in it for three years. Then we're essentially sort of back to where we would have been. And then we'll do something else. And I don't have any intention of leaving it. It doesn't feel like a short term option in the slightest. I really enjoy showing people around and seeing people's reactions when they walk in. And almost that balance of people turning up and going, oh, the floor doesn't rock. And yeah, oh, I thought it'd feel a load smaller. There's like a nice cheeky bit of pride in there where you go. You sort of break people's misconceptions of what tiny house living is. And can we talk about the cost that was involved in building this home? Yeah. So start to finish, it was 35,000 pounds. No way. What a phenomenal result. And I think that speaks volumes as well, though, to the amount of time and effort that you poured into very clever sourcing of materials. We had no deadline to get this done and building it in lockdown as we did, there was nothing else to do. So we were able to really take the time to find the right materials, but we're really, really pleased with the result. Yeah. I mean, I think the house is beautiful in terms of what you've constructed for yourself, but potentially even more beautiful is the life that it's allowed you to live. I wouldn't be able to handle an office job and pressure and everything like that. So having the flexibility to just be an actor, it's allowed me from graduating to now just do acting jobs, which is completely unheard of. And it's down to the way that we live. Yeah. And you think of the number of people who don't have that flexibility to be able to engage in a creative career, because and that's something that really speaks quite close to my heart, because it was why I built my tiny house after getting killed off of a TV show and being a struggling actor. So believe me, I understand. And just the fact that it has allowed you to continue to work in this career that you're passionate about and live that life path, that just makes me feel so happy for you. Thank you. By doing this, it just gave you that space to breathe. And like I said, take a few risks. And actually, as a result, my career is much more successful than it was. And that's been lovely being able to set up the audio book business. I just feel really, really lucky. Absolutely. So with the home now complete, and you're both very well settled in here, what does the future hold for you now? We're already looking at how do we extend it? Do we build another tiny house and bolt it at a funky angle? Do we extend a little room out the back of it? It's one that's enabling us to save. Now we've got this money. Do we want to chuck that on bricks and mortar? Or actually, do we want to extend the way that we live and really enjoy living? Absolutely. And one of the great things about the fact that you've DIY'd this home as well is you've now got the skills to do that if you choose. Yeah. We feel it's so lucky that Mick was there most days to teach us how to do things. And now, yeah, if we just want to chuck on an extension, we know how to build a wall, insulate it, wire it, chuck a roof on it. I love it. Well, this is just such a beautiful home that you've created for yourselves. Not only am I just so impressed with the physical space that you've created for yourself, I'm even more impressed with the amazing mental space that you've created to be able to follow your dreams in this life. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. Thank you very much. Thank you. My pleasure. What Harry and Jo have created for themselves here is really special. The house is unquestionably beautiful, and I love how so much of their own character and style has been poured into making this space just really pop everywhere you look. What I love more than the house itself is what this home has enabled them to do. Because they live in this house, they both get to wholeheartedly engage in careers that they genuinely love. And when we spend so much of our time working, being able to really take charge and do something that we love in the world is just so important. And I love that this home has made that possible for them. Thanks Audible for sponsoring this video. I spend a huge amount of time traveling, and there are many long flights and drives where Audible titles keep me company. Amazingly, from her tiny home studio, Harry has recorded over 70 audiobook titles, which are all available on Audible. Being a total history nerd, I'm currently listening to A History of the World in 50 Lies, which was narrated by Harry. It's a fascinating story about how lies have been used to shape our history. New Audible members get a free trial, so you're able to download this audiobook or any other title you like and try it for yourself. As an Audible member, every month you can choose a new title, which you get to keep from their entire catalog, including bestsellers and new releases. Go to audible.com forward slash livingbigtinyhouse or text livingbigtinyhouse to 500 500 for your free trial. I love listening to audiobooks. Whether I'm driving, walking, or gardening, I can also be learning, getting inspired, or just being entertained. Thank you Audible for offering such a great service, and for sponsoring this video and helping to make what we do possible.