This 37ft Tiny House Feels Like a Full-Size Home

Tiny homes have changed so much over the years, but at its core, good tiny house design still comes down to designing really good, beautiful spaces that ultimately work for people that live in them. And this next tiny house that we're about to visit here in British Columbia is a fantastic example of just that. Hey Caitlin, it's great to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you. Hey Adam, awesome to meet you mate. Hi Bryce. And wow, what a place you have here. Thank you, yeah, we love it. This is absolutely stunning. I really love the style of this tiny house. Thanks, yeah, we looked at so many tiny houses and pretty much this window, I think, sold us on the whole house. Yeah, I can see why. What a feature. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's such a great aesthetic home as well. I especially love the siding, it's very unusual. Yeah, the metal siding has been nice. We got black in some areas and a kind of wood finish in other areas and they've made it in different sections too, which turned out really nice. It's a lovely modern looking home. And can you tell me about your journey into the tiny house? How did all this come to be? Well, I actually lived in a tiny house before we got married and really loved it. I would say that I would still be there if we didn't get married. And Adam, you can see, he's a tall guy like you. And so people are like, tiny house? I'm not sure. But he really loves this area and we're actually parked on his brother's land. So I think between getting to build the house out to our specs that we liked and being in a place in the world that he was into, he got on board. And then I scoured the internet for all the different tiny house builders and picked my favourite and yeah, now we're here. Yeah. And how lovely as well that you get to be here on your brother's land. Yeah, it's been great living here. We get to spend lots of time with them and with their two kids. My brother and I get into projects and all kinds of stuff. And they have such beautiful land here. You've got a garden right behind us and there's a creek over there. One of our values is being close to family. And so we feel very fortunate to be able to live here. Yeah, absolutely. And especially now you've got the little baby as well. It must be lovely having that extra family support right on your doorstep. Yeah, it's really nice to be with family. And you have an aunt that'll just like come and hold your baby and a niece and nephew who just adore her. So such a nice way to grow up. Yeah, isn't it just? Also, my parents are close by, so we get to see them all the time. And Caitlin's parents live just a couple hours away, so they get to come and visit all the time. Yeah, that's really lovely. And it looks like you guys are getting ready for a party here. Yeah, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, they're planning a big party. So it's like the harvest end of summer party and got the lights set up and they're going to have a fiddle band come and play on our deck and the dance floor on the lawn. So we're excited for that. It should be a good time. That is so cool. I love that. And I love that your tiny house is the centerpiece to it as well. Yeah, actually, my sister-in-law asked if the fiddle band could play on our deck. I'm like, absolutely. That'll be, well, they'll play in the dance floor on our lawn. So it's going to be great. Yeah, and this is a great size deck that you've built for the home as well. As you say, perfect for entertaining. Yeah, one of the things that is important to us is being able to have people over. And we didn't want the tiny house to take away from being able to host people. So built a big table and got a couch that we can have people over for dinner and hang out on. We parked the tiny house here with plans to move it in the future. So everything that we built around the tiny house was meant to be movable. So we built the deck structure in four foot sections so that it could be moved with any normal pickup truck. So all of this just comes apart with nuts and bolts. Same with the cover as well. We wanted to put a couple of features on the deck. So we have the covered area for when it rains, but also in Canada when it snows. And we have the sides that you can put down and we can put a propane heater in there to stay warm. And then we added a projector and a screen that holds down so that we can have movie nights out there. And we've done that a couple of times with the two of us or with our nieces and nephews. So it's really a great place to hang out. Yeah, what a great addition. And those are some huge propane tanks that you've got there. Yeah, so there's two heat sources. One is in-floor heating, which is fueled by propane. And yes, that much propane lasts us about a year around here because it's a moderate climate here in this little area of Canada. And the other heat source is the mini split electric heaters, and which is also our air conditioning as well, because it gets quite hot here and it's a building with a lot of windows. Yeah, Canada really gets all the extremes, doesn't it? Yeah, around here it's very common for it to be 30 for a few months in the summer. And in this little area, we get to minus 20 for a couple of weeks in the winter. Oh, that's chilly. But the price you pay for living in paradise, eh? This mountain area is just so beautiful. Yeah, I love it here. This is the area that I grew up and spent all my summers out in this area, hanging out, dirt biking, swimming in lakes. So I love it around here. This is where I like to live. And what size is your tiny house? It's eight and a half feet wide and 37 foot long, which is the maximum size that is road legal without a transportation permit. So very convenient to be able to move without much trouble. Great. Well, your house looks absolutely fantastic from the outside and I cannot wait to see what's inside. Can we take a look? Let's go in there. All right. This is absolutely beautiful. I love all the glass in here, especially from that lounge area. It almost must feel like you're sitting outdoors. Yeah, we sit a lot on that couch and just looking out the window is so nice. And we'll put our daughter, her little lounger there, and she just likes to look out at the trees. It's wonderful. Yeah, what a beautiful setup. And I love the extra height in that window as well, because it really makes the house feel so expensive. Yeah, that big window is a signature piece. It makes the front of the house look so beautiful. And we have a nice view of the garden. One of the things that we wanted for the house, because a lot of tiny houses will have two lofts, but we really loved how open it felt. It's just all open and vaulted ceilings. And so when you come in, it doesn't feel like you're in a tiny house. It feels very doable. So we really like that tall window. Yeah, absolutely. And Adam, you're a tall guy. So having all this extra headspace, that's got to be a win. Yeah, got to jump pretty high to touch the ceiling. And walking down the hall here, I can stand up straight. And up beside the bed, I can stand up straight too. So that's a really nice feature in this place. And the builders are really concerned because they knew Adam was a tall guy. And so they actually lowered the tub an inch for him so that he could stand up even in the shower. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's great. I love that you've got the record player there. And it's a great storage area you've created behind the couch as well. Yeah, we had a lot of records and a lot of books that we wanted to make sure came to the house. And so we worked on a couple of designs and we were trying to figure out where best to put the record player. But the storage, the way it is, it also works as a nice coffee table that we can put our drinks on. We think that we came up with a really nice solution for that. Yeah, you sure did. And under the couch, we have a little trundle bed. So it pulls out and we can have guests. So I've had our niece and nephew stay over. The couch is really big and comfy so people can sleep there. But we wanted an extra space in case people wanted to stay over. Yeah. And the kitchen, again, a really nice spacious design here. Yeah, there's plenty of room. There's actually tons of storage. We fit everything we need. And we are not close to a town, really. So we do a lot of cooking here. And it fits our needs good. We have a nice hutch over here. So we have all of our coffee stuff here. And that's kind of where our dishes are. And then living in a tiny house, obviously, you need to have good storage solutions. And so when we first moved in, there was a little bit of figuring out where everything goes. But over the past two years that we've lived here, we've been able to make it work really well for us. And also, this window opens up fully. It's a pass-through window. And so it blends the outdoor, indoor space, which is really nice since we have so much room outdoors there. And nice area to cook here as well. Good size oven and stovetop. Yeah, the stovetop is great for us. It has three burners. And it's a propane. So we use our propane tanks from before. And you can fit a little sheet pan in there. So we use the barbecue. And we cook outside as well. But we definitely make do in the winter or if we need to cook in here. I would say we cook in here most days. So it works good for us. We love how the builder made the integrated appliances, the dishwasher and the fridge, both integrated fronts, which makes it a continuous walnut piece and just absolutely beautiful. Yeah, it's always nice when you can hide the whiteware, right? Because it's not super attractive. So being able to hide it beautifully into the cabinetry is just so nice. And you've got the breakfast bar as well. I really like that addition. Yeah, we had to realize that most of the time, it's just going to be Caitlin and I in here. So having seating for two is enough for 95% of the time. And anytime we have guests over, obviously we got the big deck and we can all hang out out there. Yeah, makes sense. And then up there is your sleeping loft. And that is really nicely done. Again, all of the walnut there just makes such a beautiful look. Yeah, so we got to pick what kind of wood. And I love the walnut. I like how rich and cozy it feels. And the loft particularly, it's nice that we can stand beside it. But in the loft, it's very cozy. But also pretty practical because we have the headboard that has our nightstand so we can put books and things like that up there. All in all, the walnut definitely is one of our favorite features. And you've got the wardrobe up there as well. Yeah, so the house has two closets. So gave that one to Adam. And then mine is in the office. So we each get our own. They're not huge, but they work for us. And we just switch out seasonal clothing as you have to do in Canada. Yeah, of course. And then more storage built into the stairs as well. Yeah, there's a drawer at the bottom of the stairs for some food storage. And then underneath the stairs, all through the hall is our washing machine, water heating unit, cat litter box. It's really cool that that space has so much functionality, especially with the washing machine and all of that. But then it's also just wonderfully hidden away. Yeah, we really like that feature because there's so much that you need in a house and it's all in here, but it's not staring you in the face. And under the loft is the bathroom. And that's the only place that it's not full height. We have a lot of function packed into that place, but it still looks really clean and minimal and not overwhelming. Brilliantly done. And speaking of that, next up, we have the bathroom and office. Can we check all that out? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. It's such an unusual, but such a spatially efficient bathroom design as well. The way that you've got this kind of corridor that runs through it, and then you've got the basin, the toilet and the shower bath all built in on that side. It's very unusual, but really works. Yeah, we really like it because you don't spend that much time in the bathroom. So we didn't want to sacrifice too much space, but we have plenty of storage. The sink is actually custom. So the pipes are in the wall and that gives us deep storage throughout the whole vanity. So we have tons of storage in there and we have a shower bath so we can bathe our daughter, but it also is tall enough that Adam can shower in it. So it's really all we need. A bath is always such a luxury feature in a tiny house. And the way that it's been put into the space is so clever. Yeah, so it actually juts into the office here. So you can fit the bathtub, but you don't have to sacrifice all that space. Yeah. And this office is lovely as well. Obviously with the addition of your baby, it's now become a nursery as well. Yeah, so I work from home and so we wanted to have an office space. And this extra room is a game changer, even just to have somewhere to put down things as you bring them in the house that isn't your main living area. But it also functioned really well for me as an office and stored all our books, as I mentioned. And now with Del, we get to have an extra space for her. Right now, she's mostly sleeps in our bed, but she does have a space here. And we have these bins with all our clothes and all the baby stuff she needs. And she gets to use my desk as a change table now. Yeah. And how was it for you adapting to tiny house life with the baby now? We always said that with just the two of us, it's perfect amount of space. But I always was adamant that we could also have a baby here. And that was one of the reasons that we wanted to have this extra room at the back. And honestly, it's been wonderful. Obviously, it's summer, so it's pretty nice here right now. And so we spend a lot of time outside with her as well. But it works great. We have really no complaints. And I love all the book storage in here as well. Yeah, it was important for us that we kept our books and it just makes it feel like really cozy in here. And so we do a lot of reading and we really love this piece that it uses the vertical storage and is also kind of like a art piece almost. And in the desk here, we have a ton of storage, which we really, now that we have it, don't think we could do without. So these drawers go really deep. So we have all a big junk drawer. We have all our games, office supplies, Dell's extra stuff. So this integrated desk is really key. Yeah, great addition. And hey, I see the disc golf goal out there. Yeah, that was my move-in gift from Caitlin. I love to disc golf. So we got this big yard here and we can play disc golf right in our front yard, which is very nice. And how long have you been living here now? We're coming up on two years this weekend. Just in time for the harvest party. Yeah, maybe it's actually a party for us. Yeah, I'll say. And tell me about life in the tiny house. How is the space working out for you? It works really well for the two of us. It's been wonderful. This is such a cozy space. And we also really like having less stuff and everything in the house has a place. So of course it can get messy quicker, but it's also a lot quicker to clean up because you just put it back in its spot. And it makes us have to be really intentional about the things, the objects we bring into our home. And we really like that it forces us to be outside more because we love being outside, but it's so easy to just stay inside if you have that spot. And so it's been a good exercise in forcing us outside where we want to be. Yeah, absolutely. And I think Caitlin, because you came from a different tiny house, you already knew what to expect. You knew what to build into this one to make sure that it really worked for you. There were a few things that I learned from the first tiny house. I was just renting that one. And so it was a bit of, you know, make do with what it was. And it was a beautiful house and I really loved it. But there were definitely some things that I knew that I wanted to bring into this house, like a bigger shower and just different stairs, you know, little things like that. For me, this tiny house has allowed me to leave a bad job. It's allowed us to start our family and be close to extended family. So it's a lot more than just a building, although it's a really lovely building. The tiny house is a really special part of our marriage that we're always going to have and be able to look back on and has been a really great adventure for us. Yeah, it's brought us closer together physically, obviously living very close to each other. And yeah, this is going to be such a special time in our life that we look back on fondly. And this really is such a beautiful home and you really have done such a wonderful job of really making it yours. Can you tell me about the cost that was involved in making all of this happen? So between the tiny house and the deck and putting in the services and everything, we figure we're in for it for about 300,000 Canadian. The thing with this tiny house is a lot of the materials are very quality. Nothing is done cheaply, but we knew that we wanted it to be functional and we wanted to be able to live here for as long as we wanted. And so we thought it was important to do it upright and get a few extra amenities like air conditioning and the dishwasher. So all in all, we're really happy with the result. But you're about to go through another really big transition. You have just bought a new home. Congratulations. Tell me about that. Yeah, we've been looking for a house to buy around here in this small real estate market. And this summer, the perfect place came up right nearby. So we're still close to family and it's a really nice lot and a house that we've been renewing this summer. So it's going to be very nice to live in. Although we would have loved to live here forever, our family is only going to grow more. So having our own space and a bigger house will be nice. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love that this was such a great tiny house for you during this part of your life. And I am so excited for this next step. Congratulations on buying land in the new home. That's an awesome next step. And I love that this tiny house was part of making all of that possible as well. Yeah, absolutely. We're really excited about the new place, but we're obviously really sad to leave this place. There's so much of us in it and we got to spend really great time here. To your point, though, it did make it possible. So actually, when we bought the tiny house, I was able to quit my job and start my own business and we were able to have a kid and now I can stay home with her. So the tiny house has been such a big part of our journey and something that we're really grateful that we had the opportunity to do and we're going to look back on really fondly. And is there room for the tiny house on your new property? Could you maybe make that part of your next adventure as well? In an ideal world, we would love to. Fortunately, the permitting around here isn't very kind to tiny houses, which I'm sure you're familiar with. Yeah. So we're still figuring out what's next for it, but it doesn't look like we're going to be able to take it with us, sadly. Oh, what a shame. Well, your next adventure sounds amazing and I'm so glad that you had two wonderful years in this beautiful home. It really is such a magical place that you've created here. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. Yeah, thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. I love that after so many years of filming tiny house tours, I can still walk into a home and be surprised by something completely different. There are so many wonderful, unique features in this house and overall, it just comes together to create such a beautifully designed, really harmonious home. Adam and Caitlin have created a very special place for themselves here.