Luxury Tiny Home with Stunning Conservatory!

I think we all dream of having a home and making it ours. And this next tiny house is such a beautiful example of what happens when that dream comes true. Hey Catherine, how are you? Hi, nice to meet you Bryce. It's so nice to meet you and your home. Wow. Thank you. This thing looks like it has jumped straight off of a Pinterest board. Well, yeah, we did have a Pinterest board, sort of for ideas, but we have sort of made it our own, which has been nice. Yeah, what a place. First off, I absolutely love what you've done here with the greenhouse out front. This is such a nice addition. Yeah, this was a big goal. We'd sort of been dreaming of it and had a lot of different designs. And then we kind of landed on this. I can't really take any credit for it. My husband built the whole thing. I sort of just decorated it afterwards, came in at the end with some, you know, makeup. And what a fantastic job he's done. And of course you do live here together with your husband. Yeah, he's at a badminton tournament up north, so he couldn't be here today, unfortunately. What a shame, because he has done a phenomenal job on this addition. I really like it. It has essentially doubled your living space, hasn't it? Yeah, it's been a real game changer. It took us a while to build it. So we had just the tiny house first for quite a while, and then eventually, slowly, over many, many weekends, this sort of came together. And it's been amazing to have, because, yeah, it has sort of doubled our living space and meant we have a dining table now and sort of some outdoor seating. It's been a real dream. It's so nice to have this kind of semi-outdoor space where you can sort of feel still like you're immersed in nature, but still be protected from the elements year round. Yeah, it's great in winter when it gets dark early, we can turn on the lights and sort of hang out out here with a blanket. Or in summer, yeah, have sort of late evening meals in the sun and drying washing out here as well has been my dream. Being able to actually have a space where my clothes don't get rained on. Yeah, absolutely. And being able to sort of just have this place where you can come out, relax, still feel like you're immersed in nature. And yet, yeah, again, just be so protected from the elements is just so important, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's good for my dog and for the dogs that I look after here, being able to have this extra space. If they're being really crazy and loud inside, I can tell them to come out here and play and they'll just run around. So I run a little doggy daycare out of the tiny home. So small dogs in a small home. So I usually have six little dogs running around in here. So they're all jumping on the furniture and we go for walks and they play in the garden. And it's amazing. It's loud sometimes, echoes in here if they bark too loudly, but it is my dream. Like I love it. They come every day. We have our little routine. Yeah, it's amazing. And overall, I just love the style of the place that you've created here. Can you talk to me a little bit about your inspiration behind this? Well, I suppose I'm not incredibly brave with color, everything being white and just sort of bits and bobs of colors. Again, my husband was very kind in letting me sort of run with the decorations or what I wanted, you know, flowers or a lot of dried flowers because they're low maintenance and they sort of last forever or out here sort of succulents are the only things that really survive in the summer. I just sort of decorated it how I wanted it, what I liked. And it's taken a long time to sort of get to the point where, you know, I have things that I'm happy with. I can be quite particular, I think, in my choices of things. Yeah. And can you talk to me about your journey and how you came to be living in a tiny home? My husband and I had been thinking about it for a long time. He was the one that introduced me to tiny homes and we've been watching your channel for years and we got married and then we moved almost immediately to London and had lived there for sort of five years. So we'd had all these dreams and he had drawn up all of these plans and designs. And then eventually when we moved home, we sort of thought, let's do it. So it took a long time, but we slowly but surely made a home. So yeah, it was sort of a dream that in the end we committed to and now here we are standing in it, I guess. You made it happen. Yeah. Beautiful. And what size is the tiny home? It is three metres wide by 10 metres long by like 4.1, I think, tall. And then I don't actually know the deck. I want to say maybe six metres is the deck, six or seven. Yeah, great. Yeah, which is almost double the living space. And tell me about your parking spot here. This is such a great location you've got. Yeah, we lucked out. We had the location before we had the house. So my neighbours are incredibly good friends and I call them family and we sort of asked if they would host us here and they said, yes. So we share the land with them. I sort of, I've sectioned off with fencing sort of our little area to keep the dogs in and we're so lucky. We can't see their home because of the bush area, but they're nearby and on weekends, I'll go around and play board games with them. And yeah, it's really nice living next to them, but also feeling like you're alone, I guess. Like I can't see other people. So it feels very quiet. Absolutely. And the views here are stunning as well. You can see right out to the city in the background. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's amazing here on like Guy Fawkes or New Year's when you can see all the fireworks. Yeah, I bet. Well, already standing here, this home just looks like an absolute dream and I'm so excited to see what you've done inside. Can we take a look? Yeah, yeah, come on in. Okay. This is absolutely stunning. It's like walking into an enchanted cottage or something. Thank you, yeah. We made a lot of decisions about colours and plants and we have rotated through quite a lot of plants. Some haven't made it, but I've sort of found my groove and what works for the space and yeah. Yeah, again, your style in here just explodes. Thank you. Again, it's mostly me. My husband has just sort of put up with it. He has been very kind in letting me do most things. There's not a lot that he's sort of pushed back on. I think we have quite similar, I wouldn't know, I wouldn't say we have similar styles. He's probably a lot more sort of minimalist, clean, whereas I'm more, oh, I like that, put it in the house. Well, let's just say he's lucky to live in such a beautifully decorated home. Thank you, thank you. And I just love features like what you've done here with the picture wall and all of the plants and one of the things that's really special about, especially the way that you've styled this home, is you've really played with the full height. This is such a spacious home and especially being double height in this part of the tiny house, you do have all of this height to play with and you have used it right the way up to the ceilings. Yeah, it was really important for us. We landed on this design because the bedrooms are stacked on one end. We wanted the living room to feel big because going through some other tiny houses with bedrooms on either side and the lower living levels feel very small and that was important to us that we had such a large space. So we have sort of played and tweaked a lot with the shelves and the gallery wall trying to figure out the right heights because it is quite an awkwardly high space. So trying to figure out what works to fill it and what doesn't has been a lot of trial and error over the years. Well, what you've settled on here certainly works. Thank you. And having that feature window at the end there as well is also just such a nice addition. It really just brings so much of the outdoors in and again, you're in this situation where you've got such a stunning view out there. Being able to really take full advantage of it in this home is so great. Yeah, that was one of the things we customized with the company. We changed it for the big statement window which has been, yeah, amazing. Trying to get curtains for everything has been quite hard but yeah, we're really glad we went with that. Being able to sit on the couch and sort of look out, it was important to us. Yeah, absolutely. And I really like the way you've done the lounge area here as well. It looks very comfortable. Your television is really wonderfully kind of hidden amongst the pictures on the picture wall as well. What a cozy space you've created. That was the goal to hide the TV and amongst the other pictures. The gallery wall took a long time and was a labor of love and both of our grandparents are artists so there's quite a few pictures of theirs on the wall which has been nice. And then a lot of tributes to dogs that we've had over the years and hiding the TV was important. So getting that TV that's flush with the wall and then you can put a picture in so it sort of blends in with such a narrow living space. We didn't want a TV that would stick out far into sort of the living area. So yeah, and Hayden made the couch all by himself with storage in all of the compartments which was amazing. And then my mother-in-law is amazing and she made all the cushions for the couch so it's been a real family affair. Amazing. And are those steps there for the puppy? Yes, all the dogs that I look after and particularly Autumn, they're all very little so they can't quite make it up onto the couch or the bed. So we have two sets of stairs to help them up. Princess steps for the princess puppy. Yes, she's got little legs. Very cute. And it looks like this is a transforming couch as well. Yes, so before we had built the outdoor space and got a proper table, we had a table here that can go down to be sort of more of a bed level. So mostly the dogs just use it as one big sort of couch bed to sleep on after a big walk. So we don't actually really use it as a table anymore. We mostly just keep it as an extra large couch. I love that the dogs get to use it. Do you and your husband still use it as well? Yes, but with sort of a bunch of dogs on the couch, it's limited space, like knees up, curled up because they take over. I can imagine. And then your kitchen, wow. Again, this space is just so beautifully styled. I really love the way that it's designed as well. It looks very functional, but it still remains open to the lounge. And then you've got a tremendous amount of storage in here as well. Yeah, we customized it a lot. We added storage and changed quite a few things around from the original design. And it was important for me to have a lot of the things hidden, so integrated appliances and this area that hides the microwave and things that I don't want out on display. It works. I mean, I wish I still had a bit more. I feel like you can never have enough storage, but we make do. You're big cooks, are you? I'm more of a baker. I cook because I have to eat, but I don't particularly love it. So we try to make big sort of batch meals and then eat them over the week. But I prefer baking. Fair enough too. One thing I noticed about the kitchen though is I can't see a stove top. Yes, we had to compromise as we have such limited bench space to what would suit our needs the most. So an oven was a priority. And to be honest, I chose a microwave over a stove top. We have an instant pot as well. So most things that we would do on the stove, we just do in the instant pot and then sort of plug in and then put away when we don't need it. I chose to have just straight bench tops over having the elements. Yeah, fair enough too. I think the essential part to getting any design right in any tiny home is just knowing really well how you are gonna use your space and customizing to that. And as long as you do that, you can't get it wrong. And really beautiful countertops in here. It took us a long time to find ones that we liked. It took us months actually to find it, but we landed on this one and we're very happy with it. Yeah, very nice. And then I really like the way that you've tackled the upstairs area in this home. That home office looks especially good. Yes, we knew we needed an office space for my husband. I don't use it, but it's a good little space for him for if he ever works from home. Yeah, fantastic. And then upstairs as well, you've got a spare bedroom. Yes, it doesn't get used that often unless family comes to stay. The ceiling height is perfect for me, but my husband has to bend down. But it's just sort of rarely used. So it's good when we need it, but we don't need it often. Yeah, great. And there's even more storage that's been built into the stairs as well. Yes, so a couple of our stairs have our cutlery and things in it. And then under the stairs also is like a cupboard that has our vacuum and other bits and bobs. Nice. And then next door to us here is your bathroom. Can we take a look at that? Yeah. Okay. This is really nicely done. I especially like the cleverness of the bathroom, the way you've kind of tucked the shower around the corner there into its own little alcove and how you've utilized the space under the stairs for the composting toilet. It's very cleverly done. Yeah, we customized it quite a lot in here. I sort of had non-negotiables, which was I wanted the shower wall without a shower curtain or glass. The tile was important to us. I'm glad we went with the white. Yeah. And yeah, I like how it turned out. Yeah, me too. And it's really nice the way you've done the vanity as well there. It just ties in so beautifully with everything. Yeah, it was a real jigsaw puzzle trying to make everything fit and feel like we had enough space. It's really only a one-person bathroom. We sort of, we can't both be brushing our teeth in here. It's not quite big enough, but it's fine for us. Yeah, absolutely. And you've got a custom built-in composting toilet here too. Yes, it's gone through a lot of changes, a lot of transformations over the couple of years that we've had it. And we now have a system that works well for us. Very nice. And then there's your bedroom. Can we have a look at that? Yeah, yeah. Holy moly, is that a super king bed? Yes, that was one of my non-negotiables. I wanted a very big bed. We only really sleep in here. We don't spend a lot of time during the day in here. So I wanted the bed to take up the whole space. Fair enough too. That just looks so good. Having a bed that size is actually a game changer, isn't it? Yeah, and I quite often have dogs staying overnight. So if we've got more than one or two dogs on the bed, it makes sense to have a very big bed. I bet it does. And again, in this room, I can see that you have got a lot of storage in here, especially what you've done with the beds around just looks so good. Yeah, we upgraded the space with the tiny house company. We sort of added in all of the storage because we knew it was going to be really important in a small space to have space for all of our clothes and bits and bobs. Yeah, lots of wardrobe storage here as well. Yes, it's a must. Yeah, and I really like the positioning of the windows in here as well. It gives you that lovely cross ventilation. Yeah, it's amazing in summer to have them both open and just have that breeze coming through because it is a very small space so it can get very warm in here. Yeah, absolutely. I think what I like most about this room though is the way that you have been able to squeeze in this bed. Sleeping in a Super King bed is just such a game changer and sort of not having the partner disturbance and all of that sort of thing. A good night's sleep is just so key and so if you can squeeze a Super King bed into a tiny house, then why not? Yeah, I never want to go back. I'm Super King for life. Yeah, fair enough. And I guess all of this is made possible because it is that slightly wider design at three meters in width. Yeah, honestly, I wouldn't want to go any less than three meters. It makes it so much more livable and having the space to walk around the bed, that's why we chose this design. Yeah, fair enough too. And so how long have you lived in the tiny house now? It must be about three years now, but it was bare bones when we first got it, so it's been three years of almost every weekend having a project. Yeah, and how are you finding life here? We love it. It really works for us. We don't want children, so we are never gonna outgrow the space. It's perfect for us. We chose a design with a bed on the lower level so that we can age into it. And it's really good if we have family staying, we can swap, we'll go upstairs and put parents down here. Yeah, so it's everything we need and will potentially ever need in the future. Yeah, I think there are so many advantages to a single level design where you've got everything downstairs. And then just having the addition of the guest spaces and less frequently used parts of the home upstairs, I think is just such a good way of doing it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think the security of having our own home has been amazing for us because you can really do whatever you want. If I wanna change the wall colour, I can do it. And that's what I love about having this space. Owning land isn't a priority to us. The fact that we own this is enough and it's more than enough. I mean, it keeps us very busy, but it's just a great little space. We absolutely love it. And can we talk about the budget that was involved in building your home? Yes. So we didn't keep great tabs on everything. I would say the house itself probably cost about 120, 130. Obviously added on the sort of conservatory area. We've built the couch. We've done a lot of added things. So maybe all up 150. That's a great result. Yeah. I mean, my husband did a lot of it himself. So it sort of brought costs down. Fantastic. And you both just seem so beautifully settled into your home now. What does the future hold for you? More of the same, I guess. We're loving the space. Summer's around the corner. So I'm looking forward to having some beautiful flowers in the garden and some really nice sort of outdoor time. Yeah. Any tweaks or modifications that you plan on making to the home? Oh, I mean, I'm always tweaking things, probably more so in the garden than in the home. I feel like we've sort of made it in a way that works for us. Well, Catherine, this is really such a beautiful home that you've got here. I love the design of this. I think it's so practical and functional, but beyond that, I just love the way that you've made this place a home. This is such a beautiful space for you and your husband. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. Thank you for coming. Catherine and Hayden have made such a beautiful home for themselves here. This place feels completely enchanting. There's so much character, so much light, and just so much beauty that has been poured into this space. I love the conservatory. That is maybe one of the best tiny house additions I've ever seen. It's perfectly executed. I love the use of all of the windows and all of the light and all of the warmth that it brings into the space. I love the way that it just enables the home to so beautifully spill out into the outdoors. This really is a phenomenally designed home.