Inside the Most Extraordinary Tiny House - Full Tour

Hey y'all, welcome to Alternative House YouTube channel. Today we are in Belgium visiting Hannah where she lives with her boyfriend in their tiny house on wheels. And today she's gonna give us a tour and share the story how and why they decided to live in tiny house and how it works. That is our vegetable garden but it's still early May so not much has happened yet but we're going to work in it because last season there was lots of greenery and we're planting like tomatoes and and cucumbers and everything so I'm really excited for that. And in the back of our garden we have our shed where a lot of our storage is like it's not that interesting but there's also our outside toilet because we have two separate toilets for peeing and number two the solid waste. So every time we have to go for number two we have to walk to the shed and do it there but that's something we get very used to. We're still in the early stages of working in the garden this season well early we're really working on it so there in the back we're going to make like a very cozy corner with with seats and all that and there we have our picnic table where we yeah where we receive our guests when we have picnics with family or friends because we can't invite a lot of people inside the house but we can invite a lot of people in the garden so that's nice that it's getting warmer. This is little Oslo it's actually she's visiting us it's not our dog but it's a dog from my parents-in-law and she's staying here for the week. To her it's paradise here because she's actually a city dog so she likes it here in the forests. And these are the apple trees? Yeah we also planted two apple trees last year these two they're still pretty small but we hope to get some apples from them later this year. It's a very nice place you have a lot of greenery around. Yeah it's a really nice spot also when we're sitting inside the house with our big windows we just see all the greenery and right now it's getting warmer so everything is getting greener and the grass is growing and yeah and you hear the birds singing and it sounds really cliche but it really yeah it really feels like my little paradise on earth so I really really like it here. We also collect rainwater next to our house and that is here actually and we do that for our vegetable garden or just any greenery in the garden because yeah it would be really waste to use drinkable water in the garden so we try to collect as much rainwater as possible so that we can use that during dry periods in summer because that's actually very needed here sometimes and that way all the rain on the roof doesn't go to waste to stay like that. And we're actually thinking of buying another water tank for the other side too just to collect even more rainwater because it's possible and last summer we realized that more rainwater is welcome sometimes in dry periods so yeah we're looking forward to do that too. And the gas you're using just for cooking? Yeah we use the gas for cooking like our shower is with an electrical boiler so we use the gas for cooking and yeah change it whenever it's needed so. But it lasts long I guess? Yeah it lasts pretty long it lasts several months and sometimes you're cooking and then all of a sudden you're out of gas and then you're like damn it I should have anticipated this but yeah it lasts a long time so yeah it doesn't it doesn't feel like you're spending money on gas because it just lasts so long. This is our main entrance and there we have a big window that we can for one third open so that's nice during summer but let's enter through the main entrance. I'm going to take off my shoes because otherwise I have to sweep the floor like five times a day. So yeah welcome in my tiny house on wheels. Right now we're in the kitchen with our dinner table for four but we can also expand the table for six seven or even eight people so we have have lots of groups inside the tiny house when it's rainy or wintry. So it's yeah everyone is like very close to each other but it's really cozy and I love hosting dinner parties or brunches or anything. Our builders they put two cupboards on the wall but we really wanted to make that more like an open space so we removed the cupboards and we placed these shelves and these wooden shelves were actually made from trees. One of the main streets of the city of Antwerp so I always like to tell that story to people when they come over like we have real wood from the trees in Antwerp because I still love to come in in Antwerp. So I like that they are now hanging on our tiny house wall and I like that it opens the space a little bit more. I kind of grew up in city life I never lived on the countryside or in nature or anything so to me yeah it was really like oh when I moved to nature yeah I have actually always been a city girl so. So what was the reason for tiny house? We moved into our tiny house because we my boyfriend and I we were both graduated and then you're in a point in your life where you can decide what you want to do and anything is possible and we really wanted to live a bit more financially free because we didn't want to pay off for 30 years for a big house or an apartment in the city or anywhere. We really wanted to be more financially free to make more spontaneous decisions to travel more and to not have to work full-time because yeah we just wanted more free time for ourselves and our little projects. So that's why we moved tiny because our financial costs every month are just way lower than it was when we had our apartment in the city. We also wanted to live more close to nature because in the city we had this feeling that we lost touch with nature and yeah it is a fact that nature has a positive impact on us and I really feel that right now. So I really wanted to live more close by to live on nature's rhythm and also because we thought it was really important to live more sustainable and minimalistic because we're really thinking that less is more and we're really convinced that not everyone needs a big house or that we can't just build big houses everywhere because that's just not sustainable. So that's why we wanted to live more tiny on a house in a house on wheels so that we don't have a lot of impact on our natural environment around us and that we can just move the house whenever it's needed. And it's everything exactly as you imagined it? Did it fulfill the idea? Yeah it 100% fulfilled the idea and it sounds really cliche but it's actually better than I imagined before because at first I was a little scared like going more minimalistic like having to sell or give away all of our stuff because yeah we lived in a pretty big apartment at first and we just collected a lot of stuff because how bigger the space how more you just collect and have. So I was kind of scared to do that but you know one day after getting rid of all that stuff you just forget that stuff ever existed and that's when I realized that experiences are more important than things like material things and now I have the feeling that I live way more consciously and way slower. I have way more slow mornings and I hear the birds singing in the morning and yeah it sounds so cliche but it is true that that this life really yeah was what I was looking for. Actually my boyfriend and I are not really kitchen princesses so we have kind of quite a big kitchen I think for a tiny house but we don't make like the most fancy meals here or anything because we don't really like cooking but this is also a microwave and an oven all in one. It's a tiny one but it's yeah it's actually more than we need and we have lots of storage but this these cabinets actually we don't use for kitchen storage because we just had a lot of other stuff that needed a place to and so we just use them for yeah this is like a lot of randoms. I think everyone has a cabinet or a drawer in their home where just random things go like things that don't actually have a place so that's that's our cabinet for that and yeah here is just yeah more food so we do have a lot of storage and actually more than we need so that's nice. The kitchen hood is actually really important because sometimes we forget to use it and then certainly when you're cooking something with a lot of like steam steam then the smoke alarm goes off. Oh really? Somehow. So it works? It works pretty well and it's freaking loud so then we're like oh damn we didn't put it on now I have to open all the windows but when we put it on it works so it's really needed otherwise also it's it will get very humid in here so it's kind of necessary here. We do have a dishwasher which I'm really excited about it's like not a full-size dishwasher it's actually a half dishwasher it is yeah perfectly fine for the both of us because with a full-size dishwasher we would have the problem that it wouldn't be full by the time that we actually need the dishes so we still would have to do a lot of dishes and then we have our freezer and our fridge and the freezer is also quite big actually but we like that because we now live in nature so we don't live that close to the nearest supermarket anymore as in the city so we like to to make food or buy food that we can put in the freezer and use whenever yeah we need it so we don't have to rush to the supermarket every day. I think that the builders of our tiny home have found a perfect solution for these for these three machines because yeah they put it here and then our couch on top of that and I would actually never think of that but they made that pretty smart and then yeah they because now I'm seeing these old wooden beams and and that's also a pretty nice story because when we bought a tiny house or when we we had it built by the builders we had this wish of using as many as recycled materials materials as possible we didn't want any everything to be new because we found it important to just reuse materials and be a bit more sustainable that way and the builders they found these old wooden beams at an old farm yeah they got the permission from the farmer to get them and they used it here and I think it really gives this cozy rustic look to our tiny home and and really makes it unique also so I really liked it and I also use it for my plants and and yeah just to hang anything actually just the same with a ladder here that was also a decision from the builders they were like oh we're just going to randomly put an old ladder there so that they can hang stuff to it and yeah so that's what we did and I actually like the look of it even though it doesn't really have a purpose or anything we don't use the ladder it brings rustic vibes yeah it brings these rustic vibes and and I I kind of like that it it doesn't have to feel modern or new to me so it's like it's actually an interesting story like you participated in a tv show to get this house and the builders were not actually professionals yeah that's right yeah the builders who built our tiny house weren't actually um they had never built a tiny house before um so one was a cook one was a hairdresser and and they knew something of building but they had never built a house before and then all of a sudden they had to do it in nine days um so people called him crazy probably um but still at the end of the tv program we chose their house to be our home so because you could choose between two houses and another one we're building actually professionals yeah so we could choose between two houses because it was actually like a competition between two building teams of four people and they both had nine days to build our dream tiny home um and and we yeah we we told them our wishes but for these nine days we weren't there we we weren't allowed to interfere so they just had to do it and after nine days we came back and we chose our favorite and we chose this one and the other team yeah they were more professionalists than the team that we chose um and that house was also beautiful and it was perfectly built but it's just with this house we came in and we both immediately felt like okay this is it because it really feels like my pippi longstocking house um because yeah it's just it's it's unique and it's with levels and and it feels like my my little indoor playground or something so um that's when we both knew like this is it and this is a house where we can add things if we want to or paint walls or just do random stuff with it and it doesn't feel like you're ruining something um so that's what i like about it and you have a fireplace this is the main heating source yeah this is our main and only heating source actually so this is our um pellet stove um and that's also a wish that we really asked for like we want a pellet stove because we really wanted the coziness of a stove but not of like a real fire stove but not the complexity of a real fire stove like yeah it's still a lot of dirt and and all that and and with a pellet stove it's more easy and you can also choose your um temperature and and it goes on and off whenever the temperature is reached so that's very handy you don't always have to keep busy with it but that's our only only uh heat source and it's actually perfect it's more than than we need because in winter when we put it on it blows this hot air and it's super cozy and the house yeah it's 27 square meters so it doesn't take long to to to heat up um so it's a perfect solution for here and about the building process like you before you had time to meet with builders that was like day before it was or it was in advance before that what you could tell your wishes what what exactly you like how long time they had to prepare everything um i think it was like two to three weeks before the actual building process started that we met them for the first time and the only time and that's yeah then we had like 30 minutes to to not even we we were there for 30 minutes but we had like 10 minutes to just tell them our wishes we had this big mood board with us with pictures and everything um so that they had a very clear vision in their head of what we wanted and what didn't want um and then after that they had i think two to three weeks to start making a plan and to maybe order some materials if that was needed and to let that plan be reviewed by someone professional and then yeah after two to three weeks the building process started and then they had actually nine days to put up the walls and do the whole interior and all that so pretty impressive it turned out very nice i like the the rustic vibes they bring a bit life yeah i like that too i i like it when a house is not that clean or white or anything i think it it's nice if it has kind of a story behind it and i like it very nice that huge window brings so much light inside yeah yeah that was one of our wishes too to really have to implement these big windows to have as much as natural light as possible and they really did that so i'm very happy with that because there we have our big window here we have our big window and we actually because it was one yeah it's one big window but afterwards we put this frame into it ourselves i why i have no idea i can't give a proper reason for it but just because i looked at it and i felt like i think it would be cozy if we just make it look like the amsterdam vibe because i have been to amsterdam and all the houses have windows like this and i really liked the cozy vibe of it so we just got some wood painted it wide and and then yeah we puzzled it into a frame like this and it looks very nice yeah i quite like it yeah and then the on the loft you have just a standard sofa yeah it's um it's actually this place was the place that for the for a long time we didn't know what to do with it because at first there was a big desk on top of this so there was no couch also because we said to our builders that we found it important to have a desk because we both have computer jobs and certainly my boyfriend really wanted to dedicate a desk to work at so that he doesn't always have to work at the dinner table so they put a beautiful recycled desk on top of this but after living here for a while we realized that one it was a little too big it it's yeah it didn't quite fit the space even though it was beautiful so we put a smaller desk and then after a couple of months i said to my boyfriend like how many times have you used that desk since it's here and he was like okay maybe one maybe two times but not more than that and i really started to miss a couch because at first i was like i don't need a couch but then i was like i miss like a cozy space to just chill and lie and watch my films and series so then we decided to get rid of the desk and my boyfriend always works on the table and we got this couch and normally it's on it's on normally it has like these these little feet but we got rid of them because yeah i think it's it's it fits the space more when it's just on the floor and yeah it fits perfectly like the size wise the color wise yeah it's just made to be there yeah it was like a search because i really looked for a couch with indeed a color that fits the space but also the size because it's a very specific size and most of the couches are are longer than that but then i found this one and it's perfect and it's cozy and it's comfortable so and there you have a projector and then you can watch movies yeah that's right we have a projector there and there we can put our screen down and then we can have movie nights so that's nice i really like it to have like these interesting details so whenever people come over that they're like oh whoa i haven't seen that before and i call it my mouse house or actually this is the mouse house but we also have like a fairy door there so that's what i call the fairy door and that's where the fairies live um yeah it has no purpose it has no reason but i just think it's cute and i like to have these little details that you don't maybe notice from the first time that's after looking around for a while it makes personal yeah it makes it personal indeed and then on the top it's like just a storage on top we call it our little attic which is really necessary because there is still some stuff that doesn't really have space yet or anything and what is hidden there behind these cute doors yeah so if we it's actually our it feels like our country doors or something here is our bathroom um with our self-built peeing toilet so this is actually a toilet that we build ourselves and it's only for peeing so um yeah we made it with like a bowl to cook and we put holes in it and then with like a funnel and then it goes into the ground and uh it's just because yeah we realized that it's not always comfortable to always have to go outside to the shed to pee certainly not at night so that's why we built this and yeah it works perfect so there was no toilet it was just left space for toilet yeah the builders had put our composting toilet here but yeah from the start we realized that going yeah for number two inside that this house is not as comfortable because we don't have actual walls here so everything just loops over into each other and yeah i don't have to make a drawing of it it's just it it wasn't so comfortable to do that here so that's why we decided to separate that and now that works perfectly and i like the way you made the shelves so it's just a tiny basket yeah yeah we uh we found these baskets and we put our towels um in there and these windows for example are also recycled windows from an old church and i really like the look of it because it also again gives this unique look to the tiny house they're single layer glass so during winter it gets a bit cold through these windows um but with the stove i mean we manage that perfectly um so that's not a big issue because the big windows are double layer glass so that's okay um and then here yeah we have our sink um with our big mirror and our shower it's actually a full-size shower um rain shower very nice a rain shower yeah the only thing about the shower and at first that i had to really um adjust to that but right now i'm also already adjusted to that is that you can only shower for like four to five minutes with hot water um because we have an electric boiler but we live in a tiny house so that boiler isn't that huge so we have four to five minutes of warm water but actually that's more than enough for just a shower but i remember when living in the city sometimes i could really enjoy a long warm shower and now that's not really possible anymore but either way that's good because that way you're more conscious about your water usage and i realized that showering longer isn't needed at all so um yeah that's a positive and negative thing all at once i think um pro and con two in one yeah indeed um and then actually right next to the bathroom is our bedroom um so i i told you it loops over into each other a little bit but that's no problem but you have a curtain like for yeah we have a curtain here yeah but we actually never close it um at first we were like oh we're going to close it whenever we shower or anything just two of you yeah most of the times it's just the two of us and we yeah we didn't feel the need to close the curtain so we don't we don't do that and if we close the curtain it's also more dark so we just leave it open and and there's more light coming in and this is our double bed it's um it's 1 meter 40 wide and two meters long so it's not that big of a double bed but yeah enough for us we're together for seven years or almost and we have never slept in a bigger bed than this so um we're used to it there definitely will be question you're not afraid to fell out of it yeah that's the first question that people always ask when they come here and at first i was terrified at first i really at first i this was my side and i was like oh my god i really want to i was also very very close to my boyfriend and he was like squeezed between me and the wall because i didn't want to go to to the side of the beds but then i started thinking like in a normal beds people don't have have these boundaries either but they're just not scared because the distance to the ground is maybe this okay now it's this but normally you don't fall out of your bed so i was like why would i all of a sudden fall out of this bed if i have never fallen out of my bed since i was a baby um so yeah and now my boyfriend and i also switched sides so i'm next to the wall and he's here and now it works perfectly and then underneath the bed um yeah we put two closets and a few baskets for our clothes um and that was also a challenge at first because i had too many clothes to fit to space um but i put a lot to and now it's yeah now it's just enough for for all of our clothes and how was the downsizing process did you live in big apartment before we lived in quite a big apartment um in antwerp before well big it wasn't that big it was just a normal apartment but compared to this it was quite big because it even had a second floor so yeah the process was pretty intense because we also had yeah a lot of big furniture like a big couch and a big table and all that and we had to get rid of that so we most of the things we sold them or we put them on second-hand websites or to second-hand stores um and like marketplaces like yeah marketplaces indeed and at first i was like oh my favorite couch or all my favorite carpet no um but then one day later i i already forget forgot they existed here we have um yeah another little bit of storage space and underneath the beds we have our uh washing machine um and our laundry baskets um and yeah some more storage for yeah shoes that we don't wear that often or blankets extra blankets for when it's really cold um was that already solution my washing machine there at the beginning of building or uh yeah no that's something that the builders really provided for us like a space for the washing machine and at first one year we didn't have a washing machine we just were like oh we don't need it here because we have a laundry house a little further away where we can do laundry and dry our clothes um but then we had the opportunity to buy this washing machine second hand pretty cheaply so we were like okay why not and actually it's very handy to just be able to wash our clothes here and then dry them outside when it's sunny or still in the dryer if it's so yeah it's nice yeah and we have more storage even there yeah yeah that's our game shelf because games are some that's something that really takes up quite some space that we really didn't think through we were like holy shit where are we going to put all these games but then this shelf was actually perfect for that so you have a social media where you document everything and share a bit more about your tiny house life yeah that's right um so more than a year ago i i started with my account hannah lives on wheels or actually i have had that account for many many years but more than a year ago i rebranded it to hannah lives on wheels um because yeah i started sharing about my journey going to live tiny and going to live more slow um so i started making videos of my life here in my house in the garden in the forest talking about my insights and how i felt and why i did that and more and more people seem to get inspired by that or seem to find my account and and send me messages yeah that they somehow found that really inspiring or that they had questions because they wanted to do the same that's where a community really started to grow and and i i'm really grateful for that and and i really like creating this content for that account um because i have a feeling that lots of lots of other people want to do the same but don't really know how or where to start and if i can mean something to them somehow by just yeah sharing my journey or or giving them tips on how to do that in belgium or the netherlands or yeah any other country i don't have have knowledge about every country of course but i i try to share my experience and uh yeah i think that's really the power of social media social media has lots of pros and cons yeah but i really try to use the biggest pro like the power of social media just to reach people and get in touch with people inspire each other and yeah i really love that about about my instagram account that i can do that and that other people can do that for me so yeah all right thanks for showing your house and sharing your story yeah thank you for being here it was nice welcoming you down the description below i will leave all the hannas social me so you have just instagram yeah it's mostly instagram i also have tiktok um i'm not really active on there but um it's just everywhere it's how many lives on wheels yeah so i will leave the links in description below uh let us know what you think about this house could you build in nine days such a house and see the next one cheers