This Brilliant DIY Tiny House Shows What's Possible If You Try

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So if you're ready to organize your sales and streamline your business, check out Odoo using the link in the description. Thanks again Odoo for sponsoring this video and helping to make everything we do possible. If you love the idea of building your own tiny house but you're just not quite sure that you can make it happen, then this is a story that I want you to see because here in the UK we're about to visit a beautiful tiny house that really goes to show what's possible if you just give something a shot. Hey Jack, how's it going? Real good, how are you? Really good, thank you very much and it's so good to be here. Mate, what a place you've created for yourself. Thank you, yeah, I absolutely love living here. It's been amazing. And you built this home yourself, didn't you? Yeah, I built it myself over lockdown which was a good time to build it because there was no distractions. I had focused weekends which I could really just like pile into it while I was working still in the week. It was a good time to make it happen. Absolutely. What was it that really made you fall in love with the idea of building a tiny house? Funnily enough it was your YouTube channel. Yeah, push come to shove over lockdown I just decided like I wanted less. I was ready to kind of downsize what I had and live closer to nature and I've always loved small spaces. I think I watched a few people on some of your videos say I'd never done anything like this before and I would encourage anyone to to give it a go. That kind of gave me a little bit of confidence to believe in myself on it and think I could do it and break down what needed to be done. So yeah it was kind of gaining some affirmation from beginners who had made something amazing being like I can do that too you know. And you did. And I did and here I am now and I would say the same thing to more people. I think the whole idea of building our own homes is something that in our sort of modern western society has been so mystified and I just love the idea that you know we can actually build these. It's not rocket science and if you apply yourself to it and actually just take those initial steps you really can make it happen. Yeah absolutely. I think it's within everyone. I think what's beyond what you think you can do is where the gold is I think. Yeah and this house is just beautifully built. Did you have any building experience before you tackled this project? So I've had a little bit of background in like building vans and I've worked in landscaping projects for like quite a chunk of my life which has been like building structures and things like that and some building knowledge but nothing of this scale so it was a big learning curve. One task at a time try and get them all in the right order and then yeah make it happen. I've had a lot of good friends and family who were able to kind of give me information and also help me and give me tips when I was building it so it was valuable. Yeah. I don't think I would have been able to do it. And the parking spot that you've found for this house is absolutely brilliant. I mean here it looks like you're in the middle of the countryside and you just have views that stretch on all around you but behind us is quite a commercial operation isn't it? Yeah it's a great little farm. There's lots of people working here on various projects as everyone's kind of lending a hand helping each other and it's kind of got a real nice sense of community. It's nice to feel somewhere so settled and beautiful with good people around me so I'm really happy about this spot. Yeah and I think spots like this are quite underrated as well because it can be a little bit difficult to find good parking spots and places where there's already a little bit of commercial operation finding a place to sort of tuck a tiny house behind a shed or something like that it is actually a little bit easier and it works for everyone as well because especially in some of those commercial setups having somebody on site all the time is really good for the business owners too. Yeah for sure it's like we're all looking out for each other here. It's super peaceful at night. I mean I get woken up sometimes in the night by an owl and that's about it. And what size is the tiny house? So the size is 7.2 meters long, two and a half wide and 3.6 high. What's it like transporting that on the Cornish roads? It's good fun. The first initial time that we moved it we actually got it on a lorry and we've moved it a couple times with a big tractor since. It's been fine. Once it rolls, it rolls. Right. And can you talk to me about the design of this house? So the design of the home when I was initially designing there was kind of a few drawings I had and there was a third one that I'd come to that I kind of felt really good about. I kind of wanted to create a space that felt like the light flowed through. It felt like you were almost outside. I just kind of wanted to make it feel really light and open. So with the materials I used I really wanted it to kind of feel like it blended into a landscape and wasn't too kind of obnoxious or loud on the exterior. I kind of wanted it to kind of work with the landscape and the area where I'd be. So it is very boxy but I love that. I love the boxiness of it. I think especially as a first-time builder doing a project like this there's a lot to be said for keeping it simple as well. I think sometimes if you sort of bite off more than you can chew and make a project too difficult for yourself you can sort of end up getting in your own way of actually being able to finish something. So I think keeping it simple but focusing on doing simple really well is a great approach and I can see that you have absolutely nailed it in this house. Yeah thank you and also I guess it's like maximizing each corner and like getting the most out of the tiny house kind of parameters that you have. And then you have dramatically expanded your living area with this fantastic deck area as well. There was always the plan to have the deck built and having it built almost bigger floor space than the whole tiny house has been like such a paradox of having a tiny house and a huge deck. And it means you can have lots of people over. I have lots of friends over often and we kind of are all able to hang out and not trip over each other inside a tiny house. So it's a nice way that brings the outside in and with the bi-fold window opening up the whole kitchen so it almost feels like one huge space has been a game changer. Absolutely and then having it all undercover as well is fantastic because it does turn it into an all-weather space which especially here in England is pretty important. Yeah for sure and Cornish people know about sideways rain so it sometimes works but yeah sometimes it can be uh you can get wet under here too. Right and I see you've got all the surfboards and everything here as well so you're obviously a pretty keen surfer. Yeah I get in as much as I can there's a lot of really good waves around here and that's where I've met most of my friends from Perfect yeah surfing is such a good social sport eh? Yeah it's so fun you know it's just you out there in the board and nothing else no distractions it's like yeah it feels really pure it feels like a real nice way to waste time. Not waste time, spend time. Spend time, absolutely. This deck's been built with some really big chunky timber as well. Yeah so it's all reclaimed scaffold boards which I really like the rustic used vibe to them they kind of make the house feel like it's been here a while and yeah using tech bolts it just meant that I can easily lift the whole deck up without destroying anything and uh you know if I was going to move then I'm ready. Yeah nice ready to go and what about power and water services are you connected into the infrastructure here? I've got a solar setup here which does me right in the summer and then I have mains connection which just helps top up the battery through the winter. Great best of both worlds eh? Best of both worlds adds a bit of security to when the sun's not shining I guess and I'm also connected to the mains water. Yeah very cool well Jack you have done such an extraordinary job on the exterior of your home and I cannot wait to see the inside can we take a look? Yeah absolutely come check it out. Thank you very much this is absolutely beautiful and immediately walking in here it's so nice and cozy it's so toasty with the wood stove going there. Oh thank you so much Bryce yeah it's um keeping it toasty it just can't beat it it's caveman tv watching the fire. It so is and I think that there's immediately something about putting a fire in a house that as soon as there's a fire in a house it becomes a home. Absolutely it's the heart that's why I wanted it in the middle I really wanted to feel like it was the kind of the centerpiece and the kind of the warmth. Yeah it is the heart. It's the heart that in the oven. Absolutely very true the two hobbit essentials and I just really love the style of your home as well you've got quite a lot going on in here there's sort of all of the beautiful natural timbers but then you've created a lot of vibrance with all the color in here as well a lot of natural elements with the plants this is just so beautifully curated. Oh thank you so much it's been three and a half years that I've been in it and when I initially built it it was very earth tone very natural there wasn't really a huge amount of vibrancy and in the last year or two I've been really kind of ramping up and the earthiness has fallen into the background and then you've got a lot of color coming to the front which yeah I love it's a very happy place to be it makes me feel really joyous being in here. And it's not just you living here anymore as well you've also had your girlfriend join you in the home as well. Yeah Louen and my partner we've been together yeah year and a half now and she's a very keen designer with naturalistic buildings and community-driven buildings and she's done a lot of studies and research all over the world and stuff so we're talking about yeah maybe our next design is going to be pretty fun. Very exciting and how was it because this is a space that you designed initially for yourself and you've now been joined here by another person what was it like adding another person to the tiny house? It works very well we're kind of both quite small people so we're quite nimble with the walkways and the and the ways of you know getting to the top mezzanines so it worked really well for both of us. I think the first thing I thought was wow this is really cool and I think part of me really liked it because I was like oh this is probably something I'd do just kind of the way it's designed it's like just really fun and it was also cool because I think that was like the first time I met you so I felt like I got a bit of an insight into Jax like who he was. And is a lot of this your artwork as well? Yeah a lot of it's a lot of my really good friends in fact all of the artwork in here I know who's created it makes me smile when I see it. Yeah absolutely one of the things I really like about this design is you have kept everything really open and spacious you have this really coherent design between the living space and the kitchen it is quite a compact walkway but it so brilliantly joins the two lofts it really is a space that just feels quite good to be in. Yeah thank you I really wanted it to flow and feel very open yeah having a central walkway rather than a galley kitchen and a bathroom at the end of that I really wanted to have them as separate spaces I wanted a big C kitchen because I love cooking cooking is like one of my joys I do it a little bit for work too so it's like I really wanted a kitchen that would feel as big as a home kitchen I can lose on sleeping space I can lose on you know living space a little bit I just really wanted a big kitchen. Yeah well especially when you've got quite a big living space outside it really does afford you the ability to dedicate so much of the home's interior to the kitchen and you really have done that this is a great looking kitchen. Yeah thank you I really wanted to be able to cook everything that you could cook in a normal house or even a test kitchen or a commercial kitchen I really wanted to be able to make all the things and not feel inhibited on space because just because I'm in a tiny house doesn't mean I can't cook really amazing food. Very very true and beautiful live timbers that you've used for the benchtops there too. Oh thank you so much yeah I really love natural materials I love kind of rough cut things so yeah finding that ash for the worktops was a real win yeah I just like the tactile and naturalistic look it really feels good to use. And that is a serious sound system that you've built into this house too. Yeah absolutely I had to have good sound in here yeah music is the medicine I'm always listening. Yeah and is this a car audio head unit that you've built into the house as well? Yeah so my good friends Ben and Christian they run a company that specializes in van electric so a lot of this tiny house is 12 volt so yeah we ended up just to save on power and less draw having some of the things like the lights and the audio system being set up on 12 volt. I really like that and going back to the kitchen for a moment this is a kitchen that really does not want for anything does it you've got lots of storage in here and as you said as well all full-size appliances? Absolutely yeah gaining that extra drawer space underneath everything is like you know it's a lost space in like a kitchen so having all of that plus a full-size fridge and freezer full-size gas oven and the double sink it just like makes it feel like you're just in any kitchen it really is a beautiful place to cook and a beautiful place to put things away and everything have a home still but still have all the appliances and extras that I need to make happen. Yeah I like what you've done at the top as well with the open jar storage that looks really good. Yeah it allows me to kind of see my ingredients up there creating illusions with light and making it feel like it continues to flow in a tiny house and it's bigger than it is is the real trick which I've learned from a lot of your videos and guests that you've had on. Very true and you mentioned before that you cook as part of your job what do you do for work? So I'm like a bit of an outdoor chef I cook for events and stuff using local ingredients and mostly cooking with fire. Cool. Cooking for yeah it's a joy I love cooking for people I've always loved cooking for people if you ask any of my friends they everyone gets fed when they come to my house it extends into work as well with yeah cooking for events we've recently done some cooking on clifftops and cooking for people which has been amazing. That sounds like a dream job. I absolutely love it yeah yeah when you can mix in the natural elements and cooking with local ingredients and yeah feeding people it's just yeah it's an amazing thing to give. Very cool and now in this part of the home we have your living room. Yeah this is my cozy little sofa there's a ton of storage underneath which is super handy and yeah it's just a super comfortable place to sit. Nice perfect. One thing that I've just noticed about your home that I really really like is the way that you've done the flooring with the strand board this looks so good. Yeah I really like the mismatch of materials and different textures I like the kind of how you can feel things how they complement each other you know shiny tiles next to a rugged mismatched floor can really make each of them feel better. I like the contrast of different organic materials together feels good. Yeah it definitely does add a lot of visual interest doesn't it and I really like the addition of the clothes drying rack in here as well that is such a great feature. Yeah absolutely one thing I really wanted to have in the house was a way to wash and dry clothes and not be a hindrance on like being in the space so yeah that's been a game changer having that there is just you dry the clothes you hang them up and they're out of the way sure it confines the space a little bit but it's super handy not having to try them somewhere else or have another machine in here. Absolutely and as well it allows you to capitalize on the extra heat from the stove as well. Absolutely that's the hot spot up there. Great and you've got your sleeping loft up here that just looks like another really nice cozy space. It's such a cozy space I love living up there you know being able to lay in bed and open the window while you're still laying in bed and I just kind of wanted minimal aesthetics up there like I just didn't want too much noise and distraction I really wanted to keep real simple a nice place just to go sleep really. And I honestly think that is the absolute best way to tackle a sleeping loft I think there's this thing about particularly where you sleep that you kind of want the space to be devoid of distraction and it's nice to have a spot which is just absolutely dedicated to sleep and nothing else. Absolutely. Yeah and over the other side you've got another loft here too. Yeah that doubles up as our it's kind of when guests come to stay we've got a futon that we put up there and we also use it as a bit of an office space a little space to relax and read. Nice. Really nice it's been a versatile space which feels like you can kind of use it for a little bit of everything. Yeah. Which is great. Absolutely bit of extra storage up there as well. Yeah heaps of extra storage up there yeah we managed to tuck away all the things we need which is great. Yeah absolutely and the bathroom is so cool as well I especially love the way that you've used the copper piping for the shower. Yeah me and a friend made the head up ourselves saw a few videos on Pinterest and photos on Pinterest testing out for the first time was great. Yeah how does it work? It's amazing it's like super good rain coverage. Yeah. It's fantastic it or it was exactly as I've intended it was really great. And the tub what a great feature. Yeah testing out what size I wanted I knew I needed a bath you know it's just something I didn't want to lose after living in a flat before this with just a shower I was like I need a bath. Yeah. And that one's perfect I mean you get up to your neck and it's a local company that make them so it's really cool. Perfect and again I love the use of natural materials in here as well especially that stone basin just looks so good. Oh thank you yeah again loving the natural materials against like the clean finishes is yeah super satisfying. Yeah definitely great that you've been able to squeeze a washing machine into the bathroom too. Yeah washing machine is you know I did not want to go to a laundrette I had to make one work in the building yeah some people put them in outbuildings and stuff and sometimes when it's running the house has a bit of a shake to it not a good time to nap but um most of the time I put it on and go Yeah fantastic and composting toilet as well. Yeah an absolute game changer getting a compost toilet in my life yeah Joseph set me on the path and it's yeah it's such a good regenerative system I've set up and it's uh yeah it's great. Yeah Joseph Jenkins and his human you a handbook it is like part composting guide part revolutionary manifesto I mean that man makes you think that Absolutely he makes this the broken system yeah yeah maybe make steps to change it. Without a doubt you've got a bit of extra clothing bathroom related storage there and then the window I really like how that's been done. The extra storage is great for visually seeing what you need and encouraging you to keep it tidy. Yep. Yeah the window was made by my really good friend Shannon I gave her a brief for being like I want this little square bathroom window for my bathroom and um yeah that's what she made up I absolutely love it. Yeah so nice so you've been living here for about three years now how do you rate Tiny House Life? Absolutely love it the joy of it is still every time I come home easy to manage easy to be in I feel like it gives me everything that I wanted out of a house without exceeding space it's yeah it's amazing. Yeah and how does it feel to live in a home that you have designed and built yourself? Yeah again that's super fulfilling it's like a very nice feeling when you know how everything was made which also is a double-edged sword sometimes you're questioning or you uh you look at your design and you you notice the faults but whenever someone comes around they affirm how much they like it it reaffirms it with me too in some kind of way. And now being able to share the home with your partner as well that's really special. Yeah I absolutely love sharing the space with her so yeah it's a beautiful space to to share you know having it on my own initially and then having her here too just like really brings the whole thing together. And what was her journey like coming into the home was she already quite on board with the tiny house idea or did she take a little convincing? She loved the house when I showed it to her initially and it was kind of a slow move in she also has like a van that she lives in and we're still somewhat living like that so it's great. That's a great way of doing it. Yeah I think it's important to have your own space and then integrating your space with someone else is one of those things that you want to get right you don't want to feel like you're encroaching or you know it's important to share it in the right way. I absolutely love waking up here every day it's like this was initially an idea a drawing and then you start making it happen and build it and then you develop it and you you start thinking about the design more and more of how you actually want the overall feel to look and yeah there's not moment I'm not joyous living here and absolutely feel the most at home you know it's great. I think I've really slowed down a lot in a kind of very very positive way and I think like the nature of small spaces in this kind of environment anyway is that you're really kind of immersed in your surroundings and what's going on outside which feels really healthy. This is such a beautiful home that you've created here and you've obviously poured so much of yourself into this home so much time and effort into the build can we talk about the cost that was involved in bringing the space to life? It ended up costing about $32,000 but that was including the solar and all the appliances obviously this was during COVID when building supplies were like not too bad I know they've gone a bit crazy towards the end tail end of COVID and kind of have stayed there yeah but yeah it costs about $32,000. Yeah that is a great result and I mean if you had to compare that to the average cost of housing in this area where does that sit? Yeah I mean it's just unachievable at this stage of my life and I wanted a space that allowed me to still travel and me to own something without having to be kind of trapped by paying rent or having to store stuff when I'm away or having a mortgage at this point so it made a lot of sense and continues to make sense with my lifestyle. Yeah fantastic and now the home is complete what's next for you? Yeah it's strange because you coming here has pushed me to really complete the project I've been living in it's been finished most people saw it as finished but I noticed all the details so the final push in the last few weeks has been real nice to bring it to a close and then full cycle you getting here because you guys are the ones that initially got me into tiny houses so thank you it feels like a real nice cycle to complete and yeah me and Luena are working on like a naturalistic cobhouse design of a building. Oh cool. Yeah so there's things in the work and we want to get involved in more projects I would love to build another tiny house. Cool and so the future plan is to maybe get a bit of land and build some more cool alternative dwellings? Yeah absolutely land is the plan we found one that we want to go look at we just want to start understanding land around here being able to be ready for the right opportunity to come up and yeah setting up our own homestead our own farm. I absolutely love that vision and hopefully we'll come back visit you again in a few years and see how far down that path you are. Absolutely I'd love it if you did. Yeah Jack this is an incredible home that you have built for yourself I am just so impressed with this beautiful space thank you so much for sharing it with me. Thank you so much that means so much coming from you. Jack and Luena have created a truly beautiful home for themselves here and I think Jack's story is just so inspiring to have had this vision of crafting himself a house and then to have had the courage to follow through on that and to turn that vision into a reality is something that I think we can all learn from because the truth of the matter is you never know what you're capable of doing until you just give it a shot and great things happen when you try.