A number of reasons lead to our
decision to build a tiny house on wheels.
We would like to own a home but the idea of paying off a $700.000 mortgage over the next 20 or 30 years is outright scary to us. Building a tiny house will be a lot more affordable, as we are hoping to do most of the work on the tiny house ourselves. Having less overhead costs to pay for once we live in the tiny house will give us the freedom to either save up a lot quicker for future projects (e.g. installing solar panels) or to both work part-time and simply enjoy life.
The environmental footprint of our little home on wheels will be much lower than that of an ordinary house. The average floor size of new homes in Australia lies well above 200m2 (what do people even do with so much space?!!). The floor area of our home will be less than one tenth of that. By default this means that we will need less materials to build it and less resources for heating and cooling down the track.
Unfortunately local building regulations don't allow for dwellings that small. In our opinion, tiny and mobile houses could be an easy way of targeting Perth's ginormous urban sprawl. Maybe our little future home can even contribute to setting a new direction in Perth towards low-impact, semi-permanent urban infill? What do you think?
Unfortunately local building regulations don't allow for dwellings that small. In our opinion, tiny and mobile houses could be an easy way of targeting Perth's ginormous urban sprawl. Maybe our little future home can even contribute to setting a new direction in Perth towards low-impact, semi-permanent urban infill? What do you think?
We wanted to avoid using concrete in our construction due to the high CO2 emissions involved in the manufacturing of cement. As our house will sit on a trailer there is no need for a concrete slab - hooray! Building our little house on wheels also means that it can move with us as our requirements change and that we will leave no trace behind when we move. While we want to stay in southwest Western Australia, we would love to have the flexibility of being able to easily move between the hills, the coast and 'down south'. Having a home on wheels will enable us to do this.
In the tiny house some things that we currently take for granted will change. At the moment we only need to turn on a tap, flick a switch or press a button to flush the toilet. In the tiny house we will need to figure out how to make those systems work, how much water and power we can sustainably use and what to do with our waste. We will therefore need to change some of our routines but feel that this will connect us more with our environment and the impact we are having on it. We are actually looking forward to that journey!
"So why don't you just get a caravan?" Well... we've lived in a caravan before for an extended period. They are built to be extremely light-weight so they are efficient to tow and are not made for permanent living - which means they can feel quite flimsy and overheat quickly. They just don't feel like a house. Even though a tiny house on wheels is mobile too, it is much different to a caravan. Ours will simply be a smaller version of a standard Australian-style timber frame house with perks such as double glazing, two lofts and wooden floor boards.
As we will move into a smaller space, we will need to get rid of clutter in our home and life. Owning less stuff means there will be less stuff we need to maintain, clean, repair and worry about. It will allow us to focus on the things that truly matter to us. The times when we have travelled for extended periods, only having what fitted into our backpacks or the back of our van, are amongst our fondest memories and the closest we got to feeling a true sense of freedom. We want to make our future about experiences, not about owning and hoarding lots of stuff. The tiny house will be one step towards making that happen.
"So why don't you just get a caravan?" Well... we've lived in a caravan before for an extended period. They are built to be extremely light-weight so they are efficient to tow and are not made for permanent living - which means they can feel quite flimsy and overheat quickly. They just don't feel like a house. Even though a tiny house on wheels is mobile too, it is much different to a caravan. Ours will simply be a smaller version of a standard Australian-style timber frame house with perks such as double glazing, two lofts and wooden floor boards.
As we will move into a smaller space, we will need to get rid of clutter in our home and life. Owning less stuff means there will be less stuff we need to maintain, clean, repair and worry about. It will allow us to focus on the things that truly matter to us. The times when we have travelled for extended periods, only having what fitted into our backpacks or the back of our van, are amongst our fondest memories and the closest we got to feeling a true sense of freedom. We want to make our future about experiences, not about owning and hoarding lots of stuff. The tiny house will be one step towards making that happen.