Why we decided to build a tiny house

Of course, the decision to build a Tiny House was not just the one day talk. We’ve been thinking about  it for almost a year. I (Barbora)was in my last year of studies to become a master of architecture. In the last year of studies, one  really starts to think about the future, career and of coarse, the main thing: Where the hell am I going to live? : D.

Rent was crazy high and we didn´t have much money saved.

Is there an alternative?

And so we (me and Tibor (Bogy)) started to think of an alternative. We did not even dare to think about purchasing our own house or flat. We were not sure  whether we want to settle in Martin, where we currently live, or Zilina, where I work, or if we want to move to Bratislava or abroad.

We probably don’t need to talk about the fact that we didn’t have the chance to apply for a mortgage yet, and didn’t have much money saved either. 😀

• We considered buying a cottage at first, but we couldn´t find one that would actually meet our requirements.
• The second idea was to buy a mobile home. They say one does not need a building permit for a mobile home. What they don´t say is, that if you want to connect to the water, sewage and electricity, you really need a building permit. Even the transport of the mobile home is  very expensive.
• The most extraordinary option was to buy a caravan. We found the perfect old caravan from Germany for 1,700 euros. It had a separate bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen with a living room. It was really strange looking from the outside, but once you were inside it was so  cozy. 🙂 The question was where we could park it.  While we were looking for a land, the caravan had been sold to somebody else. 🙁

Final decision

That’s when we realized that we can build our own house on the wheels.

We started browsing the internet and were really surprised how many such mini-houses exist. They are called Tiny House in the USA , and they are mostly wooden construction houses on the trailer. There is even a Tiny House movement, which represents the idea that we need a very little to live a perfect life.

So it has begun

And so we´ve begun the endless internet searches, interviews about what it should look like, design solutions, etc.

We´ve  known we had to design it the way  we could build it easily.  We´ve been watching the youtube tutorials  how to build a tiny house (there is so many of them ) Instead of some movies and tv shows.

After about twenty changes, we created the concept that has changed only a little since.

You can read about the final design and the whole process of building it in our next posts. 🙂

 

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What is the point of our solution

From the beginning, our solution was intended for a few years, and the price limit was the price of a two-year lease.

As a result, we live for free after two years and can easily save for the mortgage. We have time to think about where and what kind of housing we want in the future (when we get into debt for those 30 years, let us be really satisfied.:D) At the same time, we have a much better chance of getting that mortgage. Because a fresh entrepreneur does not mean much to the bank… Our house is not money in the air. The plan is to eventually buy our own land and live in the house until we build the real one. In the future, we will then have a portable cabin/guest garden house/workshop… we will come up with something. 🙂

It is certainly not a solution for everyone, but we are extremely comfortable with the feeling that we can save all the money we currently earn for land, because housing costs are below 250 euros per year. 🙂

And probably many people think so, since the market for tiny houses in Europe is constantly growing :). When we built it, no one lived in it in Slovakia yet, but now you will find many houses, many people who are happy to share their experiences with you 🙂

You can read about our housing experience here.

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