Spacious Tiny House Feels like Cozy Winter Cabin
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Geoff and Rose are a designer and an artist who decided to build a Tiny House together in Canada. The “Woolly Mammoth Tiny House” is an incredibly beautiful home into which they put special time, which payed off: their home turned out even better than they could have dreamed of. Both are environmentalists and this project seemed like a feasible way to decrease their impact on the environment. Their home was originally a RV they bought for $2500 and eventually they turned the 80’s looking camper into a very soulful home.The idea of insulating their house with sheep’s wool came from a friend of theirs. Sheep’s wool usually is very expensive because of its time-consuming cleaning process. They had the incredible luck to be given – for free – bags and bags of dirty sheep’s wool that were leftovers from a local wool cleaner. It was a very long process for Rose and Geoff to clean it by themselves, but they got their insulation for free and also say they notice the difference in the feeling in their home.
Outside at the back of the house is a small shed attached to it. It holds 100 gallons of water with water from a well, two water heaters and a small reptile lamp that keeps the main components from freezing. Geoff mentions that another nine Nissan Leaf Batteries are going to be installed, which are a tenth of the weight of lead-acid batteries, last up to 50 years and which he purchased on EBay for only $120.The interior of the Woolly Mammoth is one of the most beautiful designs that you will have seen for this size of a home. A small cubic mini tiny stove, manufactured in Quebec, is able to heat their house from 10 to about 22°C in the span of an hour and a half – with heated floors, but still: rad, as Geoff says. He also recommends building your kitchen counter yourself, like they did for only $100. In their kitchen, a Berkey water filter turns any kind of water into drinkable water and proves handy especially when off grid, just like their foot pedal that generates and saves a lot of water. For cooking, they use a regular propane powered stove, considering an electric one for future if they’re solar system becomes good enough. Their 12V bar fridge saves them a lot of energy and the lighting in the whole house is LED, controlled by dimmers to have exactly the touch of light they want.
As Geoff and Rose have only a few things in their Tiny Home, they like to afford these few things and take extra care of them so they last longer. Among these things is a Japanese knife, made by Blacksmith in Japan, which they use for nearly everything and maintain regularly. Another thing are two nice copper sinks in the kitchen and bathroom, which slightly change their color over time. The bathroom turned out to be Rose’s favorite room in the whole house and it was her who wanted to have a full bathtub in it. As a cast iron claw foot would have been too heavy, they went for the fiberglass. Very hidden, underneath a box for their laundry, is a litter box for their two cats and a 12V fan to suck the air out of the bathroom and keep it odor and moisture free. Both the litter box and their composting toilet are filled with wood shavings they get for free from a lumber mill – a great partnership.
The rest of the house shows smart storage spaces, mainly underneath the stairs, two lofts and a small living room with the original front part used as a reading nook. The bigger loft is their bedroom, over which they installed – last-minute – an amazing skylight. To make sure they had enough space above their heads, they kept the bathroom underneath just high enough. The second loft, at the other end of the Tiny Home, is smaller and was another last-minute decision. It is accessible by a simple ladder and a nice place to sit when friends come over or for sleep overs – one day it may even serve as a kid’s room.
“The interesting thing about risk taking is that it often pays off”, Rose says. “Maybe a little longer than you think, but we also got so many opportunities because we took the time to build this home.” Both recommend to listen to your gut feeling when an idea has been turning in your head for a long time. Following your heart will lead you different places than following your mind or economic decision making. Geoff is very clear about this: “There is nothing compared to building your own home and living in it. Following your heart is a super important thing!”.
