They built this caravan home for just $15k

Reading time: 4 minutes

Peter Walford, who had already shown us around his mobile dental clinic, is now making us a small tour of his and his wife's little Vista Caravan on Hornby Island, British Columbia. For now twenty years the caravan serves as a guest house for their children, guests and wwoofers. Peter, now together with his wife for thirty three years, built this home for his daughter in first place. It was a relatively quick project: Peter set the caravan up within two months and it took him another year to get it more property finished. If he was to build this caravan again today, he guesses the cost would be around 15K Canadian dollars.

The deck around the caravan was the part they thought through most - it took the couple three years to take a final decision on it. Eventually, the final decision was to just start it in order to proceed. The finish on the deck is cetol, a saturating and finish oil which Peter says is one of the only ones that lasts in this forest environment. In the beginning, they dug a hole the size of a laundry tub underneath the deck, putting in red wigglers and some rich soil to run the sink out to, which worked well for around eight years. When the system finally backed up with the sink, they dug it out again and put an eight foot weeper system with a perforated pipe, plus a clean-out tank with a removable lid to clean it from time to time. All the moisture is being sucked up by the trees around the caravan. The main regulation for their construction was that the space built needed to be under fourteen foot four. The caravan is now twenty feet long and eight feet wide and made out of plywood, held together by construction adhesive and spiral nails.

Behind the caravan, Peter installed an outdoor shower with an innovative spray head: he took a copper pipe, squeezed the ends shut and made holes into it with his dental drills. A little bit further is a tiny cabin with a composting toilet with two toilets and a passive ventilation design, which Peter mentions didn't prove to be enough. Hence he added a household fan that can be turned on inside. Even this composting toilet cabin looks beautiful, with a lot of light coming in from the glass covered rooftop, colourful windows and some art on the walls.

Inside the Vista Caravan, Robin shows us around the studio like space. The studio is full of windows that let in a lot of light and allow good air circulation for ventilation. The entrance door leads into the kitchen, where the couple installed a tiny SpaceSaver hot water tank underneath their kitchen sink, which lasts for a good fifteen minute shower plus washing dishes. Beside the kitchen countertop is a regular stove and a small half fridge. The living areas are separated by curvy bits of wall, made by Peter, which gives a nice impression of having different rooms. After the kitchen comes the living room, with a dresser, a comfy rocking chair and a little wood stove that efficiently heats the space in winter. For specially cold nights they have an additional baseboard heater. A foldable table takes almost no space and the big sliding windows lead right outside onto the deck.

The sleeping area has a queen-size bed, small windows on each side and some bookshelves that make the whole space seem very cozy. Robin also installed an innovative bar across the side for people to hang their clothes on and stay organized in the tiny place. And last but not least, there is a beautiful tiny loft, accessible through a wooden ladder that can be pulled down from the ceiling of the living room. Up there is another bed and some more windows, one of which is full of colors.

Peter mentions that "per square foot you would think it would get easier and cheaper, but it's not because you have all the same functions as a house, they're just smaller."
And Robin importantly added: "We've gotten ourselves into this idea that we need so much in this society and when you get right down to it, you don't need as much as you think and the tiny home proves that over and over again. You may not want four kids in there, but a couple can live very comfortably in terms of a building that's stable and has so little upkeep. “

Watch our full video to know more about the Vista Caravan!