Young Man Builds Tiny House for Only $8,000

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The Prowler is Ryan's Tiny House. It was initially the 72 camper trailer of his grandparents and with some help from his brother and a lot of reclaimed materials, he transformed it into his home. His main investment of $8,000 went mainly into appliances, the compost toilet and the lumber siding. Inside, he avoided big cupboards in order to keep the space as open as possible and give it a bigger feeling.

The Tiny House is small compact and absolutely gorgeous. Ryan got each window for only about $15 and double doors, so that even more light would come in. They prove handy especially in winter, as the natural light heats up the place. At the back end, he has a couple of propane tanks, original bottles from The Prowler, that last quite a bit as it is not used for heating the house. There are also a 46 gallon water tank and an air conditioner he uses in summer and which he takes out in the winter, putting the window glass back in. At the other end of the cabin is a little spot where he stores tools, paints and some sports equipment. It used to be a simple, wooden shelf in his garage that he just nailed onto the cabin and put some doors on. The rooftop is a tin roof, so that rain and melted snow could just run down.

Ryan says that the whole construction process took a lot of work. He didn't use any hand guns and hand banged and screwed everything himself. Learning as he went made him have more respect for his home in general and also enabled him to fix things, as he put them together in first place. Whenever someone comes over, Ryan asks them to leave a positive note or just their name on the door frame. Right above the door he hang up the snowboard he used to ride for the brand DC – it is from one of their first runs of boards that he got to test out.

On the corners of one end, Ryan built in some nice wooden boards that serve as storage space, mainly in order to keep things off the ground. Underneath it a couch, original from the camper, that one can fold up. When it comes to decoration, Ryan has got quite an eye for aesthetics: his own paintings on the walls, bookshelves, green house plants, a guitar and a vinyl collection give the whole space a very nice style. For heating he has a small Space Heater which he only needs to turn on at night as the house is so well insulated. Basically, all the kitchen equipment and the drawers are still left from the original Prowler. There are also A tiny AC fridge and a reclaimed and self-treated stainless steel countertop.

The bathroom is quite creative and has honey colored cedar walls. Together with his brother, Ryan made a kind of shower-tub: They glued a whiskey barrel shower together, spraying rubber spray paint inside and put a mat on the bottom. He also has a Nature's Head composting toilet he really recommends. In the whole house, the ceiling and the window-frames are covered with recycled palettes. This kept everything simple but still gives the home a nice texture. The loft with a bed is very bright and comfy and as Ryan didn't plan to spend too much time sitting up there, he preferred keeping the kitchen and bathroom ceiling slightly higher. Beside his bed is an old, black chest that used to be his uncle's and where he keeps his clothes inside.

Ryan believes that one of the main things he realized is that living tiny also includes not accumulating too much new stuff. If he goes to a store, he sometimes really likes this pot or that pan, realizing that he already haD these things and absolutely no space for more. We do not need as much as we think we do and a nice lifestyle is possible without having to store things that one doesn't touch in a year. When we go with the flow and separate what we need versus what we want, life just falls into place. Ryan's main advice: „Change your lifestyle, not your income. One thing that I've been doing very well is instead of trying to make more money, I'm learning to live with less and therefore I feel like I'm gaining more!“.