A tiny house on wheels in France! We are about to start building...
In July 2021, shortly after arriving in France, we decided to build a tiny house!
We thought a small house would be an affordable way to own our home. And we quickly concluded that we needed our house to be on wheels, to move more easily before finding a place to settle at some point.
In this video, we introduce our project, and some key steps that we have achieved so far.
Table of content
Introducing our tiny house project in video (3 min)
Script of the video
We thought that the most logical way of living at this moment was to build a tiny house on wheels! In this way, we could start to own our house, and to move easily from one place to another, until we find and buy a suitable land.
Designing the tiny house
I started to write many ideas on many papers from July to September in 2021, with some plans.
Then we decided that it was time to build a model of the house. I was a little bit lazy to learn the SketchUp software. In addition, I really wanted to have something physical that I can touch, I can modify by hand, and I can feel the space in real.
This first model I built was designed with 5.4 m long in real. I just wanted to have this challenge to see if we can fit two people and all the stuff in this 5.4 m long space.
The plan was to have a flat roof, to use all the available space. We can open the model to see inside. We can put the model under the sun for one day, to see how the light changes inside the house.
But now, there have been many updated versions after this model!
Buying the 7.2 m trailer (7.9 yards)
We finally bought a trailer with a plateau of 7.2 m long (7.9 yards), 60 cm high (24 in), and 2.44 m wide (2.7 yards). We can build the house up to 4.1 m or 4.2 m high from the ground level (4.5 yards).
With this height, when we move it, the house can go through most of the bridges in France.
Preparing a wood workshop
After we got the trailer, we wondered the next step. We thought that it would be a good idea to build a wood workshop. With this space, we can do the work faster, with more precision, and to be more imaginative.
It actually took us around one month of full-time work for 2 people (me and my father, but also my mother and Hsiao-Hang from time to time!), to look for the materials, buy the tools, and create the space.
The preparation period is actually long, and we may not have thought about it before building a tinyhouse.
Stay tuned for the next update!