How’s everyone? Welcome back. In my first post the other day I let you know about the plan Tom and I have for living a different kind of life — in a tiny home on wheels.

To tell you everything about our plan in one go would mean a massive information dump that would spin your heads! So I’ll let you in on it bit by bit.

Today, let’s meet The Mustard Yellow House.

This is the side that’ll face north to let the sun into the living area. See those french doors — they are a work of art — and imagine steps coming off, perhaps a wider deck and then steps and a ramp coming down … well, I’m talking about plans and possibilities rather than the way the house looks now.

Anyway, the house has seven opening windows apart from those french doors, and all are finished beautifully. The outer doors are in cedar, as is the window joinery. The flooring, interior panel doors and bench tops are in kauri.

Imagine the scent of fresh beeswax polish and wood oils! That’s what greets you when you step into the house.

Here’s the bathroom and the vanity:

See what I mean about the wood finishing? Not visible: the composting toilet that’s been built in. Now that will need its own blog post…

The bathroom takes up the east end of the house. At the other end is the kitchen:

A Thetford gas oven has gone into that space on the left. So our cooking will be done by gas — as will our water heating, using a califont.

Lots of drawers, and a pantry to the right. Storage space is a huge consideration in tiny houses, and in this one a lot has gone into the kitchen. Tom and I won’t be surprised if we end up storing clothes or other non-kitchen stuff there!

So … the bathroom is at one end (the east) and the kitchen at the other. In between is our living and working space and our laundry. Here’s a view looking southeast:

You can glimpse the bath down the end. Then there’s a full-length cupboard on the right, a space for washing machine and storage on the left, the door, and the carpeted living space.

See the ladder? It’s hanging in that photo, but can slide to the left and be lowered to sit firm on the floor. That’s our access to the bedroom, which is in the loft. I’ll take more photos of the loft later — there are windows each side and enough room for our king-sized futon bed. More about the loft and the ladder in a later post.

Chris McEwen, who built the house, has stretched the living space by making a popout — a bay window area — that can slide in when the house is on the road, and slide out again when parked. This is where our couch will go. (The couch isn’t bought yet — we’re looking for a top-notch one that can be a spare bed and if possible offer storage cubbies. If you know of one that’s no more than 2.15m wide, let me know!)

Here’s a view of the house on the south side, showing the popout popped out (left) and then slid in:

And there you can see the barn-style door and one of the loft windows, too.

Back inside, there’s a built-in folding table and a gorgeous mini wood burner made in New Zealand (soon to have its flue):

And to the left of the burner are the french doors that you saw from the outside.

We got insulating honeycomb blinds made for all the windows — they were installed the other day and I’m told they look great! Blinds were the best option to prevent a crowded feeling in the small space and to show off all that nice joinery. A big cost but necessary.

I’ll put up more photos as I take them and as the house gets closer to completion — due by the end of July. And I’ll try my hand at a floor plan and post it here.

But do you get the picture? Fire away with any questions. And don’t forget to like, follow and share!

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Some facts and figures: The house is 8.4 metres long (27’6″), 2.2m wide (7’2″) and weighs about 3250 kilograms (7165lb).

Steel-framed and aluminium-and-timber-clad.

Wired for 240V but we plan to go solar soon.

It was built by Chris McEwen and his team at Three Mile Bush Building Co in Carterton, NZ. We were the first people to tour through it, and hummed and haaed and looked at other houses for months — then decided to go for it.

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Tom and I hope to move in on August 14! Much more to say, come back for the next post.