Baluchon's Yggdrasil Is Tiny Living at Its Finest - Sadly Off Limits to Americans

Yes, Baluchon has been seen on our pages many times before. Once you get to know the Yggdrasil, you'll understand why. The idea behind this French team was born in 2014 when Vincent and Laetitia, two humans with backgrounds in construction and spatial design, decided to create their own habitats. At the time, they hadn't met, but in 2015, their paths crossed. From there, everything just snowballed into a company that now serves international clients. The Yggdrasil will show us why.

Because the name of this tiny house is so strange to me, I had to dive deeper and find out a bit more about the meaning of the word Yggdrasil. Come to find out, the word is from Norse mythology, and it refers to the World Tree, an ash tree supporting the universe. Something like the Tree of Life from other cultures.

One thing to note about the home is that no ash was used in crafting the Yggdrasil. Instead, Baluchon used solid oak, red cedar, and spruce to give birth to this World Tree. The framework is put together using class 2 spruce. Red cedar is used as cladding. The solid oak is used more to craft furnishings and features such as the galley block and some trimming.

Before you go on about how building a home from wood means that the elements will be destroying it, don't. Baluchon comes to the off-grid and mobile living game with experience in treating wood so that rain, snow, and any other humidity don't stand a chance. Sure, don't go moving into a swamp, but Baluchon's creations resist the test of time for year-round use in four-season landscapes. It's one of the main reasons why their portfolio has exploded in recent years. Without further ado, let's see what kind of living the interior of this bugger has to offer.

I want you to imagine that you own a Yggdrasil and that the sun is cracking on the horizon of a new day. Because you want to be awakened by the dawn's early light, you choose to sleep downstairs in the living room. Why here? If you look around, you'll notice massive windows that sweep around nearly half of the home. Once the sun's rays hit your face, you get out of bed, open those windows, let in a fresh spring breeze, and put on a pot of coffee.

With your home now smelling of roasted beans, the remaining guests begin to emerge from the woodwork like zombies. Since it's your family, the little ones climb down from the loft bedroom, and your significant other from the bed sheets you left behind. With morning partially completed, you're left tending to breakfast while the rest of the group gets ready for the day.

What you'll find neat about the Yggdrasil is the way it conveys that feeling of home. For example, the features found in the kitchen are similar to those in my own home. A flush countertop provides the space to unfurl cooking abilities, while shelves overhead and cupboards below place everything at your fingertips.

From the kitchen, your day can unfold in one of two ways. You can either hop in the bathroom and take a shower and lighten your spirits or head back to the living room, where you transform your bed into a couch for social activities. Speaking of social activities, I particularly enjoyed how a glass wall separates the kitchen and bathroom from the living room. If you install a blind, you can keep your master chef skills a secret.

Coming back to daily life, once breakfast is complete and the couch is in day-to-day living position, it's time to bring the dining table in and set it underneath the glass windows you opened earlier. If it's still too cold, the breeze can be balanced with the wood-burning furnace found in the living room. Talk about a rustic living feel in modern times.

Now, there's something you need to understand about this machine, the images you see are of someone's home. Baluchon actually created the Yggdrasil to a client's standards of living. Since we only know him as Francis, I like to give him the last name Lucky. Yeah, Francis Lucky is a good name for the owner.

But all isn't lost. The minds and hands at Baluchon can build a home for you too, and one that looks a whole lot like the Yggdrasil; I'm sure you'll want to add your own flavor to the mix. Just as an idea, the manufacturer offers turnkey homes priced between €85,000 ($90,400 at current exchange rates) and €100,000 ($106,000). I remember when homes used to cost a tad over $100K. Ah, the good old days.

Before I go, keep in mind one important aspect. If you want to bring your own Baluchon home to North America, or any other location outside of Europe, you need to remember that these abodes are built for European roads. Regulations worldwide differ, so you have your work cut out for you, not to mention throwing some extra dollars at the problem in hopes of solving it.

If you find out you can't bring one to the U.S., what you can do is take this article and plans for the Yggdrasil to a local tiny house builder and whisper the words, "I want this and I don't care how much it costs," and watch how fast your off-grid dreams become a reality. Something to consider if you're looking to ditch the traditional neighborhood.