Orca Tiny Home Offers Comfort and Spaciousness Like No Other Tiny Before

Mint Tiny House Company is a Canadian builder that caters exclusively to the Canadian and North American markets, offering a series of base models and custom units developed from these. If the name rings familiar, it's probably because of their park model houses, which seem to defy all expectations and even the most basic notion of tiny living.

The Orca Edition does it, too. It's the latest addition to the builder's lineup and aims to show just how much can be done to improve the tiny house concept. Granted, the unit loses much of its mobility in the process: park models are longer, wider, and heavier tiny homes that require special permits to move around, for which reason they don't relocate that often. But they're still home on wheels, so they're far more mobile than any brick-and-mortar structure.

Tiny living is still having a moment, though the market seems to have reached over-saturation. Downsizing, whether by choice or not, remains the fuel for demand in tiny houses, as people from all over the world are looking to cut expenses, cut their carbon footprint, or get started on a more nomadic lifestyle.

That being said, tiny living is not new, even though attention on it is. It's been around for more than two decades and got its start as a response to raised awareness on environmental issues. Today, most people who choose to make the transition from a regular home to one such house on wheels do it because they come with reduced monthly costs, don't involve decades-long mortgages and debt, and can be towed from place to place.

The Orca Edition model doesn't really check that last box, but that's only because it aims to replicate the feel, space, and comfort of a "real" home – just with a smaller layout. Compared to most tinies out there, it's positively huge, offering 528 square feet (49 square meters) of total living space, all of it grouped on the ground floor. Even the absence of lofted spaces makes it stand out from all the others.

The house sits on a four-axle 44-foot (13.4-meter) trailer with a width of 12 feet (3.6 feet) and offers two separate entries. The exterior is painted board and batten with a metal roof, over all-white walls and ceilings, and contrasting floors. The home is huge as is, but it's made to feel even more airy and spacious thanks to the color combination.

This is the kind of tiny home perfect for the entire family, as it offers sleeping for as many as six people. Perhaps more importantly, it also offers ample space for these six persons to move around without bumping into each other and just as much storage. Luxury touches include a fireplace in the living room and a bathtub in the bathroom, both of them offered optionally.

Tiny living is all about compact layouts and multi-functional spaces, hidden features, and the teeniest-tiniest rooms. The Orca is not like that. Instead, it comes across as a country home brought down to size. It's still downsizing, but it's downsizing for people who don't like cramped spaces. It's fancy downsizing, if you'll allow the phrasing.

The layout offers two big bedrooms, one at each end of the trailer, with an open-plan kitchen and a living room, a bathroom and a laundry station sandwiched between them. Each area is separated from the neighboring one to allow maximum comfort and convenience.

In fact, the builder describes the Orca as "the future of tiny living" because it offers "comfort and spaciousness like never before." Either of the brief video tours below can confirm that.

You enter either into the living room or the main bedroom. The main bedroom has two wall-to-wall wardrobes and space for a king-size bed, and two walls with large windows that bask it in natural light.

The adjacent bathroom holds a choice of toilet (flushing or composting), a sink with vanity, and a large shower cabin that can be fitted optionally with a bathtub. Opposite the bathroom is the laundry station, with the washing machine or a stacked washer-dryer and plenty of shelving for storage.

The kitchen features only residential-size appliances, from the microwave with integrated hood to the refrigerator and dishwasher. The L-shaped counter also offers ample storage in cabinets and drawers and considerable prep space. Before spilling into the living room, the kitchen has room for a fold-out four-person dining table.

The secondary bedroom is smaller but can still fit a king-size bed if you're not particular about having space to move around, especially since there's another wardrobe in here. The custom unit toured in the videos below is set up as a kid's room with a crib and a comfortable armchair.

Other features include an electric water heater (for the optional bathtub), dual-zone mini-split for heat and AC, in-wall heat registers as an additional source of heating, and the option to upgrade everything from the roof to the wall sidings. You can also buy it empty or ready to move in, but you'll have to dig deep in your pockets for the latter.

If the size and the kind of optionals available didn't tip you off, we’ll say it outright: this is a premium tiny house. Pricing starts at US$149,000/ CAD197,900 and goes up as you check off optionals on the list – or until the budget runs out.