There is no such thing as a coincidence or an accident in life, some will argue. Angus would be one those people, because it was an “accident” that got him into tiny house living.
The tiny house movement has been around since the early aughts, but it picked up unprecedented speed over the past couple of years. While tiny houses are very popular in the United States or Europe, places like New Zealand and Australia are where they’re more… at home, if you will. Angus’ gorgeous, self-sufficient, and very spacious tiny is a good example in this sense.
Angus lives in Waikato, New Zealand, where he owns a piece of land some 250 meters (820 feet) above sea level. It is to this spot of land that he brought the tiny his company was “stuck” with a while back, and which he ended up turning into a proper home. Truth be told, his tiny, mobile home is probably far nicer than most regular brick-and-mortar houses, not to mention cramped city apartments.
Angus runs a towing company that deals exclusively in tiny houses. At one point, he tells Bryce Langston of Living Big in a Tiny House (see the video below), he was somehow stuck with one tiny they were meant to deliver. He doesn’t go into specifics, but the implication is that the delivery didn’t go through, so he ended up buying it.
This was in mid-2021 before the current boom in prices, and Angus paid NZ$175,000 (approximately US$113,000 at the current exchange rate) for the house as it was. He’s made countless additions to it, including a deck in the back, a mudroom in the front, and a shipping container for storage, but he doesn’t offer an estimate for those. Angus wanted to see what the fuss was all about with tiny living and, after crunching numbers and realizing it would be cheaper than a proper house, he decided to give it a try.
The tiny is 10 meters (33 feet) long, 3 meters (10 feet) wide, and 4.4 meters (14.4 feet) tall. Angus doesn’t use it as a mobile home, which is why he added all those fixtures to it to expand the available space and has had it connected to a sewage tank, which allows him to have a flushing toilet in the bathroom. But he could still pack everything up and move it easily: even the deck in the back is designed with movability in mind, he explains. It would take a bit more time than hooking up a trailer and hitting the road, but he could move every piece of “home” he owns.
Up in the parking lot is a regular shipping container, where Angus keeps his work tools and, more importantly, the batteries for the 8kW solar kit, which produces more energy than they ever use. The mudroom in the front is sheltered, and is perfect for shoes, work clothes and a bike or two.
Entrance is directly into the living room, which is incredibly spacious thanks to the double-height ceiling and generous glazing. A dining table that can seat four or eight people is a rarity in a tiny house, but this one has it: a place for formal dining, out on a hill in the middle of nowhere. The kitchen is to the side and, like the living, it’s huge. There’s a U-shaped, bamboo-covered countertop, full-size appliances including a gas hob and gas oven, and a breakfast bar with gorgeous views of the valley below.
Above the kitchen is the lounge room, which is exactly what it sounds like: an L-shaped comfy couch and a large-screen TV, just perfect for movie binging or even sleeping for the occasional guest. At the opposite end of the house is the bathroom, with the master bedroom above it. Both are spacious, with the bathroom featuring a large shower and the full-size wardrobe that would be found in the hallway or under the stairs in other tinies. A floor-to-ceiling window here offers plenty of natural light and the same gorgeous views; Angus points out that privacy is not an issue, since they’re in the middle of nowhere and the only uninvited guests are 4.5 free-range horses (one is a miniature horse).
Like the lounge, the bedroom also offers standing height. If you know anything about tiny houses, you know that most tinies with one or two lofts sacrifice headroom for a less cluttered layout on the ground level. In other words, you get more space to move around below, but have to hunch over or even crawl in the bedroom area. This isn’t the case here, hence Bryce’s conclusion that this is a tiny for giants.
Angus says that the home is self-sufficient but, again, he doesn’t go into specifics. It relies on solar for energy, and uses gas for cooking, while the sewage tank only has to be emptied every 9-10 months or so. Given its remote location, it wouldn’t be the worst place to retire for a while – or even ride out the apocalypse in total comfort.
Angus lives in Waikato, New Zealand, where he owns a piece of land some 250 meters (820 feet) above sea level. It is to this spot of land that he brought the tiny his company was “stuck” with a while back, and which he ended up turning into a proper home. Truth be told, his tiny, mobile home is probably far nicer than most regular brick-and-mortar houses, not to mention cramped city apartments.
Angus runs a towing company that deals exclusively in tiny houses. At one point, he tells Bryce Langston of Living Big in a Tiny House (see the video below), he was somehow stuck with one tiny they were meant to deliver. He doesn’t go into specifics, but the implication is that the delivery didn’t go through, so he ended up buying it.
The tiny is 10 meters (33 feet) long, 3 meters (10 feet) wide, and 4.4 meters (14.4 feet) tall. Angus doesn’t use it as a mobile home, which is why he added all those fixtures to it to expand the available space and has had it connected to a sewage tank, which allows him to have a flushing toilet in the bathroom. But he could still pack everything up and move it easily: even the deck in the back is designed with movability in mind, he explains. It would take a bit more time than hooking up a trailer and hitting the road, but he could move every piece of “home” he owns.
Up in the parking lot is a regular shipping container, where Angus keeps his work tools and, more importantly, the batteries for the 8kW solar kit, which produces more energy than they ever use. The mudroom in the front is sheltered, and is perfect for shoes, work clothes and a bike or two.
Entrance is directly into the living room, which is incredibly spacious thanks to the double-height ceiling and generous glazing. A dining table that can seat four or eight people is a rarity in a tiny house, but this one has it: a place for formal dining, out on a hill in the middle of nowhere. The kitchen is to the side and, like the living, it’s huge. There’s a U-shaped, bamboo-covered countertop, full-size appliances including a gas hob and gas oven, and a breakfast bar with gorgeous views of the valley below.
Like the lounge, the bedroom also offers standing height. If you know anything about tiny houses, you know that most tinies with one or two lofts sacrifice headroom for a less cluttered layout on the ground level. In other words, you get more space to move around below, but have to hunch over or even crawl in the bedroom area. This isn’t the case here, hence Bryce’s conclusion that this is a tiny for giants.
Angus says that the home is self-sufficient but, again, he doesn’t go into specifics. It relies on solar for energy, and uses gas for cooking, while the sewage tank only has to be emptied every 9-10 months or so. Given its remote location, it wouldn’t be the worst place to retire for a while – or even ride out the apocalypse in total comfort.