Real Living Australia - June 2018

BIG

IDEA

WHEN I FIRST STARTED building my tiny house three years ago, I didn’t have

land or even the prospect of it. But I craved a home, so I started the process of

building a mobile home with the hope that I’d find somewhere to live in it when

I was ready. Prior to this I was moving around a lot, helping on permaculture

farms and travelling. In the process I culled my possessions over several years

• every time I returned from a trip with only a backpack of essentials, I realised
  more and more that I didn’t need those things that I’d lived without for months
  on end. I guess deciding to build a tiny house was the final move towards living
  with less; the things you’re attached to become less important and the space
  their absence provides becomes the thing you crave.

A PROJECT IS BORN...

First I bought my trailer, which was a brand new caravan chassis I found on eBay,

then I made it roadworthy and registered it as a tandem trailer. Next, I put it out

into the universe that I needed to find a block of land for $35,000, as that was all

I could afford without having to get a job just to pay a mortgage. The next week I

found my land west of Melbourne and a few months later I moved my house there.

I designed and built the house myself using around 80 per cent recycled

materials. I hunted down doors and windows from eBay, Gumtree and local A

TINY HOUSES – OR AS WE LIKE TO CALL

THEM, POCKET MANSIONS – ARE MAKING

BIG WAVES THANKS TO THEIR SMALL

FOOTPRINTS. WE MEET MYSTEE UNWIN,

WHO CALLS ONE SUCH TINY HOUSE HOME

text

emma markezic |

photography

jonathon donnelly |

design

trias

TINY HOUSE...

THE WAY WE LIVE

MODERN

LIVING

@reallivingmag

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