South Island Tiny House: Our Journey Moving to New Zealand and Building a Tiny House on Wheels by Corianne Holmes

Author:Corianne Holmes [Holmes, Corianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780473596491
Google: k56yzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Corianne Holmes
Published: 2021-10-10T20:49:52+00:00

6

Tiny House Life and Trials

“A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.”

—Ralph Lauren

When the tiny house was nearing completion, we asked the llama farmer if she was interested in renting a small corner of her least-used paddock to us full time. As we suspected, she wasn’t. So we commenced Operation Find Some Land.

We told everyone we knew—friends, work colleagues, and acquaintances. We posted propositions on Facebook and even looked into buying land. One day, we pulled over on the side of the road and asked someone if he had plans with his empty lot. The man looked like he was planning on shooting us as we said “hi” and tried to shake his hand, so we didn’t try that approach again. But we thought we should take advantage of all the cheap sections available in Christchurch at the time. After weeks of searching, we eventually found an absolute minuscule section close to the central business district of Christchurch that we thought might work for us.

We met the owner after a few weeks of emailing back and forth. Unfortunately, it had also been a few long weeks of rain. When we finally arrived, we were shocked that the section appeared to be 100 percent mud. I remember standing there in our raincoats in shock at just how small the section was at about fifty square meters (0.01 of an acre). The lot would barely have enough room for the tiny house, a small deck, and maybe a vehicle. At least there was a nice fence around it. But the opening, we decided, was the biggest impediment. We didn’t think we could even get the tiny house through the opening.

We went home to have a long, hard think about the section. We could take down the fence and replace it (expensive) or crane the tiny house over the fence into the section (expensive) or try to wedge it through the opening (expensive if the tiny house got damaged). In the end, however, the decision was out of our hands because a few weeks later the Christchurch City Council made a new rule effectively banning tiny houses (structures under ten square meters or 107.39 square feet) from the central business district, so that was that.

With the end in sight, we always figured our plan B could be just rolling up to a trailer park or campsite and paying nightly for a little while until we found something more permanent. But as luck would have it, the llama farmer had spoken about us with her neighbor and he was interested in meeting. Patrick met with him, and they hit it off right away.

The couple who owned the land were already renting out a cottage on their property, so they had experience with unique situations, and they had land to spare. Since their property was next door to the llama farm, it was a very “simple” procedure to relocate the tiny house. You might be thinking, how convenient for you! It was bittersweet

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