‘From a small dream home to a finished home’
For many years, Chris&Caro have been talking about tiny houses and more in their podcast ‘tinyon’. Now the two have published their first book. Readers of the NEW HOUSING page can regularly read excerpts from the work – and win books.
Chapter 1: UNDERSTANDING TINY LIVING
‘We'll buy a tiny house and lease a nice plot of land. Done.’ Reality check – Get a feel for what it really means to live in your own tiny house."
Insight into Chapter 1.1 From social media dream to vision
This scenario is probably familiar to you: you're lying on your sofa, swiping through breathtaking photos of beautiful tiny houses once again. Sometimes you see yourself in the house pictured in your mind's eye and dream of a slower pace of life in the countryside.
In our digitalised world, we have endless opportunities to inform ourselves and find inspiration for our own path. In February 2024, the search term ‘tiny house Germany’ alone returned approximately 18 million results on Google within 0.36 seconds.
The downside of this, however, is that we can be overwhelmed by the flood of information and seduced by romantic photo galleries without any deeper background information. Instagram, for example, offers more than 3.5 million posts under the hashtag #tinyhouse. These houses are often located in spectacular places around the world.
The buildings are immaculate, nestled in nature and, of course, exemplary tidy. Not to mention influencers who report on how they built their own houses. This often gives the impression that building a tiny house is something anyone can do quickly with just a few simple steps and basic craftsmanship skills. We have the utmost respect for every do-it-yourself mini house, but when we look at some of the projects presented, we do wonder how feasible they are in terms of obtaining planning permission.
After all, construction requires more than just expertise in a wide range of trades. Working in a small space is an additional challenge that is often underestimated. We have also seen experienced tradespeople struggle with the limited space available, for example when installing sanitary facilities...
