Dion Cowe (24) and her boyfriend Ben Sawyer (30) living in their wood cabin-style tiny house in South Wales, UK. Before going tiny, they have lived a rather nomadic lifestyle on and off for the past 6 years. And, spending most of their relationship living in different vans in the Southern Hemisphere. Both of them try to live a sustainable lifestyle, and tiny living ties into that ideology perfectly. At that time, having a small footprint with only the bare necessities sounded just dreamy to them. “We often wondered how to achieve the goal of being financially free and able to travel, as well as having a solid base to fall back on when life threw us curve balls – which it has the habit of doing haha!” said Dion. Currently, they feel that tiny house has benefited their lives in more ways than they ever imagined.
It is a traditional wood cabin-style tiny house with waney edge larch on the exterior, complemented by red cedar shingles. Their tiny home measures 28ft x 8ft and features a mezzanine floor and a much-loved OmniTub soaking tub. Above all, It helps them greatly with working towards financial freedom, pushes their outgoings to a minimum. Also, it takes the pressure off having to work silly hours. Meanwhile, Dion & Ben get to spend so much more time with one another and their much-loved pets – which is so important to them. That is to say, Ben works for Dion’s dad as a carpenter and has been for the past two years, so the couple had some experience going into the build. “Dion’s dad helped a great deal and we couldn’t have achieved it without him,” said Ben.
living tiny has also provided us with the extra time and a comfortable space to get our creative juices flowing again, which is so important to us as creative souls.
– Dion & Ben
Before going tiny
Before starting the build, they did briefly rent a two-bedroom house, and that short-term rent pushed them to design a small space of their own. Further, Dion & Ben felt that the money they were spending on rent could be put towards something way more beneficial. As the couple was in full lockdown from March, they used the time wisely and got to work, it took almost 6 months from start to finish. In the meantime, they lived in their converted VW T4 whilst working on the house. “The van was honestly a lifesaver, it sure was home for them six long months,” said Dion.
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About some challenges
However, there were many challenges along the way. One of them is, learning to put the plans into SketchUp. Researching and finding out all of the important regulations and laws around tiny homes in the UK was another challenge they faced.
“Truth being told, the whole build was a challenge, even though we had great knowledge and trade experience behind us, none of us had actually built a tiny home on a trailer before, so as you can imagine it was a humongous learning curve,”
– Dion & Ben.
For Dion & Ben, nothing is forever. The couple always has a plan in motion. They would love to travel some more and maybe one day move to New Zealand. But, living tiny is more than ideal for them at the moment. They said, “Unfortunately, we are yet to experience having more time to travel and explore, thanks to Covid restrictions but I’m sure we will be out doing our thing again, as soon as it is safe to do so”. Also, they have a plan to rent out the home as an Airbnb in the future. Finally, they said, “All in all, living tiny is just fantastic and for anyone thinking about doing it, take the plunge you won’t regret it!”. In conclusion, we can join their tiny life journey by following them on Instagram here!
Watch the story of the UK couple and their Wood Cabin Style Tiny House in video format
