Imagine investing so much money in things and a big house just to lose them suddenly. How can you start from scratch when a tragedy strikes and takes everything away?
Vicky lost everything in an earthquake back in New Zealand. So, she traveled to Queensland, Australia, and started a new life in a tiny house.
Vicky’s sanctuary is sitting in a little space of land she is renting along with other families in a small community where you can see other tiny houses.
The land has a permaculture farm where they can grow food, a yoga studio, and a treatment room where you can enjoy a massage, acupuncture, and more.
According to Vicky, she used to live in a normal-size house in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was, however, destroyed by earthquakes.
She said it was a rough time for her, so she moved to Australia and stayed with her friends in Sydney until she got a job and put her life together.
After six years, her insurance company rebuilt her house, but she already had a new life in Australia and has not returned to New Zealand.
“I’d wanted to live tiny after everything you own is destroyed in an earthquake; you begin to question why you’re putting so much money into things and space, and all of a sudden, all of that is gone,” she said.
According to Vicky, she spent roughly five to seven years researching the right builder. She ended up in Queensland, where she found the most amazing building company and amazing people.
She had her home finished in two months.
The exterior of Vicky’s gorgeous house is made of Colorbond in Dune Matt finish, matched with black windows, and her wooden patio has white, flowing curtains, lights, and functional mosquito nets. Her house is plugged into regular power and uses bore water.
Her tiny house measures 7.2 meters with a little bump out over the drawbar, making it eight. She also has beautiful landscaping and garden, and a space for wildflowers for bees.
Inside, her tiny house is filled with green, matching the rainforest outside, which you can see through her windows.
Her white wallpaper has plants and trees, which according to her, she spent hours searching to find the perfect print for her wall. She imported the wallpaper from the Netherlands directly from the artist.
Vicky’s tiny house interior combines green, timber, and copper. It has aqua blue copper lights she bought from a second-hand shop four years ago, so when she decided to live in a tiny house, she thought the copper lights should be around.
“And that’s where the copper came in for everything. It was kind of like the starting point,” she explained.
Her lounge has a lovely couch where her guests can sleep. The sofa faces the glass sliding door, which offers a gorgeous view of the outside greens.
A knick-knack storage is built into the stairs where she puts things that can make her happy.
Her gorgeous kitchen has a window where you can see the beauty of nature outside, which makes Vicky happy every time she looks at it, and the room’s openness makes the kitchen feel so spacious. The space in her kitchen is just enough for her to reach everything within a step.
Her green cabinetry and the timber shelving connect with the vista outside. She also has beautiful timber bench tops and a table she uses when working on her laptop or eating.
On the other side of her house are the bathroom with a cool-looking shower, beautiful vanity, and a wardrobe with a washing machine.
Above the bathroom is her sleeping loft, which is spacious. It has a skylight where she can watch the stars all night and a window that offers cross-breeze.
Vicky has been living in her gorgeous tiny house for quite a while, and when she was asked if living in a tiny house lives up to her expectation, she said: “It actually has exceeded expectations. It has challenges. There’s been a lot of angst and a lot of stress trying to find the perfect spot and things like that.”
But according to her, it is all part of the journey and so well worth it. She also said she could not be happier with where she is now.
Vicky also said that living in a tiny house offers little touches of luxury that she would not be able to afford if she lived in a regular-sized house, and some of these little things make everyday worth waking up.
Take a complete tiny house tour by watching the video at Living Big in a Tiny House.