Throughout the build I kept careful records of all the money I spent. From quite early on I realized that we were going to surpass our goal of building the tiny house for under R200 000 (about $14,000). But I also realized that what started out as a “budget” was really a guess, and in the end we spent R264 000 (about $18,800), which includes most appliances, move costs, electric hookup, rainwater tank and septic system. In hindsight I would have spent a little more money in a few areas (especially flooring and plumbing fixtures), but the following is an accurate representation of what it costs to self-build a tiny house in South Africa on a budget.

We’ve now been living in the tiny house for nearly two weeks. Though there are still more projects to complete (a gate for the top of the stairs, blinds, an awning, and lots of landscaping among other things), it feels great to finally experience on a daily basis the reward of all the prior work. For months now I’ve been looking forward to switching on the bathroom light and taking a hot shower, or sitting on the cube chair I made and enjoying a cup of coffee with breakfast. Experiences like these have been at least as gratifying as I anticipated, and on top of all these I’ve daily enjoyed the undeserved blessing of seeing beauty outside our windows.

While we’ve had several volunteers and a paid high school student help out for several days, the gas installation was the first part of the project for which I did no work at all. To minimize our reliance upon electricity (which isn’t reliable in our area) and open up the future possibility of using solar power, we’ve decided to use gas to heat water and cook.

Over the past several months as I’ve told people that I’m building a tiny house, I’ve been surprised by how many people are familiar with the concept, mainly though TV shows. “That’s awesome” they’ll say, but our project utterly lacks the excitement, pace and glamor of professional builders working alongside a TV crew. Most of the rest of the people I talk to are at least a little skeptical of the idea (Hi Dad!), especially the cost and size of the DIY project. Unfortunately, I’ve found it difficult to articulate why we’re building a tiny house. Lacking a clear and concise answer, I’ll instead try and lay out in more detail some of the factors in our decision to take on this project.

Throughout the second half of October our tiny house has shown little outward progress, though not for a lack of effort. During this time we spent a week planning and building window frames, then another week cutting and painting plywood flooring (2 coats of waterproofing underneath, one coat of primer on top and one coat of floor paint, plus two additional coats of white interior paint underneath the loft).

Throughout the ongoing process of planning and building a tiny house, we’ve received practical inspiration from two primary sources.

After months of dreaming, researching, learning, and planning the tiny house build, August 31 marked the first day of construction when I cut several steel tags which will eventually hold the loft and ceiling rafters in place. Though it’s really hard to predict how long the build will take, I hope to move into the tiny house 100 days from now. My wife’s dream is that we’ll get to spend Christmas in our new home. Regardless of the small steps I took on this first day, I went home this first day excited that our tiny house was no longer entirely conceptual.