Bryce Langston is a musician, actor, filmmaker and environmentalist, and he has spent the last ten years travelling around the world creating and hosting the online YouTube series Living Big in a Tiny House. This is the book of the series that was first published in 2018 that has now been fully revised and updated.
With housing affordability at an all-time high, the old quarter-acre section for people in NZ is most certainly a thing of the past, and more people, like myself, have downsized their current home. But a tiny house is another step along from downsizing from a larger home to a smaller one. What is it like living this way? Bryce tells the story of people who live in tiny houses and details these inspiring homes and how living big in a tiny house has positively impacted their lives.
After going into the basics of tiny – living minimally, creating a space that works for your lifestyle, the costs involved, and the sad fact that building tiny is often not legal, Bryce talks about different home spaces, such as sleeping, kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces. He discusses the options of going off-grid with power, water and compost toilets. Are you starting tiny, or retiring, or have pets or children? Bryce goes into all of this.
Bryce then shares about the tiny homes he has created – 20 m2 in Auckland, 12.5 m2 in North America, 15m2 in Auckland, 12.5 m2 nomadic in New Zealand, before introducing us to a variety of individuals and their tiny homes in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada, the UK and the US.
Living Big in a Tiny House is a delight! It’s just the right blend of the practical and the inspirational, with fabulous people and their incredibly varied homes. The text is engaging and packed with great information, and the photographs are attractive. I’m sure this book will inspire a lot of people to look into building a tiny house as an option for themselves, especially if they are struggling to get onto the property ladder or have overextended themselves.
Reviewer: Karen McMillan
Potton & Burton