WEBVTT

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Hey everyone., Rob Greenfield here, and

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over the next few days I am going to build
a tiny house.

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From tree to tiny house.

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Yes, that's right, from cutting down the
trees,

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to milling the lumber, to finishing

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a tiny house from scratch.

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I'm going to walk you through the
entire process

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and then I am going to move in.

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(Music)

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This isn't just any tiny house though.

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This tiny house is going to be fully

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off the grid and built completely out of

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wood harvested on this property

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as well as second hand materials

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right here from the farm.

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So this is a tiny house that's designed

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to work within the land that it is being

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built on and not be a pain to the land.

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So where is all of this happening?

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It is at Le Reve de Gaia which means the

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dream of mother earth, here in Southern
France.

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Now it's time to build the tiny house.

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(Music)

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Okay, so here we are at the wood saw now

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and this is where the tree that we cut

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down on the property actually turns into
the lumber.

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He bought this land about 7 years ago and

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this has pine forests on it that have

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been used for forestry for decades now...
probably centuries.

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And a lot of it was done in a very
unsustainable way.

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Now he is transitioning this into

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sustainable forestry and just moving it

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back into, hopefully, a native forest that

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is a place for humans, other species, and

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the environment to thrive.

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So, he is working on managing it

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sustainably using this wood to build and

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then also it's his source of income.

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And behind me is his wood saw and 
this thing is incredible.

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This is the first time I have ever worked
with a wood saw.

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He bought this for about $8000 prior

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because of his work as a forester and it's

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amazing what this could do in a community.

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Imagine if a community had this they

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could come together and build their houses

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out of wood, locally harvested, and it

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would pay for itself in no time, creating

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jobs and opportunity and working with the

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land rather than having things shipped and

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depending upon huge corporations.

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We are going to turn the tree into the 
lumber.

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(Music)

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We are working with the trees right now.

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Right here is a larger one and this will 
make

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the bigger planks. Behind me, he is

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working with about...closer to the size of

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the tree that we cut down today. And then

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that is going to be used to make the 
posts for the floor.

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So, the larger tree for the planks.

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Smaller trees are going to be used for

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basically like 4 by 4's. All of these are

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trees that were harvested from the land.

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These have been curing for about 6 months

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to a year so that they have the right

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level of moisture to be easier to work 
with.

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(Music)

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Alright, so we have finished cutting.

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Again, a lot of stuff was cut prior to
today,

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but almost everything here is stuff

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that we cut today and I want to show you

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the different things. So, these wide,

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almost like 4 by 4's, these are for the
foundation.

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And then these are for the foundation
as well.

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And then these, what we are

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calling planks, are for the roof,
slash, sides.

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And then, these are the 
floorboards,

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which you can see are thicker.

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All of these came from the different sizes
of the trees.

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And we started with the trees,

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now we've got the lumber and

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then it will go from tree to tiny house.

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(Music)

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Okay, so now we've got the wood milled

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and it is time to treat some of it.

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We are sanding and we are treating...

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staining just the flooring. 
The reason is

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that we want nice smooth floors for

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walking on barefoot, you know, preventing
slivers.

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But the rest of the house we are not

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going to sand and we are not going 
to stain,

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and the reason why is we are

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actually experimenting with a as natural

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as possible build here, 
and over time

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it's not going to last as long as if it
was stained.

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After the house is no longer

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something you could live in it's just

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returned back to the land. Whether it's

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wood breaking down in the forest

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or turning it into firewood. 
So the idea is

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that we are designing it extremely

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naturally with the wood right on the land

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and the wood can go back to the land.

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Alright, our last step before finally

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building the tiny house is to take some

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of these planks and cut them into the

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right sizes for the flooring, for the

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walls, and we are using, basically a table

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saw or a skill saw and if you really

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wanted to you could do it with a hand saw

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but we've got the tools.

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(Music)

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Alright, so we have the site. 
Now the

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first step is to create the foundation.

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We are having a little bit of a harder
time

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than planned with that because we

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are on a bigger slope than we had thought,

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so we are having to raise it up.

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But first step is to create the 
foundation,

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level it, then we are going to put on the

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floor, then we are going to create the

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frame, then we are going to put on the

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sides and the roof. And then the last

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step will be to put in the doors and 
windows.

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So, we've actually moved the foundation

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back a little bit so that we didn't have

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to put it up as high. And one thing that

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I want to mention is on the bottom we

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are using Douglas Fir which is more

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resistant to rot and will last longer and

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then the rest of the housing is spruce.

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So, a little bit of Douglas Fir on the

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bottom that is contacting the ground and

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the rest will be spruce.

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We got the foundation pretty much set and

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it is time to start moving upwards.

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We just got this foundation set in really

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just about an hour, which for me, was the

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part that I was the most worried about

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because I am really bad at making things

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level or even. Angles, 90 degree angles,

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that's what I have a really hard time 
with.

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So, that went really, really well.

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Right now we are just putting these giant

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screws through and I should mention

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this is basically the one material that's

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not second hand or from the forest.

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These were bought new. And this is pretty

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much the main cost, right?

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Antoine: Yes, that's the only cost, yeah.

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Rob: And some gasoline.

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Antoine: Ya, for the chainsaw and the 
saw machine.

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Rob: How much gas do you think we
burned?

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Antoine: Uh...in total, maybe about 
5 to 8 litres.

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Rob: Okay so...
Antoine: $16...about $20 in gasoline.

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Rob: Okay. So, 2 gallons about, less

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than $20 worth of gasoline, some screws,

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and then the rest is from the forest and

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stuff that was laying around in the barn.

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So, it's looking pretty good.

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Aright, the foundation is done and we used

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about 18 of these and that's it.

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Wood, 18 of these with the foundation and

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now we are putting on the flooring.

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Which is pretty simple.

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We just have to line that up to

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make it even and then we'll
have the flooring done.

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Alright, so we have the foundation set

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and I am pretty amazed. It's basically

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2 ingredients, wood and screws.

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And it's solid. It's feeling good...
yup, it's

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looking solid and that only took probably

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2 hours and next step, building it up!

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So we are putting up the frame now.

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The frame is about as simple as can be.

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Antoine said this is the simplest

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structure that he has ever built.

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And so the frame is just the 4 beams.

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We have one up and we have one

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sitting here that's going to go up right
now.

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And then in each of them there are about

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16 screws...these heavy duty screws,

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both at the top and at the bottom.

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So total, for the frame, we've got about

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30 of these big screws and then the next

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step will be to put the planks right on to
the frame.

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And we are getting pretty close.

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(Music)

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Alright, so now we are putting up the

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walls which is super simple. We're just

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taking these planks that we cut with the

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machine and then we are just screwing

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them on with a couple of screws.

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And they have an overlap, and the overlap

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keeps the rain running down the sides so

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moisture doesn't stay on there.

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And that's it. About as simple as can be.

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We are going for simple and natural.

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We are putting in the last screws to have

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the sides and the roof done. On the top

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there is just a little overlap to keep the

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rain from coming in and now we just have

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to do the front and the back.

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Alright, once we finished up the sides

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then we went ahead and put on the

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front and the back in pretty much the

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same method. It was just the overlap

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and making sure we had enough overlap

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to make sure that rain couldn't get in

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and it would go down.

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The other thing that I didn't mention was

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the doors. We have the door in the front

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and then door, slash, window in the back.

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And we had to put in framing for that
as well.

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Just some really simple framing

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that Antoine put together in order for

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those to go in. A little spot left up

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there to do, and once we've done that

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we'll have built out the entire house,

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itself, and still a little bit to do on
the inside.

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One thing that I do want to mention is

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that I did lay things out in a specific

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order, but after everything, there was

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a lot of back and forth. We had to go back

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to the saw and cut a few new planks.

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We ended up cutting the sizes of things

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many times throughout these couple of 
days.

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Here is the very basic framing that we did

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in order to be able to put in the doors,

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slash, windows in the front and back.

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And you can see the frame here.

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Just a very simple structure using the

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same wood from the trees, right here,
on site.

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So that is the inside of the house.

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The house is complete.

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It is quite small, as you can see.

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So there you have it.

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From tree to tiny house. That is the

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whole process of building this very
simple tiny house.

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Now, I want to say that this is designed

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just to be used during the spring, summer

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and fall here in southern France and

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it's for woofers or volunteers who are

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learning organic farming here at

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Le Reve de Gaia. So it's not designed as

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a year round structure for one person or

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a few people to be living in.

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And the key is, whatever you are building,

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to design it for the use and the purposes

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that you have.

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I hope that this video has been helpful

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in realizing how simple it can be to build
a tiny house.

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Now, in the next video I am going to walk

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you through the rest of the processes that

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I did with the compost toilet and the

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compost bin and the outdoor shower and the
kitchen.

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I'll walk you through that in

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the next video and give you a tour of

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this place as well.

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If you got a lot out of this video then

00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:34.760
make sure you subscribe for more videos

00:13:34.760 --> 00:13:38.530
to come and like and comment to help this

00:13:38.530 --> 00:13:41.730
video get out there into the YouTube 
world.

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I love you all very much and I'll see you 
again real soon.