Tour of the Off-Grid Tiny House Built from the Land

Welcome to the off the grid tiny house

built from the land and from

second-hand materials here at

Le Rêve de Gaïa in southern France.

This tiny house serves as a

demonstration site for

sustainable and simple living to

help you be able to live more

sustainably and simply, wherever

you are in the world.

Today, I'm going to give you a tour

of the house and the set-up, and

show you how you can adapt these things

at home, wherever you are, to live a

more simple and sustainable life.

In my last video, I already showed the

whole building process, from tree to tiny

house, so you can watch that video.

Just to recap on that a little bit, all of

the wood for this tiny house was actually

from trees that were harvested

sustainably right here on-site and then

milled right here on-site as well.

The other aspects are all second-hand.

The doors and the windows were leftover.

Companies that install new doors and

windows throw out the old ones when

they replace them. Everything else pretty

much is second-hand material, stuff that

was laying around at the farm, stuff

salvaged from the landfill, and this

entire thing cost under $100, including

the little bit of materials that we did

need to buy, the gasoline and the screws,

just some very basic stuff.

I want to take you inside and show you

everything else.

Here I am, on the bed inside the tiny

house and the lesson here is that we

don't need a lot to live sustainably.

In fact, the less we need, the more we can

simplify, the easier it actually is to

live sustainably. So, this place is about

really stripping back to the basics,

showing a way of simplifying and being

happy with what we have, rather than

always wanting more. There's a simple,

comfortable bed here. Then, on the other

side, here, there's going to be a second

bed as well. The shelves are all made

from wood here on-site, really simple,

just screws and wood and some small

shelves here as well for some basic items.

Just next to the bed here, we have a

little seating area. Then, you can see how

the storage works, just comes right out

from underneath the bed, and it's the

perfect size for some simple crates to

go under. Here, you can see the

shelves that were built on both sides,

very simple to be able to store basic

items. Then, above me, here we have

spots for hanging clothes, some clothes

hangers here. If it's raining outside and

you can't hang dry your clothes outside,

this is a good place to be able to dry

some clothes as well.

It's a comfortable place. It's designed to

have great lighting because this is off

the grid. There's actually not electricity

here, so for light, there is a headlamp,

which this one light lights up the place

quite a bit, then that can be charged back

at the community, and then there are

candles as well. So, that's the inside of

the tiny house. As you can see, very

simple, but very comfortable and a

wonderful place to just work on living

simply and connecting to the basics and

just being happy, being outside, being in

nature, loving the world that we live in.

Continuing on with loving the world, it's

about the way that we interact with

the world, so next I'm going to take you

outside to show you what we do there.

Most of the food here is grown on

the farm, in the big fields, where a lot

of food is grown. But here, next to the

tiny house, we have a simple raised bed

garden and I wanted to put this here to

show how simple it is to grow some of

your own food. A raised bed is as simple

as a couple of posts in each corner and

then some planks, some basic wood.

All you have to do is be able to hold the

soil in, have soil, have water, have

sunlight and some plants. We can all

grow a little bit of our own food, whether

it's herbs on a balcony or a windowsill,

or turning our whole front yard into a

garden. Or, if we really don't have any

space, joining a community garden. If not

any of that, then seeking out local food

and supporting the people that are

growing food locally.

Here we are in the outdoor kitchen, and

this is constructed from wood harvested

here, on site, as well as scrap

materials, things that were salvaged that

would have gone to waste, which is one of

the great lessons here, utilizing wasted

resources as well as sustainably

harvesting from earth that we live on.

I use a plant-based biodegradable soap, so

this goes into what's called gray water.

Here, we just fill up the water from the

spring or from harvesting rainwater. Then,

the water that goes into the sink doesn't

go to a wastewater treatment plant. It

goes down, it's collected in a bucket, and

then that water can be used for watering

plants and growing food. If you're at

home, you can actually unscrew the P-trap

under your sink and put a bucket there.

Also, when you shower, when the water is

heating up, you can fill a bucket and use

that for watering. You can set up your

laundry to go directly to your landscape.

That's called laundry to landscape.

So, at home, whether you're on the grid or

off the grid, there's a lot of ways to use

your gray water. We also harvest rainwater

so I want to show you that.

Here is the rainwater harvesting system.

It's extremely simple. Rainwater

harvesting is not complex. It's not

difficult. We have a gutter collecting

the water that falls onto the house and

then it goes into a bucket. Rainwater

harvesting is as simple as that. You can

use small buckets. You can get large,

55-gallon drums or you can have giant

cisterns. Of course, the kitchen would

not be complete without a place to cook.

In communities, one of the keys is

actually cooking together, in a central

location. That drastically reduces

workload. Here, we just have a simple

stove using rocks here from on-site,

then also wood from here on-site. We have

wood that comes from the spruce trees and

then the leftover wood from building the

house. This is a very simple stove that's

designed to be pretty efficient, with just

using a little bit of wood for basic

cooking. That's the stove.

Here I am at the outdoor shower. This

incorporates multiple things. First of

all, it incorporates solar heating, so

these black buckets can be put out into

the sun and then the black absorbs the

heat. If you put out the water from the

spring in the morning, by the afternoon or

evening, you have yourself a nice, warm

shower or even hot shower, depending

on the weather.

This works really simply. There are holes

screwed into the bottom of the bucket.

This bucket comes off the bottom and then

it's able to come out. Something that you

can do at home is build an outdoor shower

for the summer months. You can save

water from your shower to water your

garden or even redirect your shower

to your landscape.

Here, I am at the compost bin. Composting

is very simple, not complicated. The Earth

has been doing it for millions and

millions of years. This compost bin is

just built from wood and screws. In

cities, you can collect pallets, put

three pallets together and then make

a front and you've got yourself a compost

bin. Chicken wire in a circle is another

really easy compost bin. You can also

buy closed rotating containers as well,

if you want to spend some money, or

find them used. One key to composting

well is to make sure you have plenty of

carbon. For beginner composters,

if you have any smells, if you have a lot

of insects, just make sure you have 2-3

times more dry carbon matter than your

wet matter, like food waste and things

like that, that create smells. Composting

is something we can all do to reduce waste

to the landfill. If we don't have a space

to compost ourselves, in cities, a lot of

times you can bring it to a central

location, like a community garden or

some farmers' markets collect it, so

this is a great way to keep stuff out

of the landfill and not turn our waste

into someone else's problem, but instead

make fertile soil for growing our own food

right here on-site.

This is the compost toilet and this is

definitely more advanced sustainability

for the average person, but I want to show

it to you. As far as building the compost

toilet, it's so simple. Just some wood to

make a box and then have a lid.

For me, the key is a raised stool, also

called a squatty potty, to actually

raise up your legs when you're

pooping in order to have a more natural

way of sitting and flowing. Underneath

this, there are two buckets. This one,

which I just emptied, collects the poop.

You put a couple of scoops of sawdust

onto that poop. Amazing how well

a compost toilet works. You would be

amazed the first time that you use one.

Here, the toilet paper that we use is

called mullein. It's super-soft and it's a

perennial plant that grows in abundance

here. If you want to learn about

composting human poop, you can check out

The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph Jenkins.

Humanure stands for human and manure.

You can get all the information that you

need there.

I hope that you learned a lot from this

video, things that you can do to live more

sustainably and simply. Keep in mind,

you don't have to live in a tiny house,

you don't have to live on a farm in order

to be able to do a lot to live in a more

connected way with the Earth that gives

us life. In the description, I have

links to many useful guides to help you

live more sustainably and simply. Check

out Le Rêve de Gaïa. Their website and

their social media is there so you can

actually visit this place if you want to.

I spent about five weeks here, five lovely

weeks, and it's an incredible place to

be able to visit.

I really enjoyed giving this tour to

you. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

If you did, make sure that you subscribe

to this channel. Help this video get out

there by liking it and commenting and

sharing it with friends. On that note,

I'll see you again real soon for another

video. I love you all very much.