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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
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make sure you subscribe for more videos
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to come and like and comment to help this
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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.