Woman Builds Her Dream Tiny House With Recycled Materials for Just $5,500! She Now Lives in a Spanish Orchard Among Almond and Peach Trees

Elizabeth Wynn, a native of England, never truly felt at home in her birth country. Captivated by the Spanish culture, she relocated to Southern Spain around 2011, drawn to its milder climate, leisurely pace of life, and the warmth of its people.

The young Brit lived in various apartments during her early years in Spain, but it took a particularly tumultuous period for her to take the leap and start building a tiny house.

“Before building the tiny house, I had been through a period in my life where I had lost almost everything in the space of a few weeks. There really was nothing much left to lose, so I went for it,” Elizabeth said.

When she was a child, she had always dreamed about building a small wooden house, almost like a den, to hide in and escape the world, so that’s what she did.

“I built myself and my life back again from nothing to a little shelter from life’s storms that I could call home.”

Elizabeth decided to quit apartment life and moved to a friend’s land, where she would spend the next year creating her tiny home named The Little Wooden House herself from the ground up.

After purchasing an old Mercedes van base with a flat metal base and wheels, she had a foundation to work from, and her adventure began.

Building Elizabeth’s Tiny Home

When Elizabeth first started building her tiny home, her part-time job took up four days each week. As a result, she only had three days and nights to dedicate to her new project. This meant there were nights when she’d be working long after dark, cutting wood with a head torch.

“Some call it madness, though the line between madness and genius is a close one,” Elizabeth said.

She said it was the hardest thing she had ever done, and in the final three months of the build, she quit her job and spent 16 hours every day finishing it. Aside from help from a welder at the beginning and a friend helping with the roof, Elizabeth did everything else herself.

While challenging, Elizabeth learned about the ‘dead man’ to ensure she didn’t need to rely on outside help too often. Dead man is a long piece of wood you wedge between the ground and what you’re working on. “It holds things up for you like an extra pair of hands if you don’t have an extra pair of hands available.”

Not relying on tradespeople undoubtedly saved Elizabeth a considerable sum of money, and she was able to build her tiny home for €5,000.

“I had a budget of €5,000 (about $5,500) for absolutely everything, and I didn’t have €5,000 sitting in the bank waiting for me. The day I started, I had €40 ($44) in my bank account and some things I had been gathering on the side of the road.”

Elizabeth only estimated that €5,000 would be all she needed to build her house from the ground up, and she managed to stay on budget by re-using and recycling things she had bought in secondhand markets or found in bins. Surprisingly, the screws, pins, and fixings cost her the most – making up more than €1,500 ($1,600) of the tiny house costs.

The Tiny Home’s Completion

After an entire year of blood, sweat, and tears, Elizabeth could finally move into her tiny home on her friend’s land and say goodbye to apartment life for good. However, that wasn’t the end of her journey.

After spending around three years in her tiny home, Elizabeth decided it was time to purchase her own piece of land. She wanted something that wasn’t so barren and isolated and had trees and fertile ground for her to grow her own food.

“I didn’t find anything suitable for ages, and then one day, I stumbled across this wild land, full of trees, that had a small old animal outbuilding on it. I just knew it was the right place for me.”

The previous owners had already started turning the outbuilding into a tiny farmhouse, so she picked up where they left off, moved into it, transported her tiny home to the land, and started renting it out for holidays, retreats, and creative breaks.

“I realized I could give to other people what it had given me: shelter from life’s storms, a break, a place to reconnect with self, with nature, and in this chaotic world, a way of living that is more simple and peaceful.”

Elizabeth’s farmland is now a refuge and a place of peace, dappled shade, and art. From her land, she runs a myriad of classes in painting, creative crafting, music, meditation, and more.

Elizabeth Wynn, originally from England, spent a year building a tiny house by herself in Southern Spain. Now known as The Little Wooden House, it’s a 5m x 2.2m x 3.6m tiny home on an organic orchard west of Malaga, encompassed by avocado, apricot, almond, orange, apple, and peach trees.

A warm and welcoming entrance leads you into The Little Wooden House. There are steps leading to the elevated front door and a porch post made out of a dead tree lying on the ground near where Elizabeth built the tiny house.

She also made the front door from scratch since she had her heart set on a stable-style door. Guests can open the top part and keep the bottom closed or open the entire door. It also features a beautiful stained glass window she was gifted by the man who gave her the old Mercedes van base on which her tiny home is built.

The bathroom in The Little Wooden House is basic but functional. Elizabeth purchased the door for €10 from a salvage junkyard. She sanded it down and put a mirror behind the iron.

The Mollycroft Roof Was Inspired by Railway Carriages

Elizabeth said the roof is probably her favorite part of all parts of the tiny home build. She wanted it to feel light and airy rather than boxy. She made the entire roof section on the ground and hired a crane to place it on the top of the house.

The curved pieces and joints are metal, and she used twisted shelf brackets to attach the roof to the house. She also made the wooden window frames herself and purchased glass to fit the custom shape. In total, there are four opening windows, with each being fitted with a mosquito net.

The roof is known as a Mollycroft roof, with inspiration drawn from old railway carriages. Elizabeth said the idea is to ensure heat rises from the ground and out the top. When you open the windows in summer, you can feel the air going past you as it leaves the house.

You don’t always know what you will and won’t need until you move in, and Elizabeth discovered that with her heating source. She used to have a gas heater, but it took up too much space. She has since replaced it with a wall-mounted, flat heater.

It’s rarely needed in summer due to the amount of sunshine hours, the wood materials, and the insulation. However, it heats the tiny home satisfactorily in winter.

The Little Wooden House’s dining room is proof of what you can achieve without spending a significant sum of money. The quaint, cozy space features a table, seating, and an abundance of storage space.

Elizabeth found the tabletop next to a skip and used the pieces she didn’t need for the table for a small shelf above it. The table leg is made from an old fallen tree branch, and she made the cabinet herself. Elizabeth also found the cabinet doors in a market.

The tiny home’s living area is positioned directly under the bedroom and has a deceiving amount of space. The area is ambiently lit with secondhand lanterns and a bubble light she picked up from a market. Elizabeth intentionally made the stairs narrow to maximize the living space as much as possible. She also purchased wardrobe doors for €10 and repurposed them for storage behind the stairs.

Storage Loft Above Bathroom

Storage is essential in any tiny home, and Elizabeth was able to incorporate as much as possible. She built a loft over the bathroom for storage with a wrought iron grid that folds down.

The kitchen is in the heart of the tiny home with a window and a door to let in natural light. It features plenty of space for meal preparation and cooking and a generous sink for washing up.

Kitchens are traditionally the most expensive part of any build, but Elizabeth had no trouble creating a functional and beautiful kitchen without spending a fortune. She found the kitchen window near a rubbish bin and purchased the window arms in England since they aren’t available in Spain.

The two-drawer unit was originally an old desk that Elizabeth built around, and she received the sink from a lady who was updating her own. Elizabeth also cleverly set the tiles into the wood so that she could have a chopping board within the countertop.

She even managed to create storage solutions on a budget. Elizabeth found a cupboard at a flea market for food storage, a gas cooker for €20 from another flea market, and repurposed a bedside cabinet to fit under the cooker. The most modern item in her kitchen is the mini-fridge.

The loft bedroom, spanning between 2.25m to 2.3m, provides ample space for a queen-size bed and comfortably accommodates 1-2 people.

Elizabeth transformed the mezzanine bedroom into a peaceful paradise. It has a small shelving unit, a double bed, a lamp from a market, and a €1 scarf to create the illusion of a headboard for the bed.

The bedroom also has a switch to turn on all the lights in the tiny home, including the outside light, and windows on both sides for a cross-breeze during hot Andalusian summers. Completing the look are the gorgeous curtains made from an old Indian sari.

The bathroom just inside the entrance to The Little Wooden House is the only room with a separate door. It also has a dedicated area behind the door for bathroom essentials like toilet paper.

When Elizabeth first built the bathroom, she had a composting toilet that suited her needs perfectly. However, she realized it wasn’t easy for everyone to use when she started renting out the house as a retreat.

She swapped it out for an eco toilet that uses less water than a standard toilet and functions like a normal toilet. However, it operates with a natural soak instead of being a flush toilet. People can use the hose from the shower to flush.

Alongside the toilet, the bathroom also consists of a full-size shower with a large showerhead. Elizabeth used a piece of a tree to make the shower rail, and the shower walls were made from leftover aluminum roofing materials. As a result, it’s lightweight and waterproof.

If you’re interested in booking a stay in The Little Wooden House, you can do so here. You can also follow Elizabeth Wynn on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube!