Inside ‘Tiny House on Wheels’ Travel the World

Do you want to reduce the size of your living room without compromising on outdoor space? A millennial couple can achieve this dream in a mobile “tiny house” with a “huge and infinite” garden space for about $72,000.

Nicolas Chazée, a 30-year-old French/Italian citizen, and his French partner Mathilde Vougny, 31, have traveled the world in their Land Rover Defender 4×4 vehicle, which they converted into a “tiny house on wheels”.

Chazée shared a tour of the tiny house running around the world in a video posted on August 4 from the couple’s joint TikTok account @nextmeridian.expedition. “This is a Land Rover Defender and we’re traveling the world. Let’s check out the ins and outs.”

The clip takes viewers through different “rooms” in the couple’s converted Land Rover home, which is about five meters (about 16.4 feet) long, 1.9 meters (about 6.2 feet) wide and 2, 2 meters (7.2 feet), Chazée said. Newsweek.

He said that a small motor home, which costs €40,000 (about $44,300) to buy and an additional €25,000 to furnish, may be about 3 square meters (32.2 square feet), “but our garden is big and unlimited and changing every day as we move around the world.”

Custom-built tiny homes, which are typically around 100 to 400 square feet, have become a popular solution for people looking for a simpler lifestyle with lower costs and a reduced environmental impact.

More than half of Americans (53 percent) would consider living in a home that is 600 square feet or smaller, according to a 2018 survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). More than one in 10 (12 percent) said they would prefer a smaller home after the COVID-19 pandemic in a March 2021 report by NAHB.

‘It must have been a dream’

Chazée previously worked as international general manager for a connected parking service startup called Yespark in Paris for four years, while Vougny worked at the UN as a program specialist on electoral assistance while based in Brussels, Belgium, for five years.

The couple came up with the idea of ​​living on the road during a two-week vacation in Europe when they were doing a camping trip by car and they thought “how much it would cost to keep walking and not go back to work in Paris,” Chazée said. Newsweek.

He explained: “It was always our dream and, at the age of 26, we both decided to make it. We started saving, cut expenses, changed to a smaller apartment and saved. And from that day, it became a dream to travel around the world .”

The original goal was to travel to all seven continents and through 88 countries in three years, but “now it’s going to be five (years) and maybe more,” he said.

The couple of millennia wanted to transform the Land Rover Defender into a small front on wheels in a bid to go off-road and find the wildest camp site off the beaten track.

“That’s why we want a 4×4. We also want a pop-top (roof) to be able to stand inside for comfort and rainy days, and make sure everything is at hand to make it comfortable and livable for five years,” Chazée noted.

The best option for them is the Defender, because it allows the pop-top feature and is a “car that is easy to repair,” with some electric sensors “so, the vehicle will not lock up abroad in the bush.”

Noting that Defenders have “tons of aftermarket options to choose from” when it comes to converting them into tiny homes, Chazée said “before building a car we spend a year knowing all the aftermarket furniture options that can be installed to make sure it’s exactly how we want to spend five years on the car, it’s just the perfect choice.

The house has a diesel heater for the cold nights. So, for example, in Alaska, when it was minus 15 degrees C outside, the couple wore t-shirts and shorts inside the vehicle.

The modified car also has an external hot shower with a shower curtain and hose, while “the bathroom is more manual, because we have a shovel in the bonnet of the car or use a public bathroom.” It is also equipped with a refrigerator, wardrobe, electrical plugs, spare parts for maintenance and a bed “above” as a roof up, he said.

“We work with many brands that help with accessories, insurance, parts and other things with financial help to stay on the road,” says Chazée.

Challenges and ‘Sense of Freedom’

Some of the challenges of life on the road include having to secure a wild camping spot every night, making sure water cans, fuel tanks and fridges are full and the car is in good working order, and having to do laundry every two weeks when passing through. through a city.

“The easy option is to go to the campsite but it’s a bit boring, so we rarely find an amazing wild bivouac (temporary shelter or camp). We move every day because the planet is big and if we want to finish in five years, we have to keep moving,” he said, adding that he does half a day of driving and half a day of some activity.

The pair have been on the road for two and a half years and have completed trips to Europe, North and South America, as well as Antarctica (without a vehicle) and are currently in Australia.

In December, they will send the Land Rover to Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, a country in Southeast Asia, where it will be sent to Central Asia for about one and a half years. He plans to send the vehicle from Dubai to Kenya and travel all over Africa for a year until he reaches Cape Town.

“It will take another two and a half years from today. We have traveled to 28 countries and are now on the fifth continent,” Chazée said.

The couple noticed a cut in the cost of living on the road, and “also a sense of freedom and joy,” he said.

“We don’t want to do this forever, the dream is a world tour. The vehicle is a tool and not a means of life, at least not now. But we will never be able to go back to the normal nine to five. work,” added Chazée.

Have you built or bought a tiny house? We would love to hear from you? Email s.kim@newsweek.com and your story may be featured on Newsweek.