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Just because it's a tiny home that doesn't mean there's no space for luxuries.
Ashley Menegon has installed a Japanese-style bath in his miniature residence, although he's yet to try it.
Mr Menegon, an architect who works at the Bower Reuse and Repair Centres in Sydney's Inner West, bought the shell of the home on a whim.
"I made my mind up maybe two hours before the auction and I was the only one to bid on it, so I got it," he says.
The auction was the culmination of a week-long course on building a tiny home out of reclaimed materials that was run by his company.
Fifteen students and three instructors build a shell on wheels in six days.
Course designer James Galletly says most of the students are beginners.
"We go through basic carpentry, so we teach them how to lay a floor, how to do timber wall framing, how to put the cladding on, how to put a window in your house, how to hang a door," Mr Galletly told ABC Radio Sydney.
Mr Menegon paid $22,000 for the lock-up shell and has spent the last six months fitting it out.
His advice to people thinking about building a tiny home is simple.
"Just start," he says.
"It's clouded in this mystery about how you do things and so people go, 'Oh, you're so clever at doing this stuff.'
"But you could do it — anyone could do it.
"All it is is just sort of putting bits together."
He now plans to sell this one and has ideas for an even smaller, cheaper modular-style structure.
"It kind of folds out and encourages people to be a bit more involved," he says.
Never enough time spent on toilets
Tiny homes have become increasingly popular as a cheaper or more sustainable alternative to conventional houses, as well as for use in disaster relief.
Up until a few years ago there were few resources tailored to building tiny homes in Australian conditions.
"It was all repurposed content from the United States," says Fred Schultz, who founded the Tiny House University eight years ago.
"There was nothing — there was no Australian content whatsoever."
Both the Bower and Mr Schultz focus on tiny homes on wheels or tiny home vehicles which are treated like a caravan under the law.
They must be roadworthy and registered as a vehicle, but avoid interacting with local planning regulations.
Mr Schultz runs face-to-face workshops as well as an online course covering understanding trailers, choosing a location and making it possible to go off the grid.
He says there's one crucial component that always generates a lot of discussion.
"You know, we never spend enough time on toilets," Mr Schultz says.
"People can talk about toilets for a long, long time.
"It's something that is so very personal and that interface between a mobile dwelling and a sewer system or grey water, there's so many different ways to accomplish that."
More women and builders
To begin with it was mostly couples in their 20s or 30s taking the course, or older men looking for a DIY project in retirement.
But in the last 18 months, Mr Schultz has noticed more women seeking housing security in later life are enrolling.
"They have a certain amount of money stashed away and they want to try and get themselves into a long-term position where they can age in place amongst people who love them," he says.
Professional builders are also taking the course to adapt their skills.
"They want to get up to speed on what the differences are and how to build well and light weight on a caravan chassis … a foundation that's moving and vibrating and under very different forces than what they're used to building to where gravity is always in the same place," Mr Schultz says.
Mr Galletly acknowledges that Bower's courses are largely about giving people a start.
"A lot of people take the course just to get a foot in the door and learn some sort of hands-on building skills," he says.
Fed up with spending his days in front of a computer, former finance worker Nick McCouat took the course in 2018.
It inspired him to make a career switch and become a carpenter.
"You sort of come out of it thinking, well, maybe I can do more than I'm doing now," Mr McCouat said.
He has started converting a box truck into a tiny house in his North Sydney backyard.
"It looks like a little box but then you press a button and the roof goes up and it turns into a little house, which is cool."
When it's finished, he and his girlfriend plan to go on a road trip and test it out.
In the longer term, he has dreams of building and selling more low-cost housing trucks.
"I just started wondering if there was a way of producing a more affordable housing model that's a bit more resistant to climate change, a bit more adaptable," he said.
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