Over the years, 36 Anders Boysen Stay in apartments throughout Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city.
Boysen told CNBC Make It that despite having a comfortable living situation (a two-bedroom apartment he shared with his girlfriend at the time) and working in urban development at the local municipality, he still felt limited by his lifestyle and social pressures of his life.
“Living in an apartment, I had a claustrophobic feeling, not because of the size of the apartment, but because the lifestyle seemed predetermined,” he said.
It took Boysen about eight months to complete the construction of his tiny house in the woods.
Anders Boysen
During that time, Boysen stumbled upon a YouTube channel that featured people living in tiny houses that were completely off the grid.
“I think it’s very inspiring and it opens my eyes to a new possibility where I can actually live more freely financially and I can also live relatively sustainably,” he said. “If I could build a house that was off the grid and in sync with nature, then maybe I could learn how to have a better sense of life on a philosophical level.”
Boysen left his apartment and moved into a garden house, where he got the idea to build his own tiny house. In 2018, Boisen started building a mobile device, but it was stolen a few months later.
“It was all over the news in Denmark, but we couldn’t find it,” Boysen said.
Boysen’s bedroom is located in the loft area above the kitchen.
Anders Boysen
But Boysen didn’t give up and began building another the following year. In the spring of 2020, Boysen completed the tiny house after working on and off for eight months.
He did most of the work on the building himself, costing an estimated 80,000 to 90,000 Danish kroner, or $11,366 to $12,787.
The little house is six and a half meters long, two and a half meters wide, 21.3 feet long and 6.6 feet wide.
At the time, Boysen was living on a piece of land he had been renting for more than a year.
In order to complete the construction of the tiny house, Boysen quit his job and focused on the project full-time. He also created a Facebook group to share his journey, and some of the people he met there helped throughout the construction process.
“I realized how personal this home already is because I built so much of it myself, so it’s filled with my own memories and personal decisions,” he said. “But it also has the memory of all the people who came to help. It’s qualitatively different than what I imagined, having a contractor build a house for you.”
After resigning, Boysen began creating content for YouTube and traveling the country speaking on tiny living and living off the grid.
Boysen’s kitchen features a mini-stove and lots of storage shelves.
Anders Boysen
While Boysen has fond memories of building his tiny house, he admits there were many technical issues along the way, including having to move the house itself and a hole in the roof.
“I didn’t secure the frame securely enough, so it was unstable. When I moved the house, it ended up leaning to one side, which was difficult to correct later,” Boysen said.
“It was a setback and I was a little depressed. In the dream, I dreamed of burning down the house because then I would solve the problem. But, of course, I didn’t do it, but it was very stressful,” he added with a smile.
Despite these challenges, Boysen said there is no greater feeling than seeing the completion of the tiny home he built.
“There were some bad things, but it was a good feeling to know that I was creating something that was going to be my home. You have this giddy feeling because you’re so excited about what you’re doing. It’s like living a dream,” Boysen said. “I’m not just building a roof over my head or something like that; I’m actually building a dream. It’s like stepping into a new chapter in my life and all the things that can hopefully happen in this life.”
Across from the kitchen is the living area and mud room.
Anders Boysen
In September 2021, Boysen purchased a roughly 17,800-square-foot piece of land outside Aarhus for 160,000 Danish kroner (approximately $22,791), according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
“It’s at the end of a dirt road and has no direct neighbors. It also has a meadow and a large forest next to it, so it feels much larger than it is,” Boysen said.
A month later, Boysen moved the tiny house from the property he rented to land he now owns.
The bedroom has a small window and a skylight.
Anders Boysen
Living off the grid in the forest
Boysen ensured that his tiny house was equipped for off-grid living, which he defines as “self-sufficiency in water, electricity and heat.”
The house has a rainwater filtration system, solar panels and batteries to store energy.
Boysen, who has lived in the tiny house for more than four years, said he has lost power several times and water only once.
Now, he keeps a close eye on his water tank, taking short baths if it starts to run low and working on conserving water in other ways.
“I tend to think I need power, but then I think about it because of the lack of it or because of how much power I’m actually consuming and that’s part of my journey,” he said.
Boysen built an outhouse to give guests some privacy.
Anders Boysen
During the winter, Boysen uses less electricity and lives more sustainably by storing certain items, such as milk and condiments, outdoors in the cold instead of using electricity from the refrigerator.
“The purpose of this house was to teach me how to consume fewer resources, and that was part of the idea from the beginning,” Boysen said. “I wanted to see to what extent you could still live comfortably in a tiny house. My journey was not only to make this tiny house livable, but also to adjust my needs for resources and behavior. This house It drives my behavior in a way.
The tiny house has solar panels and batteries to store energy.
Anders Boysen
Boysen also has a permaculture garden – better homes and gardens defined as “Helping build the soil and not relying on synthetic inputs” – there he grows potatoes, several berries, apples, leeks, cabbage and different types of herbs.
“I try to grow permanent plants so I can get yield for the longest time,” he said. “I will expand my entire food production as it is still experimental at the moment, but from next season I will significantly expand the size of the garden.”
Boysen said growing his own food was an extension of his initial journey into trying to be self-sufficient.
“Personally, it taught me how to be more in sync with the seasons and nature. I needed to learn a lot about gardening in order to grow food. Each season has a different harvest, which gives me joy. It has its own The type of food, so you always have something to look forward to and you always eat local, seasonal food.
Boysen feeds his food scraps to the chickens and composts them for garden soil.
Boysen purchased the land where his small home sits in 2021.
Anders Boysen
Since completing initial work on the tiny home, Boysen has added a mudroom and upgraded the water filtration system. He is preparing to build a new house and sell this one.
The plan, Boysen says, is to build a smaller house more suitable for starting a family and continuing a self-sufficient lifestyle: “In a way, I’m preparing for the future.”
He plans to finish the new home next spring.
USD conversions will be made on November 15, 2024 using OANDA exchange rates. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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