HOUSE THAT
I was sick of paying rent so bought an old ambulance on eBay for £9.6k & taught myself DIY on YouTube – now it’s my home
Scroll down to find out whether tiny homes are legal in the UK
A WOMAN has revealed that she bought an old ambulance for £9600 and transformed it into her dream home.
Jana transformed the old ambulance in just two months, and used lots of reclaimed materials to save cash.
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Before moving in to the van, Jana had been a teacher in the Virgin Islands.
After deciding she needed a bit of a change, she looked into van life and a friend suggested she look into buying an ambulance, as they are really quick to convert.
She purchased an ambulance off eBay, without first seeing it, and then flew to her parents house in Iowa to do the conversion.
DIY was fairly new to Jana, so she watched YouTube videos for inspiration and had some help from her dad too.
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"I definitely did it on a budget, and used a lot of refurbished materials", she told .
Jana said that her family think she's nuts for living in an ambulance and are constantly asking her when she's going to settle down.
"I am settling down, this is my house!" she said.
Jana's ambulance is eight feet wide and 14 feet long but she said that it has lots of storage space, so is big enough for her needs.
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It still has some of the original cabinets in it from when it was used as an ambulance and is powered by solar, which Jana installed herself.
Jana has no plans to move out of her van any time soon, and would love to do some international travelling in it.
We spent $68k converting our garage into a luxury apartment for our son and he's independent but now saves $1,500 a month
"The biggest lesson I've learned from living in a moving home is surrender and go with the flow," she said.
Living in a tiny home is a great way to save cash for a house, whilst still having your independence.
As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, more and more adults are struggling to get on the property ladder and are choosing to live in their family home for longer.
The 2021 census revealed that over half of people aged 23 and under still live with their parents.
Tiny Homes FAQs
The tiny house movement began in the USA before gaining popularity in the UK.
What is a tiny home?
Tiny houses are small, fully-equipped living spaces designed to lead a more sustainable, off-grid lifestyle. Although they vary in size and shape, tiny homes tend to be between 15 and 50 square metres in capacity, made of sustainable materials and are easier — and cheaper — to maintain than traditional brick homes.
Are tiny homes legal in the UK?
As long as the tiny house doesn't exceed 19.8m x 6.7m in size, it is defined as a caravan in UK law. Therefore, tiny houses are classed as legal additional living space.
Can you get a mortgage for a tiny home?
The small size and relatively low cost of tiny houses means they’re not generally considered eligible for a mortgage. However, there are plenty of options to take out a loan to fund your dreams of the perfect, moveable home.
The average price of a house in the UK was £285,000 as of March 2023, and this rises to a whopping £735,254, which is completely unaffordable for many.
Moreover, research from the Resolution Foundation found that the average first time buyer deposit tripled from 5 per cent of the property price in 1989 to 15 per cent in 2019.
This means that buyers have to save for far longer and use up a larger percentage of their earnings to get on the property ladder.
Read More on The Sun
Recent research by property site Zoopla found that 42 per cent of adults under 40 who do not already own homes have given up, due to the astronomical cost of buying a property.
This included 38 per cent of people earning over £60,000 (almost double the average salary for the UK).
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