Studies have shown too many options tend to have the opposite effect than the intended one, leading to confusion, stress, and generally bad shopping decisions. Since tiny houses are yet to boast supermarket-like variety, this segment of the market still offers plenty of reasons to enjoy the recent boom in options.
Tiny houses have been around for more than two decades but enjoying unprecedented popularity only over the past five years or so, when they truly made the transition from novelty to mainstream. Tiny houses are mobile homes that bring together several benefits, with the most notable being their mobility, comparative affordability, relatively reduced costs of living, and an overall smaller carbon footprint.
In recent years, we've been witnessing a new "craze," where people who downsize from brick-and-mortar homes and city apartments turn their home on wheels into monetized content online. The tiny house trend goes hand in hand with #vanlife, spurring a new generation of nomads, digital or not.
Photo: Elite Tiny Homes
So, where tiny houses started out like some kind of hipster approach to climate change and a sort of against-the-system housing alternative, today, they're the "it" thing to do. This means that tiny house builders are working overtime to bring new models, new designs, new features, and better quality to market.
Elite Tiny Homes is a New Zealand-based family-run business that specializes in compact tinies. The latest addition to an already impressive lineup is called Fantail, which was designed as a custom unit and is being introduced as a series model, now that it's been completed.
Like with all the other models in the range, the Fantail allows for extra customization if the owner wants it – and there is budget for it – to the point where it can be rendered completely self-sufficient or adapted to individual lifestyles.
Photo: Elite Tiny Homes
The Fantail boasts of offering "tiny living [but] big luxury," and it aims to do that by integrating features you don't usually get in a mobile home of its size. These include a soaking tub that gives the bathroom a spa-like feel, a washer-dryer standard and a dishwasher as an option, and a breakfast bar that opens up onto the (optional) deck.
Otherwise, the Fantail presents as a standard dual-loft design, with storage-integrating staircase and a ladder for the second loft, and enough space to allow for year-round comfortable living.
Measuring 8 meters (26.2 feet) in length, 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) in width, and 4.2 meters (13.7 feet) in height, the Fantail sits on a galvanized double-axle trailer and weighs 4.5 tons (9,921 lbs). It offers a living footprint of 29 square meters (312 square feet) including the two lofts and offers sleeping for three people in these lofts.
Photo: Elite Tiny Homes
The layout includes a brightly-lit living room area, a compact but full kitchen, a full bathroom, and plenty of storage space. The unit comes with storage in cubbies and drawers, a pantry, and many storage options in the bathroom. To all these, you can add even more storage in-built in furniture.
The styling is modern with certain rustic accents but also inviting and sleek. It's clad in twice-oiled shiplap Fijian mahogany with black steel for a contrasting note and has white shiplap walls with waterproof flooring and "luxurious" carpeting in the lofts.
The entire home is fully insulated in the walls, roof, and under the floor, and has double-glazed windows and doors. There's no mention of heating and AC, probably because the unit is made for New Zealand, but the standard in tinies is a mini-split unit that pulls double duty – with a wood-burning stove for extra heat in colder regions. Elite Tiny Homes offers the latter as an option.
Photo: Elite Tiny Homes
Highlights include the soaking tub with a 5-jet handheld shower and breakfast bar with a passthrough window, allowing you to create a dining space on the deck. The deck would come extra, of course.
Options range from the toilet system (the one shown in the video tour below is an incinerating toilet) to a solar package, rain catchment system, appliances (the washer/dryer can be replaced by separate units, and a dishwasher could be added), an outdoor shower, and extra windows and extra storage.
Elite Tiny Homes says that they plan to diversify their range even more, both with new models and through the integration of more recycled and upcycled materials, and natural and chemical-free products. That is to say, if you're looking to hop on the bread-winning bandwagon of tiny living, a home like this one would kill more birds with one stone. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
The Fantail tiny starts at NZD135,00 before taxes, which is approximately US$82,000 at the current exchange rate. Presented as a mobile home to "escape the ordinary and embrace a life of unparalleled comfort and style," it's definitely a compact and quite elegant take on tiny living. Whether it's worth the kind of cash it's asking is entirely up to whoever is looking at it, though.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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