A mini mobile home built by a stay-at-home mom
Two scammers, one scoundrel and plenty of naysayers could not stand in the way of Janene Ehlers’ dream of building a mini mobile home.
AAnnoying enthusiasm. That’s how Janene describes her passion for the ‘Tiny House Movement’. And it’s thanks to sheer determination that she was able to build her own tiny house on wheels and enter it in last year’s Fix it with Flair competition. And then she won!
But beware. If you really want to increase her blood pressure, ask her why she didn’t just buy a ready-to-go caravan...
“Surely you can see it’s not the same thing at all,” she says, pointing to Waentoe, the fully-equipped mobile home she singlehandedly built. It’s only 3.2m high, 2.1m wide and 3m long but Janene has managed to accommodate a double bed, a single bed, a full kitchen and a bathroom with a flush toilet in a compact space of just over 6m2. The cheerful décor and many ingenious storage nooks in the form of drawers and shelves are also the handiwork of this stay-at-home mom from Bellville.
Janene’s tiny house on wheels is the result of close on a three-year obsession that began with a simple Google search in 2015: “How to decorate small spaces”. That’s when she chanced upon the Tiny House Movement that’s growing in the USA and encourages people to live in homes smaller than 37m2.
Although these small abodes are often compared to caravans, they’re built (with or without wheels) to resemble a traditional house and to last just as long.
The more research she did, the more Janene’s resolve was strengthened – she was determined to build her own Tiny House! However, she lacked the funds and expertise, and also needed a safe area in which to undertake the project. On top of that, her husband Pierre, an orthopaedic surgeon and the family breadwinner, wasn’t sold on the idea at first. >>
The preparation
The closest Janene had ever come to building anything was a chicken coop that she made years ago, but there was no stopping her.
She recalls: “In early 2016, I started drawing up plans using the Home Design 3D app and later created at least 30 layouts of an imaginary home 2.4 x 5m in size. Nina (then 11) helped me with the designs.”
Armed with a handsaw and mitre box, a jigsaw and a drill, Janene started building furniture using pallets – all to scale so the pieces would one day fit in her Tiny House.
“I soon realised that in order to build a house like this you have to think logically and have the skills to work with basic tools. Start with the floor and work from the bottom up. And finish one thing before you start with the next,” she explains.
Once the design was complete, Janene faced her next challenge: acquiring a trailer that would serve as the ‘foundation’. She simply didn’t have the funds with quotes ranging from R18 750 to R58 000. The trailer had to have a double axel, a flat surface area and a brake system, as well as capacity to carry a 1.5-ton load.
Con artists
By February 2016, Janene had scraped together enough money for a trailer by redeeming a policy from her dad. But that’s when her troubles began.
“Two advertisers on Gumtree scammed me by asking for deposits of R15 000 and R3 400 respectively – and then making off with my money. My dreams were in tatters but I kept my eye on the prize. I’m the eternal optimist!”
In September 2016, Janene got a quote from a third trailer builder but later discovered an advertisement for ‘her’ Tiny House on the internet – made by the very same supplier with whom she’d shared her plans!
“It almost broke me. I was inconsolable,” she says. “I don’t know what was worse, that betrayal or the scam artists who disappeared with my money. After that, Pierre agreed to pay for a trailer and on my fourth attempt I found Supreme Trailers, who built what I needed for R38 000.”