While there is a lot of debate over whether a tiny house is considered a temporary structure or a permanent one, cabins are a bit more clear-cut. The primary difference between a tiny house and a cabin is the foundation. Tiny houses are typically built with wheels so that they can be moved from place to place. Because tiny homes are built on wheels, they are viewed as RVs. A cabin is built on a permanent foundation.
This single change makes a huge difference in how the house is viewed legally. Instead of being held to the standards of an RV, building a cabin goes through your local building department.
You will be required to have plans for your essentials including electricity, water, and sewer.
Living off-grid is acceptable, but you must have a plan for these hook-ups. Waste removal, in particular, is likely to be mandated by the county.
Here in New Zealand, we know just how tough it can be to find a place to live. With many switching to alternative housing options, self-contained cabins NZ might be an option worth you considering.
With self-contained units NZ, you can do away with the prohibitive entry costs and get a place to call your own that’s affordable. Being self-contained, your cabin will still have everything you need to enjoy your life. Everything will be on a smaller scale, but that’s the point – everything including the costs!
If you’re lucky enough to own some land already, you have everything you need to set up a self-contained cabin including electricity and water. But if you don’t, you can always fall back on an understanding friend or family member who does. Your costs will be a lot lower thanks to the smaller size of your abode, and the small footprint means you won’t be taking too much of their space.
When talking about accommodation, “self-contained” simply means it is a complete abode and doesn’t need to share rooms or facilities with another structure. This can apply to single rooms with their own kitchenette and bathroom facilities within a larger house or building, detached small dwellings such as cabins or granny flats, or even a modern “glamping” style caravan.
We don’t tend to refer to houses as “self-contained” because it’s assumed and self-evident. But smaller structures such as cabins and units are not large enough to have a dedicated room each for kitchen, bathroom, and laundry and often do without one or more of these facilities. So when we refer to “self-contained cabins” or “self-contained units”, it indicates that all these necessities are present within the dwelling without needing to depend on another building.
A good comparison to throw light on this can be found at most caravan parks. When you go to the park and book a caravan, you may need a key to the separate toilet, bathroom, kitchen, or laundry facilities to make it a good holiday. But if you book a self-contained cabin, it will have all of these contained in the one structure – no sharing with other holidaymakers required.
“OK, I’m convinced. Where do I sign up?”
Absolute Tiny Houses NZ have a long track history with building high-quality yet affordable self-contained cabins NZ. We know what self-contained units need and more importantly, what they don’t. No unnecessary additions, just the most streamlined and efficient self-contained units you’ll find.
Our cheapest self-contained unit NZ is less than $78k and comes finished ready to plug into power and water. As an added feature we can build your self-contained cabin on a warranted and registered tandem axle trailer, meaning you and your home are 100% mobile. Live anywhere they will let you!
For the ultimate in self-contained living, you can also add our solar off-grid setup and completely detach yourself from the demands of the utility companies.
If you’re looking for self-contained cabins or units, choose the ones built in New Zealand for New Zealand people and get in touch with us today.
Self-contained units NZ represent a number of key benefits that can help you beat the property bubble:
On top of all this, downsizing your living area has the additional side-benefit of simplifying your life. Moving is easy when everything you own fits on a flatbed, and less material goods means less worry. When life is simpler it’s considerably less stressful, your cost of living goes down, and life becomes something to take your time enjoying once again. We’re not sure why this is, but we’ve seen it time and again with our customers.