Waterwinpark welcomes Tiny Houses

At the bottom of this article you will find the second question of the TinyFindy summer contest, with which you can win an overnight stay in a Tiny House!

Rianne has got it made

“For me, this whole adventure started with an announcement from the municipality, which stated that Zeist wanted to set up a pilot project with 6 Tiny Houses in the Waterwinpark (water catchment area).” Rianne is enthusiastic about the opportunity, “Here I can live a minimalist life in an environmentally friendly way in a community of like-minded people and my house is more affordable than a normal house in Zeist.”

After initially not being selected, Rianne was asked in February 2020 whether she was still interested: “Of course I was! But by then I had to act fast and have a Tiny House built as soon as possible. Together with my parents I started the search for a builder and came across Ties Bosman, in Leiden. Together with Ties we created a design, which he then built entirely according to my wishes. In September 2020 my new house was placed in the Waterwinpark.”

The municipality has installed electricity, water and a drain to a central point on the site. “From there we as residents arranged the connections to our houses. There is no gas connection, so everything works on electricity.” The residents of Waterwinpark pay a ground lease to the municipality. The permits and contracts are valid for 5 years, of which 1 had already expired before the installation of the first house. “There is a possibility that the municipality will extend our permit by 5 years, but it is not certain that they will do that. Of course I hope they will!”

In principle, the residents are allowed to develop the site as they wish, but must keep a number of rules in mind. “For example, we are not allowed to dig deeper than 80 cm and the site must keep an open character. There are also rules for the number of square meters that we can build on.” Rianne is proud of her new neighborhood. “There are now 4 Tiny Houses on the site. It already is a small residential area. We are in the process of laying out the gardens. There are plans to jointly build a path, possibly with solar-powered lighting. We are also considering creating a joint vegetable garden. For myself I am planning to build a shed and a veranda together with my father.”

In the future, Rianne would like to install solar panels, so that she can be self-sufficient and generate green energy. “That is a considerable investment however, which will have to wait a while.”

Ger Jue is enjoying his second childhood

Ger Jue has recently started living across from Rianne and is also clearly enjoying his new place to live. “I would like to continue to participate in society and not withdraw in advance to a senior apartment complex, as I see many people of my age (76) do. The ages are fairly spread out at the Waterwinpark, the adults are between 25 and 50 years old and there is a young family with a toddler living here.”

Before retiring, Ger Jue worked in the care and nursing home sector and was also responsible for two residential projects for the elderly. But he prefers to keep the initiative in his own hands for a suitable place to live and fortunately he is not limited by physical circumstances. “When I heard about the possibilities of Tiny Houses, it immediately appealed to me. I had been living alone in a single-family house in Zeist-west for about 8 years, which is now once again inhabited by a family of five.”

The enthusiastic Waterwinpark resident is very fond of Tiny Houses: the use of sustainable materials, accelerated natural gas-free living and decluttering have stolen his heart. “In my case it is also an opportunity to use the money that I have been able to free up with the sale of my house for my grandchildren. A few want to enter the housing market which is increasingly difficult to reach as starters.”

Ger Jue first made a rough sketch design to scale and glued the necessary furniture to scale in it. “I discovered that in my previous house the cabinets were all too deep (60 cm.). The items in the back I hadn’t touched for years, so I didn’t really need them. I decided to have all cabinets made no deeper than 45 cm, except where the refrigerator and the cooking stove should be.” Space has been made in the shed for the washing machine.

One of his sons-in-law, who is an interior builder and furniture maker and has a workshop in Houten, contributed a lot to the design together with a colleague interior architect. The interior designer came up with the idea of ​​a corner window, optically beautiful, with a small copper ledge above it and room for a window sill inside. Infrared panels have been used for heating, one in the living area and a small one in the sanitary room. Both mounted on the ceiling, so that no space is wasted on the walls. “The advantage is that I can switch them off when I go to sleep and do not have to wait for them to cool down.”

“I enjoy working having people around me, who are busy with the same things, but all come up with their own solutions and their own design. Some with a mezzanine, some with a ladder or a caravan base. We are now at the stage where we are going to organize the outdoor space. We will not have real gardens, this has to remain a park after all. Another challenge, we will see how that will go.”