Buying a house is a crucial decision, yet a tough burden for most adults. However, there was a teenage boy who successfully built his own home with only $1,500! Read on and find out how he managed to do it!
Summer for high school student Luke Thill was too long and quite dull, for all he could do was browsing social media. However, just as he was watching Youtube, some videos named “Tiny Houses” bumped out. Immediately he knew that he wanted to give it a try.
Only having the idea of building a house did not mean success at all. After rummaging through everything and failing to find what he wanted, Luke had to turn to his parents for help. Surprisingly, his parents gave him guidance with all their heart.
Money became Luke’s biggest problem. To make his dream come true, Luke decided to do housework for the neighbors to earn money, including mowing lawns and cleaning garages. After many struggles between keeping holding on and giving up, he finally raised a fair $1,500!
The Tiny House project was inspired by minimalism. By building tiny houses, people were preaching the concept of simplicity. Luke was no exception: he had collected everything he needed from the neighbors while working for them. Now the real deal was about to begin!
Building a house was never an easy task; Luke needed every help he could get, and here came the neighbors. It was time for these “house experts” to exchange their advice. With their help, the mission of building a house seemed to be off to a good start.
Hearing that a young boy was going to build a house, Luke’s friends and people around the neighborhood were all very excited and curious. They kept asking Luke about his progress. Luke took the chance to start a Youtube channel so that people could be updated. Guess what happened next?
When one day Luke was called into the principal’s office, he was nervous and stressed. That usually only happens when a student had done something wrong. But that day turned out to be a good day for Luke because a local media outlet wanted to interview him and write a story. Luke was going to be famous!
Attention from neighborhoods and the media served as a great encouragement for Luke. The boy made up his mind to get the project completed. He did not have too much to worry with the $1500, necessary materials and extensive research.
Luke wanted his tiny house to be different through a series of creative ideas. He first decided to make a DIY countertop using broken piece of colored glasses and glaze. But unfortunately the result was a disaster: the liquids leaked through the mold he used and it was difficult to clean up. For Luke, it was still a nice try though!
As his tiny home came into form, more and more people became interested in his project, and he became popular across the country. A representative at TinyFest even invited him to deliver a speech at the TinyFest Festival. Honour came one after another. But how about his house?
So far, Luke was near completing his project. This 87-square foot house has two floors and is almost fully furnished. But plumbing remained a problem because plumbing infrastructure proved too great a task. He finally decided to use the restroom in his family house.
Luke couldn’t wait to spend one night in the house to check whether it was habitable or not. In a cold winter night, he slept in his new bed for the first time. The next morning, this hard-working boy happily announced that the house was warm enough to live in!
Luke made a video tour of his completed house and uploaded it to his Youtube channel. The video got 7.5 million views and helped increased the channel’s subscribers to 16,000! Many viewers commented that Luke’s house had given them the inspiration to start their own project. Others shared what they do at Luke’s age.
The tiny house looked decent and beautiful outside, but like us you must be curious about its inside. Well, you’ll be impressed once you see it! The tiny home includes a kitchen, living area, dining area, and a separate bedroom, which is located upstairs.
If you step into the house, you’ll never believe your eyes. The kitchen is equipped with a small fridge, an electric stove top, and bottled water; the living room is decked out with a couch and a TV. Although Luke was not prepared to live in it, what happened next shocked him…
Word of the completed tiny house spread like wildfire across the country. Luke made the front page of Des Moines Register and the Telegraph Herald! ABC’s show Good Morning America even reported him. People flow to Iowa to get a private tour of the house.
People wondered why Luke decided to build the tiny house, Luke’s answer was very un-teenager-like. He stated that he “wanted to have a house without a huge mortgage.” Wow!
After the success of his tiny house, Luke headed into the online selling field. With a large group of fans and supporters rooting for him, Luke decided to release his own line of merchandise, with sweatshirts and T-shirts he designed himself.
When asked about his overall experience of building the house, Luke said there were some regrets and mistakes. If he had the second chance, he would have done some things differently.
