Lou E4, S1 Candid Tiny House Podcast
Lou’s Tiny House Journey: From Travel Writer to DIY Builder in Australia
From Grounded Traveller to Tiny House Builder
What does an award-winning travel writer do when international borders slam shut and even domestic adventures are confined to one’s home state?
She builds a monument to mobility.
A talisman of freedom.
A home with liberation as its foundation.
Lou built herself… a tiny house on wheels.
With no previous building experience, she dove into the project, supported by her partner and a retired builder friend. Her learning curve? Steep. Her approach? Entirely her own.
Designing a Tiny House on Paper
Rather than using 3D modelling software, Lou went old-school—designing her tiny house entirely on paper.
“I’m pretty confident with a pen and paper,” she mused, explaining how this hands-on method gave her an intimate understanding of her home and helped her communicate clearly with her build team.
But before a single screw was driven, Lou put her finely honed research skills to work. Months of reading, questioning, and weighing up options shaped every choice. She attended Fred’s Weekend Workshop in southern Queensland and took the Online Course too.
The Creative Side of Building a Tiny House
Lou was surprised by just how imaginative the build became.
“It’s a very imaginative, creative process. I think that’s probably something I didn’t anticipate. I knew it was going to be practical, about the skills, working things out… and the maths! But I didn’t realise how creative it would be until I was in it.”
Learning DIY Building Skills on the Job
Like many DIY builders, she learnt as she went.
“My respect for tradies and builders, for tradespeople in general, has just skyrocketed.”
Her advice for future tiny house builders? Learn to use power tools before you begin, and get some practice with smaller projects first:
“Make a shelf or a box—something little—before you take on the whole house.”
A Different Kind of Adventure
For someone whose life had always been full of outward-facing adventures, building a tiny house was an entirely different kind of journey—an inward one. It tested her patience, her creativity, and her ability to adapt.
The results speak for themselves. Lou’s finished home is beautiful, functional, and deeply personal.
Listen to Lou’s Full Story on the Candid Tiny House Podcast
In the interview, Lou shares:
A breakdown of her budget, including the big-ticket items
How she designed lighting to create different moods and spaces
Staging her off-grid systems over time
Managing the stress of such a big, high-stakes project
Follow Lou’s Journey
Blog: noimpactgirl.com
Facebook: facebook.com/noimpactgirl
Lou’s Tiny House Build Details
Trailer length: 7.2 m Hot Dip Galvanized
Width: 2400 mm (Option A)
Style: Flat top
Trailer received: September 2020
Build started: September 2020
Moved in: March 2021
You can do this too!
Lou started her tiny house building journey by attending a Weekend Workshop with Fred’s Tiny Houses.
She took all the knowledge that they gained in that course and bought a Fred’s Tiny House Trailer. She then built a successful tiny house which they lived in for three years, saving enough money to launch themselves into the next phase of life.
Start Here:
Lou Wrote A Memoir!
TINY: A Memoir about Love, Letting Go and a Very Small House
“Tiny is a memoir by award-winning travel writer Louise Southerden about her quest to create a simpler way of life by building her very own tiny house. With no prior building experience, Louise decided to build a tiny house with her partner, Max, which tested an already unstable relationship. Over the year and a half of planning and construction of her tiny house, Louise witnessed her new home coming together as her relationship was falling apart. Alongside her burgeoning construction skills, Louise learned about love, home, forgiveness and what we really need to be happy.
This is an intensely personal story about searching for home and true love, two of life’s most fundamental needs, risking everything, failing and finding ways to cope, and discovering that what we need isn’t always what we thought we wanted.” ~From GoodReads.
In our interview, Lou catches us up on what it was like to write about building the house while living in it, as well as moving the tiny house to a different property, setting up the site and things she’s learned along the way. Enjoy!
