13-Year-Old Builds His Own Tiny House In His Backyard And Only Spent $1,500!

A 13-year-old boy is making headlines this week after building his own home for $1,500. Luke Thill of Dubuque, Iowa, cobbled together material from various sources — old siding from his grandmother’s house, a front door from a relative of a friend — and built his dream house, complete with a kitchen.

I think it’s safe to say that Luke is not like many other 13-year-old boys. In a time of iPads, smartphones, gadgets and X Boxes, this little man decided to keep himself busy in a different and more 'old-fashioned' way. As impressive as that feat is, Luke raised funds for the house via the internet.

Luke said his motivation came from a need to show responsibility. "I liked the minimalism," he told the Des Moines Register. "And I wanted to have a house without a huge mortgage." Money expert Clark Howard loves this attitude!

Luke used about 75 percent recycled material, many of which were things left over from his grandma’s house. The front door of the house was a gift from an uncle’s friend. An electrician agreed to help with wiring the home if the eighth-grader agreed to clean out his garage, according to local news. Another man agreed to help him lay carpet in his loft bedroom if Luke cut his grass.

Luke said: "I have a neighbor who is a professional electrician so I cleaned his garage out and he taught me how to wire the house and in Cub Scouts I knew a guy who was a carpet layer and I mowed at his apartment buildings and he helped me install the carpet."

Luke’s parents, Greg and Angie Thill, saw their son was on a mission and gave him the go-ahead to build a home on the family's four-acre property. He gives a tour of the mini-home and says the total cost of the structure was really "more like $1,200, but I rounded it up just in case I forgot anything." The 89-square-foot house is 10 feet long and 5 1/2 feet wide and has a countertop inside, a bedroom, compartments for a refrigerator, closet space, and even plumbing.

Greg told The Des Moines Register: "It was a chance for a kid to do something more than play video games or sports, it teaches life lessons."

Luke has made several videos and posted them on online, where he talks about his project as many have grown curious about the little house. The tiny homes, typically defined as a dwelling between 100 and 400 square feet, allow homeowners to save big on things such as maintenance costs and utility bills. The homes offer another huge benefit that was extreme mobility. If you don’t like where your tiny home is located, you can move it.

As you can imagine, Luke also received some help from his parents, both financially and with the building itself. But dad Greg made sure that it would be Luke himself who would pay for most of his project and also build most of it himself. This little house cost on average about $23,000, which means nearly 70% of owners have no mortgage. Furthermore, the small houses can be either built on-site or shipped to a location. The interior of the tiny home features a TV, seating area, mini refrigerator, and a fold-up dining room table. Luke says his friends think the house is "cool" and often stop by to hang out.

Luke's dad said: "He’s a very driven kid for his age. There were times the project got stalled out and he had to earn more money for the next phase. He wouldn't let it go and kept working at it."

Luke usually does his homework after school at his new house and some nights during the week he gets to sleep there. Luke was invited to speak at a tiny home conference this month in Iowa where he hopes to inspire other kids to follow to not let their age stop their dreams.

Money expert Clark Howard says that the tiny house movement is a great place to start for people looking for affordable residences — but there are other options. The Habitat for Humanity homes he helps build use computer-aided design to utilize every inch of available space. This allows them to build 4 bedroom, 2 bath homes with only 1,000 square feet.

Luke already has aspirations to build another house — one that’s a little bigger for when he starts college. He also hopes to inspire others to follow their dreams.

"I want to show kids it’s possible to build at this age," he says in one of his videos. He continued, "Now lots of kids have messaged me and showed pictures of their tiny houses that they're building and they're even younger than me."

You can really see how proud he is of his project below.

Luke’s story is a very good example of what a child can achieve with a clear goal, a strong worth ethic and support from home.