Christoph Riedel and Anna Naygrow are building a Tiny House to live in while studying in Christchurch.

Fed up with living in a cold, damp, mouldy flat, university students Christoph Riedel and Anna Naygrow have spent their summer holiday building themselves a tiny house.

Tucked away on flat land behind the main building at Menzshed Waimea in Richmond, near Nelson, the couple's first home is almost ready to be towed 400km to Christchurch for the start of the academic year at the University of Canterbury.

"We'll live in it this year," Riedel said.

BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ Anna Naygrow and Christoph Riedel started building their tiny house in mid-November.

"It's a warm place. We're going to get a fire put in, it's very well-insulated, everything's double-glazed, we've got lots of light so the idea is just to have a warm place to live and study."

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The couple has rented a plot for their tiny house with power and water supplies in Christchurch while Riedel completes his fourth and final year of his Bachelor of Forestry Science degree. Naygrow has put her degree on hold for a while.

BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ Anna Naygrow and Christoph Riedel built their tiny home for about $50,000, including the price of a Land Rover to tow it.

​After the university year, the couple plans to move the tiny house back to the Nelson region where they hope to buy about 4ha of land for a more permanent base.

Naygrow, of California, and Riedel, of Nelson, met on the first day of university in February last year.

Their first conversation was about tiny houses and woodworking, Naygrow said.

BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ The couple sit on the stairs leading up to their mezzanine bedroom with its access to the roof via a skylight. The kitchen is on the left with the bathroom and toilet behind them.

Both were studying for the same degree, although Naygrow was just about to start her first year and had only been in New Zealand since January.

During the year, she moved out of her hall of residence and into Riedel's flat.

Riedel said he was paying about $130 a week for a room, power and water. While the cost "wasn't too bad", it was the state of the flat that pushed the couple towards a tiny house.

BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ The couple have installed many double-glazed windows in their tiny house.

"We didn't actually decide we'd do it until roughly September," Riedel said. "In September, we got sick of one of our flatmates and cold, Christchurch homes."

Naygrow described the flat: "Leaky, condensation on the inside, broken glass, single-glazed, no insulation – the water rotted the internet ports."

The house also had mould and it was so cold at times that the condensation froze on the inside of the windows.

So the couple decided to build their own warm, tiny house. First up was the funding. They asked Riedel's parents, Chris and Amanda, for help with a favourable loan.

"After about a week and some convincing, they got behind the project," Riedel said.

Initially, the couple bought plans but they weren't suitable so they designed their tiny house themselves.

"We spents hours watching TV programmes on tiny houses," he said. "We picked the best bits that we could find."

They bought the trailer base and then second-hand windows. The team at Menzshed Waimea let them use some of its flat land to park the trailer and in mid-November, the couple started building.

While they handled the bulk of work themselves, there had been some help.

A roofer, who is also a friend, laid the roof. Some suppliers including Hunters and Konstruhkt Industries provided timber and spray foam insulation respectively at cost or for free.

Some friends had given their labour at times and Riedel's dad had also been very hands-on, particularly with the heavy jobs. All that help enabled the couple to keep the cost to about $50,000 including the purchase of a Land Rover Discovery to pull their tiny house.

The trailer is 7.6m long by 2.4m wide and the house sticks out slightly from that base. From the ground, it's almost 4.2m high. Along with a kitchen-living room, bathroom and composting toilet, the home has a mezzanine bedroom with a skylight that provides roof access and a spare room to store the couple's outdoor equipment including bikes and surfboards. On top of the spare room is an entertainment loft that will have a bookshelf, TV and bean bags. It will also be place for any guests to sleep.

By about February 10 or 11, they expect to have the house liveable and will prepare for a long, slow journey south. They anticipate travelling at just 40kmh to 50kmh.

"We'll put a big sign on the back saying: 'Sorry, just moving house'," Riedel said.

"The house won't be finished and we'll live in it unfinished until we can drive it to our permanent block ... and then we can build it up over legal road requirements."

Neither Riedel nor Naygrow had attempted to build a house before but said they would be keen to repeat the experience.

"I'd love to do it again," Riedel said.