text: A New Zealand couple needed a home upon returning home after living in the UK, so they built one on the back of an old flatbed truck. Hannah and Alex purchased a 1986 Hino flatbed and undertook their year and a half labor of love. The result was a solar-powered two-bedroom, wood and steel home that now allows them to live almost self-sufficiently in Nelson, New Zealand. How a truck becomes a home: A New Zealand couple built this country home on the bed of a flatbed truck . Making do: Alex (left) and Hannah (right) wanted a home that was cozy and all their own, but couldn't afford to buy a full-sized lot . 'We came back to New Zealand from the UK in 2009,' Alex told Smoking Tire. 'We knew we couldn't afford to buy property at that point. We didn't have money.' So, the couple started building. After a year and a half of taking the project one step at a time, the project took shape. Though, to hear Hannah tell it, they just slapped up the place in a weekend. '[We] welded a frame, put the wood on and built this house,' the modest Kiwi told Smoking Tire's Matt Farah. Once they finished, the couple drove their truck home out to a lot they'd purchased in Nelson, New Zealand. Now the couple and their cat live surrounded by nature: aromatic cypress wood inside the home and majestic trees and a babbling brook outside their door. Ingenuity: The couple started with a steel frame and slowly, project by project, built a home in about a year and a half . Gorgeous: Hannah and Alex now have a gorgeous, wood-lined home in a lot surrounded by trees and a babbling brook . Details: The couple has a wood-fired stove to keep out the cold, stained glass windows and other creature comforts . They're nearly self-sufficient, too. The home is powered mostly by solar panels. Alex said their first power bill was just $25. The stove and hot water are gas-powered and water comes from a nearby spring. 'I didn't want to live inside a plastic box,' Alex said. 'Not because I'm a hippie but because it feels nicer and is just a nicer place to be.' All told, the project cost Hannah and Alex about $25,000. And the couple even plans to build another one like one day. 'It's really, really nice,' Hannah said. 'We love it.' Two bedrooms: The home has a bedroom for the couple as well as a loft that doubles as a spare room where the cat sleeps . Green: Water comes from a nearby spring and most of the electricity comes from solar panels .
target: Hannah and Alex needed a place to live after they moved back to New Zealand from the UK in 2009 .
  So, they purchased a 1986 Hino flatbed truck and started building a home on the back of it over the course of about a year and a half .
  They then purchased a secluded piece of property and drove their nearly self-sufficient $25,000 home there .