Shadowing Practice: Her shed conversion tiny home is the best I've ever seen! - Learn English Speaking with Video

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My adult children live there.

They pay all the bills for that house

and then I moved out to the tiny home so that I could retire early.

After going through what I went through myself there was domestic violence and I have been homeless in the past.

I needed to create safety for myself.

Welcome to the inside of my greenhouse portion of my tiny home.

Come on in I'll show you the inside.

Hi, my name is Josie and welcome to my tiny home.

I had the company Genesis build my shell for me.

They delivered it and they came out and then built the greenhouse onto it later on.

This isn't something that Genesis usually does.

If you go look on their catalog, they have like a few sheds and a few different greenhouses

but this was something I had to talk them into doing

they brought this giant building on the back of their truck

they had pilot cars come on each end it was fascinating to watch them deliver this building

and set it down on pier blocks for me then later on they came

and they built this greenhouse they came with it all constructed it in pieces

and built it like a Lego set in about six hours.

I had this part designed to have an outdoor space so

that in the Pacific Northwest I could be outside all year round.

I also wanted the shell only and I wanted to do all the contracting myself.

The shell itself was $23 ,000

which was I thought was very reasonable for the size 12 by 14

and then also the greenhouse was around eight thousand dollars finishing

out the house total it cost me under sixty thousand dollars for the home

and the greenhouse the total process was about 10 months long

so this is two and a quarter acres here i have my main home right here

my adult children live there they pay all the bills for that house

and i have it in a trust for them

and then i moved out to the tiny home so that i could retire early

One of the reasons I'm able to retire early is because I live in community with my adult children, and because they live in the main house and other buildings,

they are paying all the bills for the home.

So I am left with very few bills myself, and that's enabled me to downsize.

I live a very simple life.

It's not extravagant, and the most important thing to me is

that I have a peaceful life and that I have community surrounding me.

I have been homeless in the past and I didn't want my children to experience that.

It's very hard for this generation to purchase homes now.

So the way we have it worked out, they're paying one third of market value of what they would be paying if they were all out in apartments.

So it saves them money, it also saves me money, and I'm able to retire early.

i was in a long -term marriage and i had to leave

that marriage because there was domestic violence

and i needed to create safety for myself and

because i created safety for myself i've also created safety for my own children

and their children

so this place has definitely been a progress for me to find my own safety to come out of fight

and flight and to get into rest and restore.

It took me months of living out here to feel like I could really rest

and it's not always the spaces you create

but what's going on in your mind and how you're thinking

so it took a lot of deprogramming and convincing myself

that I had created a safe place

and now my nervous system feels very regulated and I feel very happy

and calm being in my safe place that I've created out here.

come on in

and see my tiny welcome to the inside of my greenhouse

portion of my tiny home the reason why i have the

greenhouse addition onto my tiny home is to make it feel

more spacious i spend a lot of time out here

so i do count it as part of my living space so instead of it being

336 feet inside and i also have 336 feet outside and it just adds so much more space living space

the sunlight comes through here

and it saves a lot of money on the heating costs

in the summer it does get hot in here i'm not gonna lie

So I had three doors put in this greenhouse and I opened them all up.

I actually cover this top with a shade cloth and run a fan through it.

And it is very lovely in here in the summertime and it's not too hot.

It's actually one of the coolest places on my property.

Another thing I've done to alleviate some of the heat

when it gets too hot in here is there's two fans up here that are solar powered.

And the minute the sun comes out, they start up and pull the hot air out

so in the summertime

that helps with the heat as well I am going to be putting a wood stove in here

and I want it to have baking capacity

so in the winter time I can bake out here as well

and utilize this space more for now I just hung this heater up here just so that

when I'm sitting down here in the cooler temperatures it gives

a little bit of warmth I have three of these heaters

that came with the greenhouse

and I'm just using this temporary until I get my wood

stove it was really important for me to have this tree

living in here i rescued this tree from a demo site

and it's been with me for many many years it was very important for me

that it lives in here i had a quince tree

when i was growing up as a child and these are the fruits of the quince

and also up here i have a little sack of praying mantis eggs

that are going to hatch so right now they're in dormancy

but they'll hatch in the spring so pretty soon when the spring comes i'll have

hundreds of little baby praying mantis in the tree so i think that's pretty special

all right now we've seen the outside of my tiny home come on in i'll show you the inside

i'm going to show you my kitchen over here

which is a bit of a makeshift kitchen right now

because I'm going to be putting a propane stove

and some cabinetry up here so right now I just have this little two burner stove

and I have this little oven here and it seems to suffice.

I have a little sink here that I use and I wash all my dishes in here.

I don't have a dishwasher.

I keep my food storage in here and I have dishes storage down there.

So I put this here for extra counter space and this is where I do all my food prep.

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I can sit there and eat my dinner.

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If I have company over, I pull one of the bar seats over here and I sit on this side.

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So this is gonna be my last home.

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I'm 53 years old so I'm starting to think about not having to do stairs or ladders or anything of the sort.

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So it was important for me to have everything on one floor.

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I came out of my main house which has 30 foot vaulted ceilings

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and it was a bit of a challenge for me to think about living in a smaller space

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so one of the things i didn't want to skimp on

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is the high ceilings it's really important for me to have a feeling of of space

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and to be able to move around and also

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because i like a lot of light i haven't planned on doing anything up high and utilizing that space so my floors

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when I had my floors put in it was kind of

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a rush thing I I needed to get the floors done quickly

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and I met a fellow at the Lowe's

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and he said he could come do my floors tomorrow

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and I quickly chose my flooring and I don't like it

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so I went out and bought some rugs some very soft rugs

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because I like the soft feeling on my feet

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and it's not ideal because they're a little hodgepodge

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but I love the way it feels on my feet

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so that's why I have my rugs and it also adds to the cozy feeling.

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So the next space I'm going to show you is my living room.

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This is my little seating area here so

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when I have company come over they sit down here automatically

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and also I have grandchildren

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so I always make sure I'm changing out my toys every couple of days for the kids

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and they always get in here and throw everything all around

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and then go into the kitchen and look for food so

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so because we spend

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so much time visiting out in my greenhouse I didn't need

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a lot of seating space in here I do kind of wish I had a bigger couch for in here

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because when I have my girlfriends over I'm sitting here

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and she's sitting right beside me like this so we're very close

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but it's very cozy and I enjoy having this little spot here

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so I have these little wall heaters that my electrician put in and they are incredibly efficient.

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I have this one just on part way and I don't need the other ones on at this time of year.

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In fact I turn that one off midday because it gets so warm in here.

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In the summertime I have a little window unit

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that I put for air conditioning because it does get quite warm in here

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but if I cover all the windows and have the little air conditioning it stays really cool in here.

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So the next space I'm going to show you is my bathroom.

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it's very small but it has a good function I have a bathtub here

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that I spend a lot of time in

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I'm definitely not a shower girl I could have had a shower put in here

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but I love to have a bath

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and this has this little handle on it here

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which I also use for my biogas toilet right here

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when I need to rinse it

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or fill it with water I use this to do that

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so there's no bucket with my biogas toilet

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which a lot of people use so that just makes it a lot easier

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so the biogas toilet is a biodigester

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so all the waste goes out into a tent

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and then it collects as a gas

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and eventually i'll have it hooked up to my propane stove

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so the gas will actually help me save on cooking gas

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and it's just like a regular flush toilet it has water in it

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and i pump the handle like a boat toilet or something like that and that's been a wonderful feature to this home.

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So in here this is my bedroom and I got this chase here specifically

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so that I could get up out of bed, make myself a cup of tea.

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I turn my heating blanket on and I crawl under my heating blanket.

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My puppies jump up on there with me and we have a little cuddle in the morning.

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I like to work on my computer here and look out the window and it's just a really cozy spot.

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I have some stuffies here.

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I know I'm a 53 year old woman

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but I still really love to cuddle with things

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and after my divorce I remember just feeling like I wanted to have something to cuddle

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so I started collecting these and then my kids started buying them for me.

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They're really special.

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They all have names and I know that's really silly but it really brings me a lot of comfort.

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I have this projector tv that I put right here

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and it shines up on this white space over here and makes a giant TV without having a TV.

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So if I completely want no TV in here I just put this away and it doesn't exist anymore.

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So I bought this bed because it has a huge amount of storage underneath it.

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I store all my out -of -season clothing and shoes underneath here and my linens as well.

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I do have another little storage area for my clothes that's behind

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that I keep my in -season clothing in

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so i put this fun wallpaper up because i love nature again

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and i love all the mushrooms

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and i thought it was fun i like to change the wallpaper it's just peel

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and stick so it's really easy to take on and off

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and i have another set of wallpaper

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that i'll put up here later on in the spring season so come

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and check out my garden with me i started this garden a few years before I put the tiny home here.

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I started out by coming out to this field

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and just putting a piece of cardboard down and putting compost over top

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and thinking this is a crazy idea for me to be building this garden

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but it was a dream I really wanted to fulfill and eventually put my tiny home here.

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So the garden was here before the tiny home.

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I have a bunch of berry bushes that I grow.

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I have some raspberries and there is even still a few raspberries.

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back here I have my garden I have a little trough here

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that we fill up with water in the summer currently I have it on a slant

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so water doesn't collect in it

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but we get really hot working out in the garden

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so we like to jump in there I have my greenhouse in the back my hoop house

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and I grow all the hothouse stuff out there watermelons

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and tomatoes and that sort of thing and behind

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that I have some chickens so my goal here is

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that I'm going to have my home completely off -grid

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and be completely sustainable with the food that i create here

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and i can currently live about two to three months just on what i make

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and and grow and i have the eggs from the chickens

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and also the vegetables and the berries i grow mushrooms

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and nuts also after going through what i went through myself there was times where i couldn't find shelter

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and so it's very important for me now that i've created this space

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that I can provide women a safe place to park at night.

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It's just a

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queen bed and a single bed here for women that are living in their cars if they want to hang out here.

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Also some of my family members spend a night out here if they're coming to visit.

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Oftentimes people are just so happy to just have a place to relax

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and feel safe and this has got lot of natural light

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and it's a very cheerful little building

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so it's been quite a few people have stayed in here over the last couple of years

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and it's just a nice little studio.

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I am working in collaboration with somebody right now to create an app to gather resources for women.

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Also I'm putting together a huge community of other women who

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are also willing to allow women living in their cars a safe place to park at night.

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It's a way for us to watch over each other.

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Women who are living in their vehicles are extremely vulnerable.

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and it's very scary out there so it's important

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that we create safe spaces for women to be able to feel safe and not be in fight or flight 24 7.

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if you like this week's episode please make sure to like share

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and subscribe and check back soon

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because we have new unique home tours publishing all the time

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Her shed conversion tiny home is the best I've ever seen!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: space, tiny, greenhouse. This video has 23 sentences and 2805 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:25. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
greenhouse noun	/ˈɡɹːnˌ(h)aʊs/	A building used to grow plants, particularly one with large glass windows or plastic sheeting to trap heat from sunlight even in intemperate seasons or…
toilet verb	/ˈtɔɪ.lət/	To assist another (a child, etc.) in using a toilet.
stove noun	/stoʊv/	A heater, a closed apparatus to burn fuel for the warming of a room.
retire verb	/ɹəˈtaɪɹ/	To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness.
shell noun	/ʃɛl/	The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
collect verb	/ˈkɑlɪkt/	To gather together; amass.
rug noun	/ˈɹʌɡ/	A partial covering for a floor.
wallpaper noun	/ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə/	Decorative paper-like material used to cover the inner walls of buildings.
heater noun	/ˈhitɚ/	A device that produces and radiates heat, typically to raise the temperature of a room or building.
clothing noun	/ˈkloʊðɪŋ/	Any of a wide variety of articles, usually made of fabrics, animal hair, animal skin, or some combination thereof, used to cover the human body for warmth, to…
egg noun	/ɛɡ/	An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell…
pray verb	/pɹeɪ/	To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.
dish noun	/dɪʃ/	A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
ceiling noun	/ˈsilɪŋ/	The overhead closure of a room.
underneath adverb	/ˌʌndɚˈniθ/	Below; in a place beneath.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
come on in verb		Synonym of come in (“to enter”).
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
sit down verb		To assume a sitting position from a standing position.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come over verb		To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse.
come through verb		To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway.
finish out verb		To finish up, to complete, something previously started, particularly a time frame.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I'll show you the inside.
Will you join me?
I'm not going to lie.
I don't have a dishwasher.
I'm definitely not a shower girl.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have been · i've also created · has definitely been
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	house which has · Women who are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'll, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, bath /bɑːθ/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, cloth /klɒθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shell /ʃɛl/, dish /dɪʃ/, mushroom /ˈmʌʃˌɹuːm/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/
Long words — get the stress right: temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/, sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbəl/, alleviate /əˈli.vi.eɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like greenhouse, toilet, stove.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Her shed conversion tiny home is the best I've ever seen! - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?