Framing begins

Over this last weekend our tiny house has seen some big changes!  It's incredibly exciting to see the little house taking real form. Here are some pictures of the wall framing in progress... Darrin with Tristan & Justin helping out

 

1 of the 16 tie downs used to secure the house to the trailer

The sweet little steps Jbzl (aka Justin Bendt(in picture above)) built so short people can get up into the house...

...so I could take these pictures - the bay window/booth will be at the back end of the trailer, 

(This window will need to be dropped down to table level, that was my goof... and possibly be a little bigger)
here facing our silly pool...

  

And the tongue end will be our bedroom,

here facing the driveway.

Needless to say... the house is shaping up to look a LOT different that the banner picture of this blog... may need to fix that.  We're hoping to see Neal again this weekend and maybe we can sweet talk him into some concept sketches. =)

Next up... the roof and dormer framing... stay tuned!

Windows and a chance of thunderstorms

This weekend has been spent finishing up the floor sheathing,  drilling holes in the trailer flanges for the hold downs, and locking down the location and dimensions of the windows, and getting a quote.  Here is the placement for the main floor windows.  The loft will be easier as there are two 18" x 36" sliders on each side and a 24" x 24" picture window on each end. 

We spent some time with a guy at Home Depot getting a quote and figuring out which windows to go with.  I had originally thought we'd go with Anderson Windows, but they are considerably higher priced than Milgard.  So, we got a quote for the majority of the windows in Milgard Styleline, however I think I like their Tuscany windows better, as the Styline has an uneven frame, which I don't care for. (below) Total cost for the windows... $2,500 - $3,200.  Ouch... well they will come with Phase II - 2016

 Tuscany

 Styleline

   

We will most likely opt for some kind of grille, just not sure which yet.

Unfortunately, the weather is calling for possible thunderstorms today, so no framing this weekend. Darrin could use the break.  Hopefully, the sun will return next weekend.

Floor Plans

I am no architect. I have taken some drafting and know a bit about reading plans, but man.... this has been a challenge! This stuff makes my head spin.

Darrin and I have spend months going over floor plans. We came pretty close to buying a set from Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, but none of the floor plans really had what we were looking for.  So, I used Visio.  There was a bit of a challenge, but after playing around a while I got to a point where I could do it... granted... this is a mess.  We anticipate more changes, but here is our latest floor plan.... Version 9. 

Here is a 3D model of the booth area that Neal did for me (Thanks Bud!) I'm hoping to get him to paint it sometime soon! We are going for a Bavarian/Chalet cabin style.  Unfortunately, I think the diamond grilles for the windows are out... they are expensive and very hard to find. =/

There were some specific things we are going for. A downstairs bedroom ... we aren't getting any younger, and stairs, as opposed to a ladder for the same reason.  Some things that have to be accounted for... You can't put the shower pan or the exterior door where there is a wheel well.  If you ever plan to park in a RV park, it is traditional to have your exterior door on the passenger side, and your hook ups on the opposite side.  Max height is 13.5', max width 8.5' anything larger requires a special permit, and a width over 10' requires a wide load pilot car, etc. All things to keep in mind.

Here are some of the earlier versions, you can see how it has changed.

V.8 is really just an earlier version of V.9

V.7 - The stairs were on the opposite side... this one felt too flat to me.

V.6  was abandoned before it was finished.

V.3, 4 & 5 are really just variations in layout. Here's V.5...

 V.4....

And V.3 ...

 V.2

 And my first attempt... V.1 (This was before we had the trailer, and is designed for a 20fter)

We had originally thought of putting a roll-out bed under the desk on the left., but to do that you have to have at least as much open floor space.

The Subfloor and ARGH #1

Over the last couple of weeks, the weather has been decent on the weekends and we were able to get the subfloor framed, insulated and sheathed.  Below are some pictures of the subfloor going in.

I don't have any pictures with the sheathing yet, but I'll get them posted soon.  

ARGH #1 - A word to the wise - When we bought the plywood for the sheathing, we bought  4' x 8' T&G (Tongue & Groove) What we didn't realize was Home Depot carries "scant face" T&G plywood, meaning that the face of the plywood is actually only 47 5/8" (the tongue being the last 3/8"). Our subfloor framing is 24" on center so after getting a couple pieces down, Darrin found out quickly that the plywood wasn't matching on center.... ARGH!  After doing a little internet surfing, he realized what he had bought. He made it work, but it was frustrating, and a good thing to know!

Concept #1

Possible exterior finishes

Trailers

You can build a tiny house on just about any flatbed trailer. 

We started by looking at car haulers, which a lot of people have built on.  But, after having read "Tiny House Decisons" by Ethan Waldman, we decided to go with a trailer built for a tiny house.  Ethan had a trailer that was given to him and spent a lot of time and money refurbishing it.  So, the trailer was free, but the work it took sounded like a huge pain in the butt.  Darrin and I figure, this is our foundation... might as well start with something new and sound.

Next, we looked into getting a Tumbleweed Tiny House Trailer.  These are nice trailers with some extras especially for tiny houses. We came damned close to ordering one, but hadn't seen any tiny houses in person, so were holding off for that.

After visiting the Caravan Tiny House Hotel and talking to Ben (the builder) there we decided to look into Iron Eagle for a trailer.  The week after we came back from Portland, I called Iron Eagle and talked to Rob, their PAD Series salesman (PAD = Portland Alternative Dwellings).  Through Rob I found out that there is a distributor about 10 mins from us, (crazy!) who sells the PAD Series trailers and had 3 on order to be delivered the next Monday.  He suggested we go take a look at them.  We still planned to drive to Fairview Oregon to pick one up directly from Iron Eagle, because they were $1,000 bucks cheaper. 

When we visited Trailers NW on Maple Valley highway, we found the trailers hadn't been delivered yet, but they did have a couple of 20' trailers they could show us.  We also found that the $1,000 difference was because the trailers they sell are equipped with wheel flashing, attached leveling jacks and metal bed sheeting. Darrin definitely wanted the metal sheeting, and since that was a huge part of the price difference we decided to go for it!

Diggie inspected it for us and gave us the go ahead... next we need to lock down a design!

An Encounter with Tiny House Nation

So, an odd thing happened the last week or so.  Darrin works for Magellan Insulation and his company was contracted to insulate a tiny house in Kenmore with a special spray foam made by a company called Demilec.  This tiny house is going to be featured on Tiny House Nation, (Episode #209) a show about the growing tiny house movement. Darrin and I watch the show because they have some pretty nifty space saving ideas for downsizing, and it's fun to see what they do with these little houses.

Darrin and I drove up Kenmore on Sunday to take a look.  This house is being built on an 8' x 24' trailer (same as ours) and will have a double loft.  Unfortunately, when we saw it, they hadn't finished framing it so it's anyone's guess what the finished house will look like, but here are a couple pictures...

This house looks very narrow in person because it's so tall and there is no variation in roof pitch.  Zack Giffin, from the show, was on site when we got there, so we got to meet him and chat with him for a couple minutes.  Darrin has been to the site a couple of times to check on the insulation and got to meet John Weisbarth and even got to hang out and chat with Zack a while longer. Pretty neat! It's definitely more fun watching the show after you've met the guys.  I'll be interested to see the episode. =)