In the beginning...
...there was a dream. And then lots of research and head scratching, and 5 months on we're securing our loft joists and waiting for good weather to put the roof on.
When we decided that a tiny house was the way to go, I was possessed by the tiny house demons. I ate, drank and slept tiny houses and I would wake every morning needing my fix. It wasn't long before I'd exhausted just about all the blogs, websites, e-books and youtube videos out there (that took about 3 weeks) and started playing around with dimensions and layouts. I was feeling a little ashamed of my obsession but was redeemed when Rory suggested we just go ahead and order the trailer. Excellent, we were in this together!
Seeing as the trailer is the foundation for the house, we decided to import a custom trailer from Iron Eagle in the US. The next post will be all about how we got our trailer, which is a saga unto itself, but once the order was made we sighed with relief. The decision was made, we were really doing this. How exciting... until we realised we had nowhere to put it.
Anyone who knows Vancouver will sympathize that space here comes at a premium: any space. So we started talking; talking to everybody and searching Craigslist, reconsidering our priorities to go further and further away from the city until about 2 weeks before the trailer was due to arrive. That's when an opportunity to have (almost) everything we wanted in a site landed in our laps, courtesy of a fellow who has coffee at the same Starbucks as Rory's parents (thanks Bill and Susan!). It pays to talk, people! Now our trailer is settled on a site with a woodshop, tucked away under the watchful eyes of good neighbours, 20 minutes from where we live and all for an excellent price. Score.
Meanwhile, we were nailing down our plans. Not having found any that captured our style, we came across Shawn Dehner at Small House Catalogue (http://www.thesmallhousecatalog.com) who drafted up our tiny house building plans from floor plans we sent him. We ran any adjustments by our professional peeps to vet (thanks Uncle Steve!), ensuring our ideas were sound, and once we figured out how to start, it was on. On like Donkey Kong.
We started building the subfloor in the rain, in a lake. It was wet, muddy and generally miserable but now that we'd started nothing could dampen our spirits. Although let me just say that I had no idea we'd be spending so much time under tarps: moving tarps, folding and unfolding tarps, stapling tarps, draping tarps and then buying new tarps. In the end you not only become intimately acquainted with your structure but a master of giant oragami.
By this point Rory was possessed by the tiny house demons too, so we had a lot of momentum keeping us going. It wasn't long before the basic skeleton was up and we were put through our paces.
The following lessons were learned experientially: remember to tarp unfinished subfloor during rain storms; how to cut straight with the skillsaw; not sawing through the cord of the skill saw; do not saw on top of other peices you do not want to also saw; the impact driver is loud; a full 8 foot sheet of 1/2" plywood is too heavy for L-Dawg; ensure all king studs are the same length; the trailer can sag; propane can be syphoned... you get the idea. We have also changed the old addage 'measure twice, cut once' to 'measure 3 times, cut once, measure once again, probably cut again'. Suffice to say I have a whole new respect for anyone who builds anything themselves.
The 'build-as-you-go' method works for us since we are using a lot of reclaimed materials. We just couldn't have all the measurements from the get-go, so bits and pieces have gone up at a time and some things are reinforced and completed later on. By the end of year, we had the sheathing up and were ready to wrap.
Eager to make the most of the holidays we put in seven 8-hour days in 2 weeks, hustling to get the windows in, trim and siding on so that we could be warm inside by the new year. Naturally it helps to measure the window openings properly but hey, nothing a hammer and saw can't fix!
By the start of 2015 we were on a mission to get this thing sealed up. Honestly, by the time we'd finished the siding on one side of the house, this place did not feel so tiny. It felt enormous. The window trim was surprisingly agonizing and as with most tasks on this project, by the time we'd mastered the process we were finished and on to the next thing. That being said, the place really feels like a home now and is nice and cozy inside. And I'm dominating the saw.
Going hard for a sustained period also brought us to a most important lesson: it's okay to take a break. We had burnt out. And after about a week of chilling out we remembered how much we loved what we were doing and why we were doing it, and came back at it with renewed determination.
And that brings us to today. Siding pretty well finished, we put the peal and stick layer on the roof sheathing and are now waiting for the sun to stay out longer than a day to get the metal on. I can't quite believe we've built this thing in a matter of months but I think we're both excited about the day we can arrive and not have to leave, because it will be where we live.
This post is super long because we're bringing you up to speed. The next few posts will be a bit info heavy too as we share a lot of the more technical details we've learned. Well done for hanging in there!
