Monday, March 29, 2010

Plans


I've been rather busy the past week so construction on the TH has been slow. Since I haven't posted in a bit I figured I'd show you all what the TH should look like when completed. I chose to work with this design for a few reasons. The first reason is that they were free. Cha-Ching! Secondly and most importantly, they look amazing. These plans were put together by Michael Janzen at tinyhousedesign.com, and he generously made them free for all to use. Thanks Michael!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Totally floored (I'm so clever)


Next on the agenda? Framing out the flooring. As you can see in this first picture, I removed a small plank from the deck and spread the other planks out in 3 different spots to allow for easier access when i lag bolt the walls to the trailer.

Then the framing begins, this part is pretty self explanatory. I nailed all the wood together with single nails to hold it all in place then I screwed everything together. Next up, securing the floor to the deck, followed by insulation and OSB.

Totally screwed






So, the decking that came with my trailer didn't come screwed to the trailer itself. My task today was to alleviate that problem in order to connect the floor framing to the trailer. These screws are what I used. They are called drill screws and maybe a couple of other things.



What they do is connect wood to metal, if you can see in the picture, there are little wings or tabs which bore out the wood and then the screw self drills into the metal once the tabs hit metal they shear off and finally that little notch visible in the image taps threads into the metal and tada wood secured to metal. These particular ones were about $6 for 15 screws, not cheap, but well worth it in the long run.




These are really nice and quite difficult to install, drilling a pilot hole (even a small one) makes the process quicker and easier. But in the end your TH will be far more secure because of these little guys.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Lumber time


Just picked up my first load of lumber and probably the last load until it moves. If my figurings are correct this will be enough to finish the shell of the TH (the descriptor "tiny house" will be replaced with TH from now on.)

Quick note to anyone planning on building one of these (or anything at that)...buy your lumber from a lumber yard, they do all the work and usually are competetive with Lowes or HD price-wise.

I was going to begin some construction today but after unloading the lumber and getting all my tools set up, I was beat. Also, I have a show tonight so don't want to start something I can't finish.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Another post so soon?


Phase one of this project has already been completed. The purchase of a trailer which will be the foundation of my tiny house. It's a 7'x16' trailer with dual 3500lb axles (making this a 7000lb trailer) electric brakes and some serious Mojo, it's first image reveals it's true nature, note it's halo. Or is that just a lense flare? Either way this is destined to seriously rock! So hold onto your socks people.

YO YO People!

Welcome! To my first blog post ever, after much deliberation and debate and 3 year hiatus from college I Adam Waltering of Spokane WA have decided to return to college. Yay me, but this is expensive and I am 27 and Architecture school is like 6 years and thats after I gain Montana residency and how will I maintain my current comfortable lifestyle.....urrrrrrrrch. Slow down Adam there is a simple solution. What's that you ask? Tiny house. What's a tiny house? Well its a house that is tiny, usually built on a trailer, and well the words "tiny" and "house" pretty much sum it up.

This blog will document the process of the build of my tiny house and hopefully serve as inspiration to anyone else wishing to make a drastic life-change but feel it's too daunting a task. I am lazy and difficult to self motivate outside a job setting, so this project is just what I need to get the old blood a flowin...let the games begin!