First Month Living in the Tiny House

I have to say that after living in a not-quite-finished tiny house for a month I love it.  It may be cluttered but the size feels right.

The last 3 weeks where incredibly busy with work and trying to get the house livable. For most of time I was using a pop bottle to shower, it was only on the 2nd last day that I had a working shower (it was awesome!).  I'm taking a 6 week break from the house and I won't be able to do very much when I get back so the pressure is on.

I'm going try to take pictures when I get back into the house of all these projects


Stained and installed almost all of the siding

Plumbed all the gas lines using black iron and copper lines

Installed the stove, furnace and hot water tank

Installed the kitchen sink

Installed most fresh water lines

Plumbed the shower

Built a rough outline of the cabinetry

Moving Days!

Moving a tiny house for the first time is a stressful experience, and to top it off I was starting a job as soon as I arrived.
When I attached the tiny house to my truck the truck's rear wheels looked ready to pop.  The trailer tires didn't look much better.  It was pretty late so i decided to sleep on the problem.  The next morning I called around and came up with a new plan.
Trip 1
Truck loaded with the washing machine and batteries would pull a trailer loaded with my second vehicle which would also be filled with stuff.
Trip 2 Calgary -> Okanagan
Rented 1 ton pickup would bring the rented trailer back to Kelowna
Trip 3 Okanagan -> Calgary
Rented 1 ton would pull the tiny house to Calgary

Feeling a lot more confident about the move I departed on the first trip.  I checked my axle weights and found out I was carrying too much weight on the trucks rear axle.  This was solved by moving the batteries into the trunk of my second vehicle.  The rest of the trip went well except for my headlights being a little high.
I slept in the truck at a visitors center and made it into to the property around noon.  With unloading the car and getting the rental sorted I was 5 hours behind my schedule.  I was able to make up a little bit of time returning to the Okanagan with the empty trailer.  I finally made it to bed around 2 am.
I was up early the next morning to finish cleaning the place that I was leaving. I still had to get the rear bumper and lights done.  I pulled the house into the main parking area to weld the bumper and I was already impressed with how well the rental truck handled the weight.

By 3pm I was on the road back to Calgary, the Tiny house handled really well.  I did keep my speed around 80 to 90 km/h (50 to 55mph).  I averaged 25L/100kms (9.5mpg)for the trip, that's 1 liter of diesel every 4 kms!  The truck handled the weight no problem including going up and down the steep mountain passes.  The only problem was the trailer axles where loaded with 9500lbs, far heavier than I expected.
I arrived at the site at 2:00am and proceeded to position the house and unload the rental.  By the time I returned the truck and crawled into bed it was 5:00am giving me a whole hour of sleep before starting my new job.

Getting ready to move

I'm actually writing this post in late August.  There have been a lot of changes and progress over the last month and I wanted to break the posts into smaller pieces.

On July 31st I moved to the Calgary area.  With so must left to complete on the house and having to plan/pack for the move its going to be a busy time.

The still open bay window roof became the first priority and 2 days later it was insulated and covered.

Later the same day the short wall had half its siding done. 

On the 23rd I had to make a trip to pick up more siding, I wasn't sure I would have enough of the 4' pieces to finish.  Despite the ungainly appearance it handled very well.

The next day the new wood was sanded, washed and partially stained.  This was thanks to my classmate that picked the colors and 2 of her friends.

After this I was really busy, most days where 12+ hours working on the house and running errands.  I didn't get much time to take pictures.
The main roof took a couple of days to finish up.  The loft soffit needed to be painted and installed, the ridge cap and trim for the soffits finished up the job.  All in all I'm happy with how the roof turned out.
The last few days where spent packing and preparing for the move but I did manage to put a little more siding on.

Painting and more painting

The past month has mostly been a lot of prep work, not very exciting and very time consuming.  I also was out of town a few times looking for a location for the tiny house.  I'll be leaving the Okanagan behind for a while.  It has also gotten very hot with highs in the 35C to 40C (95F to 104F), not the most fun temps to be trying to work in.

Cedar siding all sanded and ready for washing.

 Testing the stain on a few boards.

It turned out to be too yellow, so my friend and I headed back to the very patient staff at Benjamen Moore.  They where very obliging and did up another dozen colors and after much thought Espresso was the winner!

 The previous stain will be used on the backs of the boards so there is no wastage.  This stack is about 1/3 of the siding and took about 8 hours to apply.

I also have been painting the interior wall covering.  I'm normally against painting wood but it is a low quality pine.

 It also gives the tiny house a nice cottage feel

The siding is finally starting to go one.  I'm loving the color.

I got around to designing the roof for the bay window.  There where so many angles to cut and I ended up using a band saw, table saw, compound miter saw and jig saw to get them all done.

Pretty picture!

Expenses to date: TBD

So many things

I've been working 10 hour days for the last couple of weeks so lots of updates.
 
Finished installing the loft roof installation and most of the main roof.

This allowed me to make progress on the fascia boards.  I started by painting them and drilling a ton of holes for the roof venting.  I could have bought plastic vents but it would have cost about $120.  To drill the holes quickly and accurately I made a jig out of a 2x4 on the drill press. I stapled screening on the back side to keep bugs out.

One down, three to go

I put most of the roofing on.  I just have a few pieces left to install but it will keep the rain out.  I used ladders for the loft area but ending up renting scaffolding to do the rest.  It was cheap ($50) and made the job way easier, faster and safer.  My roommate what kind enough to paint my front door for me.

I finished off today by staring on the shower install.  I put 1/8" board behind it to protect the vapour barrier and cut the hole in the floor for the drain.  It's a big shower but it just fits in.

I've also picked up the siding and interior wall covering.  Both need to be painted, so much work to do before I move at the end of the month.

Expenses to date: $20,957

All about the roof

Even though rock wool is less itchy then fiberglass I still hate insulating.  I need the insulation in place before the fascia goes on.  This will allow me to cram extra insulation behind the fascia to make sure I get good coverage.  At this point I wish I had spent more time looking at spray foam.

Because I added the collar ties its taking longer to make all the cuts in the insulation.

I was excited to pick up the metal roofing.  I like the red :)

Expenses to date: $19,197

The detachable eaves

I just finished installing the brackets for the removable eaves.  The next step was to mark the fascia and drill holes.  I ruined the first set of fascia boards and on the next set I decided to mark them in place.

It worked like a charm!  I only had to slightly correct a few holes.  Next stop insulating the roof!

SIPs vs Stick final costs

The total cost of the wall and roof framing, including insulation and vapour barrier, came to $3,458.  This level of completion is similar to what a SIP build would be.  Back in August 2013  I had estimated that a it would be $3,500, which makes me pretty bang on.

I would have liked to have built with SIPs but the $9,000 to $10,000 quotes where way too much money.  Granted I would have been finished the house by now.

All in all I'm happy with my decision to stick build.

Finished doors and windows

My brother had time this weekend to help me finish installing the windows and even the door.  It's finally starting to look better.

As a bonus my roofing has arrived and I'll pick it up later in the week.

Installing more windows

Yesterday I prepped the rest of the window openings for the windows and today my brother came over again to help with the install.  My new view.

I also managed to re-frame the door opening and I'm hoping to get that in soon too.

Installing the windows

Soooo, that door was the right size but my rough opening what out by an inch.  I decided to rip it all out and start over.  I'll try to take another pic tomorrow.

Drilling holes in my window frames.  Does that void the warranty? :-)

My brother came over and helped me install these 5 windows today.  I'm impressed with how it changes the look.

After he left I prepped the loft window openings

Expenses to date: $18,729

Door and Window Sensors

The sensors came in :)
I popped over the boarder again to grab them.  The sensors will run at 12v but the Spark Core operates a 3.3v, this meant I had to do a little circuit design to keep from frying the Core.

The Core's will be the interface between a computer and all the house's sensors, lights and appliances.

Expenses to date: $18,697

Roof brackets prepped for paint

Finished the last of the prep work for the roof brackets.  It was a ton of work, I probably have 40 hours on these so far.

The roofing has been order and should be here in two weeks.

Looking at siding

I took the motorcycle up to a local saw mill to decide on siding.  I'm going with a v-groove flat siding if I can piggy back on another order.

The door and window sensors where ordered and should be here in a few days.  I'll be able to install the windows once they are installed in the frames.

Getting the shower in

I just arrived back from another 2 day trip to the states, my last 3 windows where ready for pickup!  While I was down there I took a second look at doors and ended up picking up this printable fiberglass door with a left inward swing and in the right size.
 

I've been looking for a one piece 36x36 that was less then 76" tall.  While in home depot I found one in stock!  I ended up going back on the second day and just paid the extra taxes at the boarder.  They gave me a bit of a deal because of the problems with windows.

When I got the shower home it would not fit thru the door and after a looking at every possibility I decided that I would have to make a hole in the roof.  It took about 6 hours to remove one rafter, part of the roof decking, hoist the shower over the wall and then put everything back.

Ta da!

Expenses to date: $17,930

So its been two months...

The tiny house has been on the back burner for the last couple of months.  I decided to focus on school and pretty much everything else was put on the back burner.  The last two weeks I've been off so I've put a lot more time into the house and I have a few tasks nearing completion so there should be some big changes in the next few weeks.

I have still accomplished a few things while in school.  The bay window is almost done.  It have wiring, sheathing, insulation and vapour barrier done.  With wiring passing through the bay window I have also been able to finish the wiring and insulation on the last wall.

The vapour barrier on the north wall is mostly done.  I just have to pass a few more wires thru it before I can finish.

The windows have mostly arrived.  There was no packing during shipping so some of the screens where damages.  I have to make another trip to the states to pick up the last 3.

I found a store locally that has roofing for the same price as in the states.  They have more choice of colours so once that is sorted out then I'll be ordering it.  As a bonus they will cut to length for me.

I've been busy the last week fabricating the brackets for the roof extensions.  I have spent about 16 hours making the 40 brackets but I think the end result will be worth it.

I've been super geeking out over the performance of my solar setup.  It has been producing enough power to keep the welder going without having to run the generator.  At one point the panels where producing over 30A even though they are only rated to produce 22A.  :)

Expenses to date: $17,014