Moving day

I tacked the rear left outriggers in place and prepped the right rear (grinding off the paint, measuring and marking locations).  In the evening I build a large plywood box to house my solar panels, batteries, inverters and tool at the new build site.  Sunday morning I packed up my stuff and moved.  In the evening I continued on with tacking the outriggers in place.

Expenses to date $4,032

Rainy days

June in the Okanagan valley was very wet and July started the same.  All that water slowed down the build by a couple of weeks.

I have only received part of my order for metal, Spartan Metal was backed up with too much work but I didn't need the rest of the order anyway.  During the week I went over the design and decided to add 3 more out riggers per side.  This dropped the load on each on to 230lbs.  I also realized a was missing a cross bar.  I think I changed my order about 4 times but Joel was patient with me.  The rest of my order was finished today, I quickly ducked out of work to pick it up.

Expenses to date $3,928

Starting the welding

I'm mostly done the design side.  I'll be sending the plans off to the SIP manufacturer once I'm done the floor and I'm hoping for a fairly quick turn around.

The bearings on the rear axle of the trailer are both completely shot.  I'll probably end up replacing the axles with 5000lbs axles (they are currently 3500lbs).  I need to bring the trailer 2 hours north to pick up the SIPs so I'll have to replace the bearings.  On the plus side I'll be able to sell the axles and make some money back.

I did the math on the weight of some of the main components.  Just to give an idea of how it all adds up.

SIPs	3100 lbs
Loft floor	250 lbs
Siding	1300lbs
Interior paneling	1100lbs
Roofing	600 lbs

Total 6350lbs

5000lbs will be supported on the 10" outriggers, this means each of the 16 outrigger will be supporting 300lbs.

Build progress!

Saturday I picked up some of my metal order so I could get started.  I also grabbed the MIG welder from work.  I spent the rest of the day getting the trailer level, practicing my welding, prepping the trailer and cutting the steel.

Sunday I started welding the angle iron to the trailer.  My first attempt was a disaster, the welding was not going smooth and the section where not level or in line.  It took most of the day and frustrated I called quits after only welding 6 sections.  I decided to go pick up the wood for the joists and managed to get them cut.

First thing on Monday I strung a string between the the start of the first piece and the end of the last piece.  This established a straight and level line to use as a guide.  I cut 2 sections off the trailer, cut new angle and welded them back on.  This was way easier and gave very good results.  I transferred the start and end point over the the right side of the trailer and did the same trick with the string.  An old guy selling house number signs dropped by while I was doing this, as it turns out he is retired welder.  We chatted about the difficulty I was having with my welding.  He gave me a few pointers for setting the welder and it became easier.

With another round of storm cloud threatening rain, I finished the day having welded all the joist supports and temporally placed the joists.

Expenses to date $3,695

Just a little bump in the road

Unfortunately I'm looking for a new place to build the tiny home.  After bringing the trailer home the owner's had a change of hart.  They have a couple of small kids so it is understandable.  This means I have to find a place fairly quickly to build.  I'm hoping to find something by July 1st so progress is not slowed down too much.

I'm using the time to redesign the tiny house now that I have an actual trailer (something I would have to do anyway).  I'll also be able to build the deck and order the SIPs before I move.

The trailer has the wheels pretty far back.  The good thing about this is my front door will be centered on the side of trailer.  The down side is I have to be careful not to have the weight too far forward.  To accomplish this I'll be putting the loft, bathroom, washer and kitchen at the back of the trailer and leaving some space at the front of the trailer empty.  I'll also be playing with the location of the battery bank once I have the shell up.  The deck height is only 21" (3" lower then Tumbleweed's) and the length is 26 feet.

The redesigned floor plan

The trailer

I took my fist real step towards building my tiny home.  I finally bought a trailer to use as a foundation!

The trailer was originally build in Edmonton, Alberta and used to move fiberglass pools and spas.  The second owner used to build and float a large raft.  They found the trailer too long and had the last 6 feet cut off.

Expenses to date $2800

The Portland Tiny House workshop

After months of talking about tiny house this is the first tiny expense!  It was a fun weekend and Portland is a wonderful city. Met some great people and got some great information.

My Sketchup drawings so far, based on a 20' car hauler trailer.  The purple square is the toilet.

In the beginning...

It all started with a friend who stayed in one place about as much as your average tumbleweed.  She was moving to northern Alberta and looking for a truck to tow her horses.  As a joke I sent her this link

http://tinyhouseswoon.com/tiny-tack-house/#more-2704

 Over the next several months of couple of months we would bounce ideas off each other and I started sketching out the seed of my house plan.