Mini-Mobile Cottage

An Update on the Garden

2010-07-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

This being only my second attempt at gardening, I think that it's going quite well. In a previous post on gardening I listed what I was going to plant. Almost everything grew like weeds.

The photos were taken on May 25 and June 27.

I did have a couple of problems though. Bell pepper, corn and cucumber seeds never sprouted. And I bought bell pepper and basil plants, but the things aren't growing, though the pepper plants are creating vegetables.

I did see a few slugs when I first planted but stopped watering the plants after the sun went down. The little creatures then went elsewhere.

For fertilizer I've been using a liquid concentrate made from seaweed and rabbit poo (thanks to our backyard rabbit Bluebell, whom I gladly share vegetables with).

I had two surprises this year. The first is that if you let microgreens grow, they don't stay so micro. (Duh.) I found this out because I planted too much lettuce, microgreens and chard. We couldn't eat it, or use it in smoothies, fast enough. I've given bags of it to neighbors, Lorraine and Brandon at the gym and the folks at work.

The second surprise is that I bought a seed packet containing 'mixed microgreens'. This must mean 'left over seeds; we don't know what they are since we won't list them on the packet'. Since cutting microgreens was more difficult than grabbing some lettuce, I let the stuff grow. We were happily surprised with unplanned broccoli rabe, bok choy, beets and radishes.

The only plants that died were the mail order heirloom tomatoes. Those tomatoes run $6 to $8 lb in the store so I was excited about these. They arrived wilted, small and really quite sad looking. I did what the instructions suggested to revive them, but they didn't make it. I replaced them with regular local plants and next year will only buy locally.

What I've learned so far:

Plant less lettuce. It seems to grow from seed easily and very quickly.

Do more research on what to plant when. As I plant new things I'm paying more attention to the season it grows best in. My mache' lettuce wilts in the heat but the greenleaf and redleaf lettuce do fine.

An Analysis of the Tiny House Blog Network

2010-05-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

Do you have a tiny house blog? When you write something, how many people read it? One way to make a guess at how many folks read it is how many folks comment on it. But if 3 people comment on it, dose that mean only 3 people read it? No. Generally, more people read than comment.

How about followers? Maybe you have statistics that say 40 or so folks "follow" your blog. So does that mean 40 people read your post? Maybe, maybe not. The number could be smaller since of those 40 followers only a fraction will read every post. But the number could be higher because other bloggers may read your post and write about it (generally linking to your blog or the specific post). This may bring other readers to your site.

So lets talk about links. There are two basic kinds of links in the blogosphere. First are the links in blogrolls. These are static, meaning they don't change much. They are also generally strategic - meaning as bloggers we make choices about who we link to (for this post I will not talk about the politics of links, but I might in a future post). The other kind is a citation link. If anyone writes about this post in their blog they will likely follow general blogger etiquette by linking to it. They might say it's all hog-wash, or that it's interesting, but generally most bloggers link to a post that inspires or influences them in their own post.

And those links form a network. I used a tool called the Issue Crawler to capture the network generated by blogrolls and citations to make a visualization of the blogs that form what is called a topic network. The topic, is, of course, Tiny Houses. Where are you on the map?

So let me tell you what the map means. (Download a large version here).

First, the map captures the top 50 nodes (blogs) in the Tiny House Issue Network. The size of the node is based on the number of in-links (either from citations or blogrolls). Below I have posted the top 93 sites and the number of in-links that Issue Crawler could find (which may not be every single one). The size and position of the nodes are related to how many in-links that blog has received.

If you make money from advertising (Arlene and I do not) than site traffic is important to you and site traffic is, as we say in statistical parlance, positively related to in-links. That just means that more in-links you have, the more traffic you are likely to have (other things being equal).

I haven't done a formal analysis of this network, so I don't have much else to say about it for now. I will say that some sites on the map (like Wikipedia) may or may not be relevant to the topic network. We could probably make arguments on either side for including this or that site, or not including them. That would depend on the analysis.

So, are you on the top 10 list? Top 93? Issue Crawler only lists and plots sites that have two or more in-links from other sites within the network - so we have a list of 93 blogs and their ranking. Tiny House Blog has a very high number of in-links, so it is central to the map. But some of those links are not from the collection of 93. So the numbers on the map may not match the within-network ranking.

But, anyway, here is the Tiny House Issue Network ranking:

Actor Rankings (core network and periphery, by page)
1 - tinyhouseblog.com - 47
2 - tinyhousedesign.com - 42
3 - tumbleweedhouses.com - 34
4 - resourcesforlife.com - 31
5 - tinyfreehouse.com - 27
6 - michaeljanzen.com - 26
7 - rowdykittens.com - 25
8 - thistinyhouse.com - 22
9 - comingunmoored.com - 21
10 - smalllivingjournal.com - 21
11 - tinyhouseliving.com - 19
12 - ninetinyfeet.com - 18
13 - wordpress.com - 17
14 - paddleways.com - 15
15 - storyofstuff.com - 15
16 - thetinylife.com - 14
17 - tortoiseshellhome.com - 14
18 - shedworking.co.uk - 13
19 - jaystinyhouse.com - 13
20 - smallhousestyle.com - 13
21 - tinypallethouse.com - 12
22 - tinyhouseforum.com - 12
23 - diyfreedom.com - 11
24 - flickr.com - 11
25 - tinyhousejournal.com - 11
26 - apartmenttherapy.com - 11
27 - tinytexashouses.com - 11
28 - littlediggs.com - 11
29 - tinyhousevillage.com - 11
30 - mobilecottage.blogspot.com - 11
31 - togetherweareone.com - 10
32 - rosschapin.com - 10
33 - thegreenestdollar.com - 9
34 - theyonderosa.blogspot.com - 9
35 - energystar.gov - 9
36 - greenaerie.blogspot.com - 8
37 - livinglargeinourlittlehouse.com - 8
38 - otherpower.com - 8
39 - relaxshax.wordpress.com - 8
40 - zenhabits.net - 8
41 - microcompacthome.com - 8
42 - lodge-on-wheels.com - 8
43 - kithaus.com - 8
44 - relaxshacks.com - 8
45 - smallhousesociety.org - 8
46 - sustain.ca - 8
47 - martinhousetogo.com - 8
48 - notsobighouse.com - 8
49 - tinyhousetalk.com - 7
50 - juliajanzen.com - 7
51 - weehouse.com - 7
52 - inhabitat.com - 7
53 - moderncabana.com - 7
54 - freecycle.org - 7
55 - truckingpilgrim.blogspot.com - 7
56 - claytonihouse.com - 7
57 - accessahut.wordpress.com - 7
58 - dwell.com - 7
59 - npr.org - 7
60 - time.com - 7
61 - cusatocottages.com - 7
62 - en.wikipedia.org - 6
63 - sonomashanty.com - 6
64 - tinyhouses.net - 6
65 - kmswoodworks.wordpress.com - 6
66 - portlandalternativedwellings.com - 6
67 - claytonhomes.com - 6
68 - littlehouseonasmallplanet.com - 6
69 - projectrollingfreedom.wordpress.com - 6
70 - jenkinspublishing.com - 6
71 - realestatejournal.com - 6
72 - buildingwithawareness.com - 5
73 - projectrollingfreedom.com - 5
74 - felinedesigninc.com - 5
75 - small-house-building.com - 5
76 - lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com - 5
77 - ultimatemoneyblog.com - 5
78 - metaphysics-for-life.com - 5
79 - ebay.com - 5
80 - josephkenyon.com - 5
81 - rocioromero.com - 5
82 - off-grid.se - 5
83 - cobcottage.com - 5
84 - contests.apartmenttherapy.com - 4
85 - coyotecottage.com - 4
86 - cottagecompany.com - 4
87 - bluhomes.com - 4
88 - slowingdown.wordpress.com - 4
89 - ted.com - 4
90 - thescraphouse.wordpress.com - 4
91 - powellriverbooks.blogspot.com - 4
92 - edavies.nildram.co.uk - 4
93 - goyurt.com - 4

The next project is the drapes

2010-05-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Now that I've painted, I've figured out what I want to do for drapes. I was looking for a woven material so we'd let in lots of air and light. At night we can close the honeycomb blinds for added privacy and darkness.

What we have hanging now is liner material, like bleached muslin, scavenged from some old drapes. Yesterday I bought off-white burlap for the drapes and oatmeal colored linen-like ribbon to be used along the sides and bottom (to give a bit more contrast from the walls). I might also add a couple of 1.25" diameter simple, wooden buttons to each window so we can hold the new drapes open.

I need to sew along the cut edges of the fabric to prevent it from unraveling then it'll go into the washing machine until it's softer. I'm told to expect a little shrinking too. I'm curious to see what it comes out like because I haven't worked with burlap before. The price was worth gambling on though. I paid $10.50 for 9 yards of fabric (on sale) which should be enough for all of the windows.

An update on the garden

2010-05-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

The first cycle of everything has been planted and is sprouting like crazy. In my quest to see if I can grow all of my own food, I ended up planting:

peas
cucumbers
string beans
melons
squash
soybeans
micro greens
beets
carrots
bell peppers
poblano chiles
fractal-like cauliflower
2 different lettuces
4 different heirloom tomatoes
cilantro
basil
scallions
some edible flowers as well as
rosemary
lavender
peonies
lily of the valley
hollyhock
and wildflowers to bring bees and hummingbirds.

These pictures were taken on May 1st.

An update on the interior

2010-04-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

I really want a cottage feel to our interior so I painted it a creamy white (Freshaire Choice non-VOC, 'Poetic Light').

I like the effect of the lights at night bouncing off the walls and ceiling, and even on a grey day, it's much brighter inside even without the lights on.

Garden Plans

2010-02-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

I can tell that it's almost gardening time here in Seattle because, as Jeff and I take evening walks around our neighborhood, we see that people have been weeding their raised bed gardens. I've just ordered my seeds hoping that I'm not starting too late.

I spoke with our host family the other day asking what plans they have for their backyard garden this year. They said that it's completely mine to use since they expect to be too busy to work it. This is rather exciting news!... though it's also been a bit overwhelming because this will be my first real gardening project so I've needed to do lots of research.

Years ago I had a raised bed garden in California that measured 3'x6'. Sure I thought it went pretty well but I had simply bought some plants, placed them in the dirt, watered them and luckily they grew. This time I'll have an in-ground garden measuring 10'x24' to work with. Besides the increase in space, two major changes will be that I plan on preparing the soil before planting and will be starting with seeds as much as possible instead of just buying plants.

The two gardening books that I'll be using for reference are:

area specific: Maritime Northwest Garden Guide
by the Seattle Tilth which gives a month by guide as to what needs to be done in the garden and

production specific: The Postage Stamp Garden Book
by Duane Newcomb which addresses the issues of both organic and continual harvest gardening

I want a garden because gardening seems like a great way to get fresh, organic produce while also getting some exercise. I'm also curious if I can really lower my food bill, break even, or will spend even more by trying to garden year round. It's been difficult to decide what to plant.

I've chosen some of these vegetables because they're expensive to buy. For example, I enjoy eating heirloom tomatoes and red bell peppers, but since they aren't offered at prices that I enjoy paying, I usually pass them by for less expensive versions. I want to make sure that I'm getting my money's worth from the hard work that I'll be doing.

I've also chosen some of them because they're odd so it seems like they'd be fun to grow. Like the golf ball sized carrots, zucchini that are also small and round, the melon with the dark blue/green skin and some edible flowers.

If I find that I'm actually good at gardening then whatever we don't eat, or share with our host family, I'd like to sell at the local farmers market. I've also heard that several of the nearby neighbors always have gardens so I hope to get the chance to meet them, share gardening experiences, and to trade produce.

I've ordered more seeds than I think I'll need to give me extras to use in case of problems. I figure that the worst that can happen is that I'll either trade my extras or I'll have some leftovers for next year.

The vegetables and edible flowers that I've chosen are:

- beets
- carrots (golf ball shaped)
- microgreen mix
- cilantro
- mesclun (early lettuce)
- mache (lettuce)
- red bell peppers (bite sized)
- zucchini (ball shaped)
- heirloom tomatoes (4 types, 1 plant each)
- melon (a hybrid w/ dark skin weighing only 2 lbs each)
- soybeans
- borage (edible leaves and blue flowers)
- cucumbers
- peas (for Zoe!)
- nasturtium (edible leaves and flowers)
- pole green beans

In the coming months I'll be giving you updates and photos explaining what I've done and will also report monthly whether my gardening efforts have lowered my purchased food expenses.

At the end of the year
- I'll show the total that I spent setting up my first garden
- vs how much I would have spent if I'd purchased what I'd grown
- vs how much I'd been spending for food before gardening

If you have any gardening tips then please write me a comment...
especially if you're an experienced gardener living in the Seattle area. Thanks!

Eat Simpler, Save Money 3

2010-01-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

My menu plan...

What I eat for breakfast:

1/2c uncooked old fashioned oatmeal **
1/2 to 3/4 of an apple, chopped
3 raw walnuts, broken into bits
4 raw almonds
1/8c raisins
tsp raw honey
tsp raw sunflower seeds
2tbs ground flax seeds
8oz yogurt or soy/nut/rice/oat milk

** I eat the oatmeal raw; I like the taste and texture just fine this way. Feel free to cook yours if you'd like. Sometimes I change the recipe by exchanging the raw oatmeal with 1/2c steel cut Irish oatmeal. Soak the steel cut oats overnight in water (pour off any excess liquid before eating) and you won't need to buy the yogurt or 'milk'. Other times I exchange the chopped apple for sliced banana.

I reuse small ziplock baggies that I fill once a week with my dry breakfast mixture. On a weekday morning I simply put some chopped apple in a bowl, sprinkle my dry mixture over the top, add the yogurt or fake milk, mix, then drizzle some honey on top.

Using raw, old fashioned oatmeal reminds me of cold cereal with milk. If I use the soaked raw steel cut oats then it has a coarser texture reminding me of slow cooked oatmeal. I eat these at room temperature but you could gently warm the soaked steel cut oats in the microwave then add the dry mixture, apple and honey. You could also choose to cook the old fashioned oats then stir in your favorite ingredients. Jeff doesn't like honey so instead he adds some real maple syrup to his.

For snacks:

* apple slices with nut butter
or
* orange with a palm full of mixed raw nuts
or
* banana sliced and mixed in a bowl with sunflower seeds and raisins

For lunch:

A huge salad with lots of different fresh vegetables, sliced avocado, nuts, seeds, raisins, some chopped apple, sprouts of any kind, a tbs of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkle of some nutritional yeast flakes on top for some added flavor. Sometimes I add some soaked, raw lentils too. Get creative and you'll never be bored with salad.

For those of you who cook, you could eat salad for lunch and cook the vegetables in a stir fry or make a soup from them for dinner.

For dinner:

A green smoothie. I vary what I put in it depending on what I've bought that week. One week will include some broccoli, kale, apple, celery and carrot blended with water and the next week will be completely different. Google 'green smoothie recipe' and you'll find lots of variations.

Occasionally I actually take the time to make a recipe instead of simply eating a salad. My favorite raw recipes (surprisingly good and fun like a little science experiment) can be found in:

- The Complete Book of Raw Food by Julie Rodwell (if you buy only one 'raw' book, get this one)

- The Raw Food Gourmet by Gabrielle Chavez

Get creative and have a little fun with your food! There's no end to the way you could use the items on my food list while keeping meals quick, simple, tasty and inexpensive.

Eat Simpler, Save Money 2

2010-01-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

On my blog entry titled "Eat Simpler, Save Money" I listed a sample of my monthly food shopping list. I explained how I eat healthy, home prepared meals and feel very satisfied while spending only about $4.50 a day per person.

To spend that amount, I changed the way that I interacted about food. I now eat only when I'm hungry and I stop eating before I'm full. I never feel hunger pangs or a drop in energy level because I eat 4 to 6 small meals instead of the traditional 3 large ones. I also carry a snack with me everywhere so that I don't spend unnecessarily on unhealthy, expensive impulse buys when I feel the need for a snack.

Most people don't want to eat like I do and I'm definitely not trying to convince anyone to change. Grant left a question under the comment section of my previous "Eat Simpler" blog entry this past week. He asked what sorts of dishes I prepare using the very simple ingredients listed, so I'm posting the answer as a new entry.

Like many other people here in the U.S., I was raised eating mostly processed foods, when I moved out of my parent's home I almost always ate out because I didn't know how to cook well (I took shop classes in school instead of home economics), then I learned how to cook but found that I didn't enjoy spending time in the kitchen. Now I'm mostly a raw vegan. About once a month I'll eat out and have some sashimi (raw fish). Sometimes I'll eat something with dairy or a bit of chocolate but will pay the price later because these are two foods that give me nasty allergic reactions.

I've been trying my best to eat raw vegan for about 2 years because of my food allergies. Since this change in eating, I enjoy spending less time in the kitchen, I feel more energetic, my skin is clearer, my allergies have disappeared, and surprisingly I also lost weight and am now at 120 lbs (just 5 lbs above my high school weight - finally losing 20 pounds of pregnancy weight that I gained 17 years ago).

The taste of a ripe piece of fruit, or a salad with everything in it (instead of just iceberg lettuce and some tomato smothered with pre-made dressing), became absolutely amazing once I stopped eating processed foods!

For the answer to Grant's question about what I do with the food I buy see my next post, "Eat Simpler, Save Money 3".

"So... how is living in the tiny house going?"

2010-01-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

Our friends occasionally ask us, as if they expect the worst, "So... how is living in the tiny house going?"

The two of us have a total of about 120 sq feet of living space, not including the sleeping loft. The space is mostly open so when we are both here, the only way to get away from the other is to go for a walk, or use the restroom for a while. And yet, living in this small space doesn't seem to be causing us the friction that everyone expects.

So, just for fun, we thought we would address this issue in a post written by both of us.

Arlene: Last year I said that I wanted to drastically downsize so that we could get our living expenses as low as absolutely possible while Jeff is in school so I'd suggested that we get a studio apartment while in Seattle (I'd not yet heard of tiny houses).

Jeff: I said I couldn't live in a space that small.

Arlene: Yet we live in a space less than a third of that size now. I think that part of the draw to living in our tiny cottage is that we built it. It truly is a custom home that serves our needs so it doesn't feel small.

Jeff: We've joked for years that we do a 'kitchen dance'.

Arlene: This term describes what we've always done in the galley-style kitchens (long and thin with counters on both sides) in the places we've lived together. I'm at the sink.

Jeff: I'm at the stove.

Arlene: Then we change sides as he comes to get a plate from the cabinet while I put something into the frig.

Jeff: Then back again.

Arlene: But we never bump into each other. Now we laugh because it can feel like the 'kitchen dance' extends the length of the cottage sometimes. I imagine that couples who live on boats about our size have the same experience at times too.

Though we laugh at this 'dance', I don't feel stuffed into too small a space and this in no way feels like simply a 'crash pad' either. I have room for stretching out on the settee to read or watch the birds at the feeder outside the window and also have a space to sit and create artwork. We have had a couple of friends over at a time for social engagements and we both get out quite a bit to see performances, travel, attend club meetings and such.

Jeff: Spending less money on rent and utilities means more money available to do things that we enjoy. The tiny house fits our lifestyle and our values. "So... how is living in the tiny house going?"

So far, so good!

About the heat...

2009-12-30T08:03:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
Our last post about heat, or lack of, got a lot of comments. I started to write a reply comment, but decided to just make it a post. All of the suggestions we received were pretty good, but...

We weigh 7600lbs on a 7000 trailer, so things that add weight are pretty much out. Also, while we love our location, it isn't necessarily permanent, so a trombe wall is out.

Our tiny house is pretty well sealed up. This is good. It means we don't have drafts. And that means we stay warmer. But it also means that using a wood stove would be a problem. Wood stoves suck air for combustion from there surrounding area. In a house with a bit of a draft and a lot of volume this is ok. In a well sealed tiny house, believe it or not, the stove would draw the oxygen out of your breathable air faster than new air would come in. So, you'd have to keep a window open when using it. And that might not be bad, but it might offset some of the gains of using it. A wood stove is also heavy and requires a lot of space around it. I'm not knocking wood stoves. I love them. But in this kind of small mobile space keep the trade offs in mind before installing one.

Refrigerators are another example of a small space fighting to hold its temperature against a larger space. Eventually, if the refrig is unplugged, the inside temperature will match the outside temperature. So you have to run the compressor to maintain the temperature. And we have to run our little heater to maintain our warmth. And actually, with our little stove we can get it up to 65 to 70 degrees, so it is ok. We just have to run it more than we thought.

I think one of the things Arlene wants to communicate is that if you are thinking of building a tiny house, be aware that it might not hold onto the heat as well as you might think. You do have to run the heater. Yeah, you could add more insulation, just be aware of what that might mean in terms of cost and weight and such. If you are in a very cold area, it is probably worth it to add a bit more insulation than we have. But up here we only have a few months of cold a year, and it isn't as cold as, say, Minnesota or Calgary.

In terms of heating, since September we have gone through one 5 gallon bottle of propane and are on the second. I figure that isn't too bad.

Heating a tiny house

2009-12-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

Well, we followed the suggestions as to what insulation to use to build our tiny cottage (2" thick rigid foam planks sealed around the edges with expanding soy foam). But because of the ratio of exterior walls to interior volume, and that we have no air pockets like a heated hallway or closets, we are chillier than I had expected us to be.

I think because it's a very tiny home that takes less energy to heat, I expected it to be toasty inside all of the time. Oh, not so...

On average, we run a 20 to 25 degree difference compared the outside temperature without running the heat, or summertime fan, during normal working hours. (If we never turned on the heat at all this would not be the case.) It turns out that we're cooler in the heat of summer yes. But also cooler in the cold of winter.

There had been an unusually cold day (29F degrees) last month but then it quickly warmed up again. We were comfortable that night so I thought that if the cold weather lasted longer that we'd stay comfortable enough. This past week/current week the high was/is supposed to hover at 32F and the low will be about 22F. This has meant a steady cold and it's been much trickier to stay warm.

Last night we'd had the Newport 900 boat heater on for about 4 hours. At 9pm, the outside temperature was 33F, the inside was 67F with the interior humidity at 48%. This morning at 5am outside was 24F, inside was 52F, and (since we don't keep the dehumidifier on at night) the humidity was 59% . Not as toasty as I'd like to be inside. We were used to turning the heat on very infrequently before moving into the cottage, and we'd simply wear a sweater and slippers at home. In this place, we use more fuel to heat the place and we wear an extra sweater. (We've become quicker at getting dressed first thing in the morning too!) If producing less of a carbon footprint is the reason you want to live in a tiny house, you'll have to figure out how to use less fuel for heating even if this is less expansive than heating a larger space. Insulation is the key; I have no definitive answer as to what to use yet though.

We have winterized, and will continue to do more as we think of what else can be done. We know the following information for sure because (tech geek that he is) Jeff bought two scientific temperature rods that he hooks directly up to his laptop for digital readings:

In early November we started by buying honeycomb shades to better insulate our windows and they keep the inside warmer by 6 degrees. Yes, we bought Low E double pane windows and installed them properly. We have 10 windows plus one skylight.

The industrial felt floor cover feels warmer to the touch than the wood floor, but we've tested it against the wood floor and it doesn't help the inside temperature at all.

I have stuffed dense foam into the 'attic fan' vent louvers and the bathroom exhaust fan outside as well as stuffed the skylight area.

We bought a dehumidifier because we started to get condensation on the window interiors and we don't want mold to form. Before we had the gauge to measure the humidity, the first 36 hours the machine was on we filled the 12 pint reservoir. Since then we leave it on from 5am until about 8pm and it takes two weeks to fill. We now hover between 49% and 60% humidity (gotta breathe but we don't cook at home and we shower at the gym or indoor pool each morning after we workout). We like how the dehumidifier evens out the temperature in the cottage by blowing cooler air up so that the heated air is forced downward. We sit downstairs and want it warmer until we go upstairs to sleep. The sleeping loft area gets heated fairly quickly by the two of us breathing since it's about the size of a two person tent.

We bought a heated water hose from http://nofreezewaterhose.com and it works exactly as advertised.

We've thought about insulating drapes but have decided to wait on those. I need to do more research.

If we were to build another tiny home, or to make some suggestions, it would be:

Buy more heating power than you think it will take if you live in a place that gets cold. (Will a radiant heated floor work in a tiny mobile cottage? I don't know.)
Either buy a different type of insulation or beef up the 2" thick panels because it doesn't retain heat well since these structures are all exterior walls.
I don't know if having a full loft, rather than a partial loft, would keep it warmer downstairs in the winter. It might, but it might also be much hotter upstairs in the summer. We like the air circulation and light. The high ceiling in the living area makes it feel larger so I'm not sure we'd change this design.
Jeff suggests fewer windows.

We hope that you're staying warm this time of year.

Until Spring we'll be posting to this blog only once a month. Currently we're fine tuning the cottage to make it more comfortable so there's not much to post. As it warms up here though, we'd like to settle in a bit more by building a small deck and planting a vegetable garden.

Happy Holidays and have a very Happy New Year!

Cold Feet

2009-11-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

It's been interesting living in our tiny cottage since the beginning of September because we've experienced temperatures between 95F and 29F.

Recently it's been getting cooler so our wood floors have felt uncomfortably cold to me. I tried wearing a couple of pairs of socks to keep my feet warmer but that didn't seem to help. I bought slippers to wear over a pair of socks but that didn't seem to help either.

So I went sneaking off to look for other solutions. I say sneaking because Jeff and I agreed when we first started construction on our cottage that since we love the look of wood floors, we would not to carpet it. Rugs cover the beauty and we also didn't want off-gassing materials in the cottage.

I figured that if I bought an area rug, that we could still see the wood grain around the rug so I wouldn't be actually going against what we'd agreed upon, right? Since I'm the type that prefers to ask for forgiveness, rather than to ask for permission, I snuck off to find a solution that would appeal to both of us.

In our relationship, I have found that when I look at something (like our 'new' used settee) that I can imagine what the end result can look like but I'm not always good at explaining my vision to others. I bought the settee knowing that if Jeff'd been with me that he'd have thought it was too ugly and could never look any better. I could see it's potential though, and we really needed something to sit on, so I went for it. Since it's been recovered and restyled he really likes it. I figured I would try this with a rug...

I looked at both new and used options. I figured that a used rug had off-gassed already so that was what I searched for first. I looked in the better furniture consignment places near us but found nothing in our size or color so I went to four big box stores that carry area rugs then to rug warehouses... and found something that I had never thought of as a solution.

My needs were:
natural fiber
no off-gassing
fairly inexpensive
visually appealing (or at least not too bad to live with for the cold months)
insulating
warm to the touch

My final choice was industrial wool felt. It's 1/2" thick, light grey, has no scent, is soft and warm underfoot. At only $1US/sf I was able to cover the living room and kitchen floors for about $60. I found it at a carpet remnant warehouse but any carpeting store will have it. They sell it as carpet padding.

I explained to Jeff what I wanted to do after the purchase. He saw it rolled and wrapped (and didn't look excited about it) and said he'd be willing to give it a try. When he came home the evening that I had installed it, he stood at the front door and said that it looked a lot better then he'd thought it could. He stepped onto it and liked that it was warm and soft too. It has received a thumbs up so far.

I'm not sure yet how it will wear underfoot but we have had a no-shoes-inside policy (to preserve the soft douglas fir flooring and now to keep the felt clean) and I have put what look like tacks covered with teflon under the legs of the chairs so they glide across the felt. The felt may be a great solution.

It's been only a few days so far, it's been about 30F to 50F, but it seems to be noticeably warmer feeling inside the cottage to both of us. I'll let you know in a month or two if it really is the solution to the cold feet problem...

Progress Update - Oct 25

2009-10-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of weeks I have definitely been busy... although, at times, I have strayed from original to do list.

I have:

finished the paneling and trim around the interior of the front door

completed attaching the paneling on the new bi-fold bathroom door

installed a shelf above both kitchen windows

found, bought, refinished and reupholstered an antique settee (since the big toolbox wasn't really comfortable to sit on)

made a trailer skirt out of old ikea shelf supports and leftover exterior redwood siding

bought a few outdoor bushes and a (very) small fern for inside

and we finally hooked up the propane since it's been getting colder recently. (For more new interior pictures, click the link that says 'More build pics are here' at the top left of our blog.)

This week, if the rain will give me a break, I'll finish the porch. I have a couple of more floor boards to add as well as a plaque that I made. On a rainy day, I will fix up an old trunk for storage under the settee. I also plan to add the rest of the interior trim and putty the nail holes so that I can paint the cottage interior the second weekend of November.

Currently, when you walk into our cottage ALL you see is wood, which is nice, but we agreed that we'd like a bit more visual contrast. Besides, the rainy season has begun so we'll have a few months of grey days. We'd like it to feel brighter when inside even if it's grey outside. The skylight has been helpful, but grey is grey. I have a no-VOC paint (Freshaire Choice). The ceiling will be 'distant star' and the walls will be 'poetic light'. Both are a creamy white with the ceiling a couple of shades lighter than the walls which, I have read, is supposed to make the ceiling feel higher. Even though it's simply visual 'space', I'll give it a try.

Since I'm winding down on the bigger things that need to get finished in order to feel more settled in our new home in a new city, this coming week I'll be making more of effort to find a job. I get quite antsy if I have nothing to do and I have been losing track of days since I don't have an office to go to. I've been working 7 days a week on finishing up the house so there hasn't been a difference between Wednesday or Saturday. I'm really ready to go back to work...

Done... and yet to do.

2009-10-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

We have been working on finishing up the outside of the cottage before the rainy season begins as well as making the inside a bit nicer looking and more comfortable.

After arriving in Seattle, Jeff leveled the trailer and had the cold water working in the kitchen sink by day two. The pex piping had been installed and tested for leaks before the interior walls went up but the faucets & shower head hadn't been attached. While finishing up the water he decided to add a few shut off valves into the system so it looked like a tornado had come through. The sink/counter top/cabinet was uninstalled and sat in the middle of the living room and the wall was off a closet area so he had access to the shower faucet hookup.

The hot water heater has been installed for a long time but we lost the power cord at some point so we've ordered a replacement. The base to the shower hasn't yet been installed so since our arrival we have been members of the local pool so we have access to the pool, hot tub and hot showers daily. Our home shower will be working within a couple of weekends. I enjoy my time at the pool and Jeff has started to use the pool at the UW on weekdays so we haven't been in a rush to do this task.

Last Sunday we finished the trim and siding outside the front door so the exterior has now been completely sealed. On Monday it rained. I still need to add the edge boards to the porch, and to seal the ones that are there, but I'll have to wait until we have a few dry days again before I can tackle that task.

Next I worked on mortising the hinges on the new cabinet doors. This task took me a bit of guesswork, crossed fingers and tweaking. I hadn't done cabinetry before so it took me four days to install all 7 cabinet doors. We haven't found pulls that we like yet so tape has been the substitute. Mike, the friend who made our cabinets, suggested to simply screw the hinges onto the cabinet fronts since it would have been easier, but the nice ones from Restoration Hardware would have cost us more than we wanted to pay (For hinges?!). I did this task the hard way using $1 hinges instead. I also took down the sheet that had been our bathroom 'door', installed a nice bi-fold wooden one, and attached tongue and groove pine so that the door blends in with the rest of the walls.

This coming weekend we'll finish the gas system so that we have heat and can use the stove. So far the cottage has been very good at keeping us comfortable whether it's been 40 degree F or 95 degree F weather. We have either been eating things raw (we love salads anyway) or eating at nearby restaurants so not using the stove has given us a chance to explore the neighborhood.

What else will keep me busy as I search for a CAD job here in Seattle? (Any job leads?):

- Interior paneling and trim around the front door.
- Backsplashes need to be installed on the kitchen counters.
- Paint the cottage interior a creamy off white.
- Custom light covers need to be made for 4 sconce lights.

Downsizing: The saga continues...

2009-10-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I suggested that each of us who wants to downsize ask ourselves, "If my place were to burn down today, could I live without this item?" I thought that if I didn't need it in daily living that it could easily be purged. I have also explained that in our choice to voluntary simplify that we don't want to feel as if we are punishing ourselves. We want some comfort, not simply the bare necessities, so downsizing turned out to be easier said than done.

Selling things was hard for me. I had my own shop tools because I really enjoy creating sculpture by welding and woodworking. These tools have been in storage for awhile because I had found shared space where someone had these tools for me to use. Now, as I sold my tools I felt as if part of my identity was being ripped away. Will I be able to find another place in Seattle where I can rent shop time like I did before the move? I hoped so and had to believe that I will. I reasoned that I will be able to buy tools again if I ever really need them.

Since Jeff was in the build space all day near the end of construction while in California, we moved all of my tools and other odds and ends from my storage unit there. He was very good at talking with people who came to look at the items after I posted them on Craigslist. It was cash only & prices were firm. I probably set the prices lower than they needed to be because we were pressured with a deadline to move to Washington very shortly. I didn't want to have to bring more things with us to sell later. I was also happy to hand over the sales task to Jeff and not to have to deal with it (the psychological discomfort) any longer.

Jeff's only big items was his mission & leather furniture. When I married him he came with a whole apartment full of well made furniture that could be handed down to another generation or two. We have lived in many apartments and houses over the years and his was the type of furniture that when people came into our space for the first time they'd say, "Wow!". It was comfortable, it was beautiful, it was sturdy. Rick was moving to Albuquirky a few weeks before our move to Seattle and he said that he wanted to buy it all. Rick got a really great deal, Jeff was pleased to see his collection stay together and that it went to a friend, and this sale saved us from writing ads, etc.

What we sold: wood/metal shop tools, apartment full of furniture.

The give away was quicker and easier than the sales were (of course). I was short on time but we lived in a large apartment complex so I took a few color pictures, made some flyers and posted them in each of the buildings lobbies early one Saturday. By 5pm all of the items had been removed from my apartment by very happy, nice people. I didn't have to post them on Craigslist or Freecycle or cart them off to Goodwill and I felt as if lightening my load had made me happier as well.

What we gave away: desk, leather computer chair, collection of masks from around the world, plants, quality queen & twin mattresses, lacquered storage chest, lamps, house wares, antique armoire, dining table, file cabinet, shelves, clothes...

Not all things went though.

What we kept: 2 folding leather chairs, 1 wooden chair, tableware and silverware for four, pans, some clothes / shoes... currently we have a large toolbox in our living room with some fabric thrown over it for use as a sofa as well as 3 other boxes of hand tools / building supplies. As construction slows these tools will go into my brother's basement. I also have 4 boxes of fabric that are currently in my mom's house and these will come to our house for storage under a real sofa once I find one that fits our odd requirements (needs to fit in the 22" wide door, needs to be shallow, but can be 7' long). What I'm thinking is 4 to 6 dining chairs attached side by side with some padding on top; a unit that will look like a Swedish settee. I do woodworking, and I can sew, so making something like this (rather than buying something from Ikea) will be easy and is much more appealing to Jeff and me.

What we bought: a really decent mattress, coir floor mats with rubber underneath them for the foyer because it's going to be wet soon and we need a place to drip while we remove our shoes when we arrive home, a small 'side table' with shoe cubbies below to sit on in the foyer while removing our shoes, 2 wire hanging baskets for fruit to free up the counter tops, screws and other stuff to finish building.

Tip: Give yourself more time to get rid of things than you think it will take. You think it will take 6 months? Give yourself a year. I feel as if I could have recovered some of the money I'd spent on the items if I'd sold them instead of given them away, or sold them at higher prices, but I simply felt rushed to sell them so they went for yard sale prices. Avoid the stress of rushing, and avoid the feeling of losing money off the good work of downsizing, by giving yourself lots of time to get comfortable with the process.

Made it

2009-09-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we moved the tiny house from it's location in California to Seattle.

He we are at a rest stop along the way. You might notice that the truck's back end is a bit low.

We knew our version of the tiny house was heavier than a typical Fencl. In fact, we feared that we were well over 7000lbs. So we took the trailer to a truck stop and paid $9 to have it weighed. We detached it from the truck and had the tongue on one scale and the wheels on the other. By doing this we could see how tongue heavy we were.

And we were a bit heavy on the tongue. Depending on the kind of trailer you have, you want the tongue weight to be between 10 and 15 percent of the total weight. So after seeing our report, we took some tools and boxes out of the trailer, put them in the jeep and rearranged what was left (we moved things to the back, near the door, and tied them down) to get less weight on the tongue.

Another thing to note is that tiny houses of this kind are tall. As tall as a semi.

On level ground, from the peak to the ground, we are 13' 4". If you see an over pass that says 13' 4", find another rout. They generally mean it. We didn't have any problems because we took a truck rout to Ballard (the neighborhood in Seattle where we settled).

So here we are. We still need to put trim on the door, hook up a shower, paint inside and out, along with many other tasks. But we feel like in a way, one adventure has been completed and another is starting.

Update

2009-09-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

There is still some work to do on the roof, but it is shaping up...

And so is the inside.

And here I am hanging out in the trees.

Roof

2009-08-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I can't believe this tiny house isn't done yet.

I mean, it is a tiny house... But it has taken a big amount of work...

Inside

2009-08-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

We got tired of working on the roof so we decided to come inside and do some paneling.

In the photo above, I'm using a pneumatic brad nailer to install the knotty pine.

Here you can see that we have quite a lot done. We still need to install the skylight. And to the left in the photo above and the right in the one below, you can see a patch of plastic that isn't done yet. This is actually a big open space that we haven't yet roofed. You see, we have some custom cabinets coming in that are wider than our door...

Also in this last pic you can see that decided to close in the storage space above the door and install a fan that will help keep the place cooler in the summer.

Some folks… and the idea of scheduling

2009-08-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Most folks have been very supportive of our choice to downsize and live in a tiny cottage. Some folks have already downsized or are also in the process of doing this, some folks have said “Oh, you’re living my dream!” but would never do this themselves, and some folks (like my dad) think we’re nuts and can’t imagine living in a small space let alone getting rid of most of their stuff. Well, nuts or not we're going to do it.

Jeff is still building full-time an hour and a half north of me but I still have my day job and am now alone at our apartment in the evenings purging/boxing the last of our belongings. Sure, I get to sleep in a real bed while he’s getting bruised by day and sleeping on a hundred year old futon by night, but purging stuff is hard work too.

I recently had to take a week off to spend time with my teenage son while he was hospitalized unexpectedly (this is why I mentioned the IDEA of scheduling time). This was actually a great thing since he’s been waiting for a long time for a liver transplant and it has finally happened. Woohoo!!!! He’s doing extremely well (he was out of the hospital in 6 days!), it all went smoothly, and now he’s back at his dad’s home getting pampered while he recovers for the next 6 weeks. I was worried that he’d get the call to come in because they found a liver donor match while Jeff, Rick and I were towing our tiny cottage through Oregon. I feel very relieved that I was still around to be right there when it happened and to be able to take the week to hang out with him!

Our cabinet maker friend and family will be taking a few much needed days vacation this week so we are running a bit behind in that area now. Life happens... so our 'schedule' has changed. Our move date is now two weeks later than previously planned. This os ok though since Jeff will still have two weeks before he is needed at school after our move. Moving the date back seems to have taken a lot of stress out of the building process (which is a good!).
Well, after my week off of building I wanted to feel like I’d accomplished something in connection with our move/cottage so I started small. I purged the bathroom. It was easy to get rid of the shampoos, etc that we never use. Oh, and the hair dryer for guests… has now left the building.

Linens was easy. One bed and a tiny bathroom only needs so much.

Next was my books. Ugh. I’m still having trouble with this and am at a total of 5 boxes (those paper ream types from the office). I’m down from double that amount but I want to get it down to 2 boxes since that’s all I’ll have room for. I’m still working on this.

Last night was my clothes closet. Much easier than I thought it would be but I’m not done yet. I boxed what I think I will ‘need’ but will still need to get rid of about half of what’s left. I know I won’t wear all of it but how to decide what I will is difficult. I’ll have to do another pass on this.

Tonight I will start to purge papers. I have lots of papers filed (in boxes, in no order whatsoever) but will scan the ones I really need and will shred or toss the rest. Unread magazine articles will go, performance reports from work from 8 years ago will go (uh, why did I bring this home?) but my sketches for artwork will be scanned for further thought (and hopefully action). This paper task will easily take a week and it will sometimes be emotional. It really needs to get done though.

When I need a break from papers I will purge the kitchen. This should be easy. I already have 4 plates, cups and silverware boxed. Getting rid of the crock pot, blender, etc will be very easy. We use them about once a year.

Boxing up the camping/skiing gear will follow that.

Rick just bought all of Jeff’s Mission style furniture, lamps and the leather sofa and chair. (He sent us pictures of his new place in Albaquirky and it all looks great overlooking the sunset!) I’ll freecycle the two mattresses, dining room table, a couple of lamps and the desk. Mark said he wants the file cabinet and shelves, Craigslist will get the antique armoire, then we’re done…

Our 700 sf apartment is fairly empty at this point. Our lease is up on September 1 so this is a very good thing. I look around and it feels freeing to have pared down to this little bit.

Coming Along

2009-08-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm finally settling into a routine and so I'm picking up steam. From the pic you can see that the roof sheathing is mostly done.

In addition to that, the insulation and vapor barrier and in too. But not actually everywhere. You can't see it in these pics but, I have a hole where I left out a rafter and the accompanying insulation and vapor barrier. These will go in a bit later.

In the pic you can see we'll have an outlet on each side of the bed and a small lamp top-center.

This crazy section of the roof took more than 3 times as long as the whole rest of the roof combined. The angle cuts are such a pain. Maybe because I have never done anything evern remotely like this before.

There will be a vent in the opening you see above. It will be hooked up to a fan so that on hot days we can suck hot air from near the ceiling and blow out the vent.

Time

2009-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

When we did the framing for the house, the project seemed to be moving along very quickly. I think it was because we got to see big progress in a short period of time. Doing detail work takes just as much work but there is less to see, so it can seem like less is getting done. I have to keep reminding myself that we're still moving forward.

The other thing about time is, it just slips by. Sometimes doing things related to the project, but not directly related to building. For example: going to the store. Which I do a lot. Perhaps if I was a more experienced builder I'd be at the store less, but it seems like I go to the store for something 3 out of every 4 days. Either it is more wood, a 45 degree vent pipe, a new saw blade... And since we are now not in an industrial area, but out in the sticks of Marin county, it takes about 30 minutes to get to a good lumber store. That's one way.

I bring this up to say that things always take longer than you think they will. In the build space, we never had do to much clean up from one day to the next. I could come in and pick up right where I left off. Here I have to setup and clean up at the start and end of each day.

So, in keeping with doing things in an odd order, we decided to work on one set of rafters and then move on to the next. We'd put up vapor barrier, stuff in the insulation from the top, foam around the insulation, then sheath. The reasons for this are, 1) the foam can has to be upside down to shoot the foam out, so we couldn't have foamed from the inside - we do it from the top. 2) this way we can work from inside the house on ladders or on the loft surfaces and just reach over. This saved us from dealing with setting up and moving ladders or scaffolding on the outside.

But this is all taking longer than we thought, so we are slipping our schedule out by a week.

The Roof

2009-08-09T08:17:00.001-07:00

Just a brief update.

After a week we have the rafters and gables done.

This bottom shot shows the complex section of roof over the front of the house.

We've done a bit more than this and so I'll do another update when I take some more photos.

Shop close-out

2009-07-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it took a week to get rid of the stuff we didn't want to keep and clean out the shop.

We could have done it faster, but some unexpected life events came up that required our attention.

At the same time, I got rid of many books and other stuff. I can't believe all the books I really want to keep fit into just 2 boxes. I also got $4,000 from selling my furniture {SCORE!}.

Hopefully, the next post will show the roof framing done.

On the Road

2009-07-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

There were a lot of last minute details before moving the trailer. We had to put lights on it, since the trailer lights were partly covered, attach our license plate, and fill it with stuff that we'll need to have with us at it's new location.

We usually have more vehicles in the parking lot, but Saturday we were lucky and the lot was mostly empty. This means there was enough room to get out of the space without using the Jeep. Rick's truck is an 8500 lbs, 20 foot long, Dodge diesel cummins - it was made to tow this kind of thing.

The ride was a bit bouncy, and took us, say, an hour and a half. We did city driving, freeway driving, and curvy 2-lane highway driving. The freeway was toughest because we stayed in the truck lanes which gave us some bouncing, but otherwise it was fine and the tiny house made it to its new location without a scratch.

Now we take a week off. We'll sort of. We take a week to do some down sizing and clear out our build space. Then it will be back to building.

Forward, but not out

2009-07-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that I wouldn't use the Jeep to tow the tiny house on the road. But I will use it to pull the tiny house out of the shop because the house and truck together are too long to maneuver in the parking lot. But hooking the trailer up to Jeep is slightly nerving as the bumper drops about 4 inches.

But, it pulled the tiny house forward just fine.

When I pulled forward, I had enough space to do some work on the porch and other pre-road trip work.

If all goes well, the next post should about the move to our friend's house.

The first move

2009-07-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've finished putting in the pipes for the propane system. All of the inside knotty pine is done (well, all that we'll do for now). The outside siding is done, but there is a bit more work to do on the porch. So I spent yesterday getting the tiny house ready for it's first move.

Several folks have asked us if our roll up door is tall enough to get the tiny house out of once the roof is on. The answer: nope. The roll up door is 12 feet high and the top of the tiny house, when it's done, will be 13' 6". Give or take.

Before we signed the lease for our build space we had an invitation to build our tiny house on some friend's property. But their house is nearly an hour and a half away. So we planned to to do the majority of building here, then tow the house to their place to put the roof on.

So I've screwed in some 1/2 inch, 4x8 sheets of plywood across what will be the opening up to the loft. I've also put a temporary door in place. We'll be moving the thing on Saturday.

Once the house is at it's new home, we'll put a roof on, make the door and the cabinets, and finish things off. We may not get to the painting till we get to Seattle. In fact, there maybe several finishing touches to do it once we're there.

Tiny Bungalow

2009-07-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Our plan is for our tiny house to have a Arts and Crafts / Mission sort of look. To that end, I slapped together a mock up of the porch light fixture.

The final one will look a bit different, but will have the same sort of aesthetic.

See! The electrical system actually works!

Plan ahead

2009-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm usually pretty good about planning ahead, but occasionally I miss stuff. The three photos below illustrate this.

In the first, look between the two windows on the right and you see the vapor barrier over insulation. In the next, you see paneling up to the window level, the vapor barrier torn aside and me installing 2x2 framework. In the last one, the paneling is done.

What happened is that I had put paneling up just a bit higher than in the second shot and remembered we were going to put our heater (lower left of the second photo) on this wall. Then I wondered what it was going to attach too. Then I got the heater out and read the instructions. Then I started ripping stuff apart to put a framework in place to attach the heater too. Of course it worked out fine, but took time I'd rather have not spent this way.

The thing that is time consuming - besides ripping stuff out and rebuilding it - is cutting all the notches around windows and outlets.

Latest update

2009-07-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

It is hard to get good photos of the front of the house (the back of the trailer) because of the way our shop is laid out, but here is a pic of some of the detail around the porch area. We have protective cover over the deck boards and don't yet have all the trim in place - notably around the door.

In the picture below you can see 2 4x4s in the foreground that aren't part of the house, but otherwise this should give you an idea of how the front of the house is coming together.

We wanted an insulated box around the wheel wells, so we build a simple 2x4 structure for that, and you can see that we have sealed the edges in most places with foam insulation.

The foam is a VOC free soy based insulation.

More Siding

2009-07-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Working alone, I've had to find ways to deal with managing a 20 foot long board while marking it for accurate cuts. I hung a string from each corner and used an easy loop knot to quickly tie and untie the strings.

Originally I thought it would make it easy to start or stop a board at the same level as window trim, but even being as careful as I could, the window trim is not all perfectly level. It would be easier to see this right at the edge of a board, instead of near the middle. So it was probably more work to do it this way, but I think it looks better.

In the next picture you can see that the siding is nearly done. Except for the hardest part: near the door and windows at the front. Since we will be putting the roof on outside of our build space, this is about as high as we'll go for now.

Siding

2009-07-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update:

The siding around the wheel wells and window details took a long time, but the rest went up pretty quick.

The string you see in the foreground is there because I was working alone and having a string at each end allowed me hang a board while I marked it for cutting.

Furring

2009-07-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

Furring creates an air space between the back of the siding and the house wrap. I think the idea is that it helps dry things out after a rain. These are just 1/4 inch by 1.5 inch strips of wood that go over the studs and around the trim.

In the next picture you can see the outside vent of our on-demand, propane hot water heater. The flange around this appliance didn't allow for a flush mount, so to accommodate some flashing that will help keep water from getting in around it, I went ahead and put trim around it just like the windows.

Siding is next!

A week's worth of work

2009-07-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

If anyone ever tells you that building a house - even a tiny one - is a lot of work, believe them. I've been working 12 hours a day for the last week. I make a todo list, and by the time I have scratched off half the items, I have added so many new ones, I just make a new list to keep it all neat.

So what have we done since our last post?
Windows:

Plumbing:

Insulation:

Back priming the siding:

And started on the trim for the siding:

I know I should write more, but I'm going to bed!

As always, click the images for larger ones, and you can find the whole set here.

Birthing a House (Part 1)

2009-06-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

It happens all of the time. New parents hire a babysitter so they can go out to dinner alone to feel like a couple again, to revive the romance, to have some fun like they used to. What do they talk about? The baby.

Well, we’ve become better at communicating with each other because of the house. We now think that’s because all we seem to talk about (since April) when we’re not building the house… is the house.

It needs to be ready for occupancy mid August; the end of August at the absolute latest. That means that the shell (inside and out), the built-ins and all of the utilities need to be completed in about 6 weeks. Since we’ve never done most of this stuff before we have no idea how long it’s supposed to take, nor how long it will actually take. From experience, I can tell you that some tasks often take longer than we expected.

Jeff is now a full-time construction guy/electrician/plumber/window installer/soon to be roofer. And he looks at me like I’ve completely lost my mind when I say that unless he is really, really enjoying this that he needs to make sure to take a weekday or two off to avoid burn out. This project is supposed to be fun. I join him weeknights and we enjoy working together on it (much better than alone) so this is what we do together most weekends.

Being so focused on building though, now we wonder if we’ve waited too long to start our major downsizing. We’ve done quite a bit but we look around our apartment and it doesn’t look like we’ve done anything. It has nothing to do with it being hard to let go of items, it’s simply been a matter of available time. All spare time has been working on this project since the beginning of April while other time was spent on schoolwork or work. We’ve been busy. No hobbies, no lounging at the pool, no hiking, … just building.

So, right now I’m pushing for a babysitter for around the end of July for a couple of weeks.

I have negotiated a trade with Mike. He has been answering our electrical, plumbing and building questions because he has completely (hands-on) remodeled his own house from the ground up. He also builds custom furniture and cabinetry. Absolutely beautiful work! Well, I am trading him my Mig Welder setup for custom cabinets and desk. Jeff and I were going to make this cottage from scratch, almost alone, but…

I’m thinking that we can finish the whole bottom of the house (inside and out including utilities) and hand it over to Mike so that he can create the built-ins without us in the way. The major stuff will be completed so we can relax a bit and shift our focus for a couple of weeks to downsizing which also needs to get done by the same deadline. Jeff and I will be doing a mad dash at posting absolutely everything that won’t fit into the cottage on Craigslist, Freecycle or Ebay. Better now than at the last minute. I am currently writing the blurbs and taking pictures so that the posts will be ready to go when we are.

I think it will be interesting to see what our current 700sf apartment looks like with only as much as we will be taking with us into the cottage. What few things do we really need?

Electrical complete

2009-06-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

While working on the electrical system, I wrote a number on each wire and kept detailed notes about where each wire started and ended, as well as any details about junction boxes. In the first picture, you can see the start of this list and some of the rough wiring.

In this one, where the wiring is complete, you can see how much the list grew.

Finally, we hooked up a 30 amp recepticale and and tied it into a 110 extension cord. When we plugged it in, we tested all the outlets and switches and everything worked!

What I didn't know is that it might have better to hookup the switches and outlets after finishing the inside walls. Now we'll have to tape them. But it did give me great satisfaction to have it all done.

Electrical Map:

(click for larger version)

Up next is windows.

House wrap

2009-06-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a few pics showing we finished the house wrap. The first is of Sultan and I working on the second pass.

House wrap does several nifty things for a home. First, it helps prevent drafts. But it also helps with moisture problems because water passes only one direction through it. So it is difficult for water on the outside to come in, and any water on the inside tends to wick out.

Here we are finished.

Electricity

2009-06-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Some things just take longer than you think they will. I've been working on the electrical system for our tiny house (so we should have a tiny electrical system, right?) for a few days now, and it is still not done. Part of the time was spent consulting with my friend Mike, who is an electrician. We started by creating a list of our electrical needs.

From this list we find that we can do pretty well with just 15 Amps (a good heavy duty extension cord). But we are wiring it for 30 Amp capacity. We will still be able to plug into a standard outlet, but we could take advantage of a 30 Amp outlet too. Once we had the list, we made map of wires, outlets, lights, switches and the circuit breaker box and junction boxes. Then I got to work.

Certainly, drilling holes, running wire and connecting up the circuit breaker box took a long time, but one of the biggest time drains was going to the store.

I'd get moving along and realize I need a certain kind of connector, or I'd run out of wire. I never tried to figure out how much wire I'd need. I assumed the leftover roll of romex 14 gauge wire that we got for free was enough. When it wasn't, I bought another 50 feet. Then another. But it does make sense. The trailer is 18 feet long and the wires go up and down and from this light switch, to that light...

Anyway. I have completed what my friend Mike calls the "rough wiring". I still need to skin the wires and hookup the switches and outlets. The light fixtures will come a bit later.

Some tips

2009-06-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Lesson learned: don't try and save money by purchasing cheap screws or bits. Cheap screws have a relatively high rate of loss due to malformation, and they strip, bend and even break. If they strip and you can't get then in, you will probably have a hard time getting them out too. Then you've wasted all sorts of time, not to mention all the junk screws you tossed out. Cheap bits break, and then you have to go buy a new one. More time and money gone.

So it's often best to just get good stuff to start with. We've found that torx (also called star) head screws stay on the bit, and so don't strip, far, far better than either box or Philips (cross). The problem is, they are harder to find. A lumber yard we go to carries them, but some of the big stores don't. We've also found that screws that self drill are supper cool. You can identify these because they have a notched tip.

Next tip: guess how many times I would have to run up and down this ladder to put 1 screw every 6 (along seems) to 12 ("in the field") inches through the plywood and into the studs?

My knees would really not like me and it would take forever. Solution:

Setting up the saw horses with 2x6s (left over from the trailer deck) for a scaffold floor took maybe ten minutes. It probably saved me an hour and lots of knee pain.

Result:

Sheathing is done.

As always, there are more pics here.

Sheathing

2009-06-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

We had our friend Mike over to help us get started on sheathing. Below are a few take-aways.

First, we worked from left to right. Getting the first sheet squared up is important since all the rest butt right up to it. Second, this is a heck of a lot easier with two (or three) people than it would be with one. The third one we didn't realize before when we were doing framing: 16 times 3 = 48.

Houses use 16 inch centers (there is 16 inches between the center of one stud to the center of the next) which means that when you put sheathing up, you cover 3 studs with one sheet and have little waste. The pans we got have odd sizes between studs, but in some places it would add up to 48 inches (which is the width of a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood). Since our trailer was a different size, and since we added 2 windows, and since our floor plan was different, we modified our framing without knowing in advance that we could set up our framing to minimize waste by making sure we have a stud every 48 inches.

For a odd shape like the wheel well, we traced it on sheet of paper to make a pattern, then carefully measured where the pattern needed to go, relative to the edge of the plywood. After marking the wood, the cut was easy with a jig saw.

In this picture we aren't quite done with the sheathing, but the house is taking shape.

In the next post, we'll finish the sheathing and cut out the windows.

A lofty project

2009-06-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

To the left, I've added a link to a research paper I recently wrote on how this tiny house addresses issues / concerns of volatile organic compounds, carbon foot print and sustainability. It references U.S. Census data, Department of Energy data, and other academic sources, so it might be a bit dense. But, it has some terrific information for folks that want to talk up tiny houses.

As for the rest of this post, I just wanted to post a few pics of the loft area that Arlene has been working on over the last week or two.

In the pic above you can see the framing for the loft floor for the storage area. You can also see the porch post, which is about the only work I contributed over the last two weeks.

We have double blocks between the rafters/joists so that we have something to attach siding too on both the inside and out. The tongue and groove will go all the way the edge.

The next step is the sheathing. We'll put a post up on that in a day or so.

Bolts

2009-06-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hello again!
Arlene has been doing most of the work on our tiny house for the past couple weeks as I finished off school (my undergraduate degree). With that done, I'll be spending a great deal of time over the next few weeks on our project.

Today's post is about bolts. If you've been following us, you saw us work on the trailer and the floor a while back. If not, this link brings up the relevant posts:

http://mobilecottage.blogspot.com/search/label/Trailer

At the time, I didn't take a picture (or a not a decent one) of the underside to show the bolts. There isn't much to see really. I just bolted through the decking into the floor frame (made of 2x4's) with 3 inch lag bolts. And as I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, since our floor frame is thicker towards the back of the trailer, I used longer bolts back there.

We also probably used more bolts than the plans called for. This was due to paranoia on my part. I kept having visions of loosing my house while on the road. In fact, all along I had planned to also bolt through the wall base board, through the floor, floor framing and connect it to the steel of the trailer. Otherwise, what we'd have is the floor frame bolted to the trailer decking, the floor nailed to the floor frame, and then the walls nailed (screwed, actually) to floor and floor frame. I wanted a direct connection from my walls to the steel of the trailer.

You can buy long, 1/2 inch think, threaded rods at most good hardware stores. I got 2 of them, with washers and nuts and a four small steel plates. Now our trailer is a utility trailer and has slots along the sides, front and back that are there so you could put 2x4s into them to make a wooden rail around the trailer. In the photo below, you can see two of these. One has my bolt through it, and the one further back does not.

The steel plate on the bottom (photo above) has a longish slot in it that allows you move the plate to best fit your application. I found this handy as not all of the holes ended up perfectly where I planned them.

And this brings me to holes and drills. Where the floor frame is thickest, there is a bit over 8 inches from the top of the wall frame base to the bottom of the floor frame. Add to that the depth of the 2x4-fence holder on the trailer and you have about 11 inches that is not perfectly vertical. So if you do this sort of thing, you have to be aware that there might be a slight angle you have to introduce. In this case, it was easiest to drill the hole from the bottom up, with a spotter watching the angle of my extra extra long 5/8's inch wood boar drill bit.

Finally, I cut a short 2x4 block, drilled a 3/4 inch hole in it (for wiggle room), and stuffed into the 2x4-fence holder. This made that bottom plate you see in the pic fit without moving around.

Now our walls are fully attached to the steel of the trailer and I'm feeling more secure.

What We've Learned So Far

2009-06-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

As we look back, we could have saved both time and money if we'd have done a few things differently. Well, now we know. Hopefully this information will be of use to you:

All trailers are not created equal.
We bought the size we wanted but never gave any thought to the color. We have a ‘midnight blue’ trailer… but we will have dark green trim on the windows with redwood siding. Though not a really big deal, this multi-color combination is not one we would have chosen on purpose. I have sanded the trailer wheel wells and they will be painted to match the window trim later. When parked, the trailer tongue will either be covered by a small deck or will be surrounded by a low fence so it won't be noticeable. When we're traveling (not often), people will be looking at the tiny home on wheels, not the trailer tongue.

Make sure to buy windows with tempered glass.
The plans we bought didn’t mention this. We also haven’t seen it mentioned on anyone’s blog about building a tiny mobile house. Jeff happened across the fact that California law requires tempered glass in vehicles. Many other states probably require it too. Check into the requirements near you before you order windows.

Your construction plans will need to be tweaked… no matter what.
Trailers come in all different sizes (and often haven’t been built to be level or perfectly square) so any plans you buy will need to be adjusted. We bought a set of construction plans that cost us $1000 although we had seen very similar plans to these in a book called ‘Yard & Garden Structures: 74 Easy-To-Build Designs' c2001, page 64 (though you'll need to call them to get this set, you can find others on eplans.com) that cost only $45 for the 'study set'. The reason that we bought the more expensive set was that we had thought that they'd have some special information that we'd need. Well, they did give us some information about bolting the foundation to the trailer but we would have done that anyway and because tiny house bloggers/builders show construction pictures, and will answer questions, we could have gotten any other information that way. Find out exactly what the plans do, or don't, include before you buy. Most plans for a tiny sized house (sometimes referred to as a garden shed) don't come with utility plans and some come with roof plans but some don't (remember to watch your height if you're building on a trailer). Shop around, stay flexible and know what you'll get before you buy.

Shop around for your materials.
Home Depot was willing to give us a contractor’s discount of about 10% because we asked for a bid from them for over $2500 worth of materials. We didn’t buy all of our materials at the same time (because of a limited build space and the total cost of materials) and stopped using them because availability/delivery was promised in 2 weeks but it took almost 6 for our first order. This delay impacted our building schedule. Also, their delivery service either can’t get the address correct or won’t deliver at the agreed upon/promised time. This made life a bit more complicated for us since we were not building full-time. After the second delivery glitch we started to use a local, independently owned home supply/lumber company instead. The service is much better and the prices are actually comparable. Which leads to:

Try to buy as much as you can all at once so that you will pay less for delivery.
We have carted as much of our booty back to our lair by ourselves as possible. We have access to a friend's truck which we can use for materials pickup but it’s not always available at times that are convenient to us. The most common company to head to for a rental truck is always time consuming and a hassle so we really don't want to use them. And my Jetta wasn’t going to be happy trying to move the 20’ lengths of lumber that we wanted for the siding or for as much total lumber as we’d need to build even a tiny home. We've had 3 deliveries for this project at $80 each. That money could have been used for much better purposes than the 1 or 2 mile run from their store to our build space. Either have a gracious friend who owns a truck that you can borrow often, have a place to store your supplies and collect/buy them before hand, or buy all of the supplies you need ahead of time and load them all onto your new trailer.

I'm sure that we'll learn more as this project progresses so we'll be posting more on this topic in the future...

Patience / Less Stress

2009-06-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

Many of us feel rushed to do more in a shorter amount of time. We deal with rush hour traffic or long lines at the grocery store but we feel the need to hurry to work or go pickup the kids from school. I think most of us feel rushed so that means that many of us are also impatient.

Since we've started building our cottage there have been multiple lay-offs at work, a close family member is waiting for 'The Call' that will come any day now to say that his organ transplant can take place, and we don’t yet positively have a spot to park our cottage once we get to Seattle. Employment, family health and a move; life is pretty stressful for me right now. Sure I'm doing what I can to help make our move to Seattle a smooth one, but in the other two areas, I can do absolutely nothing but wait.

It seems obvious not to even try to control things that can’t be, but it’s hard not to try sometimes because the effort makes me feel as if I’m working towards something better instead of simply waiting or giving up. It also seems obvious though, that if I think about what’s going on in a different light, that I can lead a calmer existence. I can adapt. If I can accept the fact that I have no control in some circumstances then I can drastically reduce my stress level. This requires patience.

A friend of ours and I discussed this subject by email not too long ago and his suggestions about how to be more patient have been really useful. His key points with my interpretations:

Life is not a race between Point A and Point B. Enjoy the moment. Slow down, look around and think. Stop trying to multi-task and get off of auto-pilot. Work at being more present (enjoying whatever you're working on, listening to what others are telling you instead of thinking about your to-do list, etc). Do things that are important to you, and that make you happy, every day and life will have purpose and satisfaction. Point B then won’t seem so important.

There is no 'right' answer. Don't worry about choosing the 'absolute right choice' because it really doesn't exist. Simply make a choice and feel lucky that you have that power. Some people don't get to choose... In deciding what we want the cottage to look like we sometimes go back and forth over a choice and it's been a bit confusing and frustrating for both Jeff and I. “I thought that we’d agreed on that already.” We need to finish making all building decisions quickly at this point because full-time construction begins this weekend. Nothing at this point will be so important that it could make or break the project. We feel very lucky to have been able to save the money, and to have the time, to build this cottage together. Everything else is frosting on the cake.

Acceptance. Acceptance of a situation or of ourselves. We each have many opportunities and challenges. We make choices and things progress. We can't control these things as much as we'd like to in some cases no matter how hard we try. The fact is that things will turn out how they turn out. Most of the time the results are pleasant but sometimes they won’t end up as we’d have liked them to be. All of this uncertainty makes life really quite interesting when we stop to think about it though...

Slow down, try to enjoy whatever happens as it unfolds and (even if you have no control) things will turn out fine. When you get an unexpected lemon, simply make lemonade. Be more patient and it really will lessen your stress.

Facts About Our Project

2009-06-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

We certainly didn’t expect to be asked by the media for interviews when embarking on this project. Well, because I’ve been trying to get the word out so that we find a space to live in our tiny cottage while in Seattle, the media has contacted us. We now have a side bar item titled “Media Inquiries” which (so far) answers these questions:

Why are you building a tiny house to live in?
What does this project mean to you?
Won’t it be too small for you two to live in full-time?
Why do you think it’s important to downsize your possessions?
How do you think this project will change your lives?
What are the facts about your tiny cottage?
What are you looking for?
Have there been any parts of this project that were unexpected?
What would you tell others who see your tiny cottage and want to build one too?

If you have other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll add our answers as they are asked to the side bar link as well as to this post.

The Necessary Chain of Events

2009-06-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

It turns out that it was a ‘good thing’ that I had problems with the nail gun this past weekend. I’ll admit that I am impatient to see the cottage form. I get lost in the physical building of it and sometimes I neglect to stop and think about the necessary chain of events. When I went home Sunday night to discuss with Jeff what I’d accomplished over the weekend, I explained my disappointment that I wasn’t as far along as I thought I’d be.

He said that he was actually impressed with my progress and also reminded me we had agreed that the porch should be finished before the loft above it. I will need the loft fully supported before I sit on top of the storage loft in order to screw in the floor boards. Now why didn’t I remember that?

The answer is that I have really wanted to see the sheathing on the bare bones. I wanted to be able to say that I built most of the cottage pretty much alone up to the sheathing and I wanted it to look somewhat like a cottage. (Yes, I had help with the big stuff like flipping the floor framing over, installing the softwood floor, and wall raising but it has felt good to be able to do the other tasks by myself.) Well, the sheathing can’t get attached until the lofts have been added so I’ve been hyper-focused on the lofts.

If you ask Jeff to describe me he’d explain that I put great importance in knowing that I am self-sufficient in many ways, that I’m not usually overwhelmed by any project or dissuaded from doing anything simply because it’s challenging (he’ll give a huge laugh as he says that), that I can sometimes be stubborn, can impose very strict (and sometimes impossible) deadlines on myself and that I’m basically a tomboy though I do have a softer side (I weld but also sew).

Jeff has been really busy finishing up with school. He used to meet me for dinner weeknights at the cottage then he’d study wearing headphones while I’d built but he was getting distracted. He would study less because he wanted to help more with the cottage every other Saturday but then he’d feel really stressed because he’d fallen behind on homework. Sit and do schoolwork or play with tools? He likes to work with tools too so it was a tough choice, but it needed to be done; he began studying elsewhere and made sure to keep up with the schoolwork. He has only another couple of weeks left before he has the summer off and will begin building full-time while I continue to work on it only weeknights and weekends. I really wanted to have the big stuff done by then so that he’d be proud of the work that I’d done though. I know that we need to be ready to move into it in August so I feel a need to keep an eye on the building schedule.

Now, as I temporarily slow down to re-look at the necessary chain of events, I see that other things really need to be done before the sheathing can be attached anyway. We have the redwood siding laid out alongside the cottage. We won’t be able to work on the exterior sheathing without damaging that lumber unless it’s moved first. Of course, that means moving the stack of windows which means moving the worktable which means moving… I’m not looking forward to any of this because then I won’t be doing construction. I like to see progress but things need to get completed in a logical order.

This week so far I have flashed and screwed down the porch, installed the porch support post and finished the loft framing/floor for our storage area. I’ll finish the sleeping loft then will have more room to move some supplies around. I still hope to get the sheathing attached by the 12th though. That’s just how I am…

Loft floors

2009-06-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

In the past 2 weeks I’ve been very busy though you can’t ‘see’ it since they’ve been little things:

*Made sure that Murphy’s Law didn’t apply in ANY way to our window openings (I unpacked a window and slid it into each opening to make sure that I had framed them correctly). It’d be bad if we sheathed and wrapped the house only to find out that the window opening sizes that were specified by the manufacturer were incorrect or that I'd framed them wrong.

*Made some temporary stairs for our porch since I felt unsafe stepping on a paint can to enter the house.

*Have cut most of the insulation for the top portions of the walls.

*We finalized our floor plans (sizes of the closets, counters and loft sizes / more space in the living area vs space in the kitchen/bathroom). Up until now these were all rough estimates that we were pretty sure we'd be happy with. To be able to stand in the house to see/feel if the areas seemed large enough was very helpful.

*All joists, blocking and flooring for the loft areas have been cut.

*Predrilled the holes for the loft flooring. Screws will be neatly countersunk.

*Bought silicon caulk for use above the wheel wells (we’ve heard this area is prone to water leaks) and for use where the window trim meets the siding, etc.

*Bought a long drill bit and some rods/nuts/washers so that we can more firmly attach the wall framing to the trailer frame before sheathing.

I wanted to be able to show you the completed lofts but my hold up was that our pneumatic nailer wants a vacation. Sure we’re almost finished using it on this project, but it’s really inconvenient and frustrating that it now seems to be jamming more often and is getting quite better at it. Saturday I had about 6 jams and yesterday I had about 8. Only one jam on Saturday required Jeff an hour to clean out using a hammer/nail sink/pliers/dremel tool with a saw blade. The jams come at the most inopportune times, always require that I partially disassemble the gun and also happen often enough to drastically impede my progress. I don’t know of anyone whom I dislike enough to give this tool to after we’re done with it. We certainly won’t be keeping it.

In the next few days I will be building the loft framing, attaching the joists to the wall framing (now using screws!) and then will be installing the loft flooring. I have created the loft framing in sections because I am the only one installing them (Jeff is finishing a research paper, the last of the homework and next week will be studying for finals). Lifting these smaller sections are quite manageable for me. I attach the loft framing section to the tops of the walls, add blocks in between, add on another section of framing, etc.

You can see the larger pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.hemsley/MiniMobileCottage?feat=directlink# I seem to be having technical problems this morning...(yawn)

Live Simpler... Lose Weight?

2009-05-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

In January 2008 I began thinking that I needed to simplify. My weekdays consisted of wake, commute, work, commute, read or take classes, sleep. While that is a simple daily schedule, I couldn’t find time to exercise, ate out all of the time because there wasn’t time to cook (and I don’t enjoy doing it because I'm really quite bad at it - who wants to eat bad food?), and although creative ideas came to mind, quite often I always felt too tired and stressed to follow through on any of them. My weekends consisted of errand after errand. I decided that I wasn’t having enough fun so I needed a change.

I started my simplicity change with hopping off of public transportation a mile from work before work and walking the rest of the way past a lake. I walk it early in the morning when few people are out, there’s a cool breeze, and the birds are just waking so it’s a very calming place.

Well, I began to feel better after a couple of weeks so I started to look at my eating habits. I stopped eating donuts for breakfast and stopped eating out for lunch and dinner. I ate more salads, fruit, nuts and grains and less meat, bread and desserts. That August I started eating a mainly raw diet after trying to see if my allergy/breathing problems were related to food. I already knew I was allergic to caffeine and shellfish and now realized that any kind of cheese made with milk also gave me the same reaction.

Many people wouldn’t eat this way and enjoy it but food preparation now takes me less time and it tastes better since I’m not killing it with my bad cooking. I eat raw fruit, vegetables, sprouted grains, seeds, nuts and occasionally raw fish (sashimi).

I eat simpler, feel fuller longer because of the fiber and fats, enjoy my meals more, feel better physically (woohoo! No more allergies either) and I’ve finally dropped weight that I’ve been wanting to for many years (25 pounds). I didn’t spend money on new exercise equipment, don’t belong to a gym, and don't take any diet pills or pay for any specially prepared ‘diet’ meals.

I have a pair of sneakers and make sure to work up a sweat when wearing them by simply taking a daily walk and doing old fashioned calisthenics (crunches, push-ups, pull-ups, squats, calf raises and dips). I eat three healthy meals a day plus just as many snacks.

Sure, there are days when I don’t walk (maybe that morning it’s 85 degrees and muggy), or times when I eat something that’s not raw (like at a party). But I’m trying to enjoy life while not depriving myself so a few days of a more relaxed schedule here and there aren't a big deal. I feel really healthy for the first time in years so I must be doing something right more often now than in my past. Simple.

Eat Simpler, Save Money

2009-05-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

I recently took a look at my monthly food expenses to see if I could cut back at all on costs but was very happily surprised. My average DAILY tally for food is….. $4.50. That’s less than most people spend on ONE meal eaten away from home.

How I do it:
I buy produce on Saturday mornings at the local farmer’s market a few blocks from home. I’ve found that I can buy organic there for a fraction of grocery store prices.

I enjoy the farmer’s market because I go to same stalls weekly, am always greeted with a smile and a hello so I feel that my purchases are appreciated. It feels like people are less hurried, I like the free entertainment, and I feel like I’m more connected to the planet because I buy directly from a local farmer. If you go to the market the last 30 minutes that it’s open then the prices are drastically reduced though there is less of a selection than earlier in the day. Whatever the farmers don’t grow I’ll buy at Trader Joe’s, a health food store or (ugh) the big food chain. I buy what's in season or on sale so my food varies weekly.

Since last August I’ve been trying to eat mostly raw (recognizable) food. I say mostly because I try not to beat myself up about the occasional ‘slip’. I want to enjoy my meals while still eating healthy food so sometimes I will have some freshly baked bread or add cooked beans and brown rice to my salad.

This month I bought:
1x month = $30.80/4= $7.70 wk
6.00 Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
5.25 raw honey
4.00 old fashioned oatmeal
1.80 raw sunflower seeds
4.50 raw walnuts
4.00 raw almond butter
1.25 nutritional yeast flakes
1.00 flax seeds
3.00 raisins

2x month = $15.70/2= $7.85 wk
2.00 carrots (8)
6.00 apples (4 lbs)
.50 cilantro
.70 radishes
.70 scallions
.80 celery
5.00 avocados (5)

4x month (this varies according to what’s in season) = $15.60 wk
.80 cucumber
1.60 sprouts
4.30 oranges
3.00 yogurt
.80 lettuce
3.00 tomatoes
2.10 bananas (uh, no, not locally grown)

$7.70 + $7.85 + $15.60 = $31.15/7 = $4.45 day

Every 3 to 4 weeks Jeff and I will eat out. Sometimes we enjoy sashimi/seaweed salad/sushi or maybe a ploughman‘s style meal of fresh bread, olives, hummus, smoked salmon, lettuce and cheese made from nuts instead of milk. I find that I’m enjoying eating more simply rather than spending more time cooking than it actually takes me to eat it. I also enjoy knowing that the food I eat is fresh, I feel better physically and, surprisingly, that I’m saving money too.

My List of 100 Things

2009-05-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

I recently saw a list like this on a blog about another couple who are downsizing their possessions too. Jeff and I will be calculating the total square footage available for storage before we move into our cottage but I thought this would be a great exercise to try before that.

Here is my tentative list of things that I'll keep:

jeans
jeans
dressy pants
shirt
shirt
shirt
shirt
shirt
dressy top
dressy top
cowboy boots
workboots
sneakers
dressy shoes
bike/helmet
bike shoes
coat (black leather)
coat (brown suede)
raincoat
fedora
purse
backpack
scarf
gloves
battery powered clock
cup
bowl
plate
silverware
mixing bowl
mixing bowl
manual juicer
manual veg. slicer
decent kitchen knife
spice grinder
antique speckle ware frypan
small wooden box from Jeff
handmade box from Kirk
mp3/headphones
toothbrush
digital camera/charger
cell phone/charger
rechargeable batteries/charger
bath towel
bed pillow
sunglasses
reusable shopping bag
reusable shopping bag
antique telephone
portable victrola
record
record
record
record
record
record
watch
sewing machine
roll of quilting bat
1 box fabric
1 box fabric
1 box fabric
deck of cards/cribbage board
1 toolbox
1 toolbox
book
book
book
book
book
book
book
book
book
book
#75+ undecided so far

We Have Walls

2009-05-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the wall framing is complete. This first picture is where we started today. I am finishing up my last quarter at Cal State East Bay, so over the last two weeks, Arlene has been building the frames daily after work. (Note: as always, we've posted more pics than we've blogged here.)

We pretty much had all the walls together and ready to go up when our helpers, Rick and Scott, showed up. Arlene had put the walls together on the floor of the house. This made her feel more comfortable about getting the measurements right. It made me less comfortable (than if she'd built them on the build space floor) because I worried about our brand new douglas fir floor. But she was careful and it turned out alright.

Once a wall was up, we'd level, plumb and brace it. We used long screws to attach the base board of the wall frames, through the douglas fir floor, and into the floor joists.

The second wall we put up was the shorter of the two long walls. Our porch will be about a 2.5 x 2.5 foot corner taken out of the front of this wall (In these photos, we're looking at the back of the house, which is the front of the trailer).

The third wall went up fairly easy. Then we lifted the toilet and refrigerator into the house since getting them in later would be - difficult (our door will be custom and narrower than most).

I'll try to get some pictures of the framing in the front of the house later. It is hard to see how it turned out in the these shots.

Basically, we have 3 walls that form the front of our house. One, the lager, will have 2 windows in it. The next will have the door, and the last will have one more window.

When we had the walls in place, we put a few 2X4s on top to keep everything together, plumb, level and tight.

Done!

Thanks to Rick and Scott!

Modified Floor Plan

2009-05-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

Our cottage will have inside dimensions of approximately 7’-6”x18’-6”. We started with plans for the fencl because we like the architectural detail above the doorway outside but found that the floor plan just wouldn’t work for our needs. This won’t be a cottage for one person, we both plan on living in it together, so we’ve modified it.

The original bay window was too short to make into a sofa/guest bed and we also need a double desk which wouldn’t fit there either. Sure, the front door is cute to look at from directly out front but function won over form. All available space needs to be usable in a tiny space like this.

What we decided is to swap a window and the front door location so that when you step into the cottage you will be standing in what would have been the bay window. We essentially made a foyer; a place to hang our coats and take our shoes off. We also deleted the far side of the bay window but added a window on either side of the cottage in the living area a little farther back so that we’d still be getting quite a bit of natural light.

With the front door opening to the right instead of straight ahead, we now have the full wall on the left to make into a double long desk with storage below and the fireplace mounted just above it between the two work areas and windows. We’re planning on making a customized sofa/bed to go on the opposite long wall. Both the desk unit and the sofa/bed will cover the wheel wells because they jut into the living area and we don’t want to see them. Between the two desk work areas we’ll have a fold up cabinet door to use as a dining table/additional work space.

We also moved the kitchen and bathroom. Before deciding to build the cottage we laid out string on our (current) living room floor outlining the suggested built ins. We didn’t like the original bathroom location because it was so small that someone sitting on the composting toilet (this one is large) could shower at the same time. While this is probably a time saver to someone, we wanted more space to shower and dress. We also found that two people couldn’t comfortably work in the kitchen at the same time when it was alongside the bathroom. If we enlarged the bathroom using the original floor plan then the kitchen would be further reduced and vise versa.

The bathroom is now about 2’-9”x7’6” and runs along the back wall and we will install the same sized window in there as in the rest of the cottage. From back of the cottage to the front we now have the bathroom, closets/storage, galley kitchen, living area/office, then the foyer.

We thought about enclosing the whole loft area (we wonder about having enough storage space) but would miss daylight upstairs. The loft above the kitchen and bathroom will be the sleeping area and a small loft above the foyer/front door will be for storage.

We have considered adding eyebrow windows or shed dormers on both sides of the roof so that we could park the cottage sideways (the front door could face the front and the cottage would have more character). Right now we've decided against those options but we're not yet up to the roof so we might change our minds. Currently we plan to install a skylight above the sofa so that both upstairs and downstairs gets natural light as well as better ventilation.

We're very happy with our modified floor plan. The cottage will be much more comfortable for two people to live in and the space now better suits our specific needs without sacrificing anything that was important to us.

Thoughts About Building a Custom Home

2009-05-12T04:00:00.001-07:00

Jeff and I have designed homes that we would build ‘someday’ since we were kids. We each have our own ideas as to the aesthetics and components; sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t. Designing and building our tiny cottage has been an interesting exercise in communication, cooperation, compromise and construction.

Because of this project I’ve thought about not only us building a tiny livable structure, but also others who go through the process. Each custom house has something of the designer/owner/builder in its design. Each home will have its own unique qualities because, although we’re all human, we’re each shaped by our life experiences and have different needs and personal preferences.

For example, I tried to get Jeff interested in building a tiny home that was not only healthy to live in, but also completely off-grid, and very inexpensive to build. We both compromised. (Of course, if we were building a tiny home to live in alone, neither of us would have had this experience.)

Healthy: We did agree on this. I’ve been doing research so that we will use as many healthy building products as we can find. I might miss something but I’m trying my best not to. We’ve heard stories about the FEMA trailers that were used after hurricane Katrina and that so many people became sick while living in them. We don't want that.

Off-grid: Ok, yes, I admit that my favorite vacation was a three week trip in Death Valley. Two Jeep Wranglers, four people, no refrigeration, no electricity, no roads. Jeff and I would take walks just after sunrise, we’d eat simply, use hot springs to wash off and we’d all dance under the stars to Frank Sinatra or Etta James. Sure I’D live in a home that had gravity fed water, lanterns for lighting, more sweaters/blankets/cuddling for heating, didn’t have a frig and used a compost toilet. Jeff doesn’t want to 'camp' everyday though. We will have a compost toilet but we’ve compromised on the other things. We’ll use a garden hose for water pressure for the on-demand water heater, we'll have some battery powered lights, an LP gas heater and will use an extension cord for a small frig. We do expect to use a rainwater cistern / grey water system and agreed to run some conduit in the framing so that if we choose solar power at some point it can be easily installed.

Inexpensive: Since we didn’t have a place to build ahead of time, and didn’t have free storage space to stockpile salvaged windows or a used trailer, we ended up renting a small warehouse to build in which raised the cost of building right away. It wasn’t a choice to pay extra for the space but we want to live in a tiny home so we do what we need to now so we can have the end result. We also didn’t find a used trailer that fit our building needs when we needed it so we bought a new one. Although we paid more for the trailer, we know that we won’t have to worry about whether the brakes work or whether the trailer is capable of hauling what we need it to. This saved us repair time, hassle and worry.

We could have simply bought an older Airstream trailer or a retired school bus, gutted then customized, but we both agreed that we wanted a home that looked like a home on the outside as well as on the inside. We want to build a place to live that has a warm and inviting personality; a place that we build together. Part of building a tiny cottage for us is the appeal of sharing this experience.

The Search And What We Hope To Find

2009-05-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

We now have 4 months until the planned relocation. We’re officially starting the search for a place to park our tiny cottage and we thought that if we listed what we’re hoping to find, that readers could possibly keep an eye out for leads.

The hopes:

The host-house owners will be happy to have a tiny house on their property. Although the property we’ll live on will probably already have a house on it, we’d also be open to renting an empty lot instead. I already know how to research who the owners are. I just need the address or nearest cross streets.

The area will be quiet and safe. We won’t have anything to steal, but when walking/biking near the cottage in the darker winter hours we’d like to feel fairly safe.

Not too far from the University of Washington or downtown. A 30 minute or less commute by public transport would be ideal but we’re open to living farther out if need be. Farther out simply means we’ll definitely be ready to do the 208 mile Seattle to Portland bike ride our first July there (with minimal extra training).

The monthly rent for the space will be reasonable. We simply need a space to park the cottage, an outdoor extension cord for our tiny fridge and a garden hose for a hookup for showers when we don’t shower at the YMCA after a morning workout. Besides the rent, we can pay extra for our utility usage (although we don’t think you’ll notice much of a difference to your regular bill). Wireless internet would be a big plus, but isn’t necessary. We also don’t need access to the host-house as we can use nearby laundry facilities and have our own kitchen and bathroom. To rent a room in Seattle (including utilities and access to a washer and dryer) is running about $450 so we would expect to pay less than that since we need less and won’t be invading anyone’s privacy. I’d be very willing to help with the gardening or help with house maintenance to keep our rent low.

We pay our rent on time, won’t be having any large, loud parties, don’t have any drama in our lives, don’t smoke and we don’t have any pets although we do like them. We would like to secure a place to live before we arrive in August.

If you live in, or about 30 minutes from, the UW or downtown,
have a space that you would like to rent to us,
have an elderly relative who could use the extra income/help around the yard
or see an empty lot somewhere,
then please contact us directly by clicking on the "-Contact Us-" link under our photo.

Thanks, and we’ll see you soon in Seattle!

Money

2009-05-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Every wonder how much this adventure is costing us? I have had a few queries about it. So, just for fun, I have embedded part of a Google Spreadsheet that I'm using to track expenses. As I update the spreadsheet, this will update automatically. But folks probably don't want to go back and look for this post, so I will also put it the side bar on the left near the bottom so you can see it anytime.

At this point, we've done all the big purchases associated with our project. We have the windows (under the Home Depot category), refrigerator (Sears), hot water heater, heater, trailer and a good part of the lumber (no roof framing, plywood or roofing) - certainly enough to finish framing the walls though. So the expense list will change, but not by a huge amount.

In terms of the allocation of expenses, the chart shows a proportional accounting by category.

Well, that's enough goofing off for me for now. Back to school work.

Slower, Less Stressful, Balanced Life

2009-05-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Before we even thought about building this tiny cottage we discussed what kind of life we wanted upon moving to Seattle. Right now it’s rather hectic; school, study, apply to grad schools, work, research, build, eat and sometimes get some sleep.

After we move into our cottage we want a slower, less stressful daily life. We’ve wondered that if I’m at work days and taking some night classes, and that Jeff might have day classes then teach in the evenings, will we ever see each other? We think that maybe since we’re both early risers that we can keep the downstairs floor area fairly empty so that we can wake up, do a bit of yoga together, sit and chat over breakfast, then head out for the day either to the local Y or to school/work.

Right now I take public transport to work but I’m planning on bringing my bike with us because I’d love to make it my primary mode of transportation in Seattle. They have so many bike friendly routes!

Because of living in our tiny cottage I will have more options as to what I am able to do to earn a living even though the economy stinks. The current rate in Seattle for a tiny place is around $1000 a month but the rent for a space to park our cottage will be only a couple to a few hundred dollars. If I can’t find CAD work in the engineering or architectural fields right away, we won’t have to stress over where the rent money will come from. This cottage will enable us to live off of only Jeff’s TA income if we have to. If I do find work in my field, then living on less means there's more money that could be set aside for retirement planning or vacations.

Of course, fewer living expenses also means that I’ll have the option to work part time in my current field, to change fields altogether not worrying that it pays less than what I’m accustomed to, or to do unpaid work. I read constantly and have always wondered what it might feel like for someone who either never learned how to read or who doesn’t read well. I plan on checking into what I’d need to do to become a Literacy Plus Tutor once we relocate and get settled in. I haven’t made the time for it up until now but I think I’d really enjoy doing that as well as getting back into hobbies.

We’re thinking of our cottage as a way to improve our lives as well as a way to save money in the long run simply by lowering our living costs. Although it’s uncomfortable seeing our savings lowered temporarily as we build, we are building the cottage with the knowledge that it will also be energy efficient and healthy to live in which is more than we can say for most existing housing.

Floor Finishing - Part 1 of 2

2009-05-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

We’ve put the floor finish on hold temporarily so that I can do more research.

I'd already found a couple of products that we could use but then a professional floorer we met this weekend highly suggested using Watco Danish Oil with a covering of Minwax Finishing Wax for a really great finish. He also explained that if we ever get a big scratch or dings that we’d simply sand the area, reapply the finishes and the marks would have disappeared. Well, yesterday I looked up the products and the MSDS said it wasn’t all that healthy to apply. We have no idea if the stuff will outgas, and if so for how long, so we’re back to looking for all natural products.

Since our cottage will be mobile, our needs are possibly different than what a stationary house can use. What we’ve decided so far is that we need a finish that is:

No VOC
Water resistant
Flexible
Matte finish and a
Natural color

We aren’t yet sure what products we’ll choose but we’re leaning toward using an oil then a wax finish. The oil I like best so far is Bioshield Primer Oil. The write up describes it as a “deeply penetrating wood primer/sealer that creates and elastic, breathable…wood-grain enhancing surface…easy application…with superior water-resistant qualities.” Bioshield Penetrating Oil Sealer also looks like an option though it doesn’t specifically mention elastic, breathable or water-resistant.

Although Douglas fir a very soft wood, for the wax I’m thinking we should steer clear of anything with carnuba wax in it. I’ve read that it is a ‘hard wax that will continue to harden as it ages’ which sounds really great for a soft wood floor in a stationary house, but will it make our floor splinter when we move our cottage again later?

Since I need to complete the floor finish research, but don’t want to hold up construction progress, last night I put down a protective cover on the floor so that I can move on to wall framing. I duct taped together 4’x8’ sheets of masonite to protect our sanded wood floor from dings, dirt and scrapes as we attach the wall framing. Mike, a friend who has built his own home, professionally redone others’ (and also beautifully rebuilds antique cars piece by tiny piece), says that the construction industry uses thermoply to protect floors then throws it away. We didn't see a product with that name at our local home improvement store but we guess it's similar to masonite. We’ll either find another use for the stuff after it’s done its job on our floor or it will be posted on Freecycle since it will still be usable.

Have you ever used a No VOC finish for floors that is water-resistant and possibly flexible? What are your thoughts on our floor finish needing to be flexible?

Softwood Flooring

2009-05-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we laid a Douglas fir tongue and groove floor, on top of rosin paper, over the floor framing. No subfloor. It took 3 of us to lay the floor (Thanks, Scott!); from 9:30a to 5p including a lunch break. It took me another 2 hrs after dinner to smoosh putty into the floor cracks wearing heavy rubber gloves. I tried other methods but this way was the most effective. We chose Douglas fir because it has a beautiful grain and was far less expensive than the prefinished hardwood floors we had oogled. Until this week when I started to research no VOC finishing options we didn't know that it is the softest wood. We now have a rule that we won't wear shoes in the house so it will look great longer.

Flooring lesson #1: Use the right tool for the job. We had a table saw and thought that we could use it to cut the floor boards. Because we're stubborn it took longer than it would have if we'd just rented a chop saw. It took one of us at the table saw trimming ends while another of us held the other end of the 8' long board in order to get a straight cut. Do yourself a big favor and use a chop saw for this job. We did rent a pneumatic soft wood flooring nailer and loved the tool.

Flooring lesson #2: The first few rows along a wheel well are the hardest and slowest to install. After the first 2 1/2 hours we had only about 5 rows nailed down. After lunch we picked up speed once we got into the groove of things.

Flooring lesson #3: Brute force may not work when flooring so take a deep breath and think of another solution. The milling of lumber is seldom precise so sometimes the tongues from board to board don't align so the groove of the next board won't attach. We loosened the nailing on the lower board when this happened and shimmed it so it won't squeak later. We found brute force didn't help this problem...

Flooring lesson #4: Be prepared to be carded when buying plastic wood which is the putty we used to fill between the floor board cracks. We don't exactly know why we were carded but others obviously have more fun with this putty than I did. Nightclubs sometimes have a 2 drink minimum but we weren't told that there was a maximum on putty purchasing. We used 2 small cans.

Flooring lesson #5: Because we didn't install a sub floor (to save on weight), the floor boards need to be butt jointed and end nailed directly to the floor framing. Jeff had calculated the amount of flooring we'd need but can't remember the formula he used. I can tell you though that his calc was so amazingly close as we were left with only about 4 feet of board left over; all in small unusable chunks.

On Sunday we rented a random orbital floor sander and we worked from 9:30a to 2:30p. We started at 35 grit paper and went to 80 grit. The machine had a dust collector (which was fantastic!) and was very easy to use.

The vote was unanimous. We agreed that this was a fairly easy job to do. The hardest parts were the backache that came from bending over the pneumatic nailer to whack it with the hammer and lifting of the floor sander onto the trailer with the backache from the day before.

Tomorrow I buy the floor finish and will start to apply it on Tuesday after work.

Downsizing – How To - Part 3 of 3

2009-05-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

What will you need to live comfortably?
We've recently scaled back our energy and water consumption drastically and have noticed that we're still quite comfortable. This practice will be easy to continue in the Tiny Cottage.

We've decided to use propane for heating, cooking and the on-demand hot water heater. For most lighting we'll use a bunch of LED rechargeable battery-powered strips and occasionally a couple of LED Christmas light strings for mood lighting.

We chose a compost toilet which is huge compared to everyday toilet sizes but this unit requires less fiddling with than others we found. We'd rather use this sort of system than to own a black water tank and experience the joys of finding a place to dump it.

Since we can't make water (and no, it doesn't always rain in Seattle) we'll need a garden hose hookup for showers and will use a grey water system to give it safely back to the environment. The installation of rain barrel or two will happen after the move so that we will use less 'grid' water and we already have a very low-flow shower head that has an on/off mechanism to bring with us.

We'll need an extension cord from our host house to give us power for only our tiny frig and the LED Christmas lights. At some point we might go solar but we don't yet know where we'll be parked (if you have any leads for us in/near Seattle then please let us know) so we're not sure that we'll be able to get enough power off of that to be cost effective. We'll figure this out after the move.

Will H. recently gave me a great mandoline (manual veg slicer) so we'll keep that as well as our manual juicer, some utensils, a few dishes, pans, cups and a favorite cutting board. The Champion Juicer stays for a while but will go at some point. I use it often now but haven't yet decided how often I'll use it after the move; they're expensive to replace.

We're looking to downsize, not to live like we're punishing ourselves. Voluntary simplicity can be comfortable. Keep the things you need and use and get rid of the rest.

What goes?

Things we don't use often or at all anymore include a food processor, microwave, crock pot, Foreman grill, toaster, Ronco food dehydrator, rice maker, blender, hand mixer, lots of towels, sheets and clothes along with the before-mentioned tools and most books.

Important papers will be scanned and kept on disk. Antique family photos will be scanned and my brother will get the originals. None of these will be missed.

What brings you happiness?
I'm not a 'recreational shopper' but my teenage son does outgrow his clothes so I do occasionally find myself in a store and sometimes I do get an urge to buy a nifty-new-thingy just because I'm there.

I try to remember that money spent on something that I don’t truly need now, takes away from other areas in my life where it could be more enjoyably used. I love to travel, attend live performances and take classes. Now, before I purchase something, I make much more of an effort to ask if how I’m spending my hard-earned cash will actually make me happy.

Usually, I know that the item-of-interest will only be used for a short time before I get bored with it, it exists but I don't really see it, or it gets stored in a closet. Instead of buying one, can I borrow the nifty-new-thingy from a friend? Can I rent one for a couple of days just for 'the experience'? I remind myself that once its life with me is done that I will spend more time and energy getting rid of it and I know I'll be doing the environment a favor by borrowing or renting rather than buying too.

Have you downsized your possessions or changed your spending habits? How and why?

Odds and Ends

2009-04-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

Something that isn't talked about much when considering tiny houses is relationships. Specifically, Arlene and I - my wife and I - are building a tiny house. And planing to live in it. Together.

The building of the house isn't very difficult so far. But there are a zillion decisions to be made along the way: the finishing on the floor, the placement of lighting fixtures, this sink or that, these nails or these, work on it till 7:30 PM or 8:00 PM... And each of these decisions has the potential for conflict. Arlene wants the country-looking sink, but maybe I just want something standard.

We really noticed this in the floor plan development. We're using the Tumbleweed Fencl as a starting point, but have made modifications. In January and February Arlene, who is a CAD Drafter, would come home with modifications and I would critique this and that: "we don't have enough storage", "there won't be enough space to fit through here", "where will we keep the ________?"

And here is the gold in this process: we learned more about each other and the way we think and communicate along the way. I spent 15 years as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer so being critical is second nature to me. But it dosen't feel good to be on the other side of it. I was bringing things up to be addressed, not poo-pooping her work. So now, I'm working on trying too point out the good things as well as the areas that need work.

On the other side, Arlene was using the nail-gun and it jammed. It does this frequently enough that it didn't seem like a big deal at first. But then Arlene started getting tense and frustrated and I came over to look over her shoulder. Two nails had jammed side by side in the space where one nails fits. As I looked at my fingers were itching to try and fix it. And, BANG! We got more gold. Arlene sees/feels me hovering nearby and assumes I don't have confidence in her ability to deal with it. This makes her more frustrated. But what's going on for me is that I see a problem - a puzzle - that needs solved. It has nothing to do with her.

We almost never fight. We talk and try to express feelings and stay in the moment. She tells me how she feels about my hovering and I tell her I have complete confidence in her abilities and that my technical mind has shifted in gear. I love to figure things out and solve problems. For Arlene, problems are problems. They're in the way. So Arlene got a deeper understanding of why I might hover near by when there is a problem that needs solving.

It turns out that Jeff is a creative problem solver who revels in figuring things out. I don't get frustrated fixing things. Arlene is a creative creator. This is a woman who can truly dazzle me with her ability to "think outside of the box". Together we complement each other. We saw this in developing out floor plans. Arlene would come home with modifications, I'd critique, she'd modify and we slowly honed into a set of solutions such that one day she came home, put the drawing down and I had no critiques.

I tend to ground us in practical concerns, she designs and develops - sometimes wildly. But she can be practical too. After so many years doing QA work I am, sometimes (ok, frequently), a perfectionist. Arlene has taken up the motto: "Just shim it."

Downsizing – How To - Part 2 of 3

2009-04-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

How much time and energy do you want to spend on your 'things'?

When I buy something, even if it's from a thrift shop, I've spent time looking for it and money to purchase it. I've learned to pay cash instead of using credit so that I'm not paying the hidden cost of interest on it as well. Even if it was free from Freecycle, it cost me time to read the listings and time and money for gasoline to pick it up.

I pay rent to house the item while it lives with me, I also need to pay to move it when I move, some people pay a cleaning person to keep it dusted, buy a security system to make sure that no one steals it, and some of us fall for the idea that if it feels crowded in our home that it's a good idea to pay rent to hide things in a storage facility. (Ug, don't do it!!!)

When does the time and money suck stop when it comes to the things we own?
Certainly not when we want to get rid of it. This requires research to see what can I sell it for, renting a van to move it out of storage so that I can sell it easier, time to write the blurb to put onto Craigslist or Ebay, time to meet with people to see if they are interested in buying it, and on and on.

I definitely plan on buying less in the future.

Downsizing – How To - Part 1 of 3

2009-04-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

How am I downsizing my possessions and how can you do this too?

How do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?
Do you really love the item or are you keeping it because it cost you a lot to buy it, a good friend gave it to you or you'll fit into it again someday when you lose weight? Unless you really love it and use it often, it can go. If you want to keep it because of a memory, then take a picture of it so you'll still 'have it' to remember it by.

How much space do you want to fill?
Although Jeff and I will be moving into a home with a footprint of 8'x20' we are currently renting a 700sf apartment and have rented as large a space as a 2200sf live/work loft. Needless to say we have things to sell off. Those things include furniture that we love and use daily (but won't have space for) as well as items from a storage space that I have had for 4 years and haven't looked into in about 6 months. All of it goes. Craigslist, Ebay, gifting to friends, charity donations. I've done yard sales but won't do them again.

The emotional aspect of downsizing:
The other day I felt very overwhelmed. Jeff was helping me empty my storage unit and I had forgotten how much was in there. As I wheeled the MIG welder to the moving van I smiled remembering the last item that I made with it but then thought, "This will need to be sold. I'm losing part of my identity!"

That's often how we think about many of the items that we buy. For example, we buy a shirt because maybe the 'look' says something about us to others or by wearing it we feel a certain way. We don't usually buy it because it simply covers what society says it should or have decided that it will keep us warm enough in cold weather.

I had to ask myself, "If my place were to burn down today, could I live without this?" I knew that I certainly didn't need it in daily living and so would not replace it. I can now sell it and feel more at peace with the choice.

Installing Insulation

2009-04-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

This stuff goes pretty quick. Measure, use a chalk line to mark it, cut it with a box cutter, stuff it in.

Then Arlene used a soy-based insulation foam to seal around the edges. We left the two panels in front unsealed for now as we are finalizing some decisions around the shower.

Both of us have full days so during the week it is harder to get a lot done. In fact, this weekend is going to be mostly about making decisions about our shower, figuring out how much wood to order for our second batch, and moving some stuff in the shop around to make space for that wood, as well as a delivery of windows and other items.

So that's all for now. More soon!

Downsizing – Beloved Objects

2009-04-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Another bunch of items I will need to sell off will be my tools. I'm keeping my hand tools but the big ones really need to go.

Want to buy a TIG welder? The tank is still full. No?

How about a wood & metal cutting band saw, drill press, metal cutting chop saw, roll/brake/shear, scroll saw, belt/disk sander, bench grinder or plasma cutter? Although they have been absolutely, fantasticly fun playmates, and have enabled me to do things that human hands alone cannot, I will definitely need to part with them. They’ve been sitting in Mike and Carol's garage or my 10'x10' storage space for a total of about 4 years now.

Ok, ok, yes, I admit it.

"Hi, my name is Arlene and I rented a storage room. I'm now in recovery though because today Jeff and I emptied my storage unit and moved everything to a space where I can more easily sell them. They will be posted on Craigslist or Ebay within the next month. I intend to put a link to my posts of items for sale on our blog in case anyone is interested in buying anything or simply understanding that downsizing possessions can be a lot of work."

This move from storage has freed up $150 monthly and when I sell the tools it will cover the bit more of my share of building the tiny cottage that wasn't covered by my income tax refund. This of course means that my savings will stay intact a bit longer… which is a huge motivator.

I am giving up possessions from my past to start a new chapter in life; a new adventure. We are building our own cottage and in a couple of years I plan on enrolling in a cabinet building/furniture making program. Knowing that my loss of big-tool-use isn't permanent (after using a bunch of them to build our cottage) makes the realization of getting rid of them a bit easier. Not at all easy, just easier.

If you have decided that living in a much smaller space than you are in now is something you really want to do (right now or in the future), what favorite items of yours won’t be able to fit into your new space? How will you deal with that?

The Floor on the Floor and Back Again

2009-04-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

Once we cut all the floor shims, we lifted the floor frame off the trailer and turned it upside down on the floor next to the trailer to work on. We nailed the shims in place on the now upside down floor frame (the underside of the frame so that the top has a more consistent surface area) and then got to work installing the flashing.

The flashing is mainly to protect the underside of the floor frame and insulation from road debris and to prevent rodents from entering the cottage from the bottom. To that end, we used a staple gun to fix the flashing to the frame with staples every 3 or so inches. Note that we don't seal the flashing because if any water did get up in there we'd want it to flow out.

It took three of us to get the flashed floor frame back on the trailer. This took a bit of thinking. It was pretty heavy at this point. Also, our floor frame is made of 3 parts: front, middle and back. At each connection point there is a weak spot. We didn't want the frame to separate as we moved it into place.

Our saw horses are about the same height as the tops of the wheel wells, so we put one in front of the wheel well and one behind - both right next to the trailer. This gave us an even tipping point. Then we stood the frame up on its side, tilted it against this new pivot (so the frame was supported in the back, middle and front by a saw horse, wheel well and saw horse in that order), and slowly lowered it into place onto the trailer.

We used 3 inch lag bolts in the front 2/3 rds to secure the floor framing to the trailer deck. With the flashing in place, we were concerned about knowing where to drill through the deck to make sure we connected with the frame studs. This turned out to be no problem since we had a nice line of staples to follow.

Since the back of the floor frame has shims, we used progressively longer bolts going back, measured so we always had 1 1/2 inch bite into the studs of the frame (so with a shim of 1 inch, and the deck at 1 1/2 inches, our total bolt length at that point was 4 inches). The plans suggest a bolt every 2 or 3 feet, but, being paranoid, we did a bit more than that.

So that pretty much sums our weekend. This week we should be moving forward on insulation and adding a few supports here and there.

If you aren't aware of it, the Tiny House Company is building a Fencl (the name of the tiny house design we bought from them). It is amazing how fast you can put one of these together if you have 2 or 3 full-time dedicated, experienced construction workers on it. The best source of information for the progress on it can be found on the Tiny House Blog. Stop by there and tell 'em Jeff and Arlene sent you!

Downsizing - It's hard. "Just Do It"

2009-04-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

It's a fact that I can't take most of what I own with me when we move into our tiny hand-built cottage in August. I want to practice what I have recently read was called 'voluntary simplicity' but sometimes it’s still hard to part with items. Some items have value or meaning to me. They evoke feelings.

Books being one of them. I love books, almost everything is written either in books or on the web and I want to know about everything. How to make shoes, who invented eyeglasses, what makes people laugh; I want to learn all of it. I think it's mom's fault. When we were little she bought my brother and me a book called "Tell Me Why" and another called "Lots More Tell Me Why". The tag line on the books was something like 'answers to hundreds of questions children ask'.

She also used to take us for nature walks which probably started my love for the outdoors. I bought the Foxfire books as well as a bunch by Tom Brown, Jr about urban or wilderness survival as well as animal tracking.

Well, yesterday I did the first pass at my bookshelf and can proudly tell you that 6 boxes were sold to a local book store. Now I have only another 7 boxes to sort through!

How does someone figure out their favorite-of-favorite books that they don't want to part with? The ones that I buy can't be found at the library, even through the Link+ program.

How many boxes of books will be allowed to follow me to the new cottage?

On the Level

2009-04-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

I've been talking about how our trailer isn't level. In fact, the floor of our build space isn't level either. This makes it challenging to create a fairly flat, level floor for our tiny cottage. Is a flat floor important? I mean, whenever we move the trailer the floor will flex anyway, and we don't generally play marbles on the living room floor. So what's the big deal? Certainly it would be simpler to just ignore it.

But Arlene and I are both the type of people who walk into a room and notice if a picture is 1/32 inch lower on one side than the other. And while we realize that we aren't going to make this thing perfect, and that no one will notice our mistakes as readily as we will, we also note that the degree to which this trailer is off, and the way in which it is off, will impact building the walls and roof.

From the front of the trailer to about mid-way between the two axles (the front 2/3 rds), the trailer is straight and true and easy to level. But from between the axles on back it dips so that if the front of the trailer is level, the rear end is about 1 1/2 inches lower than the front. Fortunately, the slope seems roughly constant. The trailer is made for hauling vehicles and normally comes with ramps that attach to the back, so it makes sense that the back end dips - that would be the end you load the car on from.

After leveling the front, I put a nail near each corner of our floor frame. Then I tied a string - very tightly - from one corner to the next so that I had a string box floating above the floor frame. On the front two nails, I set the string height at about 1/8th inch up from the floor frame. Then, using a level, I inched the string up or down each of the nails until the string was level. At this point, I had about 1 1/2 inches between the string and floor frame at the back. From the front to mid-way between the axles the string stayed at about 1/8th inch above the frame.

A few things to note: I checked the levelness of the string by eyeballing the string against a long leveling tool and doing this at several points on the string to make sure he string was taught and that I was being as accurate as I could. Also, if the strings are all level, the strings going from front to back and the ones going from side to side should be at the same height on the nails in the corners.

So I needed to create a shim that was 1 1/2 inches tall for the back. Then I needed to create other shims to support the other members of the frame - including angled ones for the sides because the depth of the shim needed to be shallower as we moved forward.

Measuring from between the axles to the end of the floor frame is 90 inches. Between the axles we need a shim of zero height; at the back we need one 1 1/2 inches. So we have a long short triangle. Measuring from between the axles, or the point of the triangle, to each place I need a shim gives me some measurement, say Y inches. The shim for that location is (Y times 1.5) divided by 90 inches tall. [ 1.5Y/90= height of shim. ]

The front to back boards needed to be cut such that one end was taller than the other, but I used the same the process to find the height of the end points, marked the board at those heights and drew a line from one mark to the other and cut it along the line.

Well, that was probably more than ever wanted to know about leveling. We made lots of other progress this weekend. I'll post pics and notes on in the next day or so.

Recent Progress

2009-04-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

First, I should note that I'm still in school and so have to study a fair amount. Doing that at the build space means that when I need a break I can do some work on the cottage. But it has the down side of occasionally distracting me from my school work. :-)

Arlene has done most of the work of putting the floor framing together. In the photo below you can see that we used treated wood around areas that will be more likely to be exposed to water. There a few more photos of the floor framing here.

Originally we intended to build the floor frame next to the trailer on the shop floor. That is, in fact, how the plans suggest you do it. However, the dimensions of our trailer are different than the plans expect. So if we built the floor frame exactly as the plans suggest we'd be disappointed when we put it on the trailer and found it didn't fit. Measuring and setting up the frame on the trailer made more sense. We could adjust as we went. So the tip here, if you building one of these, is to measure measure measure.

Now, we still have to work out some issues around leveling, but more on that later.

And finally, here I am sanding out the inside of the wine barrel.

Are you wondering what we have a wine barrel for? Me too.

Downsizing – Needs vs Wants

2009-04-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been a ‘shopper’ but now I’m reallllly starting to think about any new purchases differently. This project is just starting and already I see changes in my behavior. I wonder:

Do I really need this?

Will it fit in the cottage? And

Will Jeff roll his eyes and sigh when I bring an item home saying,
"Sweetie, really, it followed me home. Can I keep it?"

For example, two months ago I was out and about alone and bought a small 'puzzle table' at about the same time that we were putting the finishing touches on our interior layout. After the purchase I looked online and found that it was made by an artist named David Kawecki in the 90's. I like his chair too but it won't seat both of us and is probably too big to come with us anyway.

Well, I bought the table because I thought it was an ingenious design (it disassembles into 5 pieces and can be stored flat when not in use) and because Jeff loves puzzles. I really thought he'd smile when he saw it.

I do love the table but Jeff did sigh when he saw it, and although he didn't roll his eyes, he definitely didn't smile either. I can deal with the fact that he might not be as enthusiastic about the table as I am but after trying to figure out where in the new floor plan I could 'keep' it, I'm afraid we will have no room for it. It'll have to go.

So now I have decided that until we finish the cottage I will have to start carrying my digital camera in case I see something that I think I might want to buy. I'll learn to take a picture of the item in question instead of buying it so that I can 'possess' it but it won't own me. (This idea will come in handy when Jeff and I travel in the future as I always sneak some nifty looking rocks into my luggage to take home. Never the tiny ones either. Pictures of rocks will be much lighter after a month of travel.)

We have also discussed trying to figure out what items to keep based on the square footage of personal storage space that we each will be allowed. We can use string on the floor to outline the box size then simply assign it a height. How many books, art supplies and clothes will fit in there?

Once we move into the cottage it will be very easy not to buy anything new since there will be no place to put it. The floor plan we have come up with uses healthy 'green building' materials, will be beautiful and will efficiently serve all of our needs and wants in a home.

Monday's post will be
Downsizing - It's sometimes hard but "Just Do It"
.

Downsizing – Part One

2009-04-16T07:12:00.001-07:00

I've done it before, this thing called 'downsizing' of my possessions. It was 1998, I was recently divorced and living in SF as a single mom. I couldn't find full-time work in The City but heard through co-workers that there was an opening in their Seattle office.

I was offered the job and it was freeing to get rid of most everything that owned me in anticipation of our move. Freeing was definitely what it felt like when I considered moving.

What size moving van would we need, there were steps to move from so should I hire movers (Delancey Street Movers are amazing!), what size apartment will we need to move to and in what neighborhood to keep it all safe. Those answers would severely limit our choices of livable spaces simply because of what we owned, and trust me, I've never enjoyed limits very much.

Well, I gave away cherished items to friends who had admired them, sold things at a yard sale or gave them to charity. We left California with only the smallest enclosed trailer that held an antique birdseye maple armoire, some clothes, books, toys, 2 bikes and a few basic living items.

If it didn't fit in the trailer then it couldn't come with us.
It's a wonderful feeling that I look forward to again…

If it doesn’t fit into this tiny new cottage, then it won’t come with us.

Trailer Modifications

2009-04-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

The plans call for removing roughly every other board from the deck. This helps reduce weight and prevent water from pooling under the floor framing. The screws that hold the deck to the trailer require a square bit instead of flat-head, Philips, or star (also called torx). We only had one suborn screw, probably because the trailer is new.

Sometimes a quick way to get a screw unstuck is to use a small, flat tipped, metal chisel. Place the tip of the chisel against the edge of the screw at about a 45 degree angle from the deck. Tap the chisel until you have a good dent in the side of the screw head. Keeping the chisel at about 45 degrees from the deck, rotate the chisel - keeping the tip in the dent you just created - so that tapping chisel will tend to turn the screw counter-clockwise. A few taps may loosen the screw enough so you can use the square-head bit to remove the screw.

Of course, if the head is stripped out it's better to just drill the screw out.

In the front of the trailer there is (was) a low bar. We needed to remove this, otherwise we'd have to figure out how to build the walls around it. Arlene used a rotozip, which cut through the supports quickly. Then she smoothed the edges with a grinder. Arlene is always telling me she likes metal, but all I see her do to metal is hack it, cut it, grind it, and otherwise turn it into dust.

Another thing you might notice from the pictures is that we have a set of jacks under all 4 corners of the trailer. The jacks will stabilize our work surface. Now if the trailer were perfectly square and level, making level floors and square walls would be a snap. Unfortunately, the trailer is actually bowed such that the highest point is above the wheels. But we have a plan...

Starting to look like a shop!

2009-04-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

Our first delivery of wood came on Monday. We didn't want to leave a bunch of wood sitting around too long (avoiding warpage), so this load mainly consisted of what we'll need for the floor and the front wall framing - some 2x4s, 2x6s, 1x4 fir tongue and groove for the floor and some plywood.

Then on Wednesday evening I gave Arlene an early birthday present.

After talking to several folks about the benefits of screws vs nails for framing, we went with ring-shank nails. Apparently screws will hold better than regular nails, but tend to snap under shearing loads. Nails are more likely to bend, but could wiggle out over time if we move the trailer frequently. Ring shank nails are a compromise between the two and have the added advantage of speed (with Arlene's new toy).

In general, I tend to assume that everything takes longer to do than you initially think it will. Since we have a deadline for our project (July / August), some of our choices reflect an interest in speed. For example, I've read several times that folks found used trailers for sale on the net. When we really started looking for a used one there were none available, so we bought the one we have. If we had more time and were willing to wait for the right sized trailer to become available, we could have saved anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000. But we also thought that a used trailer could have rust, need rewiring, break work or other problems that would take us time and money too.

As it is, there are several modifications we need to make to our trailer before we can build and put the floor framing on. In fact, the Fencl plans give a general idea of the floor framing, but indicate that modifications will be needed depending on the trailer. Our trailer is different enough from the basic plans that we'll need to employ some creative problem solving...

The Foundation

2009-04-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

We have a foundation. Our foundation is a $3124.70, Iron Eagle, 7000 Series trailer. It's gross (trailer and load) vehicle weight is 7000 lbs. It has a tubular frame, electric brakes and a longer tongue than many others in its class. The longer tongue gives the trailer a bit more stability on the road and means that we could distribute the weight a bit more evenly. Normally, you'd want around 15% of the trailer weight on the tongue. With ours we can go as low as 10%, but we don't need to.

We ordered the trailer about two weeks ago, and yesterday Rick and I picked it up with my Jeep Wrangler. It is important to note that we will NOT be towing the fully built cottage with the Jeep. My Jeep has a class three hitch, and ideally we'd want a class four to tow more than 5000lbs - and our cottage, even after being extremely conscientious about weight - will be up there.

So why not put a class 4 hitch on the Jeep? The Wrangler isn't built for towing. This kind of load would ruin the clutch, and the frame isn't built for it. Still, I may be able to use the Jeep for backing the finished cottage into tight spots, or other fine maneuvering - like pulling our trailer out of the build space when the time comes (the parking lot isn't long enough for a big truck).

Now, I haven't done a lot of towing before. I was actually a bit nervous. That's why I brought Rick along (well, and he's fun to hang out with). So after picking up the trailer we went to DMV and got a permanent trailer registration for 38 bucks (so once I put the plates on, the trailer is street legal). Then we found an empty parking lot and I practiced backing up with Rick's patient guidance. It turns out that it's easier to do gradual, arc-like, maneuvers than sharp, kink-like turns - you can get stuck quickly that way. Also, when pulling forward to straighten out, I found that if I cut the wheel hard in the opposite direction over just the last few feet, it sets the trailer and Jeep up in a nice arc for backing up.

Much to my surprise, I only had to pull forward and back about 3 or 4 times to get the trailer right into the build space. I expected it to take a lot longer and be a lot more frustrating.

Anyway, the trailer is 18 feet long - not including the tongue - and 7 feet wide between the wheel wells. This is our foundation. Before we begin building, we'll need to bring some tools in and make a few modifications to the trailer.

Also, Arlene's birthday is coming up. She likes tools. Maybe I'll get her something useful for the project.

At The Source

2009-03-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

When you buy a set of plans from Tumbleweed Houses you get three hours of consultation time with Jay. Today, we went up and spent an hour with Jay. We came prepared with a list of questions. Jay happily answered each one. It felt more like a mellow conversation than a consultation. It was also fortuitous that Jay and company are currently building a Fencl, so we got to climb around it and take a look at how they are building one.

It turns out that there are a great many details that you don't notice when just looking over the plans. For example, the wheel wells are situated such that water could creep in between them and the inner wall. So when building, we'll need to account for this and develop some sort of protection for it. Further, the plans don't come with a framing plan for the roof. Fortunately, there are a number of sets of build pictures we are drawing on. These help - a picture is worth a 1000 words. But seeing the in-progress Fencl filled in a few more details.

So we're getting it all together and should have a trailer soon. Then we can really start!

At the lumber yard

2009-03-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

On April 1st, California will hike its sales tax by 1 whole percent. So it has made sense to do some spending up front. To that end, we've spent the last few days spending money. We've purchased a hot water heater, a refrigerator, a heater, scissor jacks and a toilet. We've been getting bids on other building supplies, like insulation, windows, aluminum flashing, PEX piping, sealant and on and on and on. We should have our order in for these items early next week, for delivery at the end of the week.

Today we went to the lumber yard. I love wood. Good quality wood with beautiful grain... I see exotic woods and I want to incorporate them into our house. How about a teak floor? Birds eye maple cabinets? Trim in ebony? Ok. Maybe not that combination. Anyway, we need to watch our weight. We're hoping to build a mobile house, remember?

But we're also interested in avoiding the formaldehyde that off gasses from plywood and particle board. So we need to use light weight, quality, solid wood materials for the inside of the house. (We will use exterior grade plywood for the sheathing that goes outside of the framing.) We can do this by using 1/4" tongue and groove for the walls and ceiling and 3/4" tongue and groove for the floor. So we just have to settle on the type of wood. And these are big decisions because we both want our place to be beautiful.

But we don't have to make all of the decisions right now. As you might expect, we'll be building from the bottom up, so we need to decide on the materials for the foundation and floor now. By this last statement it is probably apparent that we don't plan to buy all the wood right away, even though we could avoid that 1% tax increase if we did. For the wood, we'll order as needed so we don't have wood sitting around that could warp on us. Plus, we figure we'll have less waste this way.

So what's next? We have to finalize some orders, move a bunch of tools from storage to the build space, get a trailer... ah. The trailer. It is the foundation of our home. Well, more on that later.

Media Inquiries – Facts About Our Project

2009-03-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

The following information describes our building project. If you have other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We can reached at "mobilecottage.blogspot at gmail.com"

Why are you building a tiny house to live in?
This tiny cottage began as a project that we thought would be fun to work on together. We have both been interested in architecture since we were very young, have wanted to build our own home ‘someday’ since we were old enough to be out on our own, and are experienced ‘tool people’ so building it ourselves seems easily possible.

What does this project mean to you?
Building this tiny home is a way that we can live our dream of designing and building our own home. We’re building it with VOC free, high quality building materials. It will be very energy efficient with minimal material usage or solid waste going into a landfill. Without a mortgage we will have more freedom and options. This is our solution to help with environmental concerns and sustainability while lowering our living expenses. We purposely chose a cute exterior design so that people wouldn’t mind looking into their backyards and seeing us there.

Won’t it be too small for you two to live in full-time?
We are building a slightly larger version than some of the designs we have seen. Some people think that living in a space this size is impossible but there are many couples (and families) who happily live on boats or are full-time RVers. This type of living situation can work, and maybe because of the current hard economic times, there will be many who never thought it possible but who are now considering simplifying their lives as well as spending less on housing / utilities.

Why do you think it’s important to downsize your possessions?
In this country house sizes continue to grow. Larger houses create more land fill and waste, have larger power consumption needs, require larger lots, and more furniture. If we're buying more things for our bigger houses, then we need more square footage for our stores and bigger parking lots. We wonder why our commutes are so long!
We don't think this trend is sustainable and we want to do our part to help change things. Instead of commuting, we’d rather go hiking, take classes or socialize with friends. Paring way down to the minimum that we need, plus a few items that simply make us smile, and moving into a healthy, small, energy efficient environment is our reaction to all of this. We’d love to get to know our new neighbors and be part of the community and we think our tiny house is a step in that direction.

How do you think this project will change your lives?
We have never lived in a space the size of our tiny cottage for longer than a month but we’re certain that whatever challenges come with living in close quarters, we’ll figure out a solution that will make us both happy. We’ve read a lot about living full-time in small spaces (boats, RV’s) and can’t see any big problems with this that can’t be worked out. We already know that we travel light, enjoy each other’s company, are laid back and are willing to compromise. For a month long overseas trip we took a few years ago, we brought one carry-on each and really had a great time even during long car rides in the very tiny rental car.

What are the facts about your tiny cottage?
* Our tiny cottage exterior measures 8.5’wide and 24’ long (including the length of the trailer tongue).
* We will be using a propane tank for cooking and heating. Other tiny home owners say that heating during the winter even where there is snow costs them less than $10 a month.
* We have a composting toilet so we don't need a sewer hookup. No, it doesn’t smell like the porta potties in the park do. The compost is harvested about 3 to 4 times a year. The final product (thankfully) looks nothing like what goes into making it.
* We will need a garden hose hookup for dishes and showers when we aren’t at the YMCA or UW gym. The hose is an RV hose that can be heated using a tiny amount of electricity during really cold days so it won’t freeze.
* We have few appliances, so an outdoor extension cord from a host house will be fine. Someday we plan to go solar because our electric requirements will be so low.
* Our water from dishes and showers will be recycled (as we'll use only biodegrade soaps) by watering nearby plants so we’d like to have a few containers with vegetables or flowers in front of our cottage or would like to plant a small raised bed garden nearby.
* Building codes? The majority of municipalities have minimum size requirements and other constraints even for ‘accessory buildings’. However, trailers are not fixed structures so they have different legal requirements than local building codes.

What are you looking for?
* A 30 minute or less commute by public transport to the University District.
* We’re not interested in publicity so we’d like to be placed somewhere that the general public won’t be stopping by to peek in the windows out of curiosity or bothering the homeowners that we rent space from by walking uninvited up their private drive to get a better look at our cottage.
* A reasonable monthly rent as we only need a parking space sized area, our utility use will be very minimal, and we’ll be outside of your home so you’ll still have privacy. We bring our own ‘room’ (kitchen/bath/bedroom/living room) but expect to pay about what a room rental costs since we take up as little space. Rooms for rent seem to be running $400+ currently in Seattle near the university. Utilities could be added on top of the basic rent if it’s found that our usage shows on the monthly utility bills.
* Arlene is willing to help with house repairs/remodeling (she'll have a bit of experience in all areas by then) or gardening for an agreed upon number of hours per week in exchange for paying a rent close to the amount suggested above. Maybe someone has an elderly relative who needs help around the house or who could use some extra income? Pet/house sitting while our host travels is an option too as well as daily dog walking.
* Arlene will be looking for work upon relocation to Seattle. She’d like to possibly continue doing CADwork for consulting engineering firms but will also be looking at architectural firms who work on LEED projects. She is currently pursuing LEED certification so work as a consultant for other projects such as this one, for environmental conservation with respects to the building industry, or as someone who deals with recycling building products so they don’t end up as landfill, might also be options. She is also currently working on creating innovative LED light fixture designs.

Have there been any parts of this project that were unexpected?
For such a small project it’s actually effecting our lives in many ways. We’ve learned much more about each other and it’s improved our skills of communication, cooperation and compromise. We’ve also become much more knowledgeable in ecological conservation issues and which sustainable building products are readily available (and affordable) than we thought we’d need to be for this project.

What would you tell others who see your tiny cottage and want to build one too?
If you’re not an experienced builder then do your research ahead of time so your project will go smoother; use the library. We did this and were very happy that we did. Also, realize that no set of plans that you might buy will be set in stone. Because your trailer dimensions will vary, your needs and wants will vary from the designers’, you will need to change the construction plans. We never found a set that was complete so being able to make decisions based on the previous knowledge one has about building (for example, “If I do this, then what else will it effect?”) , and to get things done on the fly, will come in very handy.

Other FAQs

what model hot water heater you installed? Precision Temp RV-500.
It's a tankless, on demand, propane hot water heater.
http://www.precisiontemp.com/pt_rvmd_rv500.html

What?

2009-03-26T08:43:00.001-07:00

So what are we building? We're building a 'Fencl'. This is one of the tiny house designs from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. We've altered the floor plan, and will use different materials in some places, but otherwise it will basically be like the house in the picture (but longer).

The house will have an upstairs sleeping loft, vaulted ceiling, and have about 115 square feet of living space. It will have a small kitchen, a bathroom, a desk space and living room. Of course, achieving all this, while avoiding feeling cramped, requires a carefully considered, efficient, floor plan.

In addition to being space efficient, we'll be energy efficient too. We aren't TV watchers and don't need many of the other common gadgets that tend to consume a lot of energy, so our electrical draw will be minimal. In fact, the way we are building our cottage will allow us to add modifications later such that we could, if we wanted, get off the electrical grid all together.

And, because the house is small, we can use high quality, mainly sustainable building materials, while keeping the cost low.

Finally, our house will be on a trailer. We'll be building it in the San Francisco Bay Area, but in September of 2009, Jeff starts a PhD program at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. So once we're done building it - or close to it - we'll be moving our tiny house to Seattle!

This is a good time to mention that tiny houses are drawing a great deal of attention lately. If you check out our resource links you'll note that a growing community of folks across America are building their own tiny housing.

Some common reasons people build a tiny house:

Ecological considerations
Avoid conspicuous consumption
Use of sustainable building materials
Use of hypoallergenic building materials
Joy of building your own house
Efficient use of energy & space
Focus on Quality over Quantity
Economic considerations
Use as a rental or in-law unit
Mobility

Moving forward, this blog will document the building of our tiny house. We'll put up some pictures and give some details about why we choose this or that. We've found that reading other builder's blogs has helped us clarify our own process, so we intend to make our own experience available as a resource for others. But, note that we'll be starting slowing and then moving faster as we get into the summer.

So, what's next? We have a space, but we'll need to build our mini mobile cottage on something...

When?

2009-03-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

We started talking about building a tiny house in January. We've been doing research on every aspect of the project since then. We've looked into gray water systems, plumbing, heating, gas, electrical and various other elements of our house. We compared the advantages and disadvantages of AC power vs. DC power. We looking into wood, asphalt, and metal roofs. We spent hours fine tuning the floor plan and deciding where light fixtures, cabinets and so on go. We visited various stores and lumber yards, and have done hours of on-line shopping so we have a rough idea of what we'll be spending.

So, while you are just tuning in on this fine day near the end of March, 2009, we've been considering and planning our tiny house since the beginning of the year. So the project has already started, but we're just now getting to the physical part. To the actual buying of stuff and hammering it together.

So the "When?" is NOW.

But what are we really going to be building?

Who?

2009-03-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

Jeff & Arlene are a happily married couple who revel in being creative, working with tools and working together.

Arlene is a professional CAD drafter and artist (blacksmithing, coppersmithing, welding sculpture, wood working) who enjoys hiking, reading, anything do-it-yourself and has an odd fetish for old cars.

Jeff is an ex-Software Quality Assurance Engineer turned return student who will be starting a PhD program for Information Science in the Fall of 2009. When not working on his wife's crazy projects (this mini-cottage being one of them), he enjoys reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic.

Where?

2009-03-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

Arlene and I live in an apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area. So, our first dilemma is: where do we build our mobile mini-cottage? We need to have a secure place for tools, materials and the house as we build it. The problem is, it's expensive in the Bay Area. Well, normally, when the economy isn't in the tank it is. The economy's state means that there is more property on the market and that landlords are a little more willing to work with us. For example, normally they require a year lease for a warehouse space big enough to build a tiny house.

But, after a bit of looking around , we successfully secured a small commercial space to build our tiny house.

Our cottage will require roughly 10 feet wide by 20 feet long as it is being built. We'll need a roughly equal size to frame walls. Then we'll also need space for storage and tools. And pizza. :-)

The space we've rented is 20 feet wide and 50 feet deep. Plenty of space. The door is a 12 foot roll-up door. Now, a few folks will note that our cottage is planned to be a few inches over 13 feet tall... but we have a plan for that discrepancy, which I'll leave for a future entry.

Why?

2009-03-23T07:45:00.001-07:00

Why in the world would you want to build and live in a tiny house? Won't you be cold? Where will you put the TV? Don't you have to know about carpentry, roofing, electrical systems, plumbing, gas, and and and and...? It's so small. Won't you get on each others nerves?

The bottom line is that we are pursuing our dreams. The older we get, the more we feel like what we want, often not the typical American dream, is worth chasing after even if it means giving up some other things. Specifically if those other things are just things that we don't really need.

One of our long time dreams has always been to build our own house. But we've never wanted a big house (though, this one is pretty small). We like camping and feeling closer to nature than most folks. We're also concerned about treading lightly in the world.

I could really write pages and pages about why we're building a tiny house, our Mobile Cottage, but instead, I invite you to follow our blog as we build our dream. I'm sure that over the months our motivations will shine through our posts and become more clear to you. You'll get to hear about our mistakes, frustrations and successes along the way. And hopefully enjoy vicariously participating in our dream.