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

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!

A lofty project

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

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.

Odds and Ends

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."

Who?

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.