Lifting walls

So a lot has happened over the last week!
First we ordered all of the materials we needed for the shell of the house including lumber, sheathing, siding, wood stains etc. It was in a long list given to us from our architect, Jacob. That list however was from the green store (I am using colors instead of naming the big box). We took this list as well as window quotes for our custom windows, and brought them to the orange store. They price matched it all! We also got a bulk discount at the orange store. We set up the materials to be delivered to the build site.
When I ordered the materials, I had given the date to be delivered but it was mistaken for a week later! I did not double check the delivery date though when I walked out of the store which was a BIG MISTAKE. I did not realize the date was wrong until the night before the delivery when the store was already closed. So I woke up at 5:30 in the morning the Monday it was supposed to be delivered to call the delivery department and let them know about the mistake that was made on both ends.
The sense of urgency in this situation was due to the fact that we were anticipating Jacob to come from Lacrosse to help us with construction on Tuesday and the materials were supposed to be delivered Monday.
They told us the delivery would come at 6:30am on Tuesday.
So that was fine, if the materials were dropped off that early, we could unload even before Jacob arrived at the site.
But 6:30am came along, no truck, 7:00am, no truck.. 7:30am no truck. So we called.
The delivery was not to be out until 2pm that day. So with that being completely not possible, Ben, my Mom and I drove to the store ourselves to pick up some of the materials.
They had also loaded up one of their rental trucks with our materials since the designated delivery semi was not at the store.
Luckily Jacob got caught in some traffic and we did not have to pay him to watch us unload materials!!
After all of the deliveries were taken care of, there was a total of three, we got to work.
We completed the sub floor first thing which included laying sill seal, screwing in the last 2x4 frame pieces, and cutting and screwing in the tongue and groove plywood. Thanks Chaz for your help!!
After that we worked on framing the walls.
I worked mostly on cutting the lumber to the correct specs. I was following the cut-lists that Jacob laid out for us and was cranking out lumber!
Jacob and Ben worked on actually framing up the walls. We used the trailer bed as a level surface to do this but we also had some of the walls laid out on the ground.
Here is the time lapse from that first day for you guys to see what we were able to accomplish! (I soon will have a youtube channel specifically for our house so stay tuned)

And here is from day 2! We switched to have the time lapse take pictures every minute this day because we knew we would be lifting our walls! Enjoy!




The camera split the videos into three because it was such a large file. I will find out soon how to string them together.





In this next video you can see the sunken hallway being framed as well as us squaring up the house.





I love that the horses at the farm are included in my videos :) They don't mind us at all.
So some things that I learned from these two big days:
-Having a runner is so helpful, Thanks mom! We would have been stuck a lot if we did not have someone willing to run down to the store and pick up whatever we needed
-have an assembly line. It worked out great to have me and one other working on cutting lumber and have two others working on framing the walls.
-Always double check delivery dates and confirm them with the store.
-Always take breaks to drink on a hot day and also eat lunch.
-All nuts aren't perfect when they come from the store, and neither are the threaded rods that are connected to the trailer. The simpsons strong ties were a struggle to secure because the threads misaligned in many places.
-Have the windows and doors ordered as soon as you can. We have ours ordered but they are being shipped within the next week or so, so we have to wait to continue much further until we get those installed.
-No matter how accurate you think your plans are, there will always be changes!

At the end of Day 2 we tarped up the entire thing.
This however did not withstand the HUGE storm we had here two nights ago and unfortunately everything got wet. I did call a tumbleweed tiny house building expert however and he reassured me that even if it does get wet, it will be fine. There may be some buckling in the floor, and I will need to spray mold killer in case any begins to grow. Thank you Matt for your help!!
I wish I had somewhere to build inside, but the farm is doing just fine!

Next we will be building the loft walls and putting on the sheathing of the house, house wrapping and adding siding!

There will be a staining party at the farm this Wednesday if anyone is interested in staining some cedar!


Thanks to all that helped during these last construction days! I couldn't do this without you all!

Breaking ground

So there have been some road bumps over the last week.
For our sub floor we are using rigid foam insulation in between the trailer beams. We added the first layer last week in one day, tarped it up and then came back the next day to find that the tarps failed us and rain got on, and under, the insulation. So I spent a lot of time drying out the panels we cut, as well as drying out the trailer. The day it happened it was really hard to keep my cool! I was so frustrated that our tarps failed, and that we are so dependent on the weather since we are building outside.
We also realized that in our composting toilet, the fan we ordered was the wrong one! So dealing with the Richard to return just the fan and replace it with the correct, solar friendly, model was required. He did a great job helping us out and we really appreciate how he worked with us to correct our mistake! We also had some trouble with our time lapse camera because I didn't read the manual :P

There have also been some great ups this week though! We got the trailer leveled, our sink was delivered, and we set dates for the framing of the walls!
After the insulation dried out, I reinstalled it. Bought a bigger tarp that covers the entire trailer (before I had layered two tarps... in hindsight it was a terrible idea). Bought bungee cords to tie down the tarp instead of duct tape (again... was a terrible idea).
Today Ben and I also installed the second layer of insulation, filled in the gaps with spray foam insulation and added the first piece of wood to the trailer! We add 2x6 treated lumber on the outskirts of the trailer so that when we are building the walls, we nail the wall both into the trailer steel and to the wood on the outskirts for double the connection.

It was a big milestone for us! We have been mainly doing the leg work like research, calling people, and ordering things online so it is a great feeling to actually be progressing in the real build. Building it ourselves is also a blessing because we are able to see the entire project progress. It is also a challenge though because there have been a lot of random problems that we've had to solve.
For example, the trailer tail lights were too close to the edge of the trailer for us to be able to fit a 2x6 flush to it. We had to turn the lights upside down and re-screw them in place! Also today it randomly started sprinkling so we had to quickly cover the tarp in the middle of cutting insulation!

We also had a nice visit from Amy Scott Jack and Henry (my uncle aunt and cousins) at the build site today!

I finally figured out my time lapse camera to! It is super awesome, can leave it in one spot and it can take pictures for hours!
Here is the first video from today! In this one we are re-fitting the dried insulation and then laying out the cuts that we made for the second layer

And here is the second one from today :) This one we are cutting the panels the right length, filling in gaps with spray foam, finishing second layer and adding the wood skirt on the back of the trailer. You can see that I took a nice break laying on the insulation and staring at the sky today :P

The rest of this week we will be finishing up the sub floor by adding sill seal, wood to the rest of the perimeter, and plastic sheeting over it all. We also are going to be ordering the ENTIRE SHELL of the house, including all of the framing materials, roofing etc so that we can start that part of the build next week! Things are moving MUCH faster now, and I am so excited! 

Thanks for reading :) 

Ordering Materials

This week is the one!! We are going to start ordering our materials to build the framing!

Jacob has given us the preliminary plans, including cut lists and detailed instructions! (example below of the first step of making our tiny home)
The cut list on these diagrams is especially helpful because it gives us the exact measurements for every single cut of wood we will be doing!

We also got a framing nail gun this week, and an energy efficient TV sound system. (Ben has to get rid of his big subs we used in our apartment :( they will be missed)

I also ordered our mini Panda washer/dryer combo. Its an unconventional way to do laundry, but I think it will work out really well for our needs. Check out a video to learn more about how were choosing to do our off-grid laundry!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Ju2x_kyPI

We are having meetings at Home Depot with managers to handle our large lumber order this week, so soon we will be off and running!
I also have been thinking a lot about putting together a team meeting for those of you who wish to volunteer your time and learn how to build a tiny house!
So please please please if you are interested at all in helping construct anything within our house, reach out to me via call/text/email/facebook and let me know! Soon I will be picking a date and time for a meeting, and also starting the build! Our architect Jacob has even offered to help us kick off the build soon!

Things are off to a great start and I know this month will be filled with a lot of big starts!
Thanks for reading!

SO CLOSE

So earlier this week Ben and I met with our architect Jacob and we went over the tweaks. There are some windows that need to be moved, and the utility shed on the end of the trailer is going to be raised just tall enough so that two propane tanks can fit snugly underneath.
Here is some screenshots of our model!

Some of the windows in these screenshots aren't cut out out yet, but you can kind of get the gist from these pictures! We are really excited and LOVE our design. We think it will fit our lifestyle really well! We also got a materials list for all of the lumber that we will need, as well as other random building materials. I really like the price for all of the materials it rang up to $3,879. This price is for the entire shell! How great is that?!?! The real price comes in with the fluff to be added inside! 

Another big milestone happened we  purchased our composting toilet today! We are using the seperette model if anyone is curious, check it out! 

We are getting closer and closer each day to building this thing! I cannot wait to get started. We are now waiting for Jacob to fix a couple little things and give us our final construction documents! 

For those volunteering, these documents will be REALLY REALLY helpful for us all. They are going to break down each little section of wall and exactly what cuts need to be made and even what exact type of lumber size is needed! It will basically be like an instruction manual! Jacob actually built a tiny home with his high school carpentry class so I told him to pretend like I was just another student, learning how to build things. 

The big days that we will need as many volunteers as possible will be the days we put up the walls and the roofing/put in windows. This is a lot of big lifting that I will really appreciate help! 

I also wanted to update everyone on our potential TV debut! We had an interview with HGTV's "Tiny House, Big Living" last week! They seemed to really like our unique ideas and I am crossing my fingers we get on the show! They would just act as a "fly on the wall" documenting our progress and doing interviews! I am really really hoping that I will be able to be on the show, so everyone wish us luck! And hey that's just another reason for volunteers to show up right? You'd be on T.V! 

Everything is moving along smoothly here and we are trying to prep as much as we can before we actually build. We are actually looking for any tool rentals from friends or family that they would be willing to lend us. 

We REALLY need framing nail guns! So please ask around!

Thanks everyone so much for your support and I cannot wait to get started!!! We are getting so close! 

Moving Along

We met with our architect the other day, and he had some great tweaks to our design that we are super excited about!
Construction will wait until he gives us a materials list, and rough plan of action. I am so happy that we found such a nice architect!
Jacob is actually a teacher at Logan High School in La Crosse Wisconsin. He works there as the shop teacher and they just recently built a tiny house with his students! This means that he understands the level of construction know-how that I have and is willing to help me understand everything! I couldn't have asked for a better architect.

He also suggested that Ben and I go to Menards and buy this nail gun set with two nail guns ( a finisher and trimmer) as well as an air compressor for $200! It was a great deal at 60$ off retail value. We are so excited to use them!!

Now that I am done with school, the tiny house is in full swing! I have been doing hours of research every night and bugging Ben to also help with research. There is still so much that we don't know. What stresses me out the much is figuring out the zoning laws in Verona as well as applying for any special building permits... So if anyone is an expert on these things that is reading this, please share!!!

Also I wanted to share that a while back, I applied for the casting call for the HGTV show "Tiny House, Big Living". I received an email literally the same time I was meeting with my architect!! The woman was just asking me more detailed questions about my project and I answered them honestly. So we will see what comes of this! I unfortunately never heard back from "Tiny House Nation" but we will see if this show will have us on!

I am really stoked to get started with this!! I hope everyone else is ready to be called upon as volunteers because I will definitely need help from my community!

Graduation Debut

Thank you so much to all of my friends and family for signing the trailer! I will now build on top of well-wishes and carry the love and support with me wherever I go. 

I had a great graduation party and was so thankful that Ben was able to get the trailer to the park so that everyone could see that first, I am not kidding about actually building a tiny house and second, that I am that not crazy because it is actually much bigger in person that it sounds! 

I will always cherish these signatures! Thank you everyone for supporting my dreams! Love you all! 

Preliminary Plans

I have a WONDERFUL architect helping Ben and I out with design planning! His name is Jacob and he is a shop teacher at the Lacrosse High School. His class is actually building their own tiny house, so he is a very great resource! He gave us some preliminary 3-D images a few weeks back based off of our amateur plans. Will be uploading things like this here so that everyone can see the progress of our planning! We are hoping to begin construction as soon as Jacob provides us with a materials list for framing! It is very exciting!  

Porch side (back of the trailer) 

Inside with sunken hallway

 up to the bedroom loft and the "chill loft" on the other side. 

Front view from porch side showing the framing for the sunken hallway. 

another view of the sunken hallway/ bedroom loft :) 

Getting the Trailer

Here is the beauty. Our tumbleweed trailer has been acquired!
Thank you so much to Ben and Lee for trucking to Pennsylvania to get this!! And to my Mom and Brian for such an AWESOME graduation present!
 Seeing this picture makes everything seem more real!
 We have also been on the fence about whether or not we want to keep the full porch how it is, or cover it with flashing and just have a side porch. Not sure yet.
 We will need a better trailer ball once the house is finished, but for now it was pretty simple hauling it!
This is the beginning of an awesome adventure.
 Keep in touch with this blog to find out more about my tiny house and to find links to where we are researching!
 Also I will be making a facebook group for volunteers if you would like to keep up to date with times that Ben or I will be at the farm building.
We would really appreciate any and all help we can get! There will always be food and beer for those that come and help! Please check your facebook soon for this group.