Unwanted Trailer Parts

Finding the time to build the Tiny House is a very simple thing. I have decided to make it more difficult. I am only working on the house when the weather is nice.   Guess what?  The weather hasn't been nice when I am available to build.  So far I have only done one thing since my last blog.

The trailer had a railing on the front. I needed to remove this to allow the walls to fit properly in the front. (when I actually get to the walls).

This is the way the trailer looked before I attacked it with an Angle Grinder.  After the railing was removed it was raining.

I should have removed the railing before adding the rodent barrier because the steel of the railing and my wiggling it back and forth destroyed this end of the Aluminium Flashing.

I am now left with waiting for a time when I am not at work and it is sunny outside.  Can you see how it is a difficult thing?  Living on the Island (Vancouver Island) and waiting for dryness in May.

Rodent Barrier

Here is some more updating specific to the trailer.  Over the past month Lisa and I have been gathering up scrap pieces of wood from construction sites. (Specifically 2 times from the new hospital under construction at my work.)

Before running boards along the length of the trailer to attache the rodent barrier, Lisa and I went to Home Depot to pick up 2 Aluminium flashing rolls, metal screws, grey water holding straps and some leak seal.  Finding the best and longest wood from our hauls was the first step.  

You can see one of the rolls on the bottom left of the picture.
After attaching the boards to staple the aluminium to, we attached the grey water holding tank, in what we think is the most optimal place. (Drive side, in front of the wheel wells)

 If you look closely, you can see the 2 smaller boards in place to prevent the tank from moving from left to right.  Lisa placed these boards in order to give it that extra bit of security.

The reason for attaching the tank at this stage is to reduce the amount of crawling around under the trailer later in the project.
Now the trailer is ready for the Aluminium flashing. The purpose of this is to prevent the rodents from infesting.

This photo was taken before stapling the last row of flashing. (the middle row)

Now that we have completed the rodent barrier, we are ready to commence the sub floor with insulation.

April 2012 Update

It is now April and it is time to update the blog.
We now have the trailer safe and sound in our driveway.

Lisa had this marvellous idea. We should get the truck that is to pull the tiny house, NOW. (I say YES)
We now have a 2005 6 litre, F350 Diesel, Extend-A-Cab. (Awesome)

As much as I can remember, we picked up some supplies for the tiny house.  Around the End of February to early March, Lisa found a 3 burner RV stove and double sink for $40. (What a great deal)  Here is the only picture that we have of the stove before my version of refurbishing it.

(before cleaning and removing rust; with a nice fresh paint job) I didn't take a picture of them, but I needed some supplies from Home Depot. 2 Wire brushes, and 2 cans of paint that can with stand the heat of an oven; and some green painters tape.

Lisa and I also found some beautiful Laminate flooring at the local "Re-Store".  Lisa mapped out and all the pieces and labeled them so that we can place them perfectly in the tiny house as soon as the "Wet Season" ends.

 To allow for a better visual of the living area dimensions of the tiny house. We placed tape on the living room floor.

The entire thing fit inside the living room.  Here is a shot of the pieces in place as they will be in the tiny house.  You can also see the double sink that we picked up.  There is also the stove top and table in their end project positions.

THE TRAILER HAS BEEN ORDERED!!!!

It's really happening! We ordered our 7 X 18ft tandem trailer today for our Lusby. Deposit has been paid!! Next thing we'll be purchasing will be the plans from tumbleweed! We'll wait until after the holidays and buy it in January. Our trailer should be here in Feb (they're customizing it for us!!) We took a trip to the ReStore to see how many ways we can save money in the building process. There were so many great items there that could definitely come in handy when the time comes. We found a pedestal sink in great condition for $50! We saw windows, doors, light switches, light fixtures and even wood! We didn't buy anything this trip. More research :-) We also went to Home Depot to check out prices of flooring, galvanized metal roofing materials, windows, insulation, interior pine boards, everything but the kitchen sink. Oh no wait, we checked those out too.

We had a dream

We have been thinking about ways to live simpler and more efficiently. We've been researching many different ways to be greener and well, cheaper. We live in a 1900 sq ft home right now and we use hardly any of that space. Most of us are in separate rooms for the better part of the day/evening. The best times we've had (and most relaxing) have been camping in our truck camper. The only complaint from the kids was the lack of sleeping space for both of them. Our oldest son living with us is 13 and youngest daughter is 10. We decided to start downsizing the amount of material possessions we had. We gave some to our oldest daughter when she moved into her first apartment, had yard sales, went to flea markets and gave stuff away to local thrift stores. We still have way too much stuff but baby steps here... We don't want to be in shock so we are slowing dwindling down and getting used to the idea of living with very little. When Clint first showed me a 'tiny house' I was totally not on board. I thought, 'you've got to be kidding me'. Then the more research he did on tiny houses and the more he narrowed down choices and presented them to me, I got hooked.