Creature Comforts

So while my dear husband has been working on important things today like paneling and finish work, I've been playing house :o)

I put up the bathroom curtain today, we decided against a door as we wanted a light, airy feeling both inside and outside of the bathroom. I chose an organic linen fabric with a darker shade colour block on the bottom. It transfers light beautifully while still allowing for privacy in the bathroom.

I also put up the curtains to cover the under counter storage. It is the same heavy organic flannel that I used for the window treatments and does a good job at hiding the dishes and pantry items under the counter.

I'm so looking forward to being done with the finish work so that I can reclaim my home from the misc. tools and work items that are always laying around.

Coat Closet

We got the corner behind the front door finished up and I rolled my kitchen island over there instead of hiding it under the counter. Eventually when we move to another location, this will be where my washer and dryer will go as it is already plumbed in (behind the island), but for now while I have shared laundry facilities in the garage of the main house, I'll keep the island there. Then when the washer and dryer are in the house, I'll roll it back under the counter top :o)

I also get a wonderful coat closet! Yay! It fits perfectly into the space under the stairs.
I'm still deciding what style of doors I want, so hubby hasn't put those on yet for me. I think I might do door frames with fabric panels inset into them that match the curtains so that if we put any coats away damp there is still good airflow into the closet. And the space above will be great for setting up electronics (dvd player, laptop storage/charging, etc).

And then.....there was more work.....

I digress, while I would love to be one of those people that throws her tv out the window and only meditates and reads non-fiction, I am not. I enjoy watching tv while I do the dishes :o)

So, we found an articulating tv mount that we attached to the side of the stairs so that I can watch in the kitchen, or in the living room. And it folds out of the way when I'm not using it.

To utilize the space behind the stairs, we're going to build a coat closet and shoe rack, and then put the DVD player and audio equipment on top of the closet so that everything will be orderly and out of the way.

Hubby also got all of the paneling up in the bathroom

And he's building me some shelving along the wall outside of the bathroom and opposing the kitchen. And no, we're not a couple of raging alcoholics :o) I'm planning to use the shelves he will put in for my vitamin bottles/loose leaf tea/and spices. It should work out great!

It's exciting to see the walls start to come together. After looking at fuzzy wool walls for quite some time it's nice to be able to run my hands along solid wood walls. And I love that the wood holds the heat and feels warm to the touch :o)

The Cost of a Tiny House

So I thought it would be fun to calculate the price of our home if I was to purchase it from Tumbleweed (provided they even made something in our size, which they don't). I took their squarefootage from the Fencl, broke it down to price per square foot ($372.73 - the Fencl is 144.875sqft including the loft space), and then took our squarefootage (255.5sqft) at the Tumbleweed price. I about fell over when I added it up......$95,232.52!!! HOLY CRAP!!!

I guess I never really took notice when people complained about the "$400 a sqft pricetag" on the Tumbleweed homes. I wasn't buying one, so I didn't really care, but now that I've done the math, I can't see how anyone can think that at those rates these can be considered affordable housing!

I think that a quality home is very important, but I also think that one could build a quality tiny home for far less than that and still make money off of it. We have spent what I consider to be quite a bit of money on our home, but we made different choices than some do as building a non-toxic house comes with a larger price tag. I just can't see how almost $400 a sqft can be justified....at that price it would have to be gold plated.

Overspending is what got our country into this mess in the first place......how does $400 a sqft at any size lead to a debt free, minimalist lifestyle? Living in a tiny home is a change of life, goals, and the ability to follow one's dreams....sometimes I think that some of us forget that and get wrapped up in the "cuteness".
Anyway, no pictures today, just some random thoughts......

Window Coverings

My fabric that I ordered for the draperies arrived yesterday, so I spent all day today sewing

and have the living room panels completed and had hubby help me hang them.

The paneling isn't finished on the walls yet, so I'll have to pop them down quickly when he is ready to install the tongue and groove, but I really wanted to get some nice window coverings up. We had burlap bags stapled up over the windows and it was getting old.

The undyed organic cotton flannel fabric looks great against the wood and really lightens up the house. The long panels give the living room a really chic "loft" feel, with the nice warmth of a cabin :o)

New Gutters

Well, today we moved our home into her semi permanant location in the yard. It's nice to be out of the driveway!

We also had seamless gutters installed that we will use to divert the rainwater into barrels to use for irrigation.
I think that they blend in really well!

A Few Photos of Everyday Life....

Here are a few pictures of what our tiny home looks like after a week of working and running around, neglecting chores, and general chaos.

Loft, complete with unmade bed and dog sleeping in my blankets :o(

It would take an act of God, Congress, and the devil to remove him from the bed....he's like a giant cat.

Living room, I did put a new cover on the futon, I like this one better :o) Shelf under counter top for dishes, I don't think we're going to put in upper cabinets as I've got lots of storage underneath, including a wheeled cart that has drawers for utensils and a spice shelf that I can roll out and use as an island when I'm cooking, and then roll it away when it's not needed.

It's fabulous having such a large space to work, but I always manage to clutter it all up! :o)

I've ordered organic cotton fabric and will be making curtains for the front of the counter to cover up underneath. We decided against doing cupboard doors (I decided against them anyway, I wanted a bit softer look, more cozy). So I'm waiting on the fabric to arrive and then I will make the curtains for the storage, and also the curtains for all of the windows.....and I don't know how to sew, so it should be interesting :o)

Anyway, I thought you all might like to see some "real life" pictures of our little home in action :o)

Who Would Have Thought.....

Well, we've completed the insulation as of a few days ago and are now enjoying the warmth, in fact, a bit too much warmth! While we've spent the last 3 winters freezing our butts off in the 5th wheel, we are now way too warm! It's fine if we leave the heater on low, but you put it on anything higher than the first setting and we're sweating and the dogs are panting.

So, while we still intend to install our beautiful little marine stove as at some point we will be using only solar/wind power, for now while we are hooked up to the grid, we're going to stay electric as it's now apparent that we're not going to wake up with icicles on our noses anytime soon :o)

That being said, I wanted something more attractive than my radiator style freestanding heater, so we picked up this little gem and I think it does the job nicely :o)

It uses less power than radiator heater we've been using (which was still very efficient), and it gives us that warm "wood" glow.

We'll finish off the platform that the heater is on in preparation of installing the woodstove at some point, but for now we're going to use the electric heater until we've got our alternate energy sources in place and are ready to travel off grid.

It's so exciting though to have a warm, toasty home that doesn't require much electricity to heat, and we should stay nice and cool in the Summer with as well as everything is insulated

The insulation continues

We're now about 80% insulated, and the ceiling looks beautiful with its patchwork wool blanket :o)

I love the softness of our walls, they just look warm and cozy and "real". Not like the cold and sterile commercial insulation. I sleep easy knowing that my home is sustainable and full of character.

Our tiny house is becoming a living, breathing extension of ourselves, and I think we need to come up with a name for her soon :o)

Rubber Boots...

Finally, finally! Our rubber boot for our chimney has arrived! This is the stock photo from the website as we haven't installed it yet, but I'm excited that we finally have some more of the parts that we need to put our tiny stove it.

We still need to fabricate a wall thimble for the inside of our home, and then we'll be all set to install the stove.

Tiny Stoves for Tiny Houses

We installed the paneling in the living room, so I thought I would post a picture of the finished wall.

And we took our tiny stove outside today to fire it up and make sure it was "sea worthy" for the home. I'm happy to report there are no issues with our 100 year old stove! I'm even cooking dinner on it tonight :o)
We put up a couple of sections of pipe just to get an idea of how hot everything will get (notice the temp gauge on the stove pipe). Once installed, it will have over 10ft of pipe all the way up so that it can draft well, but for now, we're just having fun with it outside in the driveway :o)

Latest Internet/Craigslist Scam....

Well, generally I wouldn't post about the latest scams online, but it so happens that it involves tiny homes.
Apparently there is an individual posting on craigslist offering to build tiny homes for people for a rediculously low price (his total cost doesn't even cover the price of building materials), taking a large deposit (up to 75%) in cash, and then running off with the money and not delivering a tiny house (BIG surprise!).
It sickens me that there is someone out there taking advantage of the people who are trying to change their lives, possibly get into a self sufficient home and live debt free. I'm sure we all know how hard it is to save our money these days, and for someone to take advantage of the good natured people who are interested in the tiny house movement and swindle them out of their hard earned money just makes me want to scream!
If you happen to come across this person, please report them to the proper authorities as they need to be stopped before they ruin anymore lives and dreams.
From the emails I have received personally, there are at least 7 people who have been taken in by his scam and have no recourse as they paid in cash and any contact information they had for him appears to be false.
Please be careful out there!

Interior work

We've been putting up more insulation and paneling inside. The living room is coming along nicely.

We're also trimming out the windows so that everything will look finished off when we're done.

It may look quick and easy to put paneling up, but it's A LOT of work! The exterior siding went up a lot quicker. It will be nice when it's complete, but until then, it's lots and lots of work.
We had an open house this last weekend for some of the locals that were interested to come and take a look and there has been some discussion with a few people who would like us to build them a custom tiny home suited for their individual needs. So once we get finished up (and if the weather will cooperate), we'll have a formal "open house" and possibly a schedule a few seminars if the interest is there so that people can get a first hand look at the different options out there and also have the opportunity to ask questions about different building methods, ie: the difference between "green" and non-toxic, what works best for them and their budget, where to source the materials, etc.
So stay tuned for more info on that!
We have also been contracted to consult on two other tiny house projects currently in the beginning stages of design and construction by individuals that just need a little help with the details and planning.
Ideally, once we have our home completed, we will most likely start on another tiny home, and if a buyer comes along early enough in the process, we will build it custom for that person, otherwise we will build a standard, smaller unit.
We've had a few people come visit from out of state to take a look at our home, and the reviews have all been phenominal! We're excited to start a new journey and would love to help others achieve their "tiny dreams".

Work in the Loft

With our new bed on the way, hubby started putting together our slatted bed frame that will give us just enough lift to keep air circulating under the bed, but not so much that we'll be too high up for the space.

Our little dog seems to approve of the new bed frame :o) See the extra space on the sides of the frame? That's because we're getting a KING sized bed! Woo hoo! Who would have thought that you could have a king sized bed in a tiny home!? We did!

Hubby has also started insulating the ceiling and putting some of the paneling up. It's looking great!

By Request....a couple of interior pictures

Life has been rather hectic for us recently, so I haven't been able to update as regularly as I would like to, but by popular request, here are some inside pictures :o)

We quasi-moved in last week as we aren't quite ready to move the tiny house into position yet, so we've been unable to hook up to water and permanent power and are just running the lights off an extension cord for now.

A rather unexpected setback for us was when we went to move our mattress and boxspring into the new house and discovered that the whole underside of our mattress had black mold all over it! NOT good! We had really wanted to upgrade to a completely non-toxic organic bed, but didn't have it in our budget for now, but seeing as how our mattress was toast, we had to do something.

So for now, we're sleeping on our futon on the floor upstairs anxiously awaiting our new mattress to be finished being built by the wonderful folks over at Soaring Heart in Seattle.

We're also generally moved into the living room, of course the picture will be hung properly once we roll the insulation into the walls and put up the tongue and groove on the inside :o)

Lots of work left to do yet, but in the interest of trying to get our 5th wheel up for sale before the summer is over, we're going to live in a construction zone for a bit.

Also, as a side note, we have found another one of those small marine wood stoves to use in place of the one we were going to, so I'm going to be selling the one we originally purchased for the house with the little oven, burner, and griddle top. They retail new for over $3400 once you add in tax and crate/shipping charges, but we bought ours used for $1500 and I'd like to try and get most of that back out of it. So, if you know anyone in the market for a teeny tiny cookstove for their tiny house, let me know!

Thanks!

We have a roof over our heads!

Well we've had quite a bit going on recently, but I thought I would post a picture of our fabulous roof!

We moved in (sort of) last week and will begin work on the inside finish work soon after we get the 5th wheel cleaned and washed and ready to sell.

I'll post new pictures of the inside as soon as I can, but life has been a bit hectic!

Moving right along!

We've been able to get the siding up on 3 of the 4 sides

And my hubby has been working on fabricating the front door for us. He still needs to add the threshold and the door stops all the way around, but it's in and functioning! Very exciting! He ended up having to do everything from scratch as it is an odd size, but I think it has turned out beautifully :o)

More siding.....

More of the siding has gone up and our tiny mansion is beginning to look like a real home!

It Looks Like a Real House

We got most of the trim work done yesterday, and the back wall all sided up :o) It looks great!

She's Come Undone....

Well today we unveiled her as the weather is supposed to hold for the next several days.

Here's a picture from the living room looking toward the front door (see all those lovely windows?)

And this, well, this is my marvelous living room! It looks absolutely amazing with the windows installed! (we are storing our insulation in the living room for the time being)
Here she is! Basking in the sun for the first time in a long while :o)

Keep in mind that we're going to be adding a storage shed to the tongue, so we just did opening windows at the top with plans for the storage shed later on.

And this, my dear friends.......is the most beautiful tiny house on the block :o)

Gotta love lots of light!

My very talented hubby has been working on the windows for us this week, he had the window panes completed some time ago, but is now doing all of the framing work and install on them.

This is the bathroom window
And the kitchen window

and my FABULOUS living room windows! There will be a matching set on the opposite wall, and then some smaller ones on the top of the back wall (where the light fixtures are). He's putting them up higher because at some point we will add a built in storage shed to the tongue of the trailer.

It's all very exciting stuff! Once the windows are in, we finally get to take the tarp off, do some siding, and then the roof!

Back on the Building Bandwagon!

Well, after many weeks of working, family illnesses, and chaos, we are back on track with building our tiny home.

Hubby is working on the windows, and they look BEAUTIFUL!