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Monday, May 27, 2013

New Work and Lots Ahead for 2013

 
So it has been another year and a bit. I have not added anything to this blog in such a long time. Money and time have been tight. What else is new? lol.
Whomever may be reading this blog, may well think it's another abandoned project?
Not so at all...
Building an off grid homestead takes time, planning, money, resources and alot of hard work. I was working alot and couldn't get the time to get this all rolling.

About a year ago, I built a garage on my property. So that took alot of time as well. I'll show some pics of that later. I also have a small 10x10 cabin attached to a truck camper, my dad and I built a few years ago. I'll show pictures of these structures later, but for now this blog is strictly for the tiny house project.

Since my last entry, I have spent a little time gathering things for this project. I managed to get another old travel trailer for free. The trailer came with a very nice near new wood burning stove by Osburn. I paid $350 for the complete stove and chimney. The trailer is a 20 foot terry from about 1972. The inside had been re-inforced with a second layer of walls and insulation and the stove installed. This thing was a total wreck and very very very difficult to dismantle and scrap. I removed the stove and put it away for later. I knocked down the old trailer with great difficulty and have slowly been separating everything and disposing of it and burning it for a while now. Still lots of clean up on that front.
I did not take any pictures of this second travel trailer. But, it was a mess, trust me.

Now that I had stumbled across this second trailer. I was definately going to be building 2 tiny houses in one. I call it a modular tiny house on wheels. I have been thinking of this idea for years now. Finally it may become reality.
Below is a picture of the second trailer that has been stripped and is being mocked in place. You can see some of the mess this trailer was.
Look at my poor property. It's a mess. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Yes, but that's what makes life interesting.
I also purchase about $1500 in materials and hauled them up there. 30 sheets of plywood, 200 2x4x8's, 30 2x4x12's, 15 4x4x8's and screws insulation tarpaper ect ect... I am now into this project for just under $3000.00
The next picture shows the second trailer quickly sanded and painted. It turned out nice.
Time to start building the floor for trailer #2. Underside plywood painted the same as trailer #1 was done 3 years earlier.lol.
While waiting for the paint to dry, my dad and I got started on the cribbing blocks so we could finnally get the house on location and leveled off. I was going to use concrete blocks, but after some research, this was the best way to go. I chose to leave the ground in its natural state, so it is very uneven and hard to get things level. The cribbing and different thicknesses of plywood worked very well.
Thats my dad, making a cribbing block from 2x4's. It took many many 2x4's and a few hours to get them complete.
Here are some pics of the trailers being leveled.
May 11,2013. The weather was so nice and hot, we managed to get quite a bit done on this weekend.
Heres my dad starting on the first floor section of trailer #2.
All the same treatment as trailer #1. 3 sections bolted to the trailer frame when completed.
After bolting them down, it was time for the ROXUL insulation.
And vapor barrier and plywood.
It was great having my dad help me out. He kept pushing me, let's go, let's go, he kept saying.
We got more done in 3 full days than I had been able to do by myself in 3 years. "GOD I'M LAZY" lol.
We even had time to get a couple of wall started...
I did some clean up and that's how we left it for that weekend.

I am confident this project will be moving much faster now. Stay tuned, there will be lots of pics.