Well to be honest with you folks, I was considering giving up on the blog after returning home from France. My laziness is tempting me.
And then the second day I was home Christian asked me if I'd be interested in building a house on top of a trailer. I had been teasing the idea of residential independence for a while so I said sure why not. Technically I've already owned two homes (both being vehicles) and technically this one will still be on wheels, but it will resemble a true house much more than it will resemble a vehicle. And it will provide reasonably sized living quarters, especially once I buy some land, whenever that may be.
Most choose to call this style of home a "tiny house".
So yes we're building a tiny house. But to me it will be massive.
So the next day he informs me his neighbor offered to sell his 18 foot trailer for $500. For perspective, a custom built, new trailer for a tiny house goes for something between $3,000 and $7,000. So this was a steal.
Also for perspective, you'll soon see how much work has been required to get this thing prepped to become my new foundation.
Here's the trailer on day 1. Solid, very little rust, but lacking lights, safety chains, breakaway switch or even a VIN #. The tires were also in rough shape and one of the drum brakes was seized. Still a great deal for an 18 foot trailer!
The first thing we did was to create a life-sized floor plan in Christian's basement with chalk and tape. This allowed us to get a sense of where things would fit and how small hallways and open spaces might be.
Then we both began making models of the house in Sketchup. He knew the tool and I did not, so I gave up after a few hours of trying to make a single wall...
Then prep work on the trailer began. These metal tabs on either side weren't long enough to give us our desired house width. Legally, the house can be up to 8'6" wide and 13'6" tall. So we're going with an 8' wide frame to give us room for the roof overhang.
These tabs needed to be cut out and grinded down smooth.
After cutting and grinding, I applied coats of primer and enamel to protect the metal. This took so much longer than expected and the heat and humidity almost took me out in the process.
Christian's neighbor Scotty graciously invited us to his workshop to weld on some new beams on the sides of the trailer. Our friend Joe also came over to help with the welding while Christian and I did more grinding, measuring and prep work.
Having friends willing to lend their expertise during a project of this size is unbelievably helpful and one of the biggest reasons that this project might actually succeed. That, and the fact that Christian knows how to build houses...
I-beams all welded on.
More primer, more paint...
Brian graciously offered us his leftover metal roofing. We'll use the galvanized stuff to protect the underside of the trailer and keep critters from nesting in the insulated subfloor. The other roofing will be used on the roof. It won't be enough to cover the whole thing but will help save a good chunk of cash.
Christian also grabbed some old SIPs from work that were sitting around for years. A SIP is a huge chunk of foam sandwiched between OSB sheets. It's used to build walls without the need for tradition stud framing since the panels themselves are structural.
We only wanted the insulating foam in the middle so we needed to remove the OSB sheets from either side. Easy task, right? Nope. Probably the biggest pain so far on the project. But it's all in the name of reclaiming old materials and saving lots of money in the process. Still have more to reclaim, but we have some time.
Cutting closed cell foam with a circular saw makes a bloody mess...
We also worked on the plywood subfloor. 5 sheets covered the entire trailer! We laid down sill seal on the metal beams to help insulate them a little better.
The finished subfloor came out awesome!
Now I'm busy contacting trailer supply stores getting quotes for new axles, suspensions, brakes and wheels as we realized these axles are only rated for 3,500 lbs each and we're probably going to need the 5,200 lb axles to support this house. So the $500 trailer is sucking a bit more cash than expected but I think we're still going to end up with a good deal in the end.
We're also working on wiring up the trailer and adding lights, safety chains and a breakaway switch. Once completed we should be able to get a VIN assigned and begin the registration and titling process. All of this will be holding us back from insulating the subfloor and beginning the framing of the house, but that's how it goes!
That was a lot to read but I hope it was interesting because this project will be the topic of the blog for months to come
