Today was a real milestone…   The Tiny House picture window (200-220 lbs) was carried out from the garage by a rag-tag team of good friends, who had cheerfully agreed to show up at 5 pm and assist.  My back was ailing, so I just served as photographer. They walked it around the east side of the garage and across the back yard to Tiny House Land, where they laid it flat on the ground near the taller end of the… View More

The slow and rather erratic return of warmer weather is stirring the blood of us Tiny House builders!   Mikey first braved the chill outside starting on Sunday 3/19, beginning work on the exterior utility box which will rest on the trailer tongue frame and hold the house’s twin propane tanks and a storage compartment for batteries and assorted gear.  His first hours of building produced the internal framing for the box and the… View More

Although we had been very meticulous about checking the trailer and subfloor for squareness by measuring full-length diagonals across it, we didn’t - for whatever reasons - do likewise with the raised framing walls.  I think we were lulled into some complacency by several things: (1) the fact that the floor kept appearing to be… View More

On the eve of the great deluge.  We had an exciting tiny house adventure Sunday night.  It was raining just a few drops in early evening, then developed into real rain.  Around midnight, there was a waterfall-like sound and we were having a deluge nearly worthy of Noah himself.  Michael had gone to bed about 11:00.… View More

When we stand in the house now, the sensation is clearly one of being enclosed inside a structure - it even has a “roof” of sorts - the same huge full-length gray tarp that used to be draped over the subfloor and its insulation when that was in progress.  We have set up a very temporary “ridgepole” the full length of the house to make sure that the tarp sheds - rather than collects - rainwater, and so far the strategy… View More

“Did you pump the water off the trailer?” “Did you put the tarp over the trailer?” “Did you bring the tools in from the trailer?” The questions above are the sort that Michael and I used to ask each other a few short weeks ago. Thinking about what to write for this post, it occurred to me that the phrase “the trailer” doesn’t get used much… View More

On Saturday 7/2/16, Mikey finished cutting the last remaining piece of 5/8” plywood subfloor and fastening it in place.   There was a fairly quiet but enjoyable celebration of the accomplishment (probably some iced tea - no cake). The plywood is arranged in six large and six smaller pieces, covering the six major rectangular spaces formed by the framing beneath.  Because a single piece of 8’ ply would not span the… View More

The completed 2x4 framing for the Tiny House floor was divided effectively into 30 rectangular spaces by joists and blocking pieces installed to stabilize them. These rectangles were of roughly similar lengths and widths, and all were 3.5” deep - the width of a 2x4.  Mikey’s plan called for each space to be filled with rigid foam insulation, to be provided in three layers of 2”, 1” and 1/2” thicknesses… View More

Every house - tiny or huge - needs some kind of a yard, and Michael’s Process Tiny House is no exception.  Long before any pieces of steel were welded to start building the custom trailer, Michael had already designed and created a marvelous little idyll to serve both as a pleasing view from his future residence and as a restful place of respite. Fondly known to him and his family as “The Grove,” this special… View More

On Monday 6/6/16 Mikey decided to take the day off from work because the weather was great and he wanted to work on Tiny House.  We started on cutting 2” rigid foam insulation pieces to fit into joist cavity spaces. We worked on saw horses set up out by the willow tree (to keep toxic dust away from places where Holly, our Sheltie, hangs out).  He tried using the new Ryobi cordless jig saw; it worked great but the blade was not… View More