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

The past 2-3 weeks has been focused on wall construction, with three wall segments now standing and one nearing completion. Before I began on the walls, I still had a few decisions to make. This ended up taking longer and being more stressful than I had anticipated. The main decision I faced was the interplay of the interior headroom, roof pitch, and wall height. My design (which I’ll show more of soon) features a roof that… View More

First, thanks to my dad (Jon) for stepping in and giving this blog a second life. Before my dad picked it back up, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to make some sacrifices in order to make ProcessHouse into a reality and not just a blog. Unfortunately, one of those sacrifices was, in fact, blogging. However, as my father and I began construction back in May, I discovered he… 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

Yesterday and Saturday together, we must have gotten at least 2” of rain - real downpours at times. Whenever that much water collects, whichever one of us is available goes out to the trailer and pumps out all the pools formed on top of the big tarp, within the joist cavities.  The pump works great until its small inlet on the bottom gets clogged with debris (continually dropped by trees above), so I wrapped it in some fabric screening… View More

Some news on the Tiny House construction front, yesterday and today… Over the weekend, the subfloor support framing got completed, for the front half of the trailer.  The galvalume sheet metal underneath the floor joists was secured to the joists with screws from below, shortly after 10 “blocking” pieces were inserted between the joists to keep them straight and stable.  The holes in the sheet metal for the… View More