Tiny House to invade Permies...

Hi,
We are Ants 5 & 6 (Bob & Di & Sparrow, I know the math is all wrong but just roll with it.

We intend to get into the ant village within a month (T minus 42 days actually). BUT FIRST, we are building our tiny house in the soon to be designed, tested and low impacted, Tiny House Village at basecamp. It takes time and effort to dissociate from the world at large, there are incomes to replace, food & habit changes, we're not ready for winter but we can do this to buy time to OBSERVE, REFLECT, and ADJUST to our NEW SELVES. We're totally psyched about it and have even talked a friend into joining the party (More in by PLOG soon).

We'll be posting in the Forums as we go. Here's our baby steps so far:

WE considered this at first:


UPSIDE It has a cool porch, kitchen area & lofts:


relatively inexpensive, $14,000 total with free delivery, and they are right in good ol Montana (Plains), no credit check they just finance themselves (I imagine reclaiming your entire house on the same trailer it was delivered is their insurance that you will pay them.

DOWNSIDE(s):
It is $14,000, and when compared to building your own framing that's about $8,000 too much. AND... I chose to change the layout of the place anyway, because it didn't make much sense to put the windows UNDER the porch overhang. Or for that matter to lose space with the porch and door next to the "kitchen" entrance.

If the pic above doesn't work try just putting the link straight into the address bar - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1lfJdS_KGDZD8M5-G4tTeYRI8jgUpdqd2BsFNsGozfc0/edit?usp=sharing

SO, after considering it fully we are going with our own layout and will start by building what will eventually be the "utility" room (off the side of the house in the drawing above).
We're gonna keep it under 500 square Ft. but will also do greenhouse wallipini or something with a small footprint, and try for a combo of wind & solar, not only for electric but using the vertical windmill to generate actual mechanical power for things like doing laundry or anything that requires motion that would otherwise burn up all the stored electric.

Love Life & Light,
Uncle BobSquatch (UBS for short)

Edited by moderator to fix pics

Forgot the actual pics of our progress yesterday & today. Here they are:
First Stop - Home Resource for a cool $300 savings in materials:


We actually went back again today for more of the same.

Then we played in the sandbox (Turtle Lot):


Sparrow helped with handing us nails etc. for framing 101:


Then Sparrow built her SandChair 3000 using what she calls "Quick Cobb" and a nice stairway


And of course we finished with another Blob-O-Materials:


Gotta sleep now to get up tomorrow and get things ready to be hauled up to the Village, see the floor of the structure is going to be used as a sledge to get the rest of it to the top.

-UBS

Edited by moderator to fix photos

UPDATE on the beginning of our Tiny addition to basecamp.

1) Well the ground FLOOR (only) of what will eventually become the utility room is done. Now the walls & trusses are now cut to length (a little cutting for notches needs to be done). Battery powered (And Quiet) tools from this point on. I'll be making full use of nonpowered tools too, i have the COOLEST old hand drill.

2) Surveyed the location for not only our Tiny but the whole village of tinies, Tinys, Tine Es <- (Apparently spell check approves of this phonetic approach), anyway, drawings of proposed layout and concept of the future of that will be forthcoming, as I have a place to sit on site and observe the weather and lay of the land. I can already see evidence of long term deer trails and scat old & new to guide our layout so as not to interfere with these folk and their traditional routes. I'd hate to make THEM re-route for food, rather than US move to a location that we can better observe them.

Soon to be 3) Now if we could just get our FLOOR up the hill to the site. Question: How many Gappers, Ants & friends of family does it take to move an 8X12 floor up the hill at basecamp? The answer is no one knows, but I know how many couldn't do it. Thanks to all those with muscle, know-how and the ability to remain calm while a loaded trailer careens past them and through the woods. Special thanks to the gods who kept Sparrow & the Love Shack safe. No one came to mental or physical harm, so I consider it successful albeit not complete.

Onward & Upward.

- Bob Di & Sparrow As a side note; our "Elder" friend asked why I didn't take pics/movies to put on the Internet. I can't believe I missed the 21st Century way of staffing, 1 Supervisor, several workers & someone sitting back recording and laughing at the whole thing. It was pretty entertaining and if we raise our roof where it sits we'll have an excellent vista of the Love Shack. Is that voyeuristic?

Hello Bob. Great description of what you have going on. I'm not seeing the pics, however. Are you using the right format?

Cool, so this is a different approach. We have a lot of folks living in tiny houses in my neighborhood (Cully) in NE Portland.

I hope your version has a good deal more insulation than the shed you showed us!

Bob Ruby ll wrote:... because it didn't make much sense to put the windows UNDER the porch overhang.

In a warmer climate, overhangs above windows make a ton of sense, though given the climate there I have to agree that it probably isn't serving any positive purpose.

Bob Ruby 11 : A late welcome to Permies.com, I just found this section and realized you-all were Ants 5 - 6 ! This should be a great adventure,


wish I could be there to help !

Just a few housekeeping details. An Airlock with wind break(s) around the door of your Greenhouse will definitely pay for itself, Even if you find

that the greenhouse must be shut down in the dead of winter ! If so this could be a secondary wood storage area with the addition of a simple

pass-through wood box !

Carrying dry fire wood through the house ends up with bark, twigs,sticks and wood ends scattered through the entire downstairs if you don't have

a plan and stick to it. For the good of the Crafts ! Big AL

Uncle BobSquatch, I love seeing pictures of your progress! Is Sparrow your daughter, and the first juvenile ant? So exciting! How has the transition for Sparrow been? Raising a toddler in a neighborhood without young kids, I often wonder how he'll feel about the lack of friends his age, though he doesn't seem to mind. I hope Sparrow (and you and Di) are having an awesome time at the labs!