My humble quest to build La Petite Maison!

Friday, September 28, 2012

Resource Review

Latley I have been thinking, 'If I wanted to build a tiny house and I read this blog, I don't think I would be able to find many resources that would help me.' Well you are saved! This list will fill you on great resources.

We the Tiny House People 

This documentary by Kirsten Dirksen is amazing! I cannot reccomend it highly enough. It may not help you build your house; but it will give you idea on what to put in it. The documentary will also explain why people live in tiny homes. I cannot reccomend this video highly enough.

Deek Diedrickson

This guy is amazing! He is hilarious. Instead of building fancy tiny homes, Deek builds homes just big enough to lie down in out of recycled materials. These homes are perfect for little forts for kids, of for a camping trip. Maybe not necesarily to live in, but fun to build.

House Plan Guide

This is a wonderful site if you want to build a more formal home. This tutorial is for how to build homes that are 4,000 sq/ft; but you can easily adapt it to a 80 sq/ft home. That is exactly what I did.

Get Satisfied

This book is about how 20 people "just like us" simplify their life. This book is wonderful. The only think I don't like about the book is the last chapter.  Even when he realizes that he cannot live his life like he used to he ends up living in house that still is ginormous. I don't think he really simplified his life. This guy has a whole bunch of money, he has his own airplane, a ginormouse house, then he loses his job, he continues to say throughought the entire chapter he says, "You cannot understand how hard this was for me and my family." No, no I can't. He continues to try and live his fancy life style without a job. That is not going to happen.Post a comment on what you think about this guy.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Extra Extra, Read All About It!

 I have some GREAT news! Something that has currently come to my attention, my trailer is homemade. That means it's a little curvy; so I need outriggers (to make my trailer the same size all around) to be welded on. The problem is, my family doesn't own a welder, so we would need to find a machine shop to have the outriggers welded on. My father used to work as a tow truck driver for Howard's Wrecker Service (he now works at the Heartfield Jackson Airport for Infax). The shop that they fix the cars in happens to have a welder. Luckily we are good friends with the owner and employees at the shop. We went to their office on Tuesday and asked for their assistance. They were happy to offer it. (I just got a picture in my mind of 40-year-old men jumping up and down squealing like little girls out of happiness of helping me)


(Just like this, with the sunset and everything)


We are still unclear about how much the welding will cost, if there is a cost. Howard's needs to see the trailer first. Then they can assess what needs to be done.


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

My Materials... And a Little Extra

I know you've heard radio silence from my over the past week... but now your gonna wish you had that silence again. I'm comin' in hot, and you guys are going to be hearing alot from me.

I'm gonna start off with a photo gallery from the past week. I started on blueprints this week; I had no idea how to do them, but my fabulous mother found this website for me. Click here if you want to visit it and check it out. Blueprints are the last step; this website is also where I got all of the supporting steps following up to the blueprints. This gallery will show you all of my completed blueprints... and a few extra things. ;P

                              Front View













 
 
 
 
 

 

Double anderson window
 
 
My Bathroom Door
(with some cleaning up)

 
My Front Door
 
 
 
Metal Roofing Insulation





This is just a few funny happenings going on last week. Dont ask what the big poufy dress-skirt is for.







The excitment of building my house is almost overwhelming; it engulfs me and I am caught spending hour at a time consentrating so profoundly, that when I get pulled out, I'm aware that my stomach sounds like a dying wolf, my vision is blurred, and my legs are numb. I not aware of these things until I come back to reality. See the picture below? See the dog's eyes? See the bone? If this kind of laser focus continues on my part, My project will be done in two shakes of a lambs tail.




Tuesday, September 4, 2012

West Virginia

 Over Labor Day weekend my family and I went to West Virginia to see Luke, the organic farmer. He told me a few weeks before that he would give me a trailer. I was comunicating to Luke through my mother...you can see this is going in an unfortunate direction. At first I was told that my trailer was 6x16ft, so I completed my blueprints and floor plans and house model, thinking my house was going to be 6x16ft. Then I heard my trailer was 8x14ft. That was bad and good news; I was going to have to do all of my process again, but I had a much larger house. So I did my process all over again...

On Friday we drove the EIGHT grueling hours up to Luke's farm. Well, the next morning Luke told me that my trailer was 8x16ft. That means I'm going to have to redo my entire process AGAIN!!!

If my trailer size changes again (which is highly unlikly because it is sitting in my backyard) my head will literally explode. My parents will have to scrape my brains off the wall.

As soon as we woke up on Saturday, 6:00 AM, in the countryside, we (me, my father, my mother, Luke, Luke's farmhand, Dana, Luke's friend, Nathaniel, and Luke's son, Wyatt) were put to work attaching a roof onto Dana's soon-to-be tiny house. I got to see another tiny house go up in front of my eyes!

When the evening fell on Saturday, the banjo and guitar came out on the porch, and the howling began! The whole house was rocking with the vibration of all of our voices together. Nobody minded the slight chill in the air from the pouring rain. Everybody was wearing T-shirts and shorts, but I was the odd man out wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants. It was chilly outside.

On Sunday we (Dana, me, my mother, my father, Luke, Luke's wife Keveney, Wyatt, and Luke's daughter, Casey) were treated to a Sunday morning breakfast that consisted of bacon from their pigs, potatoes from Keveney's father's farm, eggs from HoneyFern hens, and fried cinnamon apples from Luke's mother's apple trees. The only thing I have to say about that meal is...wow. Just...wow.

Then Sunday night we got Sundaes on Sunday. Your choice of mint-chocolate chip or chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped creme and nuts, huh huh. I never thought a sundae could taste so good; maybe it's not the sundae but the environment and tradition behind it.

This just in: A young twelve-year-old's head has just exploded. It is not sure, but the authorities suspect the cause is a trailer size change. The girl's parents are now scraping her brains off of the wall.

(Just kidding about the explosion. Not the size change, though).