December 31, 2016

Trying to find a trailer we could live in while building has proven to be difficult. We have looked around, postulated the possibilities, found that we are either not going to like what we get, get something on payments we do not want, or have little use for what we have after we are done with it.

So last Monday we drove to Creswell to look at a few options then come back the slow way through Junction City (home of a lot of RV lots). We found a nice fifth wheel that would certainly do the job (on payments) in Creswell, from a nice woman too. But the idea of payments, and the long ride home gave us time to look deeply into what we were doing. Eventually we got through re-examining everything and, long story short, the option of finding a derelict trailer, stripping it down to the frame, and building what we want, seemed a possibility worth exploring. When we got back home I immediately found a thirty four foot trailer that would do the thing, and it was already stripped down to the frame! We decided to buy it the next day.

I woke up at 2 A.M. with worries. I knew I could definitely build the thing, had the money to buy everything, and nothing stood between us and the tiny house plan. But having a thirty four foot trailer at the end only had one use: as a house for our son to live in. There really wasn't anything else we could do with it, and re-selling a home built trailer was going to be a problem. We could maybe rent it out, but that is not the business we wanted to be in. And above all else, the width would only be nine feet, when a bed is seven feet, so tightness would be a concern.

Laying there in the wee hours I went through the building plan possibilities for the frame I found. Moving things around in my head I found fitting enough into the trailer to live wouldn't be much of a problem, but the idea still nagged at me. It occurred to me that the square footage alone was not enough to make us comfortable. Eventually I threw the idea out and, with a blank slate, started over (at about four in the morning). This is the decision I made.

Buy two derelict trailers, neither more that twenty feet, and build a double wide tiny home of sixteen by twenty feet. The square footage would be larger, the trailers easier to find and cheaper to buy, and the entire project easier to tow around. I did some looking around and found out that this will be the first ever double wide tiny home. So I messed around with some designs on my CAD program and eventually got the thing done on paper. So we went out looking at trailers. We made a deal on the first trailer we found and made an appointment to see the next candidate, and bought a nice gyro at the Mad Greek Deli.

The next morning I went out and bought the second one, a twenty four footer (bigger than the plan called for). And better still the guy we bought it from wanted to do the demolition for us, leaving a blank frame! But the second trailer (from the day before) fell through.

I changed the design to accommodate the extra four feet and this is the floor plan as of today . . .

The topmost part is the living section, the bottom the bedroom.
The washer and dryer are in the bedroom, but there is a walk in closet too.
And the pass through allows the dining area and sleeping area can blend a little.
One the left, behind the house, is the daytime dog run where the hounds will stay.

Click for larger image

Each side has it's own shed styled roof, the living room side is ten feet at the peak, the bedroom side has an eight foot peak, they meet in the middle and will add interest to the finished product. After we use this house for building, the two haves will be re-purposed.

• The large half will become Jack's apartment home, or the first tiny home rental, and for one person this is sufficient once the couch is traded out for a hide-a-bed (maybe a Murphy bed). 
• The bedroom half will become the boarding and breeding kennel. 

So this should be cute enough and comfortable enough, for long enough. But not so much so that we will want to linger in living there.

We still need a second trailer to do the second half (the lower half on this picture), but since there is no plumbing in the bedroom section, things are easier to build and not nearly so much time and effort. We are beginning to buy parts, and have already begun building shelving into the shipping container so that we can move our stuff out of our home so that we can remodel it before selling. But money has been spent, and we are on the way.

We didn't make the New Years Resolution goal of moving onto the property in 2016, but things look better for 2017. They deliver the first frame on Tuesday. We move in March.