Friday, January 27, 2017
January 27, 2017
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Janurary 26, 2017 A million or so things to do list
Yesterday I built another eight foot shelf unit, put it into the shipping container on the Farm, and populated it with things out of our shed at the house. This was the second unit built and filled with stuff, most of which isn't really worthy of keeping, all too valuable to give up. Yesterday I moved Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and about a third of Christmas.
It occurs to me that my life is an accumulation of truckloads of cheap stuff requiring truckloads of expensive stuff to keep dry. About a million small things. So today I will build another shelf unit, load another truckload, and continue on until every unnecessary thing is removed from our house.
We will keep taking step after step toward the goal.
It occurs to me that my life is an accumulation of truckloads of cheap stuff requiring truckloads of expensive stuff to keep dry. About a million small things. So today I will build another shelf unit, load another truckload, and continue on until every unnecessary thing is removed from our house.
We will keep taking step after step toward the goal.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
January 19,2017 We have fence and gates!
Really boring to say, but this blog isn't only philosophical ranting, we do histrionics too.
I got on Craig's List this morning and beat every other scavenger to the punch. I bought one hundred feet of five foot used chain link, two large and one small gate, about eighty feet of top rail, and a two gallon bucket of parts, All for just $100. Saving maybe eight hundred dollars and checking off one more thing necessary for us to move to the Farm.
We will still need parts to make a fence of it, but there is at least a front gate and dog run in the mess - o - parts some where. The gates I will do pretty soon. The dog run gets built once the tiny home is in place. ~Then we move.~
Another thing: WE had a ton of snow followed by a few days to settle in, followed by freezing rain, followed by maybe two and a half inches of very warm rain, all within a few days. So the West Fork of Dairy Creek is about to over top the banks in places with all of the rain and snow melt coming down at one time. . . But not at our Farm!
We still have about five feet of bank left. This isn't as high as the creek will go. I hear that in 1996 the creek came almost to the top of the bank. But a great many fields and barns would have to go under for us to have flooding. Another reason to think that they got the elevation of the place all wrong.
Someday nobody will ever read this again.
I got on Craig's List this morning and beat every other scavenger to the punch. I bought one hundred feet of five foot used chain link, two large and one small gate, about eighty feet of top rail, and a two gallon bucket of parts, All for just $100. Saving maybe eight hundred dollars and checking off one more thing necessary for us to move to the Farm.
We will still need parts to make a fence of it, but there is at least a front gate and dog run in the mess - o - parts some where. The gates I will do pretty soon. The dog run gets built once the tiny home is in place. ~Then we move.~
Another thing: WE had a ton of snow followed by a few days to settle in, followed by freezing rain, followed by maybe two and a half inches of very warm rain, all within a few days. So the West Fork of Dairy Creek is about to over top the banks in places with all of the rain and snow melt coming down at one time. . . But not at our Farm!
We still have about five feet of bank left. This isn't as high as the creek will go. I hear that in 1996 the creek came almost to the top of the bank. But a great many fields and barns would have to go under for us to have flooding. Another reason to think that they got the elevation of the place all wrong.
Someday nobody will ever read this again.
Monday, January 16, 2017
January 16, 2017 Snowed in
We have been side-lined by snow for nearly a week. The forecast for the next few days is super heavy rain. Hopefully the rain will wash all of the ice and snow away, but it will take a few days and we've still a dozen large houses of lighting to take down. And then there's the trouble borne of not earning for a few weeks to deal with. But all of this sitting around hasn't completely topped preparations.
Saturday, after hair cuts, Ann (Heidi Hay) and I (Schmelling Hay) ventured out into the snowy wilds of east Portland to look over used appliances for the tiny double wide. What we need is a twenty inch propane stove and a small refrigerator. We've budgeted buying new into the project, but saving on these is a good idea because the budget is very tight. The roads of east county were close to impossible to drive, but we found the stores we were looking for, if not finding the appliances. So we ended up having a good tie, but not buying anything. The search continues, plans can change, we could win the lottery . . .
I have also spent some time working on my accounting spreadsheet. I have been at this for a few years. Last year I got to the point where much of my accounting was simplified, but a bit clunky. This year I hope to get the thing smoothed out, simplified, and generalized so that I can sprout new businesses on the Farm without adding a bunch time doing of accounting work. A lot of people have said I should go with an out of the box accounting package, but this is not my way of doing things.
Sitting around the house makes me nervous. I really need to build a farm.
Saturday, after hair cuts, Ann (Heidi Hay) and I (Schmelling Hay) ventured out into the snowy wilds of east Portland to look over used appliances for the tiny double wide. What we need is a twenty inch propane stove and a small refrigerator. We've budgeted buying new into the project, but saving on these is a good idea because the budget is very tight. The roads of east county were close to impossible to drive, but we found the stores we were looking for, if not finding the appliances. So we ended up having a good tie, but not buying anything. The search continues, plans can change, we could win the lottery . . .
I have also spent some time working on my accounting spreadsheet. I have been at this for a few years. Last year I got to the point where much of my accounting was simplified, but a bit clunky. This year I hope to get the thing smoothed out, simplified, and generalized so that I can sprout new businesses on the Farm without adding a bunch time doing of accounting work. A lot of people have said I should go with an out of the box accounting package, but this is not my way of doing things.
Sitting around the house makes me nervous. I really need to build a farm.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
January 11, 2017 Snow Day
We woke this morning to a snow day, with ten inches on the ground. Sort of puts a damper on any thoughts of doing anything (for the next day or so at least). So let's talk about tiny homes and trailers a bit. . .
The plan is to build two tiny home trailers to live in while we sell our house and build a new one, the first ever double wide tiny home. Each ought to be twenty or so feet long, eight feet wide, and nothing costing over $1000. Craig's List is a bit of a problem, but nobody uses the newspapers anymore. You have to "kiss a lot of frogs" to find anything and many of the ads are false or misleading. Coupling this with a lack of time, no truck big enough to haul a large trailer very far, and little money, finding the right combination of trailer, seller, and time means things have to line up fairly straight.
I found the first trailer in out by the airport in the gateway district from a nice guy named Dan, who runs a cabinet shop. He's got a friend that has a tow company, who sometimes tows trailers abandoned on properties. He had two. I bought one.
The plan is to build the first tiny home backward facing. Normally you would see the tongue in the front, this time it will be at the back.
Construction of tiny homes, like those seen on television, is usually very involved. Those guys build thick walls, heavy roofs, and often attempt to instill all of the cool and expensive stuff they can think of into the design. In the end they usually put twenty thousand dollars into a thirty foot trailer, about 250 square feet, at about $51.00 per square foot. They usually waste a bunch of money on expensive siding and trailer (usually paying ass much a six thousand for the base). Often they do not get anything like a full bathroom, nothing resembling a kitchen, and always they put the bed up in a little "loft" near the ceiling (a shelf if they were honest about it). These things are always built for cute, never for simple living space. The end result is a very heavy little wooden tank of a trailer which can be only be moved using a really large truck. Generally has a retail value of around $40,000.
Our project will much simpler and much cheaper by far as we intend to build around 380 square feet at ten dollars per foot. Starting off with a cheaper base (about ten percent of the norm), the end result only needs to be moved a few times: once from our driveway to the farm (ten miles); once from the first position while we build, to the last where it will remain thereafter (one-hundred feet). We will not spend anything at all on "trailer" parts, putting all of the money into interior space.
The walls will be thin and light weight, using 2x3 pine, cheapo shop siding, fiberglass insulation, and wood paneling. The roof will also be light. The intention of the shell will be to maximize space and hold the roof up in moderate weather. There are few windows, few doors, and little in the way of luxurious appointments. The only thing cool about this is that nobody has done built anything like it. The outside will be very cute, simply because it will look like a miniature ranch styled house.
Imagine you entire house fitting inside of a standard sized kitchen, living room, or master bedroom!
This will not offer much in the way of luxury, but will have a full bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, laundry, and a small seating space. There will be ample heating, cooling, lighting, and cooking area. There is a walk in closet (six feet deep) and shelving wherever it doesn't interfere with walking. There will not be much insulation, but the "bubble" of the moisture and vapor layers, coupled with a few inches of insulation, and the small interior size, heated with a 1300 watt fake fireplace, cooled with a small floor model air conditioner, ought to be very comfortable unless the weather is terrible. It ought to be just comfortable enough to live in, not so much that we would want to live in it permanently.
We will build it, put it out there, move our living and our dogs, sell our present home, and build our future on Creekside Farm. Just as soon as the snow melts . . .
The plan is to build two tiny home trailers to live in while we sell our house and build a new one, the first ever double wide tiny home. Each ought to be twenty or so feet long, eight feet wide, and nothing costing over $1000. Craig's List is a bit of a problem, but nobody uses the newspapers anymore. You have to "kiss a lot of frogs" to find anything and many of the ads are false or misleading. Coupling this with a lack of time, no truck big enough to haul a large trailer very far, and little money, finding the right combination of trailer, seller, and time means things have to line up fairly straight.
I found the first trailer in out by the airport in the gateway district from a nice guy named Dan, who runs a cabinet shop. He's got a friend that has a tow company, who sometimes tows trailers abandoned on properties. He had two. I bought one.
This thing is 27 feet, nose to tail. 24 feet of deck space. Perfect for the living - kitchen - bathroom side. It had already been striped on the inside and Dan wanted to do the demolition of the camper shell to salvage parts, so I let him. This saved me a bunch of time, and quite a few dollars in dumping fees and time. He delivered the trailer a few days ago, so it is tarped and standing out in the snow awaiting our first build day Tabula Rosa.
The plan is to build the first tiny home backward facing. Normally you would see the tongue in the front, this time it will be at the back.
Construction of tiny homes, like those seen on television, is usually very involved. Those guys build thick walls, heavy roofs, and often attempt to instill all of the cool and expensive stuff they can think of into the design. In the end they usually put twenty thousand dollars into a thirty foot trailer, about 250 square feet, at about $51.00 per square foot. They usually waste a bunch of money on expensive siding and trailer (usually paying ass much a six thousand for the base). Often they do not get anything like a full bathroom, nothing resembling a kitchen, and always they put the bed up in a little "loft" near the ceiling (a shelf if they were honest about it). These things are always built for cute, never for simple living space. The end result is a very heavy little wooden tank of a trailer which can be only be moved using a really large truck. Generally has a retail value of around $40,000.
Our project will much simpler and much cheaper by far as we intend to build around 380 square feet at ten dollars per foot. Starting off with a cheaper base (about ten percent of the norm), the end result only needs to be moved a few times: once from our driveway to the farm (ten miles); once from the first position while we build, to the last where it will remain thereafter (one-hundred feet). We will not spend anything at all on "trailer" parts, putting all of the money into interior space.
Imagine you entire house fitting inside of a standard sized kitchen, living room, or master bedroom!
This will not offer much in the way of luxury, but will have a full bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, laundry, and a small seating space. There will be ample heating, cooling, lighting, and cooking area. There is a walk in closet (six feet deep) and shelving wherever it doesn't interfere with walking. There will not be much insulation, but the "bubble" of the moisture and vapor layers, coupled with a few inches of insulation, and the small interior size, heated with a 1300 watt fake fireplace, cooled with a small floor model air conditioner, ought to be very comfortable unless the weather is terrible. It ought to be just comfortable enough to live in, not so much that we would want to live in it permanently.
We will build it, put it out there, move our living and our dogs, sell our present home, and build our future on Creekside Farm. Just as soon as the snow melts . . .
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
January 3, 2017 We have trailer #1
It took a few days, but the frame for trailer #1 is out in our driveway.
And I must be out of my mind.
I will put up the walls and roof the thing, then drive it out to the Farm and finish the work out there. Work to start just as soon as all of our Christmas lights are taken down.
And I must be out of my mind.
I will put up the walls and roof the thing, then drive it out to the Farm and finish the work out there. Work to start just as soon as all of our Christmas lights are taken down.
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