Structure

 
I looked for enough salvaged wood to build the structure, but alas, there are only so many hours per day. Not wanting to buy more than I absolutely had to from a box store, I looked around for alternatives. I found a small business sawmill around the corner from my house, Smith's Portable Sawmill in Christiansburg, Va. I discussed my project with Smith, and we settled in poplar wood for good reasons. Poplar is a very light and strong wood, lighter and stronger than pine. However, it tends to warp or bow when dried. The warping is the main reason it isn't used commercially for dimensional lumber. Plus, all of his wood is felled by the utility companies, so the trees were coming down anyways.
   I am very pleased with the sawn lumber, and it came at a very reasonable price.  I spent around $1000 for the structure of the house, screened porch, and wide boards for interior furniture and trim.
   I had never designed a house frame, so I did some reading. I looked for techniques that would be light and strong, also material and energy efficient. I settled on a form of 'green' framing, or the type that allows for a minimum of materials while not sacrificing strength. For my application, the standout feature with this type of framing is that there's a single top plate, not the usual double or triple stack. The rafters sit directly on top of the studs. There is still the usual headers and such, but all in all less wood. I was very weight conscious through the entire building process, so I'm glad I saved a bit here without sacrificing any strength. Here again, my house is not built to code, it's built to common sense.
 

As you can see in the pic, I've got the hurricane banding installed. The idea is to divide the house into smaller triangles, to keep it from racking under wind shear. The hurricane banding wraps under the house and is tied into the triple sil beam. Every connection on the roof also received a 'Simpson' Hurricane Tie. I didn't want any surprises on the road.
  Luckily, I had great weather for this part, and I was able to get the house weathered-in quickly.

Trailer Frame

  I built the cabin on trailer frame and pulled it to NC from VA. In the pictures, there's a screen porch attached; we'll get to that later. The frame was an old heavy duty RV frame, 8'X27', which I bought for $400.  I got $100 for the scrapped aluminum and iron that I recycled, so we can call it $300. It was delivered to me as well, about an hour drive, so I felt better about the expense.
  First, I had to strip the frame, and then I made outriggers from another trailer frame, which I cut and had a guy weld on. I felt like I needed the outriggers because my trailer ended up being 10' wide, the frame is only 6' wide, and I thought the extra support wouldn't hurt. I am not an engineer, nor did anyone calculate the many number of factors which would safely arrange the weight, other than me making a good guess. I conferred with a weldor who had many years of trailer building experience regarding the frame design, and he agreed with my assessment. The outriggers ( will post pic when I find it) were about 20" long, tapered from 8", the full height of the frame, to 2.5" at the far end, and welded perpendicular every 2' along the length of the frame. The trailer had two 4500 lbs axles underneath, and they were equipped with electric brakes. Tires are expensive for heavy trailers, in load range D or E, around $200-300 a piece. Luckily, 2 of mine were still good, so I only had to buy 2. I guess I can spoil the ending and say I have no idea what the whole house ended up weighing. My guess, and the guess of the mobile home moving company was that it's somewhere around 12,000 lbs. Although this may have exceeded the maximum capacity of the axles, it rode well, never swayed nor did the bearings get hot on the move.

  Next, I painted the frame and made ready for building.
I went with 2X6 joists on 16" centers for the foundation. The subflooring is 3/4" pressed no-squeak flooring, the kind that weighs 100 pounds per sheet. Underneath of the joists, sandwiched between the frame is 7/16" plywood. I installed this to keep critters out, and to hold the plastic below the insulation in. I pulled fiberglass batts from an attic in a house that was being torn down, and reused them in the floors, so that's why they look a little ragged.
  Most of the dimensional lumber for the foundation was given to me by my friend Bill Sisco Of Radford, VA. He's a mason/beekeeper/builder, he brought me extra materials from jobsites, and more importantly, provided moral support.
  The "foundation" is held together with 1/2" bolts running through the floor joists into the frame. I drilled through the floor, joists and frame, and ran a bolt through the assembly. I countersunk the head in the subfloor, and tied it all together, 5 on each side of the frame, for 10 attaching points total.
  I should mention that there are no nails in this house, other that trim nails inside. The entire structure is glued and screwed throughout. Prior to building, I had read on a tiny house site to either glue and screw or use ring-shank nails. I didn't want to buy a nail gun for ring shank nails, so screws it was. Most of the glue was the large tubes of Liquid Nails; seemed to work just fine, and is cheaper in the giant tubes. I bought a new Milwaukee 1/2" drill for this project, and like all of their products, it performed flawlessly and vastly exceeded my expectations. I'll have that drill for a long time to come.
 Bought the trailer on August 2,2010 and started building the walls in the beginning of September.
 

Systems

  First, I should say that I was a complete novice with home building, electrical wiring, and plumbing when I started building. Although I had dabbled here and there, I had never tackled any project of this scale. I got some books like this one on wiring or this one on plumbing, and they helped tremendously. Most of it is common sense, but the little details from the experts is what will keep the house safe. Not everything is to code, nor was I trying to comply. No inspector will ever see this cabin, and not all codes applied to my cabin. And, let's face it, some codes are downright silly. So, if it makes for safe house, I fully support following the codes, but if it seems redundant, don't sweat it.

  A few years ago I took a solar installer's pilot course at a local community college, with the hopes of it growing into a certification or degree. The school cancelled the program, but the course was invaluable at teaching me the basics and getting my feet wet. Also, there were a couple students in the course who already lived off-grid, and they really inspired my efforts. Even with this experience, I still had difficulty guesstimating the size of my solar-electric system. I went on the small size, one to save money initially, but second to not have more than I needed until I was sure of my true consumption. My 4 panels are from Sun Electronics. They are the non-UL (no code required!), no name, 790 watts @ 12VDC. They are wired series and parallel for 390 watts @ 24VDC. They are very efficient, and actually make more power than I need. My experience with Sun Electronics was awesome, and I'll visiting them for my next 2 panels. The staff went over my components to make sure they all fit together, and the freight shipping of the panels went very smooth.
  My inverter/charger is a Trace 2424. This was a tough decision, because of all the modified square wave haters out there. This thing has rocked, and it problem-free. I run anything without issue, including computers, LCD tv, on-demand water heater, drills, table saw, AA and AAA battery chargers, with the exception of my usage meter (Killawatt). The usage meter reads 0 for everything when on inverter, however works fine when I'm charging through the generator, and I haven't figured this out yet.
  I've got a simple charge controller right now, the Xantrex C35, but when I upgrade my system next year, I'll get a MPPT (maximum power point tracking) controller. For being older technology, I'm impressed with the simplicity and no-nonsense practicality of my Xantrex controller. It's just one of those things that always works without question, no maintenance. Therefore, I've got no complaints. Easy to wire, easy to test, When I expand my panels to 800 watts, I'll probably want to get a higher amp rated controller.

The Cabin

The house is really my main focus for the blog, for two reasons. First, I want to pass on the information I've compiled through my own work and the internet. It takes people to open the door for others to walk through sometimes, and I'm truly indebted to those who shared that information with us. Without their work, this homestead wouldn't have happened. Second, this whole thing is really an experiment, and hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes!

An idea is born...

So cruising around the net one day, I stumbled on tumbleweed tiny houses. Immediately, I fell in love with those little houses. The functionality of it all, mobility, creativity- I knew I wanted to build a tiny home. I had thoughts of living in my tiny home and moving around from base to base, never worrying about buying , renting or selling again. Now, back to reality; I had to break this news to my now ex-wife. The news did not strike her with as much enthusiasm as it had for me, strangely. After much arguing, it was decided that we (me, her and a cat) needed more space than most of these tiny houses can afford. This left me with only one option- design my own tiny house. I was shooting for around 250 sq. ft. interior floor space, with a screened-in porch to match. I ended up with 270 sq. ft. indoors, and a screened-in porch of 192 sq ft.- not too shabby for a small house. However, actual floor space is much less when figured with cabinets, shower, stove, sink, bed, wood stove- you get the picture. In the design process, I built a scale model of the house, minus the porch. It was scaled 1:12, or 1" equals 1'. This model really helped to get a feel for how creative you must be with objects that cannot be cut down or resized. Although it took time to make the model and argue things out, it really saved time in the end. Luckily, I kept the cat and she went, so now we have lots of room!

First Post!!

Welcome to my very own blog! This project has been on the back burner for a long while, but better late than never!
  This project has special meaning for me in that it's about my life. This weblog is devoted to off-grid living, tiny-house building, appropriate technology, frugality and anything else that I think is cool.
  Some things about me-I'm an active-duty Soldier. I live off-grid (not connected to ANY grid utilities) in a cabin that I built myself. I am currently stationed at Fort Bragg, NC.