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.