Tiny House Update 8.24.13

I am going to start separating out my posts, you ought to be able to tell what it is relating to by the title (novel, I know).  I figure that not all of you want pregnancy updates and to hear the details of how that ‘adventure’ is going but some of you may.  I have found it to be an enlightening if terrifying experience to go through and I want to share the process and helpful tips I have for those that may want to know.  I ill try not to get too detailed, but weirder stuff has happened!  So, with that, THIS is  tiny house update :).

I have had lots of random stuff in the works, today I got the heavy lifting done on my grey-water system.  I have made the electric door panels but have yet to mount them, they are fitted though, I just need a little more energy to do the fastening… and I’m wiped!  Dad also got the vent put on the composter.  I have just a couple interior updates too but I don’t have photos yet so that will have to wait!

I have been contacted by Extreme Homes UK as well, they will be flying over from London next month and will be filming my house as well as the castle house shown in a previous post, I think it is pretty awesome to have both sides of the size spectrum in one town :).   I think that is all for this update, I hope everyone is doing well!

Stacey stopped by last week and took the video of my house (last post), she came bearing gifts though too! She brought me one of the fancy smanchy Tumbleweed bumper-stickers, it makes me laugh 🙂

And also one of her home-made dog collers! I am SO stoked about this, She has a side business called Upcycle Attire where she recycles bike parts into cool stuff like dog collars and belt buckles among other things

I LOVE the inside, its I heart Bacon duct tape - upcycleattire.com

And also the mandatory Denny update, My favorite picture of him to date, he's such a goof ball. We have a morning ritual that he is only ever half awake for, this is one of those moments 🙂

He also got a pupcicle! Which he was a big fan of. I just took some broth and froze it for the hot day, he was a big fan

Look how much he's grown, he's pushing 60 pounds at 4 months old. He's going to be a big guy. LOTS of people still think hes a weimaraner, almost more, they think he's a full grown weimaraner.

I have also been chatting with Extreme Homes UK who has called to confirm that they would like to come film my house toward the end of next month. This should be pretty good timing really, I have a lot of work to do outside to make it presentable but here are some process photos of how that is going. Whe have started taking the fence down as you can see. It will make way for James's project which he is building and let us re-do the whole area into an awesome garden space.

Th wanted some images of the neighborhood I am in just for the juxtaposition.

Here is James's house, behind all the trees that desperately need trimmed.

Street view looking down the road

and same direction, other side of the road.

My place from the front, it's sad cause this really is the worst view of my place and it is what everyone else sees. I will be building some steps soon, I was hoping tomorrow but I have to go into work, hopefully through the week I could get a front door 🙂

My house from the other direction, you can see the white TPO membrane on the back, the vines are growing, they have a ways to go but they are getting there 🙂

the neighbors place the other direction, this is also a pretty tiny house, probably 600ish square feet and a family of four lives there. Really nice people.

Other street view, pretty typical north end ish area

Here are the vines which I haven't updated on in a whole, they are growing! The peas did't do well, the morning glories drown them out.

Who else has pretty flowers on their house

pink and blue, a couple shades of each! I like em, I can't wait to see them filling in!

And the electrical closet door work. I hae been dreading it because it involves more pallet work, after siding the whole house in pallets that is the last thing I wanted to do! Because I am preggers and shouldn't be breathing in all the chemicals from whatever sat on these James was sice enough to plane them down after I took them apart. We did just barely enough, I am getting good at estimating how many square feet will be covered 🙂

Planed and ripped and laid out, nailing them to the frames I made before.

And fitting, they fit, I ran out of juice to actually mount them and stain them to match but they will work and kind of clean up that front area a bit.

Full on shot with closet doors

And now back to my day job! We are under construction of one of my favorite projects I have got to work on, its a pretty cool doctors office. The doctor treats emergency responders and their families, he's got a really cool practice model and is just a brilliant guy. He's been a lot of fun to work with and his building actually makes sense still, sometimes you get to the end of a project and wonder what the heck happened along the way. His is not at all like that, its clean, dynamic and cool. I will share more photos as it continues to come together, its seriously been the best project to work on.

Cool lines, we were going with a bit of a traditional meets contemporary look, it isn't pushing too many boundaries but it is dynamic and fun.

AND the contractors have been fantastic to work with too, all things have just been coming together so well for this build, so nice that that actually does happen! 🙂

The guys in charge :), the architect on the left, owner in the middle and super on the right, these guys make it happen, and I try to help where I can too! 🙂

Overall shot from the street (totally the fun part in real life AND in tiny houses when walls go up!)

And back on the tiny house! Dad came y to hook up the vent for the toilet which I am very pleased to say is working amazingly! I m actually relieved to be able to say that, I really didn't know. It is pretty hands off, crank the handle once a week, pour in the enzyme at the beginning, use the potty ad throw in some saw-dust (saved from construction). No problems at all!

I have actually been using the toilt almost a month now but the vent just got hooked up. It just allows it to vent up high so it wouldnt stink down low, at people level. I don't mean to act like my S#@! doesn't stink but with one person it really wasnt a smell issue, I can see how it may be with the 4-6 that the unit can handle.

I was shocked how fast this went up, I actually ran to the store and dad got there about a half hour before me and he basically had it up by the time I got back... we (he) just ran it straight up the trellis support.

AND, onto the grey water, This is my storage container from before, I just got it off of craigslist for 15 bucks, It holds 55 gallons.

The red bucket in the background is the 'filter'. Dad is reviewing som drawings fro James's projects.

So, the water will dump straight into the red bucket which will be filled with gravel and covered with a screen so I can clean it periotically.

At the bottom of the filter I cut a hole

Bam, hole...

in it goes a fitting to drain the water out once it has gone through the series of drains and gravel.

from inside the bucket

In order to make the hole water tight I used some plumbers putty and clamped it on.

I also put a screen at this point so the gravel doesn't come through.

And fastened in place.

From there I used fittings to bring the drain nearly to the top of the bucket. It is jusst a couple inches lower though so that it will act as a spillway before the water just overflows out the top of the bucket.

Now to get the barrel ready, a couple weeks ago mom fashioned together some fittings to make a spigot that connects straight to the barrel using the plug that came on it.

It fits like so. This is the drain for the water when needed. I can hook up a pump and a hose and just pull the water straight out for my garden.

Fitting the goods under th house was a trick, it involved me getting pretty filthy and a bit of shoveling 🙂

I made it work though! The plan was going to be to have the water sit side by side next to the composting unit but in order to fit and to be able to skirt around it all and keep it conditioned it needs to go behind the composter.

And the filter being fitted, the water drained directly into the red bucket and then over into the blue, this is my solution, I am curious of how others have handled their grey water, if you have a story can you leave it in the comments? It would be nice to collect more information on this, I actually couldn't find a whole lot. It is very patriotic under my house with the red, blue and white composter 🙂

And James's day, he spend several hours trimming trees, there is the equivalent of a whole tree worth of branches in the yard. It's nice and open now, and I am less concerned about fall storms making branches land on my car. This will be great for gardening next spring too!