After living for years in traditionally scaled homes, we sold our last house and moved to an apartment to try  living in a smaller footprint. We didn't miss the space, we loved ditching our mortgage and we found ourselves firmly on the path to living more sustainably.

​We finished this house and moved in about 15 months ago. People late to our story have asked about our build, so I figure it's time for a retrospective. 

Site prep. We were fortunate enough to have a friend invite us to build on a corner of her 5-acre property in the Blue Ridge mountains. We cleared and leveled (or partially leveled) a site for our house, with enough room to build a separate screen house which went up first. (More on the screen house here.) We scavenged old boards and used them to build a retaining wall, then reinforced the wall with stones from the woods.

​The trailer. Zoning doesn't allow a second foundation-built house on the property, so we built on a trailer. Ours is  on a 24-foot equipment trailer from Tiny House Builders of Georgia. Our design runs the full 24' of the trailer and extends over the bed two feet on both sides. We used 10" joists to raise the floor over the wheel wells; it also left us plenty of room for insulation). Bill drilled holes through the trailer to attach the joists and bottom layer of plywood with 6" lag screws.

​Framing. We went with a "stick built" house on 24" centers (sometimes referred to as advanced framing). The technique saved us a little money (by using less wood) and reduced the house's overall weight. We designed the framing in about 8-foot sections so that it would be easy for the two of us to lift pieces into place and attach them. We put up four 4x4" posts to carry the weight of the roof, since we decided to go with a split roof design that incorporated clerestory windows.

​Roof. After a couple months of tarping the build site for rain, we were thrilled to roof the house. We installed a beam and framing for the row of clerestory windows between our two rooflines, then hung rafters and screwed down plywood decking. On top of the plywood, we went with a layer of WeatherWatch instead of roof felt for more leak resistance. On top of that went panels of corrugated steel fastened using screws with rubber washers. Bill bent the flashing out of strips of galvanized steel.

Sheathing and house wrap. Plywood installed on the exterior studs made our build look more like a home. After cutting out the spaces for our windows and doors, we swathed the house with Dupont Tyvek HomeWrap. We'd talked about adding a rain screen which would leave a gap of air between the house wrap and the siding yet to come...but we forgot. Rainscreen helps control moisture. (You can read more about it here, for more information.) So far, so good here without the rainscreen.

​Windows and doors. We knew we wanted a lot of light and cross ventilation (no air conditioning) in our house. We looked at second-hand windows, but finally decided we didn't want to take the time to scavenge the exact sizes we wanted. The best deal we found was for Jeld Wen windows and doors at a local lumber yard. We made a last-minute decision to swap out one window for a third door when we thought about building a deck. So, 11 windows and three glass doors it was.

​Siding. We wanted to break up the sides of the house by using wood and metal siding. Our final choices: corrugated steel (same as the roof) and wood clapboard (stained the same color as the screen house). Snow came before we could finish the siding, and eventually our progress crawled to a stop. We took a few months off and finished the last side and the eaves of the house in the spring. We started the eaves with super light-weight panels, but switched to thicker plywood by the end. 

Wiring. Our electrical plan got a little complicated when we decided to go solar as much as we could afford. We found a solar generator (the SolMan classic by Sol Solutions), and Bill designed the wiring to go to two boxes. All the lights and most outlets are wired to a box powered by our generator. The hot water heater, water pump, microwave and back-up heater—all items that need surges of power—use grid power drawn from our friend's house.

Plumbing. A mountain spring feeds the cistern that supplies water to our friend's house. We tap into that supply. We went with PEX water pipes because PEX is flexible, inexpensive and easy to work with. Bill watched YouTube videos to figure out the little he didn't already know. As far as waste pipes go, we're careful about everything that goes down our drains so it can be piped to a mulch pit. We're not on septic, so urine also goes to its own pit. We deal with solid waste by composting it.

Insulation, walls and floor. With the electrical and plumbing installed, we insulated between the ceiling rafters with rigid foam and between the wall joists with EcoTouch Fiberglas. The walls went up fairly quickly with standard drywall; the ceiling is light-weight (too light-weight) beadboard panels. We painted the walls and ceiling white, knowing we would have dark wood floor and trim For the floors we found a good deal on pine boards at Lumber Liquidators, then stained them with the same color as the exterior house. 

Kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. We built interior walls to divide our space for a bathroom on one end of the house and sleeping space on the other. The interior bathroom wall also houses the water heater, plumbing, electrical, a medicine cabinet and the pantry. Both walls stop short of the ceiling for air flow and light. We went with a big sink, undercounter fridge, alcohol-burning stove, butcher block counters and IKEA cabinets in the kitchen. Besides the DIY composting toilet, the bathroom houses a mini sink and a metal-lined shower.

Deck. Most of the deck went up after we moved in. It wraps around three sides and makes it much easier to walk around the house, especially important given our sloped mountain site. The deck also gives us plenty of room for grilling and dining, growing herbs and having friends over. We've planted  grapes and hope they'll grow up the lattice that hides the trailer from view. Still to come: planters outside the big glass sliding door.

We had finished three sides of our tiny house when winter hit hard last year. The final side was a challenge even in fair weather. The ground drops away on that side of the house, and balancing on extension ladders to nail boards and screw in metal panels proved difficult and downright dangerous with snow on the ground. We decided we'd wait to finish the siding until we built a deck, which would give us a stable platform. For months, we did our best to ignore the Tyvek house wrap still exposed on that side of the house.
 
Other things took priority. Wiring the house. Plumbing for sinks and the shower. Walls. Ceiling fans and lights. Finally, this September (more than a year after the start of our build) we turned our attention to the exterior of the house again. Bill designed a deck we could build in pieces and take apart, if that ever became a necessity. As soon as we had the platform in place—even before the boards were screwed in place or the railing built—we installed the rest of the house siding (no more Tyvek!) and finished the eaves. Now it feels as though the house is complete.
 
From our first sketches, we had corrugated metal and pine boards in mind for siding. We like the mix of "industrial modern" and "rural rustic" for our mountain setting. The materials echo the construction of many of the farm buildings in the area—plank barns and metal sheds. They have the added advantage of being affordable choices. Sheets of metal run around $20; eight-foot shiplap boards cost less than $10 each.
 
Mixing the two materials helped break up the 24-foot-long sides of the house. And it made it possible to give each side a distinctive look. One side, the side that faces the home of our friend/generous landlady, has only wood because she's not a fan of the metal. Two sides have their own pop of color—green and blue doors.
 
Form follows function in our design. We wanted a home flooded with natural light, so we worked a total of 11 windows and three glass doors into the design of our 250-square-foot house. Putting windows at the same height and keeping their proportions similar hopefully gives the house a sense of balance even though there's a lot of asymmetry going on.
 
Now that our house has four finished sides, we're working full time on getting the deck finished—more on that later.
 
Please click on the images below for more details.

We didn't think about building a deck when we were designing our house. Then one day we looked out at the forest stretching out behind our tiny house site, and knew that view deserved a deck. We erased a window on our graph-paper design and drew in a door instead. A door to that one-day deck. "One day" became "this day" when we realized how much easier the deck would make finishing the eaves and siding on the last Tyvek-ed surface of our home; the side that drops off steeply into the forest. And, so, we've started the deck, and we work on it whenever the temps get high enough to thaw the ground. 

Bill's design for the deck makes it a stand-alone structure, not connected to the tiny house. Eventually we hope to use the underside for storage. A second section of decking will eventually wrap around the side of the house, covering the trailer hitch. And then, perhaps, a deck between the screen house and the tiny house, where we could put the large wooden shipping box we found in the woods. And, of course, decking on the fourth side of the house would be nice outside our patio door. It's winter time, and we dream of decks—many decks—and the lovely weather when we'll use them.

We can't really blame our slow progress on the one snow we've had. Let's just call it what it is: hibernation. With the temps dipping below freezing, we've been huddling by a space heater most days, "planning" our next move.

On the few days when blue skies brightened things up and the thermometer registered high enough to stain more wood, we dressed up another two sides of the tiny house with a mix of corrugated metal and pine boards. The idea is have the adjacent screen house and main house look complementary—but different. One example: The metal ribs run horizontally on the screen house; they run vertically on the main house. 

So, three facades finished; one to go. 

After the siding...we'll move attention inside, where we're already mapping out (with blue painter's tape) the wiring and plumbing—which have to appear before we can insulate the space, put up walls and install the amazing wood stove we've already ordered (more on that later).

When I wrote about tiny-house decision making, I forgot to include something critical to the process: time. And time wasn't on our side (or siding!) for this phase. 

We had hoped to find reclaimed barn wood to side the house with. For months, we posted "wood wanted" ads on Craigslist, we talked to neighbors, we checked out prices at a local mill that specializes in restoring old wood...and each day we looked around for affordable old wood the weather got colder, and the house continued to double as a TYVEK advertisement.

Finally, we decided we needed to buy siding to get things moving. We found a good deal on 7-inch, unfinished pine boards we could special order through Home Depot. Things got a little crazy, though, once they arrived at the store. Short version: they couldn't find the boards at first; then they couldn't find anyone who knew how to drive the mini-truck to move them; consequently, they dropped the boards, damaging some of them; they drove the boards to a door they couldn't open; once they got the door open, they drove the boards right up to a mountain of stacked mulch before realizing the stack was there; and to top things off, they sold us the wrong color stain, which we used on some of the boards before realizing the mistake....

But they did graciously refund money for the broken and mis-stained boards, and eventually we spent a happy day affixing correctly stained boards to one side of the tiny house. One solid-wood side down...the other three sides will be finished with a combination of boards and corrugated metal. We hope to be able to show you progress on this as soon as the current sub-arctic weather lets up.

In the past week, we've continued to finish up the roof (the last of the metal panels, flashing, trim...), started the ceiling insulation (a layer of rigid foam insulation against the roof sheathing), cleared more of the invasives and fallen wood from around the house site, stacked more rocks on the retaining wall and....more work I can't think of now. (Maybe due to yesterday's lengthy R&R at the vineyard?)

Next up: We finally decided on siding—and we've picked it up! The rough pine boards need staining, but that will have to wait until the temperature goes up a few degrees.

In between happily hosting Tiny House visitors, we've been working on a few less-than-glam projects. While I stained trim boards and oozed spray foam insulation all around the doors and windows this week, Bill spent some time trimming up the roof (still a work-in-progress). 

We're thinking about using pallet wood as the trim/siding around the slim row of clerestory windows, so I've also been sanding and staining boards we ripped out of a few more pallets. Big decision looming: what to do for the rest of the siding. What we like and what we can afford...always something to wrestle with. Yesterday we drove to a local sawmill to take a look at their rough, "green" board-and-batten used on many of the barns around here.