Category: Commentary

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Grade and Fill for Dummies

Things have been pretty quiet what with all the world-wide pandemic and all. In the meantime, I started planning a fence, but two things stopped me cold:

  1. The price of wood went through the roof
  2. The neighbor’s elevation changes caused more water to flow onto my property than normal
  3. I discovered I have several depressions significant enough to accumulate an excess of water
  4. Excess water will accelerate wood rot
  5. Wood rot will kill my fence fast

Ugh.

Wood? Wood!

Good news everyone! The price of wood came down!

Wait, no it didn’t.

Okay, we’ll pass on the wood for now.

Elevation, smellivation

I had to get an elevation survey in order to know how much dirt I would to grade and fill the property. Turns out most places I called never heard of them, but two did, one that cost way more and one that cost way less. The -less one was fishy, so I paid way more.

Before the surveyor came, I had to clear the jungle out and pile up all the trash donations people had provided me.

No more jungle!

Now I have some calculations to do. If the amount of dirt to grade and fill is lower than 1000 sq ft, I don’t need a permit. Stay tuned!

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Not dead yet!

Just a quick check-in. I have a bunch of old posts and photos I need to publish to catch you up to the current state.

I’ve run out of cash for building, and I have a big expense coming up: windows.

I would like to buy them all at once so I can get them all installed and be done with it. We’ll see!

See you (hopefully) soon!

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A disagreement, threats and why written contracts are important

It has been about 9 months since the last entry. In that time, I’ve had to move the Tiny House from its build site.

What happened was there was a disagreement from the management (or overlord) about my continuing to rent the space. I had agreement until after mid 2016, but the problem was it was verbal (some what via email, but a crucial part was done in person).

Eventually, the overlord made threats (“get it out now or we’ll burn it to the ground”), we (using the law) blocked, and both parties agreed that I’d vacate on a specific date. That date arrived, I packed up everything and took off, never to set foot there again.

During this ordeal, I received support and advice from several friends, for whom I am eternally grateful.

All of this would have been avoided (or required much less energy) if I had a written contract that specified the terms of housing the Tiny House. The saw goes, “Experience is mistakes one learns from.” I certainly have a lot of experience now. 🙂

During the move, I noticed one of the short walls was wobbling terribly, as it was only supported on one side. I braced it with a spare 2×4 and it stopped wobbling. Once we got on the freeway, Tiny performed beautifully with no problems. I speed up to 65 mph and took it to its new temporary home.

Epilogue

This turned out to be the best thing to happen to Tiny, which I will elucidate in a future post.

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We are Back, Baby!

We are back, baby!
We are back, baby!

It has been long, too long for sure.

Running out of funds cascaded through my situation, and I’ve only just now been able to crawl out far enough to poke my head above water. With the new year comes a chance to restart.

I purchased some wood for the loft about a month ago; sadly twenty of my 2x4s were stolen. At least they left the loft rafters and floorboards! I’ll take this as a lesson-learned: use the wood ASAP; don’t leave it lying around!

 

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Out of Money

English: Finnish spruce plywood
Plywood (Photo: Wikipedia)

So, with the next phase of building approaching, it is time to get more wood, notably the plywood for the walls and roof.

In addition, I’ll need:

  • a bunch more 2x4s for the rafters, loft walls and interior walls,
  • some 4x4s for the loft beams,
  • floorboards for the loft,
  • 6x6s for the last wall, and
  • an 18 foot 2×6 for the roof beam.

I’m guesstimating this will all run me about $500ish + about $50-75 for the truck rental.

Taking a look at my Tiny Home piggybank, I’m out of money. I should have enough money in the bank at the end of the month.

In the meantime, I still need to plumb and square the remaining walls, so I’m not completely dead in the water.

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Raintastrophe

Wet Floor
Wet Floor

Wet Floor
More Wet Floor

We got a strong rainstorm yesterday, and my worst fear was realized. I’d neglected to tie down one side of the tarp, so the wind must’ve picked it up and flipped it (the tarp) over the side of the house, exposing everything.

Then it rained long and hard, soaking the walls and floor. As far as I know, two “compartments” in the floor got water in them, maybe more.

 

I repositioned the tarp and tied it down, but noticed it is full of holes. It is disintegrating from being out in the sun for so long.

All tarped up
All tarped up

The only thing to do is wait for the rain to stop and let the surface dry out. Eventually those compartments in the floor will mold (the insulation seems to be very good at resisting mold), so I’ll have to open up them up from the bottom and take out the insulation so I can dry everything out.

Next steps? Plow ahead! I’d been afraid of getting the floor wet since I laid it down and now I don’t have to worry about it!

This weekend I plan on squaring the walls and bolting them down (using the brackets I made) next.

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Rain, Rain

Lots of rain, lately.

English: rain
English: rain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I discovered that the floor had been getting a bit of rain, so there’s a possibility that the insulation is wet. I’ll have to cut open the aluminum under-barrier later and take a look, but it will make sense to get the roof up first so I only have to do this one time.

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Bill got ‘nothin!

Tropical Storm Bill rolled into town the other day.

Radar image of Bill
Image courtesy National Weather Service

The ground was already saturated, raising fears of flooding. I went to the build site to verify the tarps were in place and secure.

 

One of the tarps was ripped; hanging over the corner of the walls caused extra stress that caused the tarp to rip. I repositioned the tarp and retied the ropes so water would not enter via the tear.

Frogs have taken up residence in and around the underside of the trailer and wherever the tarp is on the ground. I suppose because it is wet and there is lots to food for the  (mosquitos!), this makes a good habitat.

English: Photo of a Frog
Photo of a Frog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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Thoughts on Solar

I took an introductory class about solar powering one’s home at TxRx Labs. It was very well done — I learned quite a bit about maximizing energy and the difference between a cheap controller and an expensive one (hint: the features included in the expensive version are necessary if one is serious).

One of the topics that kept coming up was ROI (return on investment). How long before you “pay off” your system by selling the electricity to the grid? There were all sorts of charts and the like provided on what kind of system, how big the panels, etc.

I realized that I don’t care. My goal in going solar isn’t to make money or pay off anything. It is simply to take that expense out of my life forever (or for several decades). I won’t have to worry about running my A/C during the summer and getting a massive bill. I won’t feel cheated because I have to pay $30 for the cost of the lines and poles on top of my usage (which often falls below the “minimum” amount, so I get a mandatory fee on top of that).

To a lesser extent, I’ll feel a bit more treehugger-ish because I’m not relying on dirty power generation. If I can add enough capacity to charge an electric car (or at least top it off), that’s even better.