The tires are the OG set that came with the trailer, so they are LONG past overdue. Fortunately, Tiny hasn’t moved around much, but the last thing I need is to get her on the road and have one or more of the old rubber donuts blow out.

Three of the 4 came off without a hitch but that last one’s last lugnut refused to budge. I was cranking on my impact wrench and no luck. After some head-scratching, I figured I’d get some Break-Free and that would do the job.

None of the local shops had any in stock, so we looked for the “second best” option, and it turned out to be a winner.

PB B’Laster

This stuff is incredible. We soaked the hell out of that nut and waited for 5 minutes, then soaked it again and waited for a minute.

As soon as I pulled the trigger on the impact wrench, the lugnutcame right off.

The only downside to PB B’Laster is you have to double-bag it in a ziploc when transporting it, otherwise the residue in the tube will fill the car with toxic fumes and give you The Cancer within, like, minutes.

The post Tire Replacement appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

I’m going to move Tiny down from storage onto the lot; I’ve been spending lots of $$$ keeping it up north and it’s time to push things forward! Before I can do this, I need to prepare the land.

My plan was to put down a gravel driveway for a couple of reasons:

• It’s more eco-friendly – using recycled materials instead of concrete, which is a major contributor to CO₂ greenhouse gases.
• It is better for the watershed – gravel is permeable, allowing rain to soak directly into the ground instead of running off into drainage ditches.
• It is cheaper – building a 11’x50′ driveway should cost about $3k instead of ~$14k.
• I can do most (all) of the work myself.

In addition, I need to ensure some level of security for Tiny, as it will be sitting out all alone with no one to watch over her! I’ll need to prepare the land by adding a fence to keep looky-loos out and make it harder to get onto the property.

Land Preparation Steps

Driveway

1. Mark out location with stakes and twine
2. Dig out area to 6″ deep
3. Lay down weed barrier
4. Purchase gravel
5. Purchase grid
6. Spread out bottom layer and compact
7. Assemble grid
8. Spread out top layer and compact

Fence

1. Mark out location with stakes and twine
2. Determine approach: wood, SS40 pipe or steel post (see Resources below)
3. Source materials
4. Install posts
5. Attach cross beams
6. Install pickets
7. Build/install gate

Resources

• Lifetime Steel Post – video
• SS40/xx40 pipe (10-12 gauge; 2 3/8 diameter, must go at least 3′ into the ground) – video
• Wood – video

The post Laying out Tiny’s New Location appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

The dirt guy can’t get his trucks onto my property in order to deliver the dirt because the trucks won’t fit under the wires.

It turns out the telephone wire hangs too low over the driveway. I estimated it is about 10′ above the driveway, and code is 15′. Even the tiny house wouldn’t fit (it is 13’6″).

Before I purchased the property, there was no driveway so it is understandable why it was never noticed or corrected.

I called 311 (city services). They inform me the city doesn’t own telephone poles, thus thanks to the magic of privatization, they cannot help me. They suggest contacting either Centerpoint (who own the poles) or AT&T (owners of the data wires), or both.

Centerpoint: get lost, pal

Centerpoint tells me the wires on top of the pole are power and they maintain them. The lower wires don’t belong to them (that part of the pole is leased to other companies), so they aren’t responsible. So sad, too bad.

Telephone poles are divided into zones, with the higher the zone, the more dangerous the wire. Wires on the very top carry the most voltage, and wires on the bottom carry the least.

Nevertheless, it isn’t advisable to go around playing with any wires: the wrong voltage can kill you.

AT&T – Cower Before Us

The lower wires are the ones blocking my access, which means telecom. Upon calling AT&T (motto: “We make it hard so you’ll stop bothering us!”) the automated phone system helpfully suggests using their website “for faster service”.

Going to the page, I’m unable to do anything as the problem reporting tool assumes you are a customer, and keeps asking for my account number.

Back to the phones!

After being on hold for a while, it takes three transfers to get me to the right person. Each time I have to explain that I’m not a customer, my property is not a building, and this is about not about downed lines.

Finally, I get to the right person, explain the situation and they tell me they’ll send out a repair tech.

A month later and the work is still not done so I call again. The tech calls me the next morning saying he’s at the site, can verify the lines are sagging. He can’t raise them high enough because the telephone pole is leaning. You know, the pole they don’t own and have no control over. He says he’ll tighten the line and try to get Centerpoint to come fix their pole. I’m not going to hold by breath.

Try the PUC?

In desperation, I search for a solution online and discover there is actually a state Public Utilities Commission! The point me to the City’s Administration and Public Affairs department. There isn’t a formal complaint procedure (‘contact the utility and then contact APA if you aren’t satisfied’), so I follow the state PUC’s procedure:

1. Try to resolve the problem with the utility
   • Document when, with whom, discussion notes and outcome of the call.
2. After a sufficient time passes days (undefined, but I assume 20), contact the PUC
3. If the complaint is legit and documentation indicates a good-faith effort to resolve, the PUC will contact the company.
4. The company has 15 days to respond to the PUC.
5. The PUC will investigate and determine if there was any legal malfeasance.
6. If the company is at fault, fines will be assessed.

Step 1 – contact AT&T (again)

The last time I contacted AT&T was over a month before, so I contacted them again, documented who I spoke with, the date and time, and took notes about what was said.

Step 2 – wait

The clock starts and I make note of when I need to verify the work still isn’t done. A week before the deadline, I check the site and discover they finally fixed the wire!

Lessons Learned

Privatization has not resulted in lower prices and/or better service. It has resulted in higher prices and service. But freedom, I guess, whatever.

Next time, I’ll follow the PUC procedures, stay on top of it and hopefully that will result in a faster fix. All told, it took about 18 months to get this resolved.

The post Privatization and Low-Hanging Wires appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

My order for wood arrived from the supply yard. Compared to other orders, mine was miniscule of course. The guy dropped it off in the yard.

A short while later I had it moved into the storehouse.

The post I Got Wood appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

The Tiny home starts with the trailer, and there are several reasons for this:

• It provides the solid foundation that supports the house.
• As a designated “Travel-Trailer”, no home inspections are required*.
• It is illegal to live in a structure as small as the Tiny home**
• When moving day arrives (or you want to get out of town for a while), just hook up the truck and go.

* Your results may vary due to local laws. Also, by not having your home inspected it is on YOU if you build crap that falls down and kills someone. YOU must build and build well, my friend.

** For a number of reasons: many communities don’t want vagrants camping on their streets; to prevent Tenement-squalor conditions; etc.

When picking a trailer, there are three things you will want to look for:

1. A flat bed with wooden planks. No dovetails (the slope at the end to aid in loading vehicles), because this will make it harder to build your subfloor. You want wooden planks so you can remove 1/2 of them and lighten up the trailer.
2. For my 96″ x 20′ trailer, I made sure mine had a GVWR of 10,000 lbs (5 tons) and a double-axle. Tiny house will be heavy and needs the proper support.
3. No railings. Tiny house will extend to the edge of the trailer and a railing will get in the way. On my particular trailer, the construction required a front railing, so I am building around that.

Other considerations

• Get a hitch lock. Don’t be this guy.
• Make sure you know what kind of electrical connection your trailer will require and get an adapter to fit whatever truck you’re using to haul it. You can get these adapters at auto-parts stores, onine and probably places like Harbor Freight. They’re like $15-30 and better than getting a ticket for having no tail lights/turn signals.
• Get insurance, because it is dirt cheap and you don’t want to be an idiot with no trailer because you were cheap. When you finish building your house on the trailer you will need more insurance, but that can wait for another day (don’t forget!)
• If you plan on moving your house a bit, consider getting a spare. Trailer folk I spoke with mentioned that blowouts are common, so having a spare can mean the difference between being stranded in BFE and getting to where you’re going.
• If I had to do it again, I’d get built-in jacks, because it would’ve been much easier to raise and level the trailer. Parking your trailer for long periods in the same spot will ruin the tires unless you raise them off the ground. I ended up using a 6 ton-capacity bottle jack and a bunch of cinder-blocks to do the job.

I shopped around and got my trailer for low-$4,000s. I could’ve gotten one for about half that off Craigslist or whatever, but (at the time), I didn’t know much about trailers and how to tell if they were still in good condition.

The post The Trailer appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.