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.

We got the CS 14 strapping installed all the way around the house and it is looking great.

As with many things in his project, it involved some compromise and flexibility. When I laid out the blocking (the wood between the studs), I neglected to get them exactly lined up with one another, so when it came time to install the CS 14, it was obvious it wasn’t going to match.

As with everything else that “went wrong,” I had to remind myself that any job worth doing is worth doing poorly.

Coming to the master bedroom’s window, I had to cut the CS 14 to make it work.

It turns out that tin snips don’t work, but an angle grinder does the job nicely. So with that out of the way, it is time to work on the loft.

The post CS 14 Strapping Installed appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

From my own research, this is a “controversial” topic: some folks say it is required and others say not to bother.

Does it make sense to attach the house to the trailer? The weight of the house should be enough to keep it on the trailer as in, will it blow off while you’re driving down the road? No. If I’m worried about tipping over, then the house is destroyed anyway.

Tumbleweed suggests welding threaded rods onto the trailer that are then passed up through the subfloor, sole plate of the wall and a HDU5 holdown. I decided to not go this route, because I would have had to strip the paint from the trailer and I didn’t like the position of where I’d have to place the rods (too close to the interior of the house).

So what to do?

It turns out that my trailer has stake pockets for adding a railing. So my idea is to create a bracket that will clip to the bottom of the bracket and hold a threaded rod.

Here’s a video of me welding the plate and then grinding and polishing it.

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