Living in a Tiny House during construction

Many of us that construct our own tiny houses are doing so on a very tight budget. I built my home paycheck to paycheck; with a very low paycheck because I am also a full-time PhD student making 10 per hour (roughly $200/week). After paying necessary living expenses (rent, food, electric, etc) there was seldom anything left for construction. If you are tough, adventurous, and good-natured; you can save a consider amount of living expenses by moving into your unfinished home during construction. 

I would not recommend anyone move-in till the house has reached the "semi-dried-in" stage. This is the stage with walls and roof. I moved in before installing all the windows and the door. I used my savings from my rent to invest in my tiny house. If you plan to move in during construction, I recommend you set priorities for the construction sequence.

My two primary priorities were a comfortable place to sleep and a toilet. The toilet was easy, I used a five gallon bucket and a toilet lid as a composting toilet with sawdust cover. For sleeping, I could have gone to the thrift store and obtained a cheap futon but I wanted a comfortable relaxing place to sleep. It was important to me to get a good night sleep and also feel good about my home. 

Therefore, the first place I began my interior construction was the sleeping loft. I installed the loft using 2x6 lumber with 3/4" pine tongue and groove boards on the floor of loft, walls, and ceiling. At first, I used plastic to cover my windows till I got the windows installed. 

I also installed two 12V lights and a 12V fan. I got a cheap battery at the junk yard for $10 so that I would have power to my lights and fan. Honestly, I looked forward to going to bed. I had a book I could read just before sleeping and my loft was inviting.

I used a step ladder to get to the loft; not a real convenient way to access the loft but functional. In the middle of the night, if I needed to "go", I would need to be careful to wake-up enough to safely navigate the ladder. As a man, I soon started using an empty detergent bottle to avoid those late night potty trips. 

After a week or so living in the loft, I found I was stopping at fast food places for meals. Building on a very strict budget, an $8 fast food meal was the loss of a couple 2x4's or a package of screws. I did not want to setup a formal kitchen but I wanted to be able to save money by preparing a simple meal. I did a simple stove and a make-shift counter of spare lumber.

Living in a construction zone was not ideal but it was cost effective. I began my build Jan. 1, 2015 with a trailer. I was building in the middle of winter. Each day after school (research and classes) I worked a couple hours and every weekend. I was able to move into my shell May 2015. It was still cold in Upper Peninsula, Michigan but I was able to stay warm with extra blankets on my bed. It was a success; I was able to complete my tiny house on my budget and began learning about my space during the construction process. This helped me better "feel" my home, decide on dimensions of the kitchen, stairs, work desk, living room area and many other factors. Drawing the plan was just not the same for me as "living the plan". Therefore, if your family situation permits living in your tiny during construction, I encourage you to give it a try during a long weekend. If it works for you, then you will save money that can be invested in your home.

All comments, questions and experiences welcome.

Temporary Indoor Shower

 

I built my tiny home paycheck to paycheck. In order to effectively use every dime, I moved into my tiny home long before it was complete. However, because I worked on the build each day after my regular work day, I wanted a way to get clean without running to some bathing facility away from my build site.

Therefore, one of the first items I installed was my bathtub and plumbing for the bathtub drain. I did not install the tub walls till much later. In order to protect the existing walls, I obtained vinyl shower curtains and tacked them to the walls. I also have a front curtain to keep the water in the tub.

I had not installed my water plumbing or my hot water tank. I live off-grid and planned an internal tank, see this article.  Before installing my internal tank, I used water totes to hold water. I used a garden sprayer to hold two gallons of water for my shower. The wand and nozzle was removable and made it much easier to use for my shower.

I would fill the sprayer tank with 3/4 of a gallon boiling water and 1 gallon of cold water. I used an electric water pot for heating the water. Because I was building my home, I was frequently using the generator so I had plenty of energy to run the water pot. Water could also be heated in a tea pot over a camp propane stove.

The same garden sprayer can be painted black and placed outside in the sunshine. The sun will heat the bottle so you have hot shower water. However, I live in an extremely cold region and I was building during the winter.

I used this system to take showers for six months. Even after I completed the basic plumbing of my home, I needed to use this system because I had not installed a water heater. I now have a shower head with an on/off switch and it is a water saving head, however it still uses more water than my former garden sprayer. I find I miss my sprayer. It was so easy to conserve water because the sprayer output was not excessive.

Maybe I will bring the sprayer back and use it. Life is good off-grid and it feels good to conserve water. 

Tools for construction of a tiny house

Image downloaded from the internet at http://naturalpapa.com

I have read somewhere that one can build a tiny house with only 14 tools; it may indeed be possible but life will be much better with a bit more conveniences. How would one complete electrical work without a screwdriver? The image above shows four power tools, a miter saw, jig saw, circular saw and a drill. In the construction of a tiny house, these four power tools will certainly get a workout. I would add a couple extras; an impact driver, a small table saw and maybe a router. Of course getting an air compressor and pneumatic nailers will greatly simplify your life and ease the burden on your arms. It is possible to rent these tools but for the duration of time needed for most of these tools, it would be better to purchase and then sell upon completion.

I would use the impact driver for the thousands of screws and bolts that will need to be driven; I would use the table saw for cutting long angles across grain or cutting drip edges into the bottom of window sills and I would use the router for rounding over edges of wood for the ladder, edge of the tongue-and-groove boards on the loft and other areas. Andrew Morrison showed how to use a router to cut out window and door openings in his video series "Building a Tiny House"; this is really quick and easy. Sure, you can round over with a file but a router does such a beautiful job. You can buy the tools used on craigslist, use them for the construction, then sell them for approximately the same price at the end of construction.

Personally, I set my tool budget at $1500 with plans to sell the un-needed tools upon completion. I figure I can sell the power tools upon completion to recover some of my investment. As stated above, if you purchase the tools used and sell used, you could spend much less. So, here is the list of power tools and their costs I have obtained for my tiny house. The power tools occupy over half of my tool budget.

Craftsman sliding compound miter saw ($190)

19.2 volt drill and impact drill combo set ($110)

Refurbished Skil router ($49)

Porter Cable jig saw ($60)

Craftsman circular saw ($70)

Porter Cable air compressor ($110)

Husky brad and finish nailer set ($70)

Table saw ($200)

You can get a compound miter saw and table saw for $100 each but I wanted the extra capacity of the sliding compound miter and I wanted the slightly better quality of the more expensive table saw. I plan to build my own cabinets and interior furnishings. My past experience with building showed me that an increase in quality helps my end product. You can drive all your nails with a hammer but install tongue-and-groove interior siding is much easier with a finish nailer.

In my next blog post, I will discuss the "non-power" tools we can add to this list to make life a bit more comfortable.