A Letter from the Trenches of Materialism

Today was a good day. Today I felt proud and confident of my decision to scale down and pursue a minimalistic, tiny house lifestyle. Today I reaffirmed my commitment to detaching myself from material possessions and living a more mindful life.

Today I helped my 92-year-old great-aunt move.

I grew up across the alley from my great-aunt--whom I call Auntie--and her house was always a second home to myself, my siblings, and even our family pets. A former children's librarian, her wit, intellectual curiosity, and freedom of self-expression made her a role model for me. She still is. She's the kind of person you almost can't help but love.

But like everyone, Auntie has her flaws, and I spent most of today mired in the fruits of one of them: her stuff. She is incredibly materialistic. 

Floor Box - Day 20 - FLOOR BOX RECAP

(2.5 hrs)

The floor box and subfloor are FINISHED! We screwed and glued the last three pieces of subfloor plywood today.

The next step is to add the walls. Since I'm using SIPs--structural insulated panels, a prefabricated wall panel system--the wall installation is kind of out of my hands for the moment. I contacted the local SIP manufacturer a couple of weeks ago and they promptly replied promising to get back to me with a price quote, but I have not heard from them since. Once I get the quote and get some answers to my design/building questions (e.g. What kind of splines do I need? Is there anything I need to do to "hurricane"- and "earthquake"-proof a SIP structure? Do I need a double top plate?), I will place my order. But then it could take a month or more for them to fabricate my panels and deliver them... I really don't know at this point.

So I wait.

Floor Box - Day 19

(3.5 hrs)

Today we installed two more pieces of subfloor plywood (it's halfway done now), roughed in the sink and shower drain lines, and finished the floor insulation.

It sounds so easy when I condense it down to one sentence! The full story after the jump...

Floor Box - Day 18

(2.5 hrs)

Now things are happening! Today I busted out the Roxul rock wool insulation and started installing it in the Tyvek-lined bays of the floor. I thought it would take a longer time than it did; the rock wool was quite quick and easy to work with.

As a reminder, rock wool is made principally from slag--waste rock--from the steel industry. It is melted down and blown or spun into tiny filaments, then pressed into insulating batts (i.e., soft, wooly, but cohesive rectangles of material, like felt). Fiberglass is the only other common type of insulation that comes in batts, and it has a terrible reputation for being nasty, noxious stuff that will irritate your skin, lungs, and every mucous membrane it touches. Rock wool is pretty lovely, in comparison, so I don't think I strictly needed to wear long sleeves, gloves, and a mask... but it was a little dusty, and I was feeling sensitive, so I did.

Floor Box - Day 14-17

DAY 14 (Wednesday, January 21) (2.75 hrs): Today my task was to spray Great Stuff Gaps and Cracks expanding foam in the gap between the trailer and the floor box. Great Stuff is closed-cell polyurethane foam and has an insulating R-value of 6.6 per inch. Since the gap is about half an inch on all sides, that means it will provide about R-3.3 between the trailer and floor box. What does that mean? I don't know exactly, but something good, I'm sure. It will also keep water and air from infiltrating up through that gap and coming in contact with the subfloor, which is probably even more important than the R-value.

I was a little concerned about the foam's performance in cold weather. The label said that low temperatures would adversely affect its performance, and all I could find online is that the ideal operating temperature for Great Stuff is about 70ºF. It was 45ºF today and... it worked just fine. Pshhhaw, worrying for nothing!

Floor Box - Day 10-13

DAY 10 (Saturday, January 17) (0.5 hr): We flipped the floor box! YEAH! My sister and parents, my uncle Chuck, and two friends from high school, Sarah and Becca, helped out. Thank you!!! 

I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures during the procedure ("Okay, everybody hold it... hooold it... just a sec... now, smile... got it! Okay, one more") and somehow forgot to take one afterward. Huh... I was pretty foggy that day. I was actually afraid I was coming down with the flu that's going around--my head felt like it was made of clay and I spent the rest of the day half-vegetative watching Netflix--but it passed. So. All good!

Here's a nice picture of the floor when I finally got around to photographing it in all its right-side-up glory (plus the Tyvek that I added on Day 12).

The Going Green Home - Part 2: Insulation

(The Going Green Home - Part 1: Introduction)

Photo by Jude Hill. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr

Insulation is nominally simple. It's usually fluffy or foamy, airy stuff that fills your walls, ceiling, and floor and keeps the heat where you want it: inside in the winter, outside in the summer. Insulation reduces the need to keep the heater (or air-conditioner) going full-tilt 24/7. Big energy-saver... if not life-saver, depending on where you live!

Help meee!

I've decided it's time to flip the half-finished floorbox. The undercarriage paint is dry and probably hard enough not to get too badly marred by handling, and I've decided what my next steps will be and want to get moving!

Problem: the floorbox weighs about 460 lbs.

SO: I need some helpers! We're thinking this Saturday morning, January 17. There will be muffins or something (and gratitude!). If you want to stick around and help with the lighter work afterward, you're totally welcome to do that, too. No extra muffins for staying, but definitely extra gratitude. :-)

Leave me a comment below or get in touch with me some other way if you're interested, and I'll let you know the details!

Thanks!

Floor Box - Day 8-9

Day 8 (Friday, January 9) (1 hr): Dad and I lifted the floor box out of the trailer bed and laid it on 2x4s across the trailer. This is the first step to flipping it over and setting it back down in place. A car jack was a great tool for this! ...But we'll need a lot more than a jack to get it (eventually) flipped all the way over...

Floor Box - Day 6-7

(1.75 hrs, plus drying time)                                  

Painting makes for easy--and boring--work days. I rounded out the first week of work on my tiny house by applying two coats of pale green latex house paint to my undercarriage, all of which took under two hours--including set-up and clean-up--and barely broke a sweat.

I was going to stop with two coats, but I may add a third tomorrow. The paint had been sitting in a closet for nine and a half years, had separated, and I wasn't able to shake/stir it enough with my own muscle power--so the first coat was so thin I could still see the color of plywood through it! (Through it and the undercoat of primer...) If I'd had any experience with house paint, I might have known I had to mix it more thoroughly... but I hadn't, so I didn't.

I have a little more experience now, though:

The Going Green Home - Part 1: Introduction

The environment is important to me. Important enough that I earned two degrees in environmental science. Important enough that I will pursue a career in the environmental sector. And definitely important enough to shape my lifestyle around being green.

How will The Going Home fit in?

Tiny houses on wheels could be considered automatically eco-friendly simply because they are tiny, non-permanent structures. Compared to a normal house, they use and contain a tiny quantity of building materials. They are heated, cooled, and lit by a comparatively tiny quantity of energy. They can be towed away and the land returned to its original state in a matter of months. And by living in one, you can't help but live a less materialistic life--unless you're renting a storage unit in town or have outbuildings to house your toys!

The only necessarily anti-environmental aspect of tiny houses is that the vehicles required to tow them are greedy gas guzzlers. A newer Ford F250, for example, gets somewhere between 13 and 15 miles per gallon, and towing a big load like a tiny house will bump that figure way down; our Toyota Sienna normally gets 19-20 mpg, but while towing the empty trailer, it averaged just 9 mpg. Now, as long as you are parking your tiny house in one spot for a long period of time, the fossil fuel emissions associated with moving will be pretty minimal. Unless, of course, that big honkin' 13-mpg truck is also your daily driver! I hope to get away with just renting one when I need to move, while my daily driver will (fingers crossed...) be the 84-mpg Elio that I reserved as 25th birthday present to myself last year. (Heh, heh.)

But that's hardly the end of the tiny house environmental story. As I've mentioned before, one of the greatest things about designing and/or building your own tiny house is that you can customize it to match your personal tastes, preferences, priorities, and so forth. So beyond simply being tiny and not moving often, there are choices you may or may not make to reduce your tiny house's environmental footprint even more.

I'll be exploring those choices--and my approach to them--in a series of "The Going Green Home" blog posts. I'll post the links below as they come!

The Going Green Home - Part 2: Insulation

The Going Green Home - Part 3: Reclaimed Materials 

Floor Box - Day 5

(2.25 hrs)

Today I got into the paint closet, dug out our selection of exterior paints, and... realized that I should really put down a layer of primer, first.

So Dad and I went to Ace Hardware, got a gallon of Kilz-brand exterior water-based latex primer/sealer, and then set to work!

(Actually... Dad dropped me off at my grandparents' house and went home. Solo work day, womp wooomp.)

(Actually... it was fine.)

"Why not just...?"

I've seen it in online comments sections. I've heard it from friends and family. When some people first hear about tiny houses on wheels, their first reaction is to ask: "Why not just...?"

"Why not just buy an RV?"

"Why not just live in an Airstream, it's cheaper and lighter."

"Don't you mean, park model? Why not just buy one of those?"

So. Why not just? Different tiny housers will have different answers. It basically boils down to:

"Because tiny houses on wheels aren't RVs/Airstreams/park models--they are tiny. Houses. On wheels."

Floor Box - Day 4

(3.75 hrs of "real" work)

Ahhh--I am now sitting and relaxing with a bottle of hard cider and a cup of tea after the longest and most visibly productive work day so far. Today Mom and I picked up the insulation from Lowe's, and Dad and I installed the undercarriage. Good day!

FYI: Four packages (~160 square feet) of 5 1/2" Roxul insulation exactly fill a 2008 Toyota Sienna minivan from the middle seats back. Now you know!

Also: I discovered why we ran out of lumber and joist hangers yesterday. I had actually mistaken the number of joists needed in my drawn plans, not realizing that one of the spans in my drawing was greater than 24". When actually building the floor, I saw that the gap was too wide and corrected it with an additional joist, thereby adding two pieces for which I hadn't planned.

Floor Box - Day 3

(2 hrs)

Today we finished installing the floor joists, and I mashed a finger and discovered that I am not quite as good at counting as I had always imagined myself to be. So, a mixed day, but in the end, success!

...Yeah, we ran out of lumber and joist hangers with two pieces left to install. I don't know how I managed to match the number of joist hangers to the quantity of lumber, and yet miscount the number of joists... oh well. Dad made a run back down to the local building supply store for a 8' stick of 2x6 and four more joist hangers while I installed the last couple that we had on hand. No harm done or time lost.

Floor Box - Day 2

Sisterly assistance

(3.5 hrs)

Happy New Year! My sister helped Dad and me out today and we got the center rail and about half the joists installed in a couple of hours. Until we wore out because we were out late on New Year's Eve...