These should be the last of the new photos until I get up there in a few weeks.

Look, I know no one can possibly be as excited about this as I am, but here’s proof positive that the new roof exists and is, in fact, attached to my house.  There are also no signs of water damage on the inside.

So, with any luck, I’m okay.

I’m spending the weekend up in Portland. I wanted to check on the house and make sure I wasn’t out of my mind to be planning to stay in it as of the middle of this month. (The answer: there’s still a lot of work on the inside that remains to be done, but, no, I am not out of my mind.)

I also wanted to collect some updated photos of the place since a couple of people have been asking for them, including a writer who’s working on a magazine piece on small homes. More details on that when I have them myself.

Anyway, while it’s taken awhile to get there, the slow changes are starting to add up into a noticeable difference. Apparently several of my neighbors have commented favorably on the changes as well.

This video was put together as part of a promotion for Dr. Mark Albion’s website.

I think the story does a wonderful job of making the point that there’s a lot more to living successfully than just maximizing the money you bring home with no regard to other areas of one’s life.

Amanda over at Constructing a Simpler Life is one of my favorite writers on the small home movement.  She is currently working on her masters in photojournalism and she was able to talk her thesis advisors into allowing her to focus on people in the small home community.

One of the things I love about Amanda’s interviews is her ability to capture people’s personalities on film, which is something I think a lot of the news stories lack. (The photo in this entry is one of hers.)

A lot of journalists seem so focused on the structures that they miss the personalities behind them.

Amanda also has a talent for getting people to really open up during her interviews.  For example, here’s a quote from Jay Shafer:  “I feel like confessing that I threw a Styrofoam cup away once.”

I strongly encourage you to go check out her interview on Jay along with many others.  (Make sure you also read her post on painstakingly rescuing a mouse she first caught in a glue trap.  That was when I knew without a doubt that she was a kindred spirit.)

Photo by Amanda Abel

The latest issue of The Economist includes a story on the small home movement and includes an interview with Brad Kittel of  Tiny  Texas Houses.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The Small House Movement has been around for years, encouraging people to think about how much house they really need. But lately it has attracted more attention. “It seems like a perfect convergence of a bad housing market meeting a bad economy and more awareness about global warming,” claims Jay Shafer, an enthusiastic advocate.

This convergence appears to be having an impact on housing sizes. Per the Census Bureau, the median size of homes in the fourth quarter of 2008 dropped to 2,114 square feet.  This is down more than 100 square feet from the beginning of year.

Admittedly, we’ve still got a way to go, but it’s a start.

You can read a full copy of the story  here.

IKEA has made a thriving business of offering inexpensive home furnishings for compact spaces.  They are also masters at display.

Most IKEA stores include one or more “tiny home” displays.  For those of you who aren’t close to an IKEA store, Ryan from The Tiny House Forum, has graciously posted to YouTube tours from the new store in Charlotte, NC.

Hopefully they will provide you with some inspiration!

270 Square Feet:

375 Square Feet:

590 Square Feet:

I recently received an email from a young couple who intend to build their own Tumbleweed-style tiny home. They’re just beginning to collect materials for their project and wondered if anyone in the Small House Movement had an easy-to-print list of the tools and materials they would need to complete their project.

I know that all of the Tumbleweed plans come with fairly detailed tools and materials lists, but I am not aware of anywhere currently on the internet where there exists a list for the die-hard, do-it-yourself, tiny house builders. So below is my attempt at compiling such a list.

I have assembled the list below from my notes from Jay Shafer’s workshop as well as my reading of multiple blogs out there written by people working on similar projects.

(For the readers of my blog, please feel free to make suggestions of items I have missed and I will try to maintain an updated copy of the list as an aid to aspiring tiny housers.)

Here you go, guys…

Tools and Materials for Building Your Own Tiny House on Wheels

Starting Items:

• A design/blueprint for your house

• A place to work (backyard, warehouse, large garage, ground floor unit at a storage center, etc.)

• A couple of good books on shedbuilding/basic carpentry

Tools:

• Tape measure

• Square

• Speed square (optional but nice to have)

• Manual (crosscut) saw

• Table saw (useful for ripping through boards)

• Miter saw (for cutting angles and saving you time on cutting board to appropriate length)

• Sawzall (for do-it-all cutting when you need to cut through metal and wood)

• Jig saw (optional)

• Jab saw (optional)

• Belt sander and  sand paper

• Two sawhorses (to be safe you need to cut at a comfortable height)

• Framing hammer

• Finish hammer

• Files/chisels (for finish work)

• Box cutter (for cutting felt paper)

• Hurricane clamps

• C-clamps (optional)

• Paintbrushes

• Caulk gun

• Cordless drill with the correct bits for the screws you’re using

• Even better–a pneumatic screw gun

• Finish nailer

• Level

• 8-foot ladder

• Safety goggles

• Dust mask

• Gloves

• Earplugs

• Extension cord(s)

Materials:

• Trailer (with sides removed)

• Lumber for the framing (preferably light in weight and with few knots in middle of boards) or appropriate sized SIP’s if you’re using those instead

• 3/8” CDX plywood for walls and subfloor

• ½” CDX plywood for roof

• Non-galvanized screws (preferable to nails as less likely to vibrate their way loose)

• Lag bolts with locking washers (to bolt house frame to trailer)

• Tie downs

• Tyvek vapor barrier (for outside of house under siding material)

• Foam board insulation (or whatever insulation material you prefer)

• Spray foam insulation (to seal around foam board insulation)

• 1×4 Fir tongue &  groove flooring (if desired) or other flooring material (tile, linoleum, etc.)

• Drywall and tape

• Drywall mud & a 6″ and a 9″ knife

• Drywall screws & drywall sanding paper

• Cover material over drywall (if any)

• Alternately, 1/4″ Pine tongue & groove for wall sheathing (instead of drywall)–this is reported to work better for mobile units

• Windows (or materials to build your own)

• Door(s) (or materials to build your own)

• Skylights (if any)

• Silicon caulk for flashing

• Kitchen counter material

• Ready-made cabinets (or materials to build your own)

• Ladder for sleeping loft (or materials to build)

• Redwood, cedar or treated wood for porch, facias, railings, balustrades

• Siding material (board and batten, vinyl, shake, etc.)

• Roof trusses or materials to build your own

• Metal roofing or shingles (depending on what you want to use)

• Whatever you intend to use as a ridge cap on the roof

• Felt (if necessary)

• Tar paper

• Flashing

• Mastic tape

• Turned beams for the porch (if any)

• Whatever you intend to use as your stain and sealant on the outside

• Ridge vent

• Gutters and down spouts

• Wood glue

Utilities/Appliances:

• Water heater (if any) on demand, RV, solar, etc.

• Water container for sink/shower if house is not plumbed

• Solar panels (if any) and inverter

• Washer/dryer (if any) (either AC or DC)

• Dishwasher (if any)

• Stove (electric, gas, propane)

• Microwave (if any)

• Fridge (either AC or DC)

• Kitchen sink

• Bathroom sink

• Toilet (compost or other)

• Macerator pump for toilet (if necessary)

• Sewer hose or portable sewage tank

• Shower stall

• Stove or other source for heat + necessary venting equipment

• Pex tubing and connections for water supply

• Tool to crimp Pex connections

• Heat tape

• Electrical wire

• Outlets

• Fuse box (or hire an electrician to wire your electricity)

Please note: I am by no means a safety expert when it comes to construction projects. Please adhere to all safety precautions your middle school wood shop instructor taught you.

I have been a fan of architect Michael Graves for a long time.  I’ve even braved Target during Christmas season for a couple of his designs, and that’s high praise, indeed, in my world.

I couldn’t resist sharing this pavilion design of his…  With the amount of glass employed in this little structure it would take some creativity in order to make this into a home.  But at 171 square feet, it’s larger than most of the tumbleweed designs.  Moreover, I could easily see a sleeping loft in this structure providing additional space.

The roof and wall colors in which it are built are customizable.For additional details on this and two other Michael Graves designs, check out ecirclehomes.com or call call Gabriele at 800-700-9856.

I just returned from a week-long camping event in Arizona.  I’m just now catching up enough at work that I can focus on catching up here, as well.  When I was out in Arizona it seemed like all the friends I ran across wanted to know what the latest news was on my house.  And, more to the point, when I would be DONE with the renovations.

DONE is becoming a very nebulous concept in my world, guys.  I expected to be DONE a long time ago.  And with a substantially smaller total bill than what I’ve racked up so far.

My job seems as stable as anything out there right now.  Perhaps even more than the norm.  But with the world as topsy-turvy as it is right now, I really don’t want to tap any more of my rapidly hemorrhaging savings to finish off the house.  So I’m doing my best to lower my near-term ambitions which, I’m afraid, is not something at which I have much practice. But I’ve giving it my best effort.

In the next week or two I plan to drive my Mini Cooper up to Portland.  I’m just waiting to see if the class near Charlie’s place on wiring your house for solar power gets canceled or not.  If it does, my timetable moves up and the car gets moved sooner.

As soon as I’ve got the car up there, I’m going to spend a few weeks in my house focusing on getting the new paint, wallpaper, and flooring done in the front half of the house.  (I have a feeling my annual bonus from my job is going to be spent on wood flooring.) That’s all that’s really holding things up in terms of it being comfortably habitable.  I’m sick of not being able to move most of my limited remaining furniture in.

Once I’m settled in the front half of the house, I can focus on finishing off the new back office space.  Some of that, like the dry wall, I know I can do myself.  I’m not sure I’m up to the task of re-framing the expanded bathroom, though.  I may grit my teeth and recruit Kenny and Gene for that particular task when I reach it.  That’s probably going to have to wait awhile, though, as the funds I had allocated for that budget got devoured by them running significantly over-budget on the last.  (Anyone know an inexpensive framer in Portland?)

The thing is, I don’t really need the back office space in my house to be completely finished off, right now.  Sure, it would be nice.  But it’s not a “gotta have” kind of thing.

What is a “gotta have” is being in my house by this upcoming spring and summer.  I can’t bear the thought of another summer passing with me still biding my time in the desert rather than near the water.