Tiny House Possibility

I'm trying to motivate myself into building a tiny house. I can't seem to find anything to rent that is safe and I can't afford to buy as much land as I want without selling my house first. I need to find a way to have something to live in in order to sell the house. Once I have a dwelling of sorts, I would have somewhere to go. Where I will park it? I don't have a clue, but this is the first step.

My main worry is will my energy sustain such a huge project? If I start in the spring, can I get at least the flooring, walls and roof done by winter so it'll be waterproof? Even a small amount of exertion creates horrible muscle pain and fatigue. I'm thinking if I can do it slowly, a little at a time, this might work.

My second worry is money. If I give up in the middle, I don't want it to be a total financial drain. So my goal is to make it as inexpensive as possible using found (free) materials and low-cost, used supplies. Slowly, one step at a time will allow me to gather materials and not be tempted to spend unnecessarily. My goal is to spend less than $5,000 on the whole thing.

The great thing about free materials is they are usually old and not treated with chemicals. If anything in the material needed to offgas, it already has. The problem with free materials would be mold or insect infestations especially with wood. However, old-style wood is usually a much higher quality and better cut. High quality wood doesn't have knots and these days quality, untreated wood is hard to find in stores.

I've been trying to collect doors and windows from the dump. It's a slow process because the garbage man's brother keeps taking the good ones. He must be building his own low-cost house. Also, I'm picky. I only want solid wood, nothing toxic or synthetic. Interesting designs and eclectic styles are preferred. If it's going to be cheap, I want it to at least look interesting or artsy. I only have two small windows so far and they aren't interesting, just free. I missed a couple of opportunities as I had friends with beautiful old windows they wanted get rid of, but I waffled as I questioned my commitment to such a big project. In the end they took them to the dump and I regret my indecision.

Pre-cleaning and sanding...lots of boards!

 

A friend of mine recently gave me old fir flooring from the old house he's remodeling. This wood is really high quality and nicely cut without knots. Everyone who knows wood looks at it and exclaims that's nice wood...you don't find that kind of wood anymore so I feel lucky. Unfortunately, it's been stored in a basement for about ten years, but I think before storage the house was really dirty.

I've been cleaning the boards with soap and lots of bleach to kill any mold or bacteria hiding in it. The boards are so dirty I've wondered if they used the house for livestock...they are that bad. Or they definitely wore their muddy boots in the house and let their dirty, wet dogs lay all over the floors. The dirt is packed into the tongue and grooves, hardened, and nearly permanently attached if it weren't for my paint scrapper and a whole lot of elbow grease.

After scrapping...

It's a hellish, filthy job, but this is what one does when you have lots of time and less money. Free usually means extra work. It's exhausting which makes me question my stamina and if I should be attempting this. I just hope I'm not wasting of time, but I keep reminding myself my time is free.

 

Recently I saw a video of a tiny house and the builders used pieces of pallet board to line the kitchen walls. It looks really cool. The old, beat up wood gives it a lot of texture.

See the pallet board walls in the kitchen? Don't you love the pull-down pantry that
stores in the ceiling?

You'd think pallet boards would be easy to find, but lately most stores are now returning them to the shipping companies to get a refunded deposit. However,  the hardware company in my area puts the ones they aren't returning on the corner on Thursdays. They aren't always in good shape, but sometimes they are. I'm being picky. I want the good ones.

Macy Miller's tiny house with pallet board siding!
She writes it took dismantling 80 pallets.

I'm looking for anything that will work that is free, interesting, quality, and non-toxic. Sometimes it's hard to tell. I'm learning.

My pallet board collect...so far.

What re-motivated me was a visit to my brother's house about a week ago. He was showing me his RV trailer he has for sale. Sorry to say, it smelled really badly and then he confessed one wall leaks.  MOLD...no thanks. As I'm walking away I spied a FLATBED TRAILER parked beyond underneath trees. It used to carry a camper, but I think he must have sold the camper. He offered to sell the trailer to me. This may be the biggest purchase I make so I'm planning. I need to make sure it can carry the weight of a tiny house, it's in good shape, and be safe. He's not in a hurry to sell so it'll sit there until I feel confident enough to fork out the money.

Do you think I can build a tiny house for less than $5,000? Am I crazy? (The jury is still out on that....) Can I physically do it? I might end up calling this another What Was I Thinking Project as I'm pretty sure I'll be saying that non-stop. Heck, I already started saying it! If I can remodel closets and not go too crazy, why I can't I build a tiny house? If I can rip my whole heating system out of a crawlspace and live to tell, why can't I build a tiny house? Yeah, OK, I can think of a lot of reasons why I can't or shouldn't, but I'll need a project next summer for entertainment anyway. Why not?

I'll ponder on this for a while and in the meantime, collect materials.