My House on Wheels: Getting Materials

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Getting Materials

I guess I won't start building until I have some materials. So I went and collected everything needed to build the floor.
2x4's treated and untreated
screws
1/2" bolts, nuts, fender washers, lock washers, and brackets
polystyrene insulation and spray in filler
3/4" t&g plywood

The 4x8 sheet goods fit in the back of my mini-van!

1 comment:

Katherine said...: I love that the cat seems excited about each step of the process...; June 18, 2009 at 10:35 PM

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The Story

The heater clicks on. I'm plopped on the outdated foam bed in my bedroom/kitchen in a 70's Argosy reading profiles. These women are the wives of truck drivers, just like me. Drew was not a truck driver when we met or when we got married on a Saturday afternoon in the mountains next to a river without cell service. A year later he left and now for every six days he is gone I get him home for one. Ultimately it is still better than being single. Single people worry about being alone forever, whether or not a relationship is going somewhere, and renting endlessly.

Several years ago I discovered a secret. There are two branches to being financially successful. You need to make more money and spend less money. In these trying times it is difficult for a twenty-something to drastically make more dough. So I focused on the spend less money part of the deal. Since so much of budgets go to rent or a mortgage, I researched alternative housing options. There was one quiet guy named Jay Schaefer out there building tiny houses on trailers meant for transporting cars. I was hooked.

April 14, 2009 (pre-Drew) I bought two axles with an 8' x 16' bed attached that would be transformed into a home. The house got framed then I moved, worked at camp, met Drew, got married, and worked cooking at jail. Three years later; sick of working in confined spaces with government employees, commuting fifty minutes a day, and living essentially by myself in the woods; we moved back to my parents to finish the house. By the end of the summer I should get it done and I can't believe we have come this far. Construction is not a career I want to continue pursuing, but I do love a good chop saw and nail gun. For about $12,000 we should have a portable place for us and our cat,Juno, to live... until we definitively outgrow it.

My House on Wheels

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Getting Materials

1 comment:

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