My House on Wheels: August 2009

Sunday, August 30, 2009

It is airy, but it is up!

On my time off I framed the first two walls and put one up. Then I went to work and came home to four walls and a roof framed. My dad and uncle were busy. Then they framed up the loft today. Yay for progress. I just need to frame a couple more windows and then it is ready to be sheathed. Also, kudos to my sister who made me this fashionable work belt.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Invitation

I will be starting to frame my walls tomorrow. I have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off so anyone is welcome to come by and help or watch. You don't need skills... who said I had any? You can expect more pictures and progress in the next week though.

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 I'm plopped on the outdated foam bed in my bedroom/kitchen in a 70's Argosy reading profiles.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

Sunday, August 30, 2009

It is airy, but it is up!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Invitation

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