My friend Bill’s aerohouse
You build a closed rectangle with full dimension lumber lapping the corner joints. All joints get screwed and glued so the framework becomes very solid in a short time. Stand up the frames and drop them into the notched runners. The exterior gets tongue and groove 1 x 12’s and then foam sheathing follow by another layer of 1 x12. You can blow a hole anywhere between the 4′ wall framing if you want to install a window. The end wall is a glass garage door and Bill has a full screen that fills the opening for most of the summer months. Pretty nice at night with flames from the firepit.
Moving into a minivan as an old guy
No, it’s okay! It’s a good thing! Plenty of room for storage once you chuck the seats. Most of this lumber I already had laying around.
How not to build a tinyhouse/rv
They always start with an insulated floor system on every build that I have followed over the years. The reason why is very apparent as I type this post because the wind chill is 11 degrees and I have no insulation in either the floor or the roof. The walls are half insulated on the weather side and there is only one strip is in place on the leeward side. I own enough used insulation to make a huge dent but the wall to roof joint still leaks when the rain is driven by gale force winds. This floor plan is divided by thirds. I had to do that to use up re-claimed materials from my last tinyhouse. The division is keeping me comfortable right now because I can hole up in the forward third with a doubled over quilt for a door that bows in with every gust today. …
Third night
I slept in the sleeper for the third night. The first two were on the single air bed and I was in the sleeping bag so I twist up all the bedding every time I rolled over. Now I have the queen air bed with conventional bedding and things are much better. This morning I had coffee in bed listening to rain drops on the tin roof. The second third is covered in tarps and is staying fairly dry. I now have the kitchen cabinet in place. (battery low so to be continued)
The new build
Here we have the freshly removed floor system now notched into the camper frame. Tricky to get this first wall standing but it doesn’t take long the build in some stiffness. Took me two weeks to get this far but the first piece of metal roofing is resting in place so I can determine where to place framing. At first I wanted to phase out this original entrance but I decided that two doors might help if there were to be a fire. I was trying to gauge the wind resistance. Total vertical clearance is right around twelve feet. I call all this the sleeper. Maybe a hanging locker for that first little space on the left and then I might do a sawdust toilet in the space to the right. The bunk will be elevated and have compartments under it for off-season cloths. Plenty of room for overhead cabinets.
The Final Demolition
Some people like to build tinyhouses with all reclaimed lumber. I decided to do that too so I built a new house and then let it age a few years so that I could reclaim the lumber for my next build. The side of the house with it’s siding intact was fine but some areas had housewrap only for 3.5 years. Oh well. I feel like I got down there as often as I could and that simply wasn’t enough. Now it is disassembled and ready to be rebuilt in a way different configuration. I was here 2 weeks ago to remove all the insulation from the walls but the ceiling had not been started. This is the required coffee kit for overhead insulation removal. The first piece started falling from gravity as I pulled staples. That just ripped the brown backing into shreds so I had to shoot screws…