how to recycle a tiny house, day five
After taking a day off for the big snow, the guys were back at work for their fifth day recycling our new, tiny house (see the last few posts for details if you are new to the story). They arrived just about the time I was going out to the barn. Here is Fancy saying “Good morning,” and “What took you so long?”
As I blearily made my way up the path, a grinding noise and then pop! Out fell a piece of the wall. We’d decided on an extra window and here they are, putting it in before I’ve even cleaned out the milker.
Here Monty is on the inside, trimming out the new hole.
And here the window is a hour later, installed, and surrounded by shiny siding.
Next came the interior walls, pine beadboard….
and while that was going on, outside, they got the deck started.
Meanwhile, Sophie was also hard at work building her own house.
I love the back view.
By the afternoon, the deck was nearly done.
And the interior was starting to look quite lovely.
The ceiling and the walls in little side room were the last things remaining unfinished as they packed up for the day.
Here is the view from the back at the end of day five.
And the front.
From a pile of junk, it has regained it’s cuteness! It was there, and now it is here, re-materialized, reconstituted, resurrected! Recycled!
My favorite country music lyrics of the day are also celebratory:
Maybe I’ll get me a new tattoo, or take my harley on a three day cruise, or even grow me a fu man chu….
Tomorrow, they’ll finish up the last details, and then, this weekend, we’ll get the electricity running out to it and start to fill it with…well, toys, probably. Oodles and oodles of toys. Books, too, as Paul has promised me mucho book shelves for my birthday, and maybe that will ease the book pressure as we currently have leaning towers of books on every surface, those not already covered with toys, in the yurt. We need to get a couch, maybe one of those futon ones that open into a bed—future guests, rejoice! And a railing for Sophie’s loft, and, and, and—
Moving the house is nearly complete—now comes the fun part of turning into part of our home.
ETA: They finished on day six. On the seventh day they rested. And Paul got to work. Ceiling sheetrock, oak flooring, interior trim and bookshelves…all lie before us. I mean, before him. But the moving of the house is complete and the recycling experiment is a success. This house cost my cousin Noah about $7000 in materials to build, and cost us about $4000 to move. Go tiny, and building a house becomes quite doable!
ETA 8/1/2009: Here you can see pictures of the finished interior. Woo hoo!
Click here to go back to day four, the afternoon.
Category: alternative building
Congratulations on the tiny house! It really makes me want my own little retreat — I think all I’d need would be bookshelves, an overstuffed chair, an ottoman, and a cabinet for snacks. To quote Eliza Doolittle, “Wouldn’t it be loverly?”
Beautiful!
It is great to see this magic house arriving to be part of the compound!!!
Thanks, everyone! And Hannah, abserlootely.
WoW, luv that snow person, house!!!! And am so happy to see this great little house getting its chance to provide.
The entire saga of the Noahhouse is inspiring and amazing. Where did your cousin get his idea for the design? Many accolades to him and your re-construction crew. And I think your website is spiffy too!
Hello Chris, thanks for coming by! I think Noah got the design pretty organically. 12×12 structures are exempt a lot of permitting around here, but you can go up—so he added the loft. As for the building materials, as with much recycled building, you take what you find and incorporate it in. For example, I know he got those windows all at once at a used building supply place. If what they had was a different shape, he probably would have had a different front design to his house. Creative use of whatever you have on hand is the name of the game.