We still cannot thank the Harris family enough for their generosity and support. As you will start to see in the video and thanks to them we have an incredible covered space to work in that is surrounded by orchards and hop fields and a beautiful view of the valley we call home. We also have to drive past our favorite local brewery, Bale Breakers, on the way to and from our work space, Bonus!

Anyways, with dismal conditions at our local ski resort we decided to kick off our tiny house build with a full weekend of work and we were able to catch some of it on camera, despite temperatures hovering between 30-45 degrees F!  This really was the very beginning as we brought our first small load of materials to the space (Thanks Craig!) and still had to maneuver our trailer into place and get it leveled underneath the brand new lights that Dave installed.

“Construction” officially started by applying sill gasket (Thanks to Meghan!) that will fill the gap between the rim joists and the trailer to create a small separation between the materials while ensuring that no insects and moisture can get in. As Meghan became an expert with the caulk gun, Samantha finally got to make the inaugural cut(s) on our brand new compound miter saw and got all of the floor joists cut to length and tested in place on the trailer before moving them to the ground next to the trailer to be screwed together. Finally, we glued and screwed ½” plywood to what will be the bottom of the floor framing, creating one large solid floor system before adding a coat of waterproof paint.

Next week we plan to add metal flashing on top of the plywood for one last layer of protection from road debris, moisture, insects and rodents. What you see in the video as the top of our floor will be flipped over (with the help of a few people willing to trade muscle for a round of award winning pale ales at Bale Breaker Brewing Co.) and set inside the cavity of our trailer, meaning the protective layers of flashing, paint and plywood will be facing the road and the open floor joist will be facing up, waiting for the addition of insulation before completing the floor assembly by gluing and screwing the subfloor sheathing on.

While we could have used just the flashing for the under carriage we liked the added rigidity to the floor system and impact strength plywood provided to our undercarriage. We also used ½” ply wood because when combined with 5 1/2” deep floor joists the result is a 6” deep floor assembly which will fill our 6” deep trailer cavity perfectly so that the top of our floor framing will be flush with the top of our trailer.

This step has progressed along very nicely thus far and we are feeling the pressure to make a final decision about our wall system. Do we experiment with metal stud framing?  Should we incorporate continuously insulated panels on the outside? Are we going to use a rain screen envelope system? I am meeting with a few people this week to see if we can bring clarity to these discussions and you will hear all about them as we move into those phases of construction.

For now though, we still have a few weekends of flashing and installing the floor system into the trailer, bolting it to the trailer, insulating the 5 ½” cavity and installing the subfloor. I expect our progress speed will tend to ebb and flow inversely with the snow conditions in the mountains. 🙂

Music in video: Left Hand Free by Alt J