The Tiny House has a name!
"Tomato Box"
Here's the story behind it:
When I was a kid, the four of us — mom and 3 kids — spent a good bit of time traveling by car back and forth between two states. (Dad was already working in one and we were still trying to sell our house in the other... moving doesn’t always go as smoothly as you’d like.)
Since we needed to pack for a couple of weeks at a time, it’s easy to imagine the space constraints we ran into with three kids, three kid’s clothes, three kid’s toys, three kid’s educational materials (like Calvin & Hobbes books!), and three kid’s entertainment devices (walkman, anyone?).
Ever the solution-seekers, we devised a plan. Mom gave each of us a suitcase for our clothes and a tomato box for everything else. You know, the cardboard boxes that little crates of tomatoes would come in? One of those. We could bring anything we wanted, as long as it fit into our tomato box. It was brilliant.
No more harassing mom about things we wanted to bring, fighting about who was taking up more space than everyone else, or (the dreaded) their stuff touching your stuff. But it also did something really beautiful: it forced us to make trade-offs for ourselves and decide what was valuable enough or useful enough to warrant taking up precious space in our tomato box.
This is life.
This is amplified by Tiny Living.
My tomato box has gotten a little bigger, but the goal is still the same.
Notes:
Thus far, we've managed to come in at $2,996 ::under budget:: on expected materials and tools (this doesn't include what we've saved on many of the salvaged materials -- for example: we won't know how much we've saved on lumber until we're done purchasing it), but we are slightly over budget on the trailer ($91) and the building space ($5,100). The original indoor building space was great to have but was costing us way too much, so we've moved Tomato Box to a new location! It's an outdoor workshop. We're a little more susceptible to the weather now, but I think it's a really positive move.
I'm doing my best to stretch out your generous contributions as far as they'll go.
The tough part: we're still able to salvage materials, but there are some things we just have to pay for -- like: framing lumber, hurricane ties, vapor barriers, etc... Help?
- Learning #1: just buy the trailer from someone who knows the specs. Based on what we've learned from putting the trailer together ourselves (including great deals and awesome people), Tumbleweed's trailers are NOT overpriced. On the trailer itself, we ended up spending about $91 more than we would have by purchasing one from Tumbleweed. I expect that we'll end up way-under-budget on everything else, but this is a place where we could have saved a lot of time and effort. Just buy the trailer. We used up almost 6 months piecing together a trailer that (while awesome!) won't save us any money in the long run.
- Learning #2: whatever you're spending on rent, you're not spending on materials... and this will definitely make the build take longer. Think about it -- $600 per month for materials goes a long way on a Tiny House build. (...yeah, we'd probably be done by now.)
- Learning #3: I adore the rough cut lumber we're using for the framing -- it's super-solid, there is no wiggle or give to it, and we can use the 4" rigid foam insulation without cutting it down. The flip side is that most brackets and building plan measurements are designed for finished lumber (which has smaller, uniform dimensions) and you can't really mix-n-match your lumber if you find you need a few more pieces... you have to return to the mill to get those vs. picking up a few at a lumber yard. Honestly, it's more labor intensive to use the rough cut lumber, but I'm really happy with how much I trust this frame already, and in the wise words of Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, be happy."
- Learning #4: know what you need -- what's supremely important to you -- and get real flexible with the rest. I want a Japanese soaking tub, I need a tub-like structure that holds heat well and doesn't add a lot of weight to the house. Japanese soaking tubs are heavy and cost $2-$4k. My needs are met with our *awesome find* of a livestock water tank that weighs very little, is made of 100% recycled plastic -- so it's not cold to stand in and holds heat well, adding a drain will take about 10 minutes, and it cost about $100. That's right, our tub find is 5% the cost of the best price we could find for a soaking tub, and I'm thrilled with it!
- Learning #5: you really do want to build your tiny house indoors... or at least under some covering. The amount of time & energy you'll spend tarping, un-tarping, re-tarping, waiting for the frame to dry out, unable to thoroughly protect the frame or what will be the interior of your home from the elements -- this will take a toll on you and your work. Bare minimum: an awning or carport type of covering. Ideal: indoor workshop with a bay door large enough to get your house back out once it's finished. BONUS: room for all of your lumber, tools, and space to do the work while protected from the elements.
