Smaller Than a Breadbox: Creative Tiny House Storage Solutions

The other day as I was showing my tiny house to some folks who plan to build one this summer, I pointed out some of the multifunctional objects, space-saving tricks, and storage solutions that make this 121 square foot space so livable and lovely. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Microwave = Breadbox: I didn’t grow up with a breadbox but I recently discovered that my microwave is a perfectly good place to store bread. No reason my microwave should only be useful when it's cooking food, right?
• Pencil Holder = Sound System: A handy little wall-mounted cup was probably intended for pencils, scissors, etc., but a friend showed me that it also makes a great stereo system. The hyperbolic shape amplifies the sound when I put my cell phone into the cup, eliminating the need for a separate stereo system. Audio nerds might protest, but it’s worked just fine for my dance parties!

• 

  Desk = Dining Table: Most of my furniture is built-in, including my window seat and sleeping loft.However, my desk is a free-standing table with leaves on either side that pull out from underneath. When I have friends over for a meal I shift the table over to the window seat so that one of us can use it as a chair.

• The Slim Version: Of course, having the svelte version of something that would otherwise be bulky is a major space-saver, too. A smart phone, a refurbished MacBook Air, and a Kindle keep my electronic files organized and portable. (To learn which books I consider essential enough to keep in my little collection, check out By Hook or By Kindle.) My Envi wall-mounted electric heater has a space-efficient and energy-efficient design, which you can learn more about here: How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Heat a Tiny House?

• 

  Wine Bottle & Glasses Holders: My wine bottle holder is tucked between the storage loft joists over the window seat. My wine glasses are suspended from a holder in the kitchen between the joists of the sleeping loft. These were Brittany’s ideas and my guests appreciate them as much as I do. (Especially when I’m cooking dinner in the wee kitchen and invite them to pick a bottle to go with our meal!)

• Baskets: Two laundry baskets slide under my window seat nook to provide storage for my hammock, backpacks, shoulder bags, and the set of sheets that aren’t on my bed right now.  A basket on my desk, which provides storage for office supplies like tape, rulers, and sticky notes, can be quickly and easily moved to my loft when I want to use the desk as a dining table.

• 

  Hooks: I have a set of coat hooks behind my door, which I use for jackets and another set which I use for scarves. Several people have asked why I don’t put my scarves in a drawer. I explain that I think they’re pretty and I like using them as decorations when they’re not decorating me. A couple more hooks in the bathroom keep my necklaces and earrings organized. Hooks under the kitchen shelf are just right for mugs. Hooks on the kitchen wall are perfect for hanging reusable grocery bags and my apron. A piece of string suspended from two hooks between two loft joists is a functional paper towel holder. My dish rack is suspended from hooks so that water drains into the dishpan. My silverware stays in the little cup rather than having a separate drawer.

• Shelves: Strategically placed shelves keep my dishes and pantry items within reach and within sight. All this use of vertical space keeps my countertops clear for food preparation. A magnetic knife strip below one of the shelves keeps my knives close at hand but safely out of the way. Storing knives on a knife strip seems to keep them sharper than putting them into a drawer or butcher block.

• 

  : My two dressers stacked one on top of the other other provide plenty of storage space for my clothing, craft supplies, tools, and paperwork. I haven’t yet gone paperless with all my LPOIP (Little Pieces of Important Paper), but it’s a project for a long rainy day. Two plastic drawers in the kitchen provide ample space for kitchen gadgets.

• Storage Loft: With all this storage conveniently located in strategic and useful places, I don’t end up with much need for a storage loft. My storage loft is the spot I stash away a suitcase of off-season clothing, my camping pad, and a couple empty boxes I used for moving. I’ve also slept up here when I’ve had company, offering my bed to my guests. I imagine anyone taller than 5’2” would find it uncomfortable, but it works fine for me, so my Tiny House Sleeps 5 Comfortably.

Tiny Houses Turn Their Backs on the Street

I'm confused about why not a single one of the tiny houses I've ever seen has the front door at the front. I've been looking at photos of tiny houses for years and I have yet to come across one. Now, I recognize that in big houses most people use their back or side door more often than their front door. Front doors are formal and tiny houses are anything but formal. But tiny houses usually only have one door so its placement is important.

It's awfully cute to see the front door facing you when the tiny house is rolling down the road. It's even cuter if it has a Shrinky-Dink Porch. But since tiny houses are more home than mobile, they are usually parked, not traveling. Why aren't the front doors over the tongue so that when the house is parked the entrance is facing the street?

Many tiny houses are backed into their parking spots

because it's usually difficult to maneuver a vehicle hauling a tiny house in such a way that the house can be pulled in and disconnected and then the truck moved away. This often positions the door near the garden/backyard/etc. which is certainly pleasant and more private. But by the time the truck pulls away the tiny house's door is opposite the entrance to the parking spot, which means that the house is facing its backside to the street. It seems so anti-social and impolite to turn away from the community. There's always an option to set up a private space on the private side in some other way.

Now, it could, of course, make sense to have the door on the side of a tiny house (as most RVs do), but since I plan to move my tiny house periodically I won't know where my tiny house will be parked. The chances of having the door face an undesirable direction seems high. It would be awkward to have the door facing a wall or a bush or the opposite direction as the natural entrance.

So when I build my own tiny house I plan to put the door over the tongue. It makes sense to me for two main reasons: 1) it will be more likely to be facing the street once it's parked and 2) the tongue will be a great support for the deck to rest upon. I plan to make a fold-up deck and a fold-down awning that can latch together to protect the door during transport. When the house is parked the deck and awning will be unlatched, the deck will drop to rest on the tongue, and the awning will be propped up with braces. This will enable me to have a front porch that is nice and big, much better than a Shrinky-Dink Porch.

It seems to me that the front of the trailer, over the tongue, is the most logical place to put the door. So why aren't tiny housers doing this? Are people building their tiny houses with the doors opposite the tongue because tiny house pioneers Dee Williams and Jay Shafer did? (For the record, Dee put her door opposite the tongue because her house was designed for a specific site where her house is backed into a yard via the alley, so her door intentionally faces her community.) Or because is it because that's how the gypsy wagons are designed? (It makes sense for gypsy wagons to have their doors at the back because it allows people to enter while the house remains attached to a vehicle.) Or are tiny housers following in the tradition of house trucks? (Which can't put the door at the front because that's where the cab is located.)

Am I missing something? Tiny housers, help me out here. Why are tiny house's front doors are at the back? Anyone have examples of tiny houses that do have their door over the tongue? If so, let me know. I'd love to see them!

Home is Where Your House Is

I'm now settled in my new parking spot and I think I'm going to like it here. This morning I woke up to sunshine and rolled over to discover two hummingbirds sipping nectar from the flowers on the bush outside my skylight. Glorious deep purple blooms of the old lilac trees just outside my window seat provide shade and a lovely aroma. My front door is near the street so I wave to neighbors passing by. Ella is settled into the chicken coop (It's totally amazing that I happened to find two parking spots with empty chicken coops!) The folks who live in the house seem very nice. And there's a garden and a hammock just steps from my front door.

I had fun showing the place off this afternoon to Hannah Doyle, a journalism student at the University of Oregon who is doing a story for OR Magazine. She and her colleagues visited with me on a picnic blanket, munching chips and salsa, asking questions about the Little Life, and taking tons of pictures.

One of her questions was "What has surprised you about living in a tiny house?" I told her I've become more attuned to the weather. I explained that when you can see every side of the house from where you're standing you know where the moon rises, which way the wind is blowing the driving rain, which constellations are hanging over the skylight.

It's incredible how rotating the house 180 degrees from how it was oriented at the last location really

changes the feel of the house. Now my windowseat is to the south and my kitchen window is to the north which is completely opposite how it was before. I've especially been marveling at how the light moves through the house differently.

My kitchen gets direct sunshine first thing in the morning before the sun rises behind the trees. That morning light is fresh and bright, but without the rich golden hues of evening. By the time the sun makes its way south it's partially blocked by the lilac trees which dapple the light coming into the house. Even though we have had a streak of unseasonably gorgeous weather the house hasn't overheated. Unfortunately, I can't see the sunrise from my bed anymore and I'll miss the pink sunrises. But now my kitchen window now faces west so I can see sunset skies while cooking supper.

It's neat to see how the same space can have a different atmosphere because of it's orientation. It's a great argument for strategically siting and orienting a house that is fixed to a foundation! Nevertheless, my tiny house still feels very much like home in its new location. I hope someday to live in a tiny house that can be transported easily so that I can try out different settings. Way better than rearranging the furniture!

Tiny House Build Week: Lessons Learned

The past couple of days pouring rain has forced me to shift to indoor activities (like taxes, scholarship essays, and catching up on emails that have piled up over the past two weeks). So I've had a chance to reflect on what I learned from our week-long tiny house build. I figure by sharing my lessons-learned I might spare someone else a bit of head scratching and perhaps enable other folks to avoid the mistakes we made. (For a full slideshow of construction details, click here.)

First, building a small house that can withstand earthquake conditions requires some different considerations than traditional construction. We secured the frame to the trailer with HTT tension ties and 10 inch bolts and we'll be attaching the roof with hurricane clips, so the structure is solid. But it was tricky finding the balance between building sturdy and building light. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but to have both one must plan strategically. I certainly don't think we've maxed out the trailer's hauling capacity, but we ended up using more studs than we would have needed if we'd planned so that our sheet goods, studs, and rough openings all lined up better. I have a much better understanding of how sheer panels, tension ties, and framing work now and I'm sure I could develop a better plan now than I could have two weeks ago. I wish I'd spent a little time between the day we picked up the trailer and the day we started building to puzzle through some of the connections in advance.

I've come to really appreciate the design-build process for its iterative aspects. One idea influences another, which affects another, which informs another. Over the past couple of months Jane and I had developed a general layout and we had salvaged quite a few materials, but we hadn't developed detailed plans. Every time I attempted more complicated drawings or Sketch Up models I was dissuaded either by questions I didn't know the answers to (like how we were going to attach the walls to the short ends of the trailer) or by reminders that whatever we thought the plan was, it would change once builder friends came on the scene. We deferred to their experience and the house emerged as the product of collective wisdom and effort. It's both similar to and different from what I imagined it would be. The layout has shifted a bit, the envelope systems have evolved, and the roofline gives the house a whole different character than I anticipated.

Despite a decade volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and two spring breaks of home restoration in New Orleans, I realized that I didn't know many of the details about how a house goes together. My only framing experience was building my chicken coop and solar trellis with my friends Jon and Phil, so my vocabulary expanded this week as I learned to name roof framing elements like outrigging, rakes, and gussets. I also became much more comfortable using a circular saw, jig saw, sawzall, and staple gun, though I'm still a little shy of the table saw. I learned that plywood is supposed to be oriented with the long dimension perpendicular rather than parallel to the joists and that OSB isn't necessarily a good substitute for plywood if there's rain in the forecast (if, for instance, you live in west of the Cascades!) Figuring out how to get the fenders into the wall system and close the space to the outside was a mental puzzle and I'm glad we came up with a good solution. I decided that for future tiny houses it would be great to have the fenders be structurally sound.

I also learned the hard way that it's worth taking time to do additional research and planning if using an unfamiliar product. The bubble wrap we were so excited about for its reflective heating properties caused a moisture problem in our floors. When we pulled up part of the floor to start the plumbing we found that the fiberglass insulation was damp. It seems that since we sealed the bottom of the floor system with plastic then stapled the bubble wrap across the top of the joists we created a waterproof envelope. This would have been great if everything inside it was moisture free. The trouble was that the joists we were using were made from green (wet) wood so as the house sat in the sun for four days the wood released its moisture. Since there was no way for the moisture to escape it settled into the insulation where it could cause mold or rot. When we discovered the problem I contacted a company that sells the material to troubleshoot. I was informed that we shouldn't have closed up the floors till the joists had dried out. If we couldn't wait for the wood to dry, we should not have stapled the bubble wrap over the joists; the moisture could have escaped the system if we hadn't sealed it in completely. We had originally planned to run the bubble wrap inside the bays and to not lap it over the joists, but once we started stapling the bubble wrap we found it was easy to go over the joists. I didn't take the time to think through why that might be a bad idea. Now we'll have to pry up the floors we screwed and glued down so that we can remove the insulation and bubble wrap and then re-insulate. With this reminder of building science basics, I think we could use the bubble wrap effectively if we installed it properly, but I don't blame Jane a bit for deciding to take it out of the envelope completely. Removing it will impact the insulation systems for our walls and ceiling since we had planned to use it throughout the envelope. At least we were also reminded that the plywood ought to have run the opposite direction so we'll fix that while we're at it and feel very productive for addressing two concerns in one fail swoop!

A few final thoughts:

It would have been a good idea to have our supplies delivered a day early and to check the delivery for accuracy. There was something wrong with almost everything ordered. (Working with a smaller company likely would have helped!)

Double-checking that the windows all fit into their rough openings properly before putting up the sheathing would have been a good step. We skipped it and had to do a couple tweeks later.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the ability of people who have been building longer than me to think through the multiple layers of a structure - planning ahead to the surfaces on either side and how they will all come together. I hope to continue honing my spatial comprehension the more I design and build.

It's great to be optimistic about the weather forecast and to be willing to work through some unpleasantries. But it's also important to establish a rainy day plan so that all your hard work isn't compromised by inclement weather.

You know you're ready for a break from building when you start cracking jokes about how you're ex-sided that the exterior siding is almost finished. Get it excited, ex-sided, exterior siding. Er. Um. Yes, I can see now that it wasn't very funny. See? Time for a break!

Building the shell of a tiny house on wheels was an awesome way to spend my spring break. There will still be lots of chances to contribute over the next few weeks, so if you'd like to help out, just let me know!

Day 6: Tiny House Windows

Today Noah (a friend from Whitman College) and Aaron (a friend from my grad program) came out to help with the build. Together we finished tar papering the house and then helped put in the windows. All the windows are now in their rightful places and they look great! We covered the edges of the window flanges with a waterproofing flashing so the exterior of the house is now ready for siding.

It's such a joy to have the windows in. This was a big step for me since windows add so much character to a building. Now it's starting to feel like a house instead of a construction project! I loved walking through the house this afternoon to get a feel for what it will be like to lounge on the window seat or to look out the kitchen window.

Meanwhile the roofing framer put up all the trusses and added supports for the roof's overhangs. I helped by cutting a few pieces for him and admired -  from a safe vantage point - his fearlessness about clambering around on the roof while using a circular saw to cut notches into the top of the roof rafters. The builders had to leave the site mid-afternoon for another appointment, so I helped tarp the house and we wrapped up early. A quiet evening at home and early to bed for me!

We've already cut the sheets of OSB for the roof sheathing so we're ready to put it up first thing in the morning. We're all eager to get the house dried in since the Portland spring promises plenty of rain.

Day 3: Tiny House Subfloor & Sheathing

Today I got to the site early to take pictures of construction details so that we can recall what we've done after we've closed everything in. Then I finished insulating the gap between the interior floor box and the exterior wall with rigid foam insulation so that we could get our subfloor into place. Meanwhile, everyone else finished up the fourth wall and cut blocks, cripples, and headers. A neighbor saved the day by loaning us his nail gun and staple gun, so the framing went much more quickly today!

Ricardo and Zef (two of my classmates) and John (a fellow tiny house dweller) came by to lend a hand today as well. John crawled around under the trailer to seal all the seams with aluminum tape. (We should have done this before we put the floorbox into the trailer frame, so we're very grateful John was up for the task!) Ricardo and I made a trip to Builders' City to pick up the door we found while Zef and John got the 3/4" tongue and groove subfloor into place (at least temporarily - we'll need to remove part of it again to do our plumbing). It was pretty impressive to see how far the house progressed just while I was away on this errand!

This afternoon we got several sheets of 1/2" OSB sheathing up. Most tiny houses use a glue and screw method: gluing all the sheathing to the studs and then screwing them into place. Since we don't anticipate this house traveling far or often we decided to go for liberal use of glue and 1 1/2" staples. We wrapped up a little earlier than usual since we were at a good stopping point and the sky was looking threatening. We hope to get the other sheets of sheathing hung in the morning so we can move on to roofing on Tuesday.

We have been brainstorming plumbing, electrical, and roofing details this evening. Lots of decisions to make tomorrow!

Day 2: Tiny House Wall Framing

Today we got started around 9:00 on a beautiful sunny morning. First off, half of us launched into measuring and cutting studs for the first wall. The rest of us added 3 1/2 inches of 23" wide fiberglass insulation to the floor boxes (the joists are 24" on center). Fortunately it was faced and there were only 10 bays to fill, so it went quickly and painlessly.

While Jane picked up a few more supplies at the hardware store, we added a layer of reflective bubble wrap to the floor. The reflective material was an idea borrowed from some friends. When they were building their house they discovered that the local pet store was throwing away reflective bubble wrap envelopes that were used to transport tropical fish, so these friends started collecting it. They used it in their solarium, but had lots left over so Jane bought some from them. The reflective material works by reflecting heat back into the house when the shiny side is towards the interior of the house. It requires an air gap between the bubble wrap and the interior wall or floor in order to work properly, so we stapled it about an inch below the top of the joists. By the time we were finished we felt like we'd created a solar people cooker. The bright sun reflecting off the surface was making us shed all the extra layers we were wearing when we arrived at the job site!

As her friends continued with the wall framing, Jane and I ran around town in her trusty truck, on the hunt for a narrow door and a shower pan (turns out the shower surround we found by the side of the road that we thought would be perfect wouldn't do). We managed to find a 34" x 34" shower pan at a local plumbing supply store and got a deal on it because of a minor blemish that we never would have noticed if they guy hadn't pointed it out.

Finding a narrow door with either full or half lites that we could cut down to 78" didn't prove as easy. We had known there was a pretty good chance that we wouldn't end up using the sliding glass door Jane had envisioned. But we were thwarted when our back up plan to use a 24" door fell apart, too. As the stud layout came together we discovered that a 78" door was the tallest we could accommodate. The 24" door is metal and can't be cut down to 78." So we visited the ReBuilding Center, Habitat Restore, Builder's City, and Home Depot and had to return to the site without a door. The new doors we looked at today were wider and taller than we wanted, most of them weren't pre-hung, and they were all pretty expensive considering that any of them would need some modification. We decided to plan for a 28" door since that's the size Jane wants. We'll keep investigating our options and perhaps the right door will come our way.

We returned to find that we were nearly ready for a wall raising. I put metal flashing onto the trailer frame on the outside of the internal floor box and covered it with a membrane material that's usually used to prevent wicking from concrete into framing. In our case we're hoping it will protect the wood framing from the metal framing. We settled the walls into place on the exterior edges and bolted them down through HTT tension ties. As we all worked on nailing the tension ties to the studs it started sounding a whole lot like a construction site!

At the end of the day half the team worked on securing the top plate to the long walls and tying the three walls together. Meanwhile the rest of us cut cripples for above and below the long window for the window seat. I discovered that there's a big difference between working with dry wood and working with wet wood. The wood we had salvaged has been drying for years so it's super hard. My poor little Makita impact driver that has served me well for home improvement projects a a chicken coop build wasn't up to the task. Fortunately, tomorrow we'll be able to borrow a nail gun and that should help speed up the rest of the framing.

We're eager to get the fourth wall up tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get some sheathing on as well. The weather has been splendid but we know we're unlikely to be so lucky for long.

Day 1: Tiny House Foundation

Today was the first day of our week-long tiny house build and we're relaxing after a productive day. We've just finished a splendid supper and we're making our shopping and to do lists for tomorrow.

We started out just before noon with a feasibility test of sorts as we described our plans to Jane's friends who are helping with the tiny house build. They have more construction experience than Jane and me, so we were anxious to make sure that our design is build-able. We knew there would be some figuring out and some troubleshooting, but it was a little nerve-wracking trying to explain the construction details we'd basically invented. Since we wanted to maximize the space of the trailer we had a custom trailer built so we weren't able to rely on many of the design details that many other tiny housers have already developed. Fortunately, a few moments playing with 2x4s and 2x6s enabled us come up with a plan to move forward.

Our goal for the day was to get the foundation finished and we're very pleased we succeeded. We started out by building the floor box for the central portion of the trailer. We screwed eleven 75" 2x6s to the two 20 ft 2x6 rim joists. (We was pretty exciting about using the impact driver - what a fun new toy!) Then we flipped the whole assembly over and tacked 6 mm plastic and rolled aluminum flashing to the frame. The moment of truth came when we flipped the frame over again and settled it into place inside the trailer. With a few whacks of the sledgehammer it fit snugly into place. Once it was settled, we bolted the central floor box and the 2x6s on the other side to the trailer frame with 6" long 1/2" bolts. We'd special requested 5/8" holes drilled horizontally through the sides of the custom trailer frame at the corners and on either side of the wheel wells. The extra $5 per hole seems to be worth the time saved drilling through the steel ourselves.

We cut 1" extruded polystyrene insulation to fit in the bays. (Unfortunately, Home Depot made a couple of errors in the order and delivered some of the wrong materials, so we actually ended up with mostly 3/4" foam. We decided to go with it anyhow since we were eager to get the insulation in.) Once we had the rigid foam insulation in place, we spray foamed all the edges. We decided to wait on adding any additional insulation till tomorrow morning. The weather report is for clear skies so keep your fingers crossed for us!

As evening approached we worked out a revised stud layout that is a compromise between the plentiful windows Jane wants and her builder friends' insistence that we have more wall surface for increased shear strength. We marked the stud layout onto the sill plates on the exterior walls so that we can tackle it in the morning.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day as we'll be laying the subfloor and framing up the first of the walls. Stay tuned!

Shrinky-Dink Porch

These rainy days get me thinking about porches...

When I build a tiny house I want it to have a functional porch. In order to accommodate it, the tiny house won't include a porch at all. At least, not within its footprint.

My friend Jacob calls Tumbleweed Tiny Houses shrinky-dink houses because they look like miniaturized versions of bigger houses. Jacob was looking at a photo of Jay Shafer's tiny front porch when he said, "It just doesn't make sense to try to fit everything that you'd have in a big house into a tiny house just by making everything smaller." I completely agree with him and I think Jay Shafer would, too. Jay is conscientious about subtractive design - keeping just the essentials. For Jay, a porch is essential and even a small porch is better than none. I disagree. I think that if it's not possible to accommodate a function well it shouldn't take up precious trailer space!

I understand the romance and the practicality of the porch. I think porches are a great way to transition between indoor and outdoor space. They offer a place to stand out of the rain while fumbling with keys and a bag of groceries. The shelter enables you to sit or stand outside for fresh air even when it's too wet or cold to go for a walk. A porch provides a spot to take off your boots before tracking mud or snow into the house (essential for a tiny space which can get dirty quickly, but is also, fortunately, quick to clean!).  Tiny House dwellers Tammy and Logan do most of their refrigerating by hanging their produce in a fruit basket out on the porch during the months of the year that the temperatures are right (which is most of the year, here in Portland!) Porches are the first encounter with the house so  a plant, a chair, and a piece of art enable the resident(s) to welcome and greet visitors and to share a little bit of their own personality.

Unfortunately, the porch of Britt's Bungalow (and many others built with Tumbleweed Tiny House plans) is too small to be functional in the rainy Pacific Northwest. A tiny front porch misses the mark because it's not able to serve its function of keeping me and my boots dry. It's not large enough for two people to get out of the rain while unlocking the door. My garden shoes left on the porch get soaked by driving rain, even if they're tucked at the inside edge. I could put a very small chair on my porch, but I would have to sit alone. A two foot by two foot porch is a functional failure.

Besides, one of the magical things about a tiny house is that it encourages its inhabitants to get outside more. When you can stand or sit in one place in a tiny house and see outside through several windows at once, you are more interested in getting out there. I imagine that if a tiny house is on the road most of the time having a porch (even a uselessly small porch) could be nice. And I'm sure that in warmer, drier climates without so much driving rain even a very small porch could be useful. But in the rainy Pacific Northwest a tiny porch is simply inapporpriate design.

So for a Tiny House which will be stationary most of the time, it makes sense to find another way to create a transition between the tiny house and the rest of the world. I've been imagining a porch that will consist of an awning that will drop down to protect the door during transit paired with a wooden platform that  can be tucked inside the house while it's being moved. It will be large enough for that potted plant, a piece of art, two chairs, and a spot to put a glass of ginger beer. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right! Cheers!

Trailer Lust

A funny thing happens when you start scheming about building a tiny house on wheels. At first it's just an increased awareness. You start noticing trailers all around you: parked in alleys, in driveways, along back roads, hauling loads down the highway. You find yourself checking them out and you wonder why trailers are suddenly everywhere. Then you realize they've been there all along, you just didn't properly appreciate them for their beautiful powder coating, their smooth following, and their heavy duty hauling capacity.

You begin investigating and learn terminology to describe them: deckover, beaver tail, goose neck, flatbed, car hauler, tandem axle, triple axle, dropped axle, gross vehicle weight, C channel, frame tubing, angle irons, diamond plate, hitch ball size, tongue length. By now you're clearly trailer obsessed. Eventually you start fantasizing about trailers, imagining a tiny house on every trailer you see. At this point you have trailer lust.

So when you crawl underneath a flatbed utility trailer at Don Johnson Trailer Sales to check out the axles, you'll have a sense of what to look for. And when you scramble back out because you hear footsteps you'll straighten up just as the sales fella walks over, his thumbs hooked over his belt. He'll say "What's a pretty lady like you doin' looking at car haulers? You oughta check out these horse trailers I got here." Without batting an eye you can reply, "Actually, I'm not a horse person. I'm interested in a 16-18 foot tandem axle flatbed utility trailer with GVW rating of 7000. This one's a beaut, but I'm interested in checking out your used trailers." He'll blink a few times, then crack a smile, and hold out his hand to introduce himself as Tom before taking you to the back of the lot to see the used models. Before long you're telling him about the tiny house project and he'll think you're even crazier than the horse people he usually sells trailers to. But he's intrigued, so he'll start keeping an eye out for you.

Tom will give you a call a few months later to tell you he's found a good one. By then you'll be living in a tiny house in another city so you'll tell him you're not currently in the market, but you're so glad he thought to tell you. He'll be a little incredulous that you're actually living in a tiny house on wheels so you'll send him a link to your blog and he'll write back, with the following note:

Just love your house. Very cool... just neat! May have to get me one of those. Have been looking over your site and have to say you are the most interesting person I think I've met since I started working here. Again, I really like your home. Sincerely, Tom

You'll be delighted that you have a committed and knowledgable trailer scout on your side. And you'll be proud that, thanks to you, there's one more used trailer salesman who is going to know what's what when someone else comes along wanting to build a tiny house on wheels.

***

As you might imagine, I was thoroughly impressed when I went to Iron Eagle Trailers a couple weeks ago with a friend who is building a tiny house and met Rob who already knew what's what when it comes to building trailers for tiny houses. My friend had been scouting Craigslist for a used trailer, but since she wanted to maximize the interior width of her tiny house, and we knew it would require extensive modification if she purchased a used trailer, she decided to go for a new custom model. Since the trailer is the foundation of a tiny house on wheels it is worthwhile to start out with a good sturdy foundation.

When we began describing the project Rob caught on right away. Turns out he's built trailers for Dee Williams and Katy Anderson of Portland Alternative Dwellings. The trailer design my friend came up with is a new version that will hopefully be a little lighter and a little simpler (therefore less expensive) than the "fatty" trailers Eagle Iron has built for tiny houses in the past. We're excited to see how well it works. Meanwhile, we're relying on the expertise of Dee, Katy, and a few friends who are builders as we draft up our plans. We've been pouring over Dee William's book Go House Go.

After sketching up a trailer diagram we made a trip to Iron Eagle Trailers this morning and worked with Rob to write up the order. The trailer should be ready in about two weeks, just in time for the tiny house wall raising.