My Tiny House

[OkieBoy]

Howdy folks, I have been busy constructing a tiny house on my property along the banks of the Arkansas River in NE Oklahoma . I heard Jack mention tiny houses in a recent episode and decided to document the journey if anyone is interested.

[OkieBoy]

I decided that a basement/storm shelter would be a good idea, so I spent the better part of July digging.




With that done, I began digging my footings. I went ahead and insulated them to prevent condensation. This was probably the most tedious part of the whole construction process because everything had to be perfectly level and square.

[ncjeeper]

Whats your square footage going to be?

[Jerry D Young]

Good job! Look forward to more. I'm planning something similar in the future and hope to learn from your experience.

[OkieBoy]

My square footage is 107-it's the "Weller" by Tumbleweed Tiny houses. By adding the basement the house is much more practical from a prepper standpoint and really gives me a lot of options. I plan to put in a root cellar within a year now that I know a little bit about working w/ concrete blocks.

[cohutt]

Keep us posted- my wife has become a tiny house fanatic.

[Nicodemus]

I love the tiny house idea myself. I look forward to seeing your home progress!

[nelson96]

 

[backwoods_engineer]

Howdy folks, I have been busy constructing a tiny house on my property along the banks of the Arkansas River in NE Oklahoma . I heard Jack mention tiny houses in a recent episode and decided to document the journey if anyone is interested.

Having spent 20 years in that area, I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

[GomerPile]

Take lots of pics and document your work.  The more documented builds will be a big help to others thinking about building tiny homes.  Can't wait to see it progress. 

I think you may be the first tiny house build in the sub 200sf range to have a cellar.

[OkieBoy]

Hey Gomer, I think you may be right, I've scoured the internet and haven't found anyone else that has built a basement in a tiny house. It's essentially a house built on top of a root cellar!

This is a pic looking towards the Arkansas River from where my kitchen will be.



And this is another from early on, facing south east.



PS-Did anyone notice the hugelkulture/mountain chain in the distance in the earlier excavation pics? I wound up having a lot of extra soil to work with! Also going to use some to build a berm for target practice.

[markl32]

Looking forward to watching the process! 

I am planning to have a tiny house in my future as part of a b&b / agro turism destination nestled in amongst what will hopefully be a working and developing permaculture site. 

[Cedar]

and haven't found anyone else that has built a basement in a tiny house. It's essentially a house built on top of a root cellar!

There are a few people in Oregon who do (gotta watch that water table here though), and some of the people who manufacture the tiny homes for sale state that some of their models are meant to go on a basement.

Cedar

[johnauck]

Thanks for showing us the photos. Very interesting.

I am curious about the planning (if any) permits required?

Down here we can build a shed/shack that is less than 9 square meters (about 96 square feet) without a permit. So adding additional Tiny dwellings is something that I might look into.

My wife and eye are in the process of planning to build are much larger house, a Peter Lees loft design. I am now thinking that constructing a Tiny house first might be worthwhile.


cheers

john

[OkieBoy]

My county requires a permit for anything 120 square feet and up so I didn't bother getting one. I'm going to put in solar for my electricity needs (sticking to LEDs to keep it efficient) and will be using propane for cooking and hot water. As far as waste, I am running graywater to a retention pond down slope from the site and am using a humanure composter.

[nelson96]

My county requires a permit for anything 120 square feet and up so I didn't bother getting one. I'm going to put in solar for my electricity needs (sticking to LEDs to keep it efficient) and will be using propane for cooking and hot water. As far as waste, I am running graywater to a retention pond down slope from the site and am using a humanure composter.

You're covered in my State with that.  But in my State you can build up to 120 and add on to that as long as you retain at least 1 original wall when you add on.  As a disclaimer though, it may be different from county to county.

[SteveandTracyinKY]

Just chiming in so I can follow the thread 

[GeddyFlea]

OkieBoy - you must be me! I was thinking of doing the same thing with the Jay Shafer tiny homes. Will your taxes increase with this structure? I like the Fencl. I don't see the Weller on his website though.

[GeddyFlea]

So...you will have an entrance to the cellar separate from the home?

[Erigorn]

Looks cool. Good luck and please keep posting pics.

[OkieBoy]

Thanks for the encouragement and interest everyone, this has been quite a journey.

Geddy, you must be a fellow Rush fan I take it?? The entrance is through a trap door in the floor of the house. I haven't seen the Weller on their website lately either, but it is featured in Jay's Tiny House book.

This is a closeup detail of the footing before the pour. I dug the footings below grade and used the earth as support, using gutter nails to fasten the insulation (1''). Once they were leveled, I installed my rebar.



Footings poured with blocks stacked to get an idea how high I wanted to go.



After the footings cured, I sealed them (3 times) with a waterproofing latex paint called Drylok, as well as the underside of the concrete blocks. I don't want leaks!

[theBINKYhunter]

this is pretty sweet. i can't wait to see the progress on this.

[OkieBoy]

I forgot to mention earlier that I built the frame in April-June of this year in the workshop. I was given tons of wood from my banker (!) and all I had to do was rip it to size. If I had used wood from Lowes it would haven't taken as long, but making good use of what we have is what it's all about anyway.



Floor frame

[bbobwat33]

looks good, but i think you've got a little problem with your window and door headers. looking at the pictures, you need to continue your joist layout between the top of the headers and the bottom of your top plate. right now you're spanning about three feet or so with your top plates with nothing holding the load (space between top plate and header). just cut you some short blocks in fit and carry them on 16" layout or just rip down a couple 2 by's and fill the whole gap and you'll be good.

[nelson96]

Looks fine to me unless you are suggesting he add another cripple stud directly underneath each trimmer stud on the windows.

[nelson96]

Ahhh, yes, now I see it.  He needs to add some blocks above his header to support between it and his top plate. . .  Good eye.

[bbobwat33]

Ahhh, yes, now I see it.  He needs to add some blocks above his header to support between it and his top plate. . .  Good eye.

you're right about the cripplers against the jacks too. but he should be alright without it cause modern windows weight is carried by screws into the jacks instead of the sill plate. but i'd those in if i were op.

[OkieBoy]

I actually added those after the pics, so I think it should be alright. Good eye!

[Roundabouts]

 

[tomtom]

Awesome start! I'm going to check back and keep an eye on your progress.