A blog chronicling our tiny house.
Hello everyone, We installed a pull out rubbish can underneath our counter. We paid 25 dollars for it on trade me, a few days later we saw it for sale at Bunning's for $125! We really know how to find a bargain.
After the trash cans were fitted, we tackled the storage crates by cutting them to size and fitting them so the bed can still pull out in between them.
Hello everyone, Today we pressure tested all of our cold and hot water pipes, installed the slate backing for the wood stove, and oiled the crates (bench seats).
Hello blog followers, Today we installed our kitchen cook top (gas hob) into our counter. We decided we wanted to save on counter space and install a 2 burner cook top instead of your typical 4 burner. The brand is Parmco and is a very good quality cook top.
Hello Everyone, This weekend we worked on our bathroom. We finished installing the rest of our shower unit and added some cool retro checkered design around the top edge. We also finished adding plywood to the inside walls so we have something to attach our bathroom wall cladding.
We had a very nice guy from a company called custom crating build us our bench seat/ storage that will be our main seating bench in the tiny house. The top will be removable so that we can store blankets and things inside. I really had to modify it to fit around the wheel wells but it fit good. I also built a very sweet cabinet out of old crates that was going to be smashed up and thrown away.
Here's the cabinet i am making!
The cabinet and the lockers are not attached yet because they both need to be modified a bit more. See you next time!
Hello Everyone,
Today I installed the instantaneous hot water heater that will be powered by LPG. It also has a automatic igniter switch powered by two D batteries, instead of having main power run to it. I finished some more cladding on the outside of the utilities box and installed our kitchen faucet which we got a amazing deal on. I also added two photos of the shower. enjoy!!
Hello out there, We decided to do a blog post on tools you need to purchase to complete a tiny house from beginning to end. You may think the list would be huge, but you don't have to spend a fortune on tools. You may need to borrow from friends or family here and there to get by but the main tools you need to purchase to do the bulk of the building are on this list.
1: Cordless drill with two good rechargeable batteries- Buying a good battery drill from the beginning will save you lots of time on recharging batteries and less hassle of dealing with extension cords. It's worth buying name brands and spending the extra money when it comes to buying your drill.
2: Circular Saw- This will come in handy during framing, finishing and general building. Every nog (dwang- look it up) in our house was cut with this incredible tool!
3: Hammer- Self explanatory.
4: Measuring tape- Make sure you have a few of these lying around where you are working, because when you need one they are never there.
5. Table saw- This tool can be pricey but it necessary near the end of your build. We held off as long as we could, but it has already proven itself in terms of usefulness for finish work. In our last post we were only able to install tons of wall boards because of the table saw.
We had a productive weekend again. Finally installing the lockers!
Hello blog readers! Just as Christchurch, NZ had its first marathon since the February Earthquakes, we also had an intense marathon. It didn't involve running but on Saturday, Sunday and Monday we put in over 8 hours every day at the tiny house. We have been packing lunches for every day of the week. This is our life. Enjoy. SATURDAY and SUNDAY: SHOWER TIME! One of the trials of building a tiny house is the constant shifting of stuff- from one end to another and the tight spaces that forces you to install and build in a certain order. For example we HAD to get the platform installed in order to build the bathroom walls which couldn't be done until we installed the shower pan which was blocking the gas pipe that needed to be brazed. So we first made some room for the piping to fit into the wall.
Now this copper pipe needs to leave the tiny house and enter our utility box! So out the wall it goes. The braising of the elbow begins! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-7im6URV3Q]
All done, now we can put in our shower!
Well thank you shower pan for letting us know where to put the bathroom wall! 
We have a bathroom now!
So we started with the plumbing of the bathroom sink and getting some more piping out of the house on Monday. Working in beautiful 67 degree weather was really tough! The professional photographer didn't show up until after all that was done. Pat worked on the wall boards and Cori finished insulating the walls! Gradual pictures of our progress to follow: (I hope you like lots of pictures!)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWS6RIABC7I&w=420&h=315]
AND WE ARE DONE FOR THE WEEKEND! The whole house is insulated (for free with donated/found insulation), the statement wall is complete (using free wood- seriously, everything we worked on Monday was FREE), the copper piping is out of the house and the plumbing is all set. Every weekend I fall more and more in love with our tiny house. Pat and Cori OUT BONUS VIDEO- IT'S A LITTLE SHAKY [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otE7IbKvR6E&w=420&h=315]
Hello everyone, We decided we wanted a bed that pulled out of the floor. A bed is only used for one purpose and that is for sleeping. We figured that since that the bed is only used for this one purpose that why not keep it away during the day when not in use and conserve loads of space. Today we built a raised floor for the bed to be pulled out like a big drawer. We also built the slat frame with wheels for the mattress to rest on.
Hello Everyone, I have begun to fabricate the counter for our tiny home. I bought one stainless steel counter and one came on top of the cabinet unit we purchased for our kitchen. I am going to combine the both of them to make one complete counter as a U shape. I also bought a deep and wide sink that I will weld in place of the existing sink in the counter. Unfortunately I have very limited space and no welding bench at the moment. I am using a old grill as my welding bench. hahaha! its very unstable but is getting the job done. The two counter tops in the pictures below are the ones I will make into one U shaped counter. The final product should be seamless and have as little visible welds as possible.
Final product!!
Hello Everyone, Lots and lots of work has been done on the tiny house in the past few weekends. It seems like I have no life anymore besides build the tiny house haha!! I have run the copper LPG pipe, electrical and hot and cold water pipes. The kitchen cabinets have been installed and the laminate flooring underneath. The kitchen area has been completely insulated and ready for interior wall boards. I also started to build the utilities cabinet on the outside of the house, which will hold the water heater, solar controller/inverter, battery bank, etc.. A retractable awning has been installed above the door for when we install the fold up deck.
We bought this old cabinet unit on auction for 80 dollars. It will look nice all repainted.
Hello again, Today I built a little storage loft above the kitchen area and ran the main cold and hot water pipes. I used half inch Dux. It couldn't get much easier. There is also plenty of head space in the kitchen area below the loft.
Hello everyone, Today was a beautiful Autumn day in New Zealand! I finished the roof and corner flashing but still have to flash around the windows at a later date. I attached the Flashing with some rubber washer screws and sealed the corners and seams with some waterproof sealer. Looks pretty flash haha!!
Hello everyone,
We have finally finished the outside minus a few bits of flashing around the windows and on the corners of the walls. 
Behind this wall with the two windows is going to be our kitchen. We are going to install two planter boxes underneath the windows for fresh herbs.
Hello everyone, We started to clad the outside of our tiny house and installed the front window and door. I first nailed strips of thin timber over the outside of the building paper to attach the exterior wall to. We used some metal wall cladding we bought from a recycled building materials company. This material is actually brand new. Its really exciting to actually see it look like a house. I still have to finish the back and the side of the house.
This is the friendliest most talkative cat I have ever met. She is curious of what we are doing and checks up on us every time we are there. She is scared of the llams, they come after her when she enters the gated area.
Hi everyone, Cori and I worked on framing and cladding the roof today. We framed it with the same building timbers as the walls: lightweight and cheap! The walls and roof were first wrapped in building paper, then we used the second hand corrugated iron we bought for the roof. It worked awesome!!
Silly old Llamas!!
We thought it would be nice if we could get some extra light in through the roof, so we added a skylight.
We framed all of our walls with 35x75mm timber. They are all screwed together with 75mm wood screws. The timbers are actually really light weight and only cost 1.75 per meter.
All of our windows and front door was a total of 640.00 dollars. They are all doubled glazed and were purchased from Brown Sparrow recycled building materials here in Christchurch. The Stainless steel counter top was 100.00 from the same place. 
Hello everyone, Today we got a early start and built the Foundation for our tiny house. It came out really good and the only brand new materials we bought was some half inch plywood, spray foam, and some long screws. The 2x4's were purchased at a recycled salvage yard for 100 dollars. We used the vinyl we had to water proof and bug proof our subfloor. The whole floor was spray foamed, insulated and covered with half inch plywood.
Hello again everyone, It takes time and thought in order to design your tiny house. Because it is such a small space, you should personalize it as much as you can. My partner and I have been looking at designs and ideas for our tiny house for over a year now and have finally decided on our design. Here are some cheap ways we went about planning our tiny house build and our design.
First we measured our trailer, then we got some sidewalk chalk and drew a real life size sketch on the pavement. I used a 2x4 for a straight edge. This works really well for getting to know the space you are working with and what you are capable of fitting into your tiny house.
After we figured out our design, we put it on paper. There is a great website called https://www.floorplanner.com where you can layout your design and print it.
Our design has a pull out bed and a loft for storage above the kitchen. We went against the common bedroom loft design because it wouldn't suit us! Our kitchen table also moves up and down and to the middle of the room or the corner to act as either a coffee, kitchen, or end table. Above the bed will be the bathroom, a large closet and a fold down desk. I read somewhere that you should not build a tiny house with resale value in mind, and I absolutely agree, this tiny house is for us and us alone. We have treated this like a life-sized puzzle to solve, it has been such a fun journey! I can't wait to see the final product.
Hello everyone I just wanted to talk about how to keep on a budget and get materials for a tiny house build for very cheap or free!! Yes free, I know that's exciting not many things are free these days. I got a lot of the materials that you will see in the video and pictures out of the trash. Just keep your eyes open all the time because other people's trash can be your treasure. If you see a job site with a skip (dumpster), just ask the job supervisor if you can have a quick peak in the dumpster. Another way to get stuff very cheap is by going onto trademe. I have bought many things on trademe for really good prices, for example this stainless steel sink for $10.50. Just keep looking and have some cash on hand!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t04_MzeWgCk&feature=youtu.be
I got this cable for my 12v off the grid power system in the trash. On the right is 1000 dollars worth of vinyl I purchased for a case of beer (20 bucks) and some metal grating I will probably use for shelving in the closet.
Hello who ever you are! My name is Pat and along with my partner, we have decided that we are sick and tired of dreaming and wishing and watching tiny house videos on youtube and want our own! We have given ourselves a one year deadline and today was the first day of work. And boy was it work. We are also keeping an itemized list of materials (our goal is to keep it under $15,000) in order to prove that you don't need to spend a fortune on a tiny house! I am a welder by trade, have experience building homes and have access to some of the current building sites where perfectly good building materials end up in the trash.
The first step was a getting a trailer. Custom trailers will cost between 8,000 and 13,000 dollars in New Zealand. I found a great deal on trademe for a used trailer for 3,000 in great shape.
Today we took off the existing wood that was very weather beaten. Then we cleaned up the frame with a wire brush and applied CRC rust converter ( which you can buy from Bunnings Warehouse for 32.00) after letting that dry for at least one hour then we applied a rust preventative paint (cost was 50.00 from bunnings) and let that dry. It looks brand new!
Here are a few links on some videos explaining more into detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju8Kqoey5hI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBR5YjdOCCo&feature=youtu.be
We did this all outside on a nearby llama farm outside of christchurch. There was poop everywhere and it was very hot in the direct sun, but we got the job done in about 4 hours.
