Announcing My Tiny House Project

Tiny house scale model exterior view.

I am announcing my major project that I will be working on this winter and into the spring. I am going to be building an 8’X18’ tiny house on wheels!
I have been planning this project for the past few months, but I am just now starting to do actual physical work. First up is painting the wood siding.
The tiny house will be built from SIPs panels (structural insulation panels). With SIPS panels you don’t need as thick of a wall as you do with a stick built wall to have adequate insulation, and when you are constrained to have you house be under 8.5 feet (the width limit for a trailer without a wide load permit) every inch counts.
These SIPs panels are made from two sheets of oriented strand board with polyurethane foam insulation in between.
The walls of my house will be 6.5 inches thick and R40. This number will be significant to some of you and mean nothing to others, for the benefit of the others, I will say that that’s good insulation.
I am purchasing the SIPs from a company called Eco-Panels. The SIPs are made with window and door

Boston Trip

I took a bus to Boston yesterday for a big climate rally. I brought my guitar and played a few songs on the bus (which as it turns out is really difficult! You are constantly having to focus on not falling and you can't really hear yourself or your guitar. But it was still fun!) It was a beautiful event with about 2,000 people in attendance.

The Shed is Finished!

Cliamte Rally (last monday)

Last Monday, I went with my mom and sister to a rally that was part of the Global Climate March. Over 735,000 people from 175 countries attended a total of over 2300 events all over the world. The event I attended had over 70 people in attendance (a very good turnout for a small rally in the upper valley). It is so inspiring to see people in such numbers coming together to demand that our leaders take action on climate change.

I'm almost done with the garden shed, hoping to finish this weekend!

Last weekend I had a chance to speak at Hartland's Unitarian Universalist church as part of a climate change themed service. I also played a few of my original songs. For anyone who is interested, below is what I spoke about.

 

It is my dream to have a small farm of my own someday, a farm that can provide food for me and my family while we enjoy the luxury of doing what makes us happy. Every one of us has a dream. I’m sure all of you do. I’d like you to take a few second what you dream of doing in the next 10, 20, or 30 years.

Garden Shed

I have been using the nice weather this week to make progress on my garden shed. It is an 8' X12' shed and I bought it as a kit from Jamaica Cottage Shop. I have been really happy with the kit so far, it is well designed, and all of the wood so far has been cut accurately. The estimated assembly time is 20 hours, and although I have not been keeping track of time spent, I would guess that I am getting close to halfway done.