Tiny House Project: Corn, Electric and 0 Insulation

The horror! Yesterday was a good day and a bad day. I'll start with the good because I need to be positive.

We put in the breaker box yesterday, it's not wired yet, but it's on the wall. we had to cut the sheetrock to put it in the place I wanted it, which is where my Closet/Laundry room will be. So that is a giant step in the right direction. My sister's Fiance, Tim, cut the wall and installed it for me. He had gallbladder surgery over a week ago and insisted on doing it, now he's in some pain because the vibration of the saw he used to cut into the sheetrock.

I'm hoping today we can get a little more wiring put in.

We've had rain and flash flood warnings for a few days now. I went outside to check my seeds and I was amazed...my seeds are now little plants. I had tall plants that were growing roots from the bottoms of my planting cups. I found a spot and attacked the dirt. Super soft dark dirt that I think my plants will like. I started pulling them out when I realized every seed in every cup I planted had germinated. The seed packs said to put 2 to 3 seeds in each cup but I was having to pull them apart.

Where I thought I'd have 3 corn plants I now have 7 and where I thought I'd have 3 squash plants I now have six and so on. The little plot I dug up today only allowed me to plant the corn, beans, and squash. If it's not raining today I need to get the peas, okra, onions, carrots, and cauliflower in the ground. I didn't expect to get this much.

There was a random pile of wood on my sister's property in the bushes and when I pulled it out to take a look at what it was, it was a trellis! In some rough shape but I can fix it and put it to good use in the garden area. I totally plan on utilizing that and making it awesome.

I really wanted a canner and a dehydrator but I don't think that's going to happen this year. I did notice all the wild blackberry plants also have flowers on it as well so in a few weeks we will have enough blackberries to do whatever we want. :D

Now on to the sad news that is driving me crazy...

When we cut into the sheetrock we discovered what I thought was insulation was not in fact insulation. There is NO insulation behind the sheetrock which means in order to survive a winter I will have to find a way to insulate it without pulling the walls down. I have 3 options and 1 of them is extremely expensive. As it is it's going to take me 4 months to buy the insulation before I can move forward with putting in walls, painting or anything of that nature.

Option 1: Spray insulation. You can get this spray insulation at Lowe's and it's not that expensive but the sprayer is. You can't buy it, I can't even find a place around here that rents on. I can purchase one online for $4k but that is so far out of my price range I can't see straight. Basically what I would have to do is cut a hole in the top of the walls all the way around and stick the pipe in there to "fill it up" and I don't even know if that would work.

Option 2: The rolled pink cotton candy looking stuff. I can cut a hole in the top of the insulation and try to wiggle this stuff down into the hole. I'm not sure if this would even work because you have to push it in to stay and I have a feeling it would bunch up pretty badly and not make it all the way to the floor unless I cut a hole in the top and in the bottom, wiggle it down and staple it. This option would cost me around $200, but I'm not sure how feasible this really is.

Option 3: Foam sheets. You can get insulation in the form of a sheet. These are typically harder and have a reflective surface to help reduce heat and air loss. I found a gentleman who sales this stuff at $15 for a 3" sheet. So I would need $225 worth of this stuff before I could even start and I'm not even counting what I need to go on the ceiling. This would be easier to push into the holes I have to cut at the top of the sheetrock.

Yes, I know the holes will be a mess to clean up and hell to patch, but I'd rather patch some holes then rip it all down and have to come up with about $600 to replace it.

Several weeks ago there was a gentleman who was selling insulation at $10 a pallet, I didn't have the money to buy it then and since then he has sold it all so I'm bummed about that. So here is the checklist that I have to meet before I can even do the fun stuff like Paint.

1. Put in all the electrical through the house on the walls. Light switches, Plugins, etc.
2. I purchased a caulk gun so I can now start to glue my floor down but I don't want to do that until I have cut the holes for the insulation because that would be hard to clean up out of the little grooves on the hardwood.
3. Build some kind of critter barrier around my garden.
4. Find the best option for insulation.
5. Win the lottery.

My first building payment will be at the beginning of June and I'm looking forward to getting that paid as it's such a huge step. This project is going to be costly but satisfying. I'm basically building the home I plan to stay in. Something that is wholly mine that I have carefully designed to use every space I can. I've had some pushback from some friends but I've also had some amazing support. 

Amy and Claire were so kind and generous and sent me housewarming gifts that will really help warm up my house. :) These two women are the ones that helped me purchase all the pieces necessary to get the electrical installed, this has saved me not only money for them helping, but also time. Every big project is going to take months in the planning. I have to save money for those things. I have a very small income and after paying bills that tiny budget for the Tiny House has to be carefully thought out. 

With Claire's gift I was able to purchase the breaker box and the light fixtures. After combining coupon codes and the beautiful $100 gift card she gave me I was able to purchase the breaker box and over $300 in light fixtures that I found on clearance for super cheap.

Amy sent me a beautiful housewarming card and a $25 gift card that helped me purchase all of the remaining electrical items I needed. Combining coupon codes with that gift card I was able to purchase the 220 wiring, 4 15-amp breakers, a new doorknob, the little blue electrical outlet boxes for the ceiling lights, little connector things and a temporary light fixture for night time work. I spent $21.60 out of pocket.

I am super thankful and appreciative of both of these ladies. They were able to be so incredibly kind and extend a beautiful gift that I will be incredibly grateful for the rest of my life.

Thank you.

And thank you to all the people that encourage me and have confidence that I will get this done as well. There have been so many times I've thought this was too much work, it would be too hard, then I get a comment from one of you that brings back my fighting spirit. My mom taught me that. Don't give up, keep fighting, it's not over until you are done. 

So that's my plan. Keep fighting, keep salvaging and keep trying.

Tiny House Purchases this week:

4 Ceiling Electrical Blue Boxes (.98 each)
4 15-amp breakers ($4.25 each)
1 ceiling fixture that is temporary ($1.39)
1 10-count package of electrical box connectors ($2.98)
1 25ft spool of 220 wire ($18.27)
1 Doorknob with key ($8.97)
1 30oz caulk gun ($10)
1 pink wall panel (got this from Wish, I wanted to check this out for possible use) ($3)

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Tiny House Project: When Life Gives You Lemons...

Good evening everyone! So I have some good news and some ugly news. I'll start with the ugly news because it's ugly.

When I applied and accepted this job I was told I would be getting between 20 and 29 hours per week which would have been perfect for me. It would have allowed me to pay a few bills that are necessary as well as pay my tiny house payment of $377 monthly. With those hours I was counting on at least $200 per month to sink into my tiny house and I knew it would take a while but I'm good at deal seeking and I wasn't worried.

Then I kinda got the wind knocked out of me on Wednesday. I was told my hours would be between 16 and 20 hours. This does not give me any room at all to do anything to my tiny house. So unless I get free materials I have hit a wall with what I can do. Every dime I have will go into paying the two bills I have to pay plus my tiny house payment. So...yeah I'm severely disappointed. That won't bring me down but it does slow me down to almost a stop. I have tried to stay positive the past few days but it's definitely hard. All the plans I had for the summer have been flushed down the toilet. I will not get a canner, I will not get a kitchen nor bathroom nor walls. At this point, I won't even have enough money left over to buy the $10 caulk gun needed to glue my flooring down. I'm just stuck.

I've been in tight situations before and I'm sure things will work out, I just got to be patient.

Now on to some better news. I have a lot of my seeds sprouting. I'm hoping tomorrow I have enough strength to go out and do some old-fashioned tilling. With a hoe. So I can put all my plants in the ground. I'm super excited. I have onions, radishes, corn, zucchini, peas and so on. I can't wait to see the fruits and veggies come in.

I use the VeryDice app and I'm excited to say that I was able to redeem some of my points for wood screws. It's enough to build my walls if I am able to get the 2x4s I need to do that. My sister also found a basket of switches and plugins she won't be using. They are not true white and she wanted true white electrical outlets so I bought them for .40. lol. Silly! I will definitely keep working with this guys. I am not giving up. :)

I did get to a place where I am ready to start gluing the floor down. I realized what I was doing wrong, which is why it ate at me to not start the gluing process yet. Instead of going front to back I need to go left to right with the wood, it makes it a tight fit and I will see faster results that way as well. So that is on hold until I get that caulk gun.

Hope everyone has a beautiful start to your week tomorrow!

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Tiny House Project: I Feel Accomplished!

This entire weekend has been busy. The next few days I'm hoping to get more things done but I work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so my days are short there, but being off Thursday through Sunday will give me a lot of time to work in the Tiny House.

I was able to get some things this weekend for the Tiny House as well!

On Saturday I returned the breaker box I purchased and got the smaller less expensive one. They returned $72 to me which is great! I did NOT get the 100amp breaker though, so that is going to wait until my next paycheck and let me tell you why...

Lowe's had a huge clearance going on for a specific brand of ceiling lights and I purchased 2 of those for $8 each!! They aren't the most attractive lights, but they aren't ugly either, they are just serviceable lights! They retail for $46 so I got a huge discount, they also had some sconce lights that were fabulous and blingy for $12 each box. I bought 2 boxes for the bathroom.

When I got home on Saturday night I checked online for photos to show everyone what I purchased and Lowe.com said there was still one more of the Semi-Mounted lights at my local Lowe's. I didn't see it so I took a chance and purchased that $8 light online, and was able to pick it up yesterday! So I have 3 matching lights (2 for the living area and 1 for the kitchen), and the sconce lights for the bathroom on either side of the Mirrored Medicine Cabinet I purchased for $3 at Habitat for Humanity Restore.

Yesterday I also unloaded all the flooring and the sink base for my bathroom. I should have enough of this hardwood floor to the do entire tiny house! I'm super excited to get the floor down. I got a few measurements, but today I'm going to go at it again.

I'm going to paint the sink base. I've thought about it and the price of the matching pieces to this sink is too much, so I'm going purchase the base unfinished cabinets and paint them. The sink itself needs a good cleaning and that will definitely happen. but all in all, this freebie saved me around $220. The flooring saved me around $500

I'm also happy to announce my seeds are sprouting! I need to plant a few more, but they are looking good out there. The rain washed away some of my soil so I need to refill that up as well, but I'm excited to announce I have Corn, Beans, Radishes, and Turnips sprouting! I wish I had a tiller!

I'm super tired I know that much. lol! But it's a good tired. The tired of accomplishment.

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She's here! The Tiny House Has Arrived

Yesterday was exhausting! I spent most of the day waiting on the Tiny House to arrive and boy did she do it in a grand way! So basically she was 4 hours late.

They were supposed to arrive between the hours of 2pm and 3pm, but she didn't make it 6:30pm. Apparently on the way from the manufacturer their truck blew a turbo or something of that nature and was only going about 10 miles per hour. They parked her on the side of the road and waited for another truck to arrive to bring her here.

There was a slight problem with the delivery fee which I will discuss later. They pulled up our small road she was HUGE, way bigger than I thought. I was told she was 14x40 but she feels wider than that, I will probably be out there taking measurements later. It took them almost 2 hours to get her level (we did take out a level and she IS level!)



The little porch is huge. I really want to put a porch swing on her but I'm not sure if I can hit a stud when screwing it in so we will have to see about that. I may have to just get a rocking chair. The key they gave me did not fit the lock but luckily they didn't lock the door, so I'm going to have to buy a new doorknob. I also realized that when I bought the blinds last week, I only bought 5 when I needed 6. I had forgotten the door has a 9 paned window in it.

The two men that set her up seemed pleasant enough, but the neighbor's little dog who likes to bite delivery people kept going at them. Brownie (the dog, not the men) was just running around and I was scared they were going to drop the house on her little body! She's not a bad dog, just protective of...air? I'm not sure, she has never once tried to bite me or anyone here. Well, I take that back she went at Tristan once, but he pulled her tail and that's just her instinct to protect herself and it's not like she was trying to bite him just warn him. But she GOES after other people. The mailmen have pepper sprayed her.

During the entire waiting period for her to be delivered the Breaker Box I purchased arrived, but I wasn't able to take it back so that will happen this morning. I will swap it out for the cheaper one and the breaker I need to get it set up. I don't have enough money this week to purchase the 220 wire to so that will have to wait for a bit. But that is my next big purchase.

So today will be eventful. We have to take all the wood out of the Uhaul and get that stacked up in the tiny house. I also will be going to Lowe's this morning. I was hoping I could stop in at a few yard sales because I'm looking for a cheap food dehydrator but I don't think I will be able to. I'm going to take more photos today, it was pretty dark in there last evening so the videos I shot weren't that great.

So I've been suffering from Allergies all "spring" and I don't have an inhaler like I should. A few years back I had a severe bout with pneumonia and pneumonia won, damaging my lungs. So I am so sorry for the heavy, wheezy breathing. I didn't know it was that bad until I watched the next video.




The Bad

So they get her set up, they use 57 bricks which I have to pay $2 each for. I had expected and budgeted for that. Here is where they angered me. I was told a delivery fee of about $18 would apply because I have to pay so much per mile over 50 miles, and I'm like okay I get that, it makes sense. And when the men arrived, Tim confirmed the delivery fee of what they told HIM was $60, I hadn't known about the $60, but the younger of the two said, yes that's right, plus $2 per brick used. Then Tim tipped them (I didn't budget for a tip, didn't even know you could) and that's when they told him there was a "mistake" with the delivery fee price. Because she was 14 ft wide they had to take her down specific roads and that caused them to have to use more mileage and actually my total price due was $250. Wait...what? You confirmed when you got here that it was $60, and I budgeted for $160 and now you want $250? $%#$$^%$. I had no choice but to pay it. Well, Reagan and Tim paid it and I have to pay it back because my check was only for one week and I work part-time. So now I owe them $90 which sucks.

It's okay though, just sets a few things back that I was going to do. That's all for the moment, but I will probably post another blog later this evening to update you and show you the things I've gotten, especially the free kitchen cabinet and sink I got as well as my Lowe's spoils. :D

Have a beautiful day!!

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Tiny House Project: Today is the Day! Delivery Day!

Today is DELIVERY DAY!! (Imagine that in Oprah's voice!) She should arrive between 2pm and 3pm (the guy said they may arrive sooner or later, I swear these delivery people do not have a concept of time). I am anxiously waiting therefore I am up very early when I wish I were asleep. I watered the plants and snapped a few photos of the wood flooring I got!

So yesterday we picked up all the items the nice man from Craigslist gave us, and get this...he is a Preacher. He talked about how God speaks to him and guides him to help and do the things that he does. He is pretty amazing and I would love to visit his church.

I was expecting around 400sq ft hardwood flooring but he gave me way more than that. I have small and large pieces of Oak, Cherry Wood, and Pine. All different colors and sizes. What I'm going to do is puzzle them all together and then stain them. This will look amazing because each piece will stain a different color because of the wood types they are. I plan to get started on this right away.

I also have a new sink base and sink, the counter is going to be replaced because of 1. He used a TON of adhesive and 2. I am going to buy an 8ft white countertop from Ikea so it will all look seamless. There is so much wood, more than enough to do what I want with it and get a few nice pieces of furniture made out of it as well. :) (Headboard, End Tables, etc.) I know the flooring looks odd in the photos but trust me, it will be amazing. The pieces that have the visible knots is going to be used as an accent wall either in my living room or my bedroom. I haven't decided yet, but it's beautiful.

My Lowe's Breaker Box will be delivered today and will be immediately taken to Lowe's for an exchange. lol. I found out yesterday that the smaller cheaper breaker box would actually work and I didn't need this giant behemoth of a breaker box. So It will be exchanged for the smaller one as well as a breaker that will fit into my sister's breaker box to give me electricity. So if I play my cards right I can get all the regular house wiring done and would just need to hold off on the 220 wires (Fridge, Stove, Washer/Dryer, Heat/Air).

I plan to live stream Sophie's arrival (Sophie is my Tiny House!) so be sure to watch for that, I'm going to try to do it from my little Tiny House page! Until later.

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Tiny House Electrical

Good morning everyone! It's a sunny Thursday and today is going to be busy! I wanted to write just a blog about the electrical because in my research I found a few things out. Such as: If you plan on installing a breaker box in your Tiny House you better make sure it's the main breaker box!

NOTE: So the ORIGINAL Breaker Box I wanted to purchase was actually the one I should have gotten. What I failed to realize was that the breaker I need to put in my sister's breaker box to run electricity out to my house IS my main breaker so I didn't need the more expensive one. The good thing is that the one I purchased is to be delivered tomorrow and I can return it to the local Lowe's and switch it out for the cheaper breaker box and the 100amp breaker for my sister's breaker box. This will run electric out to my Tiny House. 

There are so many different ones on Lowes.com and I was nervous about purchasing one because they all have different amps and slot holes and all kinds of stuff. So basically what I did was watch a thousand youtube videos and I immediately saw what was wrong with the cheaper $35 breaker box I was going to purchase. It was not a main. I didn't have a switch that cut power off to the whole house. I think that's important right?

So I chose a $70 breaker box. It comes with some breakers, not many but that's okay. But let me tell you something amazing...

A beautiful friend of mine who I've known for many years decided to send me a housewarming gift pre-house. She sent me $100 Amazon gift card which I immediately used to purchase a $100 Lowe's gift card! I was super stoked and so very grateful, without that lovely gift I wouldn't have been able to purchase my breaker box for a few weeks.

I made a $99.26 purchase last night and was able to utilize a $20/$100 purchase coupon code I had to purchase my Breaker Box AND a 250ft spool of house wire. I need one more bundle of house wire for 220 stuff like the Stove and Fridge but the two Items I bought are necessities and help me push my tiny house forward even faster. Thank you so much, Claire, you are amazing and I love you!

My local Lowe's didn't have a breaker box in stock under $100 so I had to order it and have it delivered and thankfully the delivery was free. The wire is already ready to be picked up along with all my little receptacle boxes. So the next purchase I make will be a 250ft spool of the 220 wire (it's Yellow) and all the wiring tacks and the little nodes you need to come OUT of the box without starting a fire.I will also be purchasing some 20amp breakers and some 15 amp breakers.  I added all those little things to the wishlist.

Honestly, I love this wishlist, not so much as hoping people will give me stuff, but it allows me to add things I will need to a running list and check them off when they've been bought. This way I'm not forgetting stuff and if I find I need some little piece I didn't know existed I just add it there.

So for wiring, I've watched a few videos and the one I like the most is from a channel called Tiny Nest. Here is the video I will be trying to follow.

This looks complicated...

Stay tuned for all the mayhem that will happen when that breaker box arrives!



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