Phase Two Complete!!!! 5 weeks into our project and were terribly excited to now begin our house build 😀Before and After – From day one to done!Feeling good!It’s a trailer!Sun is shining, it was another hot day securing the wheels.Putting on the tires!Painting the axle assembly piecesLove the grey we picked out, not that you’ll see it once the house is on it though.Final coat of paint! Beginning on the underside trying not to drip paint on ourselves as we go hahaPrimed! View from the roof.Primer Done! We’re so close 🙂 It was a very long process in the hot California sun.Tim applying primerAlmost done applying the primer!!!Preparing the other half with an acid solution then neutralizing it with baking soda and water. It was such a hot day too, in the low 90’s I believe.Half of the trailer cleaned, primed and ready to paint! Such a messy process as seen in photo above.Us, just finished welding 26 threaded rods to the trailer frame.The 5 inch threaded rods are welded to the trailer frame which will be part of our method of attaching the house.Look what I did, thank god they fit! HahaWheels are here and they’re huge!Tim and Will helping plasma cut some steel capsAxles being placed!Getting the tung set upGetting things set for attaching the axles (top left) more welding (top right) and the springs installed where the axles will rest (bottom). Tires and wheels coming this week!Outriggers are completed as you can see in the top photo. Thought I’d add a couple close ups of finished welds.Almost ready for the axles! We’ve now achieved the maximum width of 8 feet 6 inches.
Week One! End pieces are on, floor joists are in and the out riggers (to maximize width) are started on the end where our bathroom will be. (This photo was taken from the roof top and it slightly distorted the angle)Feeling pretty accomplished so far. Trailer is perfectly square and next we will be finishing up the rest of the floor joists. Moving right along!Tack welding the floor joists onto the frameLots of measuring and leveling to get to this pointMeasuring for squareTim unloading 2,000lbs of steel. I helped with some smaller pieces.Made it back to the house!Fork Lift – Loading steel for the trailer frame
Celeste!
So much has happened since.
Sooo, we went to see a trailer specialist last weekend, he basically told us that what we have is not going to work, that we will have to build a new trailer from scratch! The existing metal would just get int the way of adding more. We thought that might be the case. ;/ We have no welding experience.
Life plan change!
We originally started with plans to live in a yurt, we love yurts! We honeymooned in a yurt<3 …and now we are back at those plans!
Still tiny simple living ( I keep reassuring myself) it just came out of nowhere!
Boy life has a way of throwing curveballs!
Earlier this year, the place we were renting made Tim very ill, it turned out to be black mold! We had to move out super quickly, in with my parents. (again) I was so grateful then but now I just want my own place so badly! It's unhealthy for me to live here. All your childhood scars being picked at, reopened.
So this time crunch and stress made us decide on the yurt.
We are selling our trailer, and i must say I am happy to see it go! Never thought I'd say that out loud.
We are going to talk with our local yurt people in North Carolina this saturday! We are excited.
Keep us in your thoughts!
Tiny liven' in yurt blog coming soon!
I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU TO FINALLY HAVE YOUR TRAILER DONE!
So much work, we understand.
Can't wait to keep following your progress!
Celeste! Hi. Meg here, from instagram.;)
So glad to have found someone who is actually welding and preparing their own tiny home trailer from scratch!
We aren’t the only seemingly crazy ones! We will be adding a blog soon of our venture.
So;), where did you guys end up buying your axles online and for how much, if you don’t mind me asking? ;/
? we are talking with a local guy here that may be cheaper, and also looked at northern tools( horribly expensive).
We ripped our trailer down from a n RV and scrapped most all of it. We are purchasing plans from tiny home basics. They should be ready the 15th and then it is time to get cranking on this thing. We have been waiting on them to be done with the plans, they are working with an architect, and it took way longer than expected. In the meantime we are sanding priming and hopefully painting what we have so far until we know where to weld.
Our plans do not mention, however, how to weld the trailer, so we are on our own there. Outriggers and reinforcing all that is already there.
Any advice for me? you guys seem to be in the next step. We are pretty much doing exactly what they are doing, bc when I found their tiny home, it was exactly what I was designing in my mind.
More than anything, its cool to know you two.!
Tell your Tim hello from us.
Oh I know, totally crazy that we decided to just build the whole thing from the ground up, but life is short so we figured why not try! haha. Tim was a welder for years before his current job, so luckily we sort of know what we’re doing? Tiny house building is all new to us! We met up with a local guy who designed and built his own with absolutely NO experience. It really helped us feel more comfortable moving forward with our project. We ordered our axles from southwestwheelcompany, they were $1,400 something. Best price we found. Shipping might make a difference though since we’re in CA and you’re in TN, not sure. Worth checking though!
I’d love to read your blog, let me know when you start. You two seem super interesting and fun. We had thought about salvaging a trailer frame off of an old RV as well, so cool you guys are doing that. I can’t wait to hear how it goes. Do you have welding and/or building experience?
We found tinyhousebasics after we already designed our place and started. We are doing a similar layout. 28ft trailer, bathroom on one end (6ft) with small loft above, 4ft french doors over the axles opening to the living area middle of the trailer (12ft living space), having bedroom loft (12ft, cantilevering out 2ft) over the kitchen (10ft). Hopefully that makes sense. It would be super interesting to know what is different from our plans to theirs structurally, after all, we aren’t architects.
I don’t know if I have advice, haha, you guys are going to be prepared with plans, unlike us. Its exciting to connect and share with others during this process, I’m glad you reached out.
What do you two do for work? Why are you guys wanting to go tiny? Sorry I guess I can’t wait for the blog lol.
celesteandtimstinyhome 
Celeste!
So much has happened since.
Sooo, we went to see a trailer specialist last weekend, he basically told us that what we have is not going to work, that we will have to build a new trailer from scratch! The existing metal would just get int the way of adding more. We thought that might be the case. ;/ We have no welding experience.
Life plan change!
We originally started with plans to live in a yurt, we love yurts! We honeymooned in a yurt<3 …and now we are back at those plans!
Still tiny simple living ( I keep reassuring myself) it just came out of nowhere!
Boy life has a way of throwing curveballs!
Earlier this year, the place we were renting made Tim very ill, it turned out to be black mold! We had to move out super quickly, in with my parents. (again) I was so grateful then but now I just want my own place so badly! It's unhealthy for me to live here. All your childhood scars being picked at, reopened.
So this time crunch and stress made us decide on the yurt.
We are selling our trailer, and i must say I am happy to see it go! Never thought I'd say that out loud.
We are going to talk with our local yurt people in North Carolina this saturday! We are excited.
Keep us in your thoughts!
Tiny liven' in yurt blog coming soon!
I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU TO FINALLY HAVE YOUR TRAILER DONE!
So much work, we understand.
Can't wait to keep following your progress!
-Meg Chapman
LikeLike
Celeste! Hi. Meg here, from instagram.;)
So glad to have found someone who is actually welding and preparing their own tiny home trailer from scratch!
We aren’t the only seemingly crazy ones! We will be adding a blog soon of our venture.
So;), where did you guys end up buying your axles online and for how much, if you don’t mind me asking? ;/
? we are talking with a local guy here that may be cheaper, and also looked at northern tools( horribly expensive).
We ripped our trailer down from a n RV and scrapped most all of it. We are purchasing plans from tiny home basics. They should be ready the 15th and then it is time to get cranking on this thing. We have been waiting on them to be done with the plans, they are working with an architect, and it took way longer than expected. In the meantime we are sanding priming and hopefully painting what we have so far until we know where to weld.
Our plans do not mention, however, how to weld the trailer, so we are on our own there. Outriggers and reinforcing all that is already there.
Any advice for me? you guys seem to be in the next step. We are pretty much doing exactly what they are doing, bc when I found their tiny home, it was exactly what I was designing in my mind.
More than anything, its cool to know you two.!
Tell your Tim hello from us.
-Meg
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Meg, you found us!
Oh I know, totally crazy that we decided to just build the whole thing from the ground up, but life is short so we figured why not try! haha. Tim was a welder for years before his current job, so luckily we sort of know what we’re doing? Tiny house building is all new to us! We met up with a local guy who designed and built his own with absolutely NO experience. It really helped us feel more comfortable moving forward with our project. We ordered our axles from southwestwheelcompany, they were $1,400 something. Best price we found. Shipping might make a difference though since we’re in CA and you’re in TN, not sure. Worth checking though!
I’d love to read your blog, let me know when you start. You two seem super interesting and fun. We had thought about salvaging a trailer frame off of an old RV as well, so cool you guys are doing that. I can’t wait to hear how it goes. Do you have welding and/or building experience?
We found tinyhousebasics after we already designed our place and started. We are doing a similar layout. 28ft trailer, bathroom on one end (6ft) with small loft above, 4ft french doors over the axles opening to the living area middle of the trailer (12ft living space), having bedroom loft (12ft, cantilevering out 2ft) over the kitchen (10ft). Hopefully that makes sense. It would be super interesting to know what is different from our plans to theirs structurally, after all, we aren’t architects.
I don’t know if I have advice, haha, you guys are going to be prepared with plans, unlike us. Its exciting to connect and share with others during this process, I’m glad you reached out.
What do you two do for work? Why are you guys wanting to go tiny? Sorry I guess I can’t wait for the blog lol.
-Celeste
LikeLike