A race to the finish (exterior).

The neighbors have been surprisingly supportive. In fact, many stop by and ask what I'm doing. They genuinely seem to be pretty excited when I tell them, "I'm building a house of course".

However, I don't want to push it, so I made a goal of having the exterior finished by the middle of April. Tic Toc.

The color scheme is going to be the same as our "real" house so hopefully it will look better while sitting in the drive-way. At least it will be funny. "Hey look, there's a big modern house and a tiny modern house"

Over the past week I glued and screwed together the roof sheathing, built much of the loft, and finished the exterior sheathing. I used fiberglass "Bondo" to seal the seams and gaps. 

Below is where I ended the weekend. Doesn't look like I accomplished much, but the exterior is just about ready for the next step. Waterproof coating.

I can see clearly now...

I installed a couple windows and the wood siding on the back quarter to the Tiny Casita today. The wood siding is actually an underlayment. It's waterproof and resistant to mold. I also coated it with marine weather sealer. I'll coat it again once the exterior is finished. I still need to trim-out the windows but she's starting to take shape. 

I would type more but I'm too tired!

Thanks to the help from some good friends, I finally got to see my design come to life today. We made major progress. All walls and roof framing in place and some of the exterior sheathing too. And, the best news, it looks like this thing is actually going to work. Once we got everything up, glued and screwed together the entire structure became rigid and strong. The neighbors, especially those who slow down as they're driving past, must think I'm nuts! Hopefully next weekend I'll find time to get the loft installed, and finish the sheathing. 

Sayulita under major construction:

Sayulita, the Mexican town where our land is, was recently designated the prestigious "Magical Town" award. This brings major dollars for infrastructure. For the past two months Sayulita has been getting a major face lift. 50 giant palm tress were planted in the town center, new wider sidewalks and pedestrian only streets lead to the beach, and the main plaza is being completely rebuilt. Looks really nice! 

Check out the progress! 

Holy crap! I got a title!

There are more than a few hoops to jump through to get a “homemade” trailer titled and honestly, I wasn’t sure how this thing was going to go down. 

First stop: DMV to get a temp plate.

Next stop: Certified inspection with the police. Sure enough, when he was checking the brake lights one didn’t work. A couple jiggles later, I got it to work. It took about a half hour for the cop to type up the inspection. He even took my I.D back to his office. I got the impression that he didn’t want to sign off on this one but, as I have a squeaky clean record, he gave me a pass. Unfortunately, he did make me have the trailer weighed.

Next Stop: Landscape supply weigh station: I guessed that weight at 1641 lbs. It officially came in at 1680 lbs. Pretty good guess! Anything above 2000 lbs. and there is a bunch more paper work including posting a bond for double the value.

Half way to the next stop, the trailer popped off the ball hitch and skidded behind me until I came to stop. Seems the tongue weight is slightly toward the back which is exactly what I planned for. Once the Tiny Casita is finished the tongue weight should be more toward the front. I messed around for a few minutes and got the trailer re-attached and on my way, now driving much slower that I was before. Annoyingly slow.

Next stop: Car dealership to get an appraisal. The sales guy low balled the estimate which is great for sales tax.

Next Stop: Back to the DMV: where they checked my paperwork, printed me a new title, gave me a metal VIN number to attached and my new plates.

Overall great news!!!! This weekend a few buddies are coming over and we’ll start the exterior assembly. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend, the Tiny house will really be taking shape. I’m sure then, the neighbors will be really annoyed!

Trailer ready for inspection Sir.

The weather was pretty nice last weekend so I had the chance to work on the trailer. I picked up a really nice matching set of used trailer tires and had them installed. Also installed the brake lights, side reflectors and (temporary) fenders and gave the frame a quick Rustoleum paint job. Next, I'll take it down to the police station for a certified inspection and apply for a flat bed trailer title. I'll decide later whether I'll update to an RV title. Once the inspection is done, I'll get back to work. The wall and roof framing is just about finished. I'm pretty sure with the help of a couple buddies we can pop up the walls and roof and install the outside sheathing in a couple days. Getting excited to start working again!

Wow! This thing is really catching on.

Check out this awesome video about the int house movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl58kpKLsFk

Mexico Vacation... kinda

Vacation or work? We spent December 22-Jan. 30th at the Sayulita RV park near town and the beach. The closer we got to New Years Eve, the crazier things were getting in town so we packed up and headed out our land. We were hoping to have water and a septic tank but as things often go in Mexico, we found ourselves behind schedule. No worries we thought, we have on-board holding tanks for freshwater, gray water and black water. It was harder than we expected to conserve water, especially because it was hot and for the first few days, we had the RV facing the wrong direction and we were fully exposed to the sun. We eventually turned "Punchita" around so that the sun was blocked most of the day and we could rest comfortably under the neighboring Mango tree. Nice! 

Here you get an idea of our lot and the land surrounding it. That's the ocean in the background, about 15 minutes away. Muy tranquilo!

If you walk further up the hill you get a better perspective. Thats the river in the background, which runs full durring the summer rains. Pretty dry right now.

Once were at the lot we quickly realized just how important it is to have fresh water. We told the builders to abandon the hole they dug for a septic tank and asked them to continue to dig, and don't stop until the hit water. It took 2 guys, 2 more hard days of digging but they hit fresh water at 5 meters. Big props to these guys. They worked harder than just about anyone. I certainly wouldn't want to dig a well by hand.

Here I am showing off our new fresh water supply. They'll finishing digging and building the walls next week. The whole project should be completed in two weeks. 

Lastly, here's a video of the area around our lot. You'll need to cut and paste the link into a new tab. Warning: It's a little long!

http://youtu.be/P2uChcGkGw0

Mexico Progress!

Teodoro, our builder in Mexico has been busy clearing the brush and starting on the fence.  I can't believe how much this grew in just 6 months! They say that the vegetation grows one foot every week during the rainy season.  

Making really good progress on the fence. We're also having the gate built and installed as well as hanging the chain link. Once everything is installed, we'll plant some vines to grow over the chain link and some buganvilia near the road, and hopefully a couple of palms. Can't wait to see the gate installed.

Pretty good lifestyle being able to hang out with your grandson and dog while working outdoors at the end of a beautiful and peaceful road. How do I get one of those jobs?

Winter Hiatus

I missed my goal of having the exterior done by winter and so I decided to take a winter hiatus. This project is supposed to be enjoyable and freezing my arse off in the drive-way doesn't sound like much fun.

This opened up a bit of extra $ that we'll be using to put the finishing touches on our Mexico property. We're finishing the fence and gate, installing the septic and water, doing some landscaping and possibly building a small deck. We're also moving the RV from the nearby ranch where its being stored to its more permanent home on our lot. Pictures to follow upon our return.

In the meantime, I picked up 200 sq. ft. of Storm Guard I'll need for the roofing. I'll also continue to search for the few more materials I need to complete the tiny casita. Metal roofing, interior paneling, insulation, etc.

Happy Holidays!