Friday, January 8, 2016

The basic tiny stealth house is half complete - working inside a shell without drawing attention

If you are pressed for time, the tiny stealth house we have described so far is now usable to a limited extent. It's rough, but functional.
Keep in mind that you have no storage yet other than a few shelves in back, No bed frame or seating, you still need to weatherproof the door and maybe where panels attach to the floor, no painting has been done yet, no interior wiring or solar yet, Floor work remains, no heating....
Nevertheless, it's functional.
This is the point at which we started using the shell. When I decided to paint the interior, the matress and other contents were dumped onto a tarp on the ground, and I stepped inside and painted it. Likewise, when I built the folding bed and installed the storage cabinet, I had to empty the shell again to make the room to work. Renting a storage unit simplifies this process, gives you a place to work if your existing living space isn't really available for the build, and lets you stage the supplies you will be using in a secure place. A friend's garage is a good fallback position.
Get the shell painted as fast as you can, because it's hard to work inside without getting paint everywhere, including on yourself. I see a lot of people going for a bare wood finish in their tiny house for style points, but it's important to remember that our boondocking trailer is small and good lighting is an issue. Painting it white or a similar bright color inside maximizes your available ambient light from the skylight, and stretches your interior electric lighting farther.
Get your bed up off the floor as soon as you can. The floor has air moving under the deck, so it's always going to be colder then the room proper. If you are cold, you will burn more propane, and it's an avoidable waste.
If you are burning propane in a little buddy or something similar, there's always the chance of minor CO buildup, and it accumulates down at the floor, so being up on a bed frame with a CO detector down there is a strong safety measure.
Finally, the storage space under the bed/couch is significant, and once the bed is off the floor you probably won't have to empty your tiny house again to do any remaining part of the build.

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