Moving To The Site

Been too busy to post so I'm catching up with this report to mark the move which took place on 10/7/16. 

Nearly four and a half months and the tiny house was finally ready to move to the site where I would live in it. We had done all the work that would need a table saw. Tim installed trim around the shower surround using wood cut from nicely seasoned wood from our old deck. While I installed a shelf dedicated to my printer that would get it off my desk. And a short closet pole installed under the ladder for my coat closet. In the every inch counts department I added a shelf to the back of my desk behind the supporting cross piece. This shelf would hold all the wiring to my office equipment off the floor. I cut it from a door and the hole where the doorknob would go I placed so the cable to the power strip could fit through it. I also took the trouble to cut the printer shelf so I could fit the power cable up behind it at the corner. This kept any cables from having to be draped across my field of vision. Time consuming, but it was worth it.

Since the new site did not have quite the walk around access to the front door, I thought it would be prudent to move any large pieces of furniture into the house first.

This included my signature red desk. What a poignant moment that was when the red desk left the only home it had known. With it came my hand painted dresser.

Tim and I rented a pick-up truck and hitched up the tiny house. As we backed out we heard a bang inside the house. I thought I had secured all the furniture by wedging everything up against each other so there would be no movement. Looking inside I couldn't see anything amiss so we continued making our slow careful journey down the road with me driving behind to watch out for low hanging wires. Later I would discover that the bang had been the kitchen drawers sliding out over the shower pan. There being nothing to keep them closed, but no harm done.

Despite nearing rush hour traffic we made the short journey without annoying anyone. The challenging bit was backing the house into the tight space, but Tim was adept at this once I became his eyes. Luckily there was no traffic in the street as I stood out there with my white hard hat on playing the part of the construction boss. This may have eased our delivery when the local sheriff cruised by, stopped to talk to some neighbors catty corner from us and then left when it became clear what we were doing. We had had to cut some more of the bottle brush for clearance, but other than that my site prep had been perfect. The trellis had been cut back to allow for the door to open just enough though the door did touch the trellis when open. The ground underneath the house I had covered with pea gravel. 

Once positioned I was pleased to see that there was four feet of space between the house and the fence. A comfortable distance. And on the other side almost as much under the canopy of the tall bottle brush. These bushes would shield the house from view from the main house despite the height of the roof. In fact you could really only see the house from directly across the street and for a few car lengths down from the gate in the fence. The whole move had only taken us an hour. 

Later when a friend came to visit I told her she would be able to see the house over the fence when she drove down the street, but when I opened the gate for her she wasn't there. It turned out there was another tiny house visible above a fence just a block away and she had parked there. It was a tree house she had mistaken for my house. Quite a finished looking structure with a peaked roof and real windows. That made me feel more comfortable about adjunct buildings in the neighborhood.