Building Your Tiny House Dream E-Book

Chris Schapdick

• Herausgeber: Creative Homeowner
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 232

Beschreibung

You've decided you're ready to build and enjoy the benefits of a tiny house, but how? Combining the "why" with the "how to," Building Your Tiny House Dream will show you each and every step to constructing your own custom camper. Part one provides detailed guidance on essential information, from the skills needed and planning to tools, safety, and helpful resources. Start building your personal tiny home in part two that's carefully laid out in order from start to finish, from laying the foundation, framing, and roofing to plumbing, adding personality, and towing so you can take your tiny home on wheels wherever you want to go! Also included is access to an online how-to video series of the author building the featured tiny home project from beginning to end. Written by award-winning tiny home builder Chris Schapdick, learn from an expert how to build the tiny house of your dreams!

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2020 by Chris Schapdick and Creative Homeowner

This book may not be reproduced, either in part or in its entirety, in any form, by any means, without written permission from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts for purposes of radio, television, or published review. All rights, including the right of translation, are reserved. Note: Be sure to familiarize yourself with manufacturer’s instructions for tools, equipment, and materials before beginning a project. Although all possible measures have been taken to ensure the accuracy of the material presented, neither the author nor the publisher is liable in case of misinterpretation of directions, misapplication, or typographical error.

Creative Homeowner® is a registered trademark of New Design Originals Corporation.

BUILDING YOUR TINY HOUSE DREAM

Editor: Colleen Dorsey

Copy Editor: Laura Taylor

Designer: David Fisk

Indexer: Jay Kreider

Print ISBN 978-1-58011-847-7eISBN 978-1-60765-774-3

We are always looking for talented authors. To submit an idea, please send a brief inquiry to [email protected].

Creative Homeowner®, www.creativehomeowner.com, is an imprint of New Design Originals Corporation and distributed exclusively in North America by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 800-457-9112, 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552, and in the United Kingdom by Grantham Book Service, Trent Road, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 7XQ.

All costs related to your tiny home project will vary by project, location, and many other variables; therefore, all costs given in this book should be understood to be estimates.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my daughter, Mia. I’ve loved watching you grow up and become the person you are today. I’m here for you to find your strength and footing in this world. You inspire me to do better...be better... and I love you always.

The house I build in this book is for Sydni. I only met you briefly, but your strength and grace in the face of immense adversity was beyond humbling, and you made a lifelong impact on me in the short time that you shared your story with me.

Photo credit: Eileen Fitzmaurice

Foreword

I first met Chris Schapdick at the bustling New Jersey Tiny House Festival back in 2017. There, my partner, Christian, and I were among thousands of attendees who toured Chris’s first tiny house on wheels. Although the overall design was familiar, from the moment we walked in the door, we knew his home was special. The way Chris brought the space to life was spectacular. It was no surprise that he ended up winning the Best Tiny House award at the event.

Over the last several years, Christian and I have toured hundreds of tiny homes across North America as part of Tiny House Expedition, our documentary and community education project. The diversity of tiny house designs we’ve seen is mind-blowing; the quality of each build, and reasons for building, vary greatly. However, one commonality, especially among DIYers, is that tiny homes act as self-portraits of their owners. By that, I mean they showcase all the best aspects of the builder’s personality and style. Even slight imperfections add genuine character.

Overall, there’s a special kind of intimacy between the builder and the structure that is so enchanting. Of course, this is in addition to the endless charm of a movable tiny home that you can take almost anywhere. I can personally attest to that addictive quality. In fact, Christian and I have traveled 55,000 miles with our DIY tiny house on wheels over the course of four and a half years.

During our travels, we’ve had the great pleasure of touring several of Chris’s tiny house creations at festivals across the East Coast. Each one is unique and full of personality. This is no surprise, knowing how truly vivacious Chris is. Both he and his homes on wheels always make me smile.

Perhaps what makes Chris’s work so memorable is his creative use of materials, as well as artistic, aesthetically pleasing detailing. For instance, in his first tiny house, he used an antique ship porthole as a window in the front door—an appealing and inventive choice. But it also provided a practical use. And Chris’s exceptional designer chops aren’t just for looks. He is a skilled builder who fuses beauty with functionality throughout all his tiny houses.

Best of all, for you and your reading pleasure, Chris is a master at creating engaging and easy-to-follow how-tos for beginners. What’s more, like me, he is a total tiny house nerd passionate about sharing the power of small spaces with the world. If you read his first book, The Joy of Tiny House Living, you know what I’m talking about. The man makes you fall in love with living and building tiny.

Enjoy journeying into the wide world of tiny houses with one exceptional human and learning how to build your own unique masterpiece!

—Alexis Stephens

Tiny House Expedition cofounder, Living Tiny Legally documentary series codirector, webmaster of TinyHouseBuild.com & TinyHousePlans.com, and YouTube channel creator, www.youtube.com/tinyhouseexpedition1

Table of Contents

Foreword

Gallery

PART I:

Getting Started, Getting Inspired

Who and What Is This Book For?

How I Ended Up in a Tiny House

A Snapshot of the Modern Tiny House Scene

Fundamentals

What It’s Like to Live in the Tiny House

PART II:

Building

Step-by-Step Building the Shell

Now You Have a Shell—Do Your Own Thing

Step-by-Step Building a Camper Tiny House from the Shell

Adding a Kitchen and Bathroom

Conclusion: What’s Next?

Building Checklist

Resources

About the Author

Photo Credits

Gallery

You’ve picked up this book because you’re interested in building your own tiny house of some kind. This book will walk you step-by-step through building one particular model of tiny house: a small and versatile camper that is sometimes affectionately called a gypsy wagon. It’s an accessible starting point for any tiny house enthusiast. The total build costs less than $5,000 and takes just one month of full-time labor. Here’s a tour through the finished home and all its features, furnished and ready to roll.

FRONT VIEW: The sun will warm the home quickly, since it’s such a small space.

RIGHT SIDE: The afternoon glow highlights the natural wood accents.

LEFT SIDE: Installing several side windows allows plenty of natural light in your tiny home.

BACK VIEW (HITCH SIDE): There’s a window here for when the view is something better than a truck!

The small size of this camper makes it easy to haul around and maneuver even on tricky back roads.

Human for scale. Yep, that’s me.

This nighttime glow is a nice sight to come home to.

A functional door ledge is a handy spot for temporary storage.

Cutouts under the eaves add interest.

The split front door design means it’s easy to air out the interior.

Floral details and bubble windows make the camper look like more than a box on wheels.

This top-down view of the whole space from the bed (hitch side) gives you an idea of the entire interior.

Along the right wall you’ll find the head of the bed and a seating area with three windows.

The cushioned seating area includes a table for eating and working.

The bedside table, with its copper lamp, acts as a transition area between the seating area and the bed.

The natural slab of wood is an earthy touch that brings nature indoors.

Ceiling lights and a large hitch-side window provide ample lighting no matter the season.

This is a view to wake up to!

A cushion corner on the bed means ample seating for guests or just a change of position if you want to mix it up.

The left side of the camper holds the foot of the bed, shelving, and a kitchen cabinet area.

The kitchen includes a sink and wall space for hanging utensils.

As you can see from this floor view, there is plenty of underbed storage space.

My personal stamp of completion.

When you’re ready to retire, turn off the overhead lights and stick with the warm glow of the bedside lamp. Another tiny day done.

Who and What Is This Book For?

How I Ended Up in a Tiny House

A Snapshot of the Modern Tiny House Scene

Fundamentals

What It’s Like to Live in the Tiny House

Before you dive right into building a tiny house, there are some basics to cover. My first book, The Joy of Tiny House Living, has a lot more detail about tiny house history, decisions about your tiny house design, and the philosophy behind tiny houses, but this chapter will give you the minimum you need to know. You’ll also get the chance to hear from a couple who lives in the same kind of tiny house that this book teaches you to build.

Who and What Is This Book For?

In this book, we’re going to build a tiny house on wheels together. It’s a house that is a popular build that I make and sell with my company, Tiny Industrial. It’s a little tiny house, not a big one, that’s ultimately going to be your own custom, recreational, traveling tiny house. You don’t have to follow the instructions all the way through to the end and build the exact type of tiny house that I show you here; you can branch off instead to build something that better suits your wants and needs. The step-by-step portion of this book (Part II) is divided into the shell and the customization. First you establish the shell: the four walls, the roof, the cutout for the door, the windows, and an empty interior that can become anything you want it to be. Then you make what you will of that interior. So, although I will show you how to take your blank slate and turn it into a livable tiny home on wheels, you don’t need to take it to that level. Perhaps you just need some guest space for your backyard. Maybe you want to build a space for your kids to hang out in. I’ve been considering making one of these for my teenage daughter so she can have a little bit of extra independence by just living in her own space and taking care of it, albeit in the relative safety and security of the backyard. The choice is yours. It could be a backyard office, a recording studio, a man cave, a she-shed, a place that you go to meditate. The possibilities are endless, and I will elaborate on some of the more creative uses throughout the book, but especially starting on here.

You’re going to build a house with this book. It will be a big, messy, impressive project. But it will be worth it.

This is my second book on tiny houses. The first book, The Joy of Tiny House Living, is about contemplating your tiny house dreams and all that entails. It is less about doing and more about learning, imagining, and planning. It outlines all the considerations that go into either purchasing or building your own tiny home—and I mean all of them, from lifestyle to toilets to insulation—but it is not a hands-on book. This book is designed to dive more into the hands-on aspect and actually walk you through building your own (small) tiny house. Think of it as a starter tiny home that you can create by using this book.

After building this basic and structurally sound shell, you will be able to customize your tiny house however you like.

What This Book Does

… and What This Book Does Not Do

Teaches you the general step-by-step process of building a basic tiny house

Gives an exact architectural plan for you to follow inch by inch and cut by cut

Tells you which woodworking tools you’ll need and why

Teaches you how to use all the woodworking tools you’ll need

Gives you ideas for what to do and how to furnish your tiny house

Tells you how you must furnish your tiny house

Touches upon the many considerations you need to examine when deciding what to build

Details every single consideration you need to think about—that’s what my first book, The Joy of Tiny House Living, is for!

The detailed, nitty-gritty instructions and measurements that are in this book are unique to the particular type of trailer that I used. Not all the measurements, cuts, and builds that I do will be directly transferable to your project, because you may wind up with a differently sized or shaped trailer. For this reason, this is not going to be a book that says “cut this piece of wood to exactly 5 feet and 6 inches in length.” Instead, it’s going to give you transferable information that will allow you to independently adapt your own build as needed. If you do happen to get a very similar trailer to the one that I use for the build in this book, 95 percent of everything that I show you will be directly transferable to what you’re doing.

This headboard isn’t an essential part of the build—it’s a customization option—but by teaching you how I did it, I hope to give you the skills you need to figure out your own custom touches.

If you don’t know what these tools are and how to use them, you’ll need to learn before you build a tiny house. See here.

The process of creating actual human shelter, something with four walls and a roof that will protect you from the elements, is both thrilling and scary if you’ve never done it before. If you’re going to embark on this journey, it is helpful if you already have some familiarity with basic building tools, something a little more advanced than just a hammer and a screwdriver. Your experience could be doing repairs to the deck on the back of your house. It could be putting together a bunk bed for your kids. Whatever the case is, some history with some form of construction is helpful—even having assembled numerous pieces of IKEA® furniture can qualify in this regard. I’m not going to go so far as to say it’s a necessity for this book, though. Many people who built their own tiny homes did so while learning to use their tools for the very first time, and this could be true for you. But it adds a lot of time and stress and opens you up for mistakes. The focus of this book is not to teach you basic tool use, so make your own decisions about how to learn what you need to know before you get started.

If you’re feeling a little nervous about embarking on such a big project, look for help. This could be in the form of family members who have some construction or DIY background. It could be by establishing contacts with folks online who are interested in supporting the tiny house community. The whole do-it-yourself community tends to be very supportive, and they embrace people who take that leap of faith and create things that they would never have thought they were capable of. I’m always happy to hear from people who are either looking to build their shelter or need some form of advice that I might have for them. I’m excited to impart that knowledge to people when and if I can, and this book is one way for me to do that.

Last but not least, I want to talk about self-confidence. Bringing a certain level of confidence to the project is essential. Without it, you’re only going to doubt yourself and think that you can’t do it. Let me take this opportunity to say, yes, you most likely can do this build. Yes, there are some physical capabilities you’ll need in order to build any substantial structure. For instance, you will need to be able to lift 20 pounds (9kg) or more. However, unless there’s some form of physical limitation that you may need assistance with, most people will be able to build something like this on their own. You have to start with the self-confidence of wanting to do it, and then the self-confidence boost that you will get from actually doing it is quite rewarding and not to be underestimated.

I hope that this gives you a clear picture of what I’m bringing to this book and what I’m asking you to bring to your build. Now, let’s dive in and talk about tiny houses in general, their history, and why all of this is so relevant these days.

Someone—you—is going to have to lift and place roofing beams and aluminum roofing sheets. Remember, though, that you can always ask for help when you need it.

VIDEO LEARNING

I have put together a ton of video instruction to accompany Part II of this book. If, as you are following along, any of my descriptions or ways of doing things described in this book are not entirely clear, you can go to the video that corresponds with the specific part of the build for additional guidance and visuals. This will help you along and get you to the next step. Check out the videos at www.youtube.com/c/tinyindustrial.

How I Ended Up in a Tiny House

Why should you trust me to teach you how to build a tiny house? In order to explain that, I need to tell you how I got started in the tiny house realm. My entry into the tiny living world didn’t come from a background in the construction world. I was not busy building things; instead, I had a desk job that I didn’t like. I realized that I wanted to do something different with my life, something that had less to do with sending e-mails back and forth all day long, analyzing spreadsheets, and creating PowerPoint presentations. I wanted to spend my time creating something tangible instead of having a career based on nothing but zeros and ones. I had a need deep within me to do something substantive, to build with my hands.

That career crisis was coupled with my having a daughter who was growing up in a very suburban environment just outside of New York City. I witnessed how that conflicted with my own childhood experience. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My childhood was filled with camping trips, fishing, skiing, snowshoeing, and all kinds of outdoor activities. I had the privilege to spend a lot of time in nature, and that left a big impression on me. Now a father myself, I was seeing my daughter not experiencing enough of that in her own life. Though we had been doing a fair amount of camping and other outdoor activities, it dawned on me that it would be ideal to have a piece of land that my daughter and I could travel to that would always be there and available for us to camp and spend time on—a dedicated retreat from urban life.

An aerial drone shot over my Catskills, NY, property. It was truly the retreat I was looking for with my daughter.

My daughter running around outside the same tiny house that I build in this book.

My research led me to a rural area northwest of New York City. It was suitably far enough away for the land prices to be affordable, and I purchased a property there in 2013. This was right around the time that Jay Schafer’s The Small House Book fell into my hands. Although my intention had always been to use my new land for weekend camping, I started to wonder about what kind of structure I could build on the property. The land had been affordable because it was zoned for recreational use only, meaning that no permanent structures could legally be built on the property. Realizing that I could have a house built on a trailer instead of a foundation got the wheels in my head turning.

At this time, the tiny house world was nascent. All the tiny house TV shows and media attention that came later hadn’t happened yet. Tumbleweed Tiny House company out in California was one of the premier manufacturers and suppliers of all things tiny house at the time. So I bought some plans from them with the thought that I would build an entire tiny house myself. Unfortunately, the prospect was intimidating, and the land that I had purchased was a ninety-minute drive from where we lived, making quick construction sessions impossible.

Right around the same time, as if they were reading my mind, Tumbleweed released what they called an “Amish Barn Raiser.” This was a shell of a house that they would build for you. In other words, they would do all the framing and sheathing, and you could opt to have them put the roof on, put windows in, and so on. The more you paid them to do, the less you had to do yourself. This appealed to me because it meant that I could effectively create my own space and vision of the tiny house while still having a significant part of the construction taken off my plate. Ultimately, this also saved me lots of time on what would have been a rather large structure to build as a beginner. (If you are curious about that first house I worked on, you can check it out at www.tinyhouseinthecountry.com.) When you compare that structure to the scope of the one in this book, we’re building something much smaller here, so the time frame, labor, and materials are not the same. That’s preferable to biting off more than you can chew for your first build. What you want to do is get comfortable, and once you are, you can build more adventurous structures if you wish.

Hauling my first tiny house shell all the way from Colorado to New York.

Although I started with a premade shell, it still became very much my own customized living space. My daughter and I needed a two-bedroom house, so I turned that house into a two-bedroom. There’s a loft sleeping area for me, and then there’s my daughter’s separate bedroom in the back of the house. It still became a very personal project, even though the framing had been done for me. That is what I’d like to mimic in this book for you. We’re going to slowly and carefully build the shell together, then see the possibilities for that shell and finish the build together, while allowing you the flexibility to take your build in a different direction.

Once I completed that first tiny house, I took it to a tiny house show in New Jersey in 2017. It was a great experience. I had many people come through the house voicing their approval. What I had accomplished seemed to resonate with folks. At that show, I won the coveted “Best Tiny House in New Jersey” award. It was such a validation for me; I had done something that I had never expected to do, and I was being recognized for that work by experts. Building that first home pushed me beyond my comfort zone and indicated to me that perhaps I needed to shift my life and my priorities to do something more meaningful with my time on this planet. So I left my day job to do just that.

Now I write books like this one and build tiny houses as part of my company, Tiny Industrial. I enjoy being part of the broader community and helping others achieve what I did. Coupled with the books and the building, I also got my life coaching certification. Although I specialize in relationship coaching, I’m open to helping people work through what they want to do professionally. I’m sure that I’m not the only person who’s ever pondered doing something like this with their life. I’m thrilled about what I’ve accomplished, and I want to impart that excitement to others who are looking to change the trajectory of their lives. Think of this book as more than just a how-to book—think of it as something that can potentially have more significant ramifications in many areas of your life. This project will be good for your self-confidence, mindset, and sense of clarity for your life and dreams. Perhaps that’s a lofty goal to get out of a how-to guide to building a tiny house. But hey, let’s dream big and let’s think bigger!

Hard at work customizing the shell.

This is my first tiny house build next to the camper build in this book. The many differences are obvious!

This award helped me believe I could and should make a career out of tiny houses.

Dream as big as you want to.

A Snapshot of the Modern Tiny House Scene

Now that you’ve heard how I got into the tiny house lifestyle, let me tell you a little about the state of tiny houses and why they are they so popular today.

Tiny houses have been around forever, but our recent era of disposable income and general prosperity in the world has given rise to people building bigger and bigger houses. Not only are standard houses bigger but people fill them with more and more stuff, a symptom of rampant consumerism. We’ve gone so far in the direction of building and living in McMansions that people have started to realize several important things: (1) it’s not making them happy, (2) they don’t need to live in houses this large, and (3) there is something positive to be said about minimalism and downsizing.

I’m generalizing here, of course; everyone comes at tiny house living in a different way and with different and nuanced motivations. Some latch onto the financial angle, saying, “I’m spending all this money on housing. How can I spend less without discomfort or major sacrifice?” Some people come at it from an environmental place, saying, “This endless consumption, this growth of waste and excess in larger-space living, is not sustainable, and I want to do my part to live smaller and have a smaller carbon footprint.” Young people coming out of college with lots of debt often look at living small and say, “This could be a really viable way for me to avoid further debt (like a mortgage) while still maintaining my independence.” For all these reasons and more, interest in tiny homes has skyrocketed over the past decade, sprouting YouTube channels, books, construction companies, and more.

People are starting to realize that they can live happier and more fulfilling lives in a fairy-tale cottage than they can in a McMansion.

The specific reasons why people choose to go tiny are as diverse as the houses they go tiny in!

People often ask me, “Are tiny houses just a fad?” No, they are not a fad. Fidget spinners were a fad. Pokémon Go was a fad. We are witnessing a true shift in people’s mindsets for a variety of reasons, and so we’re seeing more people seeking alternative forms of housing.