Month: September 2019

Our Tesla batteries, all electrical connections, solar system, home automation, and wireless infrastructure are just in front of the gooseneck. We extended the gooseneck floor about 20″ (51 cm) to make a closet of sorts. It was important that we had good and easy access to this area in case we needed to make any adjustments or work on the equipment. We also needed to have a set of substantial, 2′ (61 cm) wide, stairs to get up to gooseneck. Initially we had thought of having them pivot upwards. However, this proved rather challenging given the weight and limitations on how we could build the frame.

After seeing an Instagram post of someone having a sliding stairway to reveal a clothes closet, we knew we had to build it. But how do we make it sturdy and easy to use? After discussing some concepts we came up with a design that incorporated upper and lower slide rails for the top of the stairs and caster wheels for the bottom. We used a pocket door slide for the top and an extra part from our bifold window as the base. Adding some additional L-shaped metal bars gave it the needed reinforcement.

We added the wiring for the led lighting and ensured there was enough slack to support it sliding completely to the other side. Because we had not installed the flooring yet, we had to put down some temporary pieces of wood to simulate the height in order for it to stay leveled.

As you can see here, it slides quite effortlessly from side to side revealing all that is behind. You can also see that the wall side is completely open. We placed brackets under the stairs, secured the risers to the treads, and installed support braces on the side wall to ensure that when stored it is solid to walk on with no issues.

A key component in our design was the ability to use the kitchen as the heart of the home, a place to gather when having friends over. The SunFlex bifold window door unit and our deck doubles the size of the kitchen and the sink side countertop is almost like an island or peninsula as it goes the length of the window section. With the windows retracted, we used a live edge piece of walnut that we got from our local mill, Willard Bothers, which we then mounted on a piece of 4″x4″ wood. By routing out precisely the contour of the window frame, we can place it solidly as a bar top and when not in use, it stores behind the countertop, above the wheel well. This space would otherwise have been unused and wasted.

Obviously, this works very well when the weather allows us to open the window doors. We also had to come up with something for when the weather was not suitable to be outside – an indoor bar space that turns into Robert’s office.  Complete with wine and wine glass storage of course.  And all done so that it would handle when the Tiny was moving down the road.

Robert’s office space consists of a standing desk, right below the TV screen in its down position. Again, using a walnut live edge piece of wood as the desktop. It had to retract into the wall as the sliding stairway had to pass across it. A set of soft close drawer slides handled that easily. However the height of the desk was not suitable for a bar top. And the desk was in the wrong orientation. So we added a second set of drawer slides, a lazy Suzan base for rotation, and an elevation hinge to raise it up. The result can be seen in this video which shows how easy it is to change from one to the other as well as store it away completely.

Okay, not quite circular, but it does turn 90 degrees.

With a sleeping loft, we needed a ladder or stairway to get up. We wanted something that that did not take up too much room, but did not want a straight up ladder. Enter the Esk’et stairway ladder. We found it after doing research early on in the process and we immediately bought the plans and incorporated into our design.

Now it was time to build it. We quickly realized the plans were for a left turning stairway and we needed right turning. Not a huge deal, but we just had to remember to reverse most of the layouts in order for it to work.

We chose to use oak treads, which we would stain, and then a painted post and outside curve.

First step was to make a template for the treads and cut them out, making the right angles for how they would meet the post. At the same time we had to make the corresponding cut outs in the post itself. This is where the right/left switch took some extra thinking.

We then mounted the treads using glue and heavy duty lag bolts.

The curve side of the stairway consisted of three layers of plywood that needed to be sandwiched together. This took a lot of effort and every single clamp we had. They were mainly glued together, then we used screws outside the area that would be cut away. Each layer required drying before we could apply the next. After they were all complete we sawed off the excess and then sanded.

We now had to install lights which were routed through the post and led down a path in the back. We rough install them first and then realized they needed to be soldered. It became very intricate work which required soldering in very tight spaces – thank you Nick for the help.

Well here is the final product. They are super easy to walk up and down and add a nice touch to the design.

No home is complete without a proper bath and laundry room. Well, in a tiny home they are often combined into one. To further save on space, we had researched and read a lot of stories about combo washers and dryers, but knew that was not what we wanted. They don’t dry really well and run for a very long time which is not all that efficient. On the other hand, a regular dryer is 220v and does take a fair amount of juice to run.

While searching for our kitchen early on in our process, visiting the Miele USA headquarters showroom, we were fortunate enough to run into the product manager for a new class of heat pump dryers that run on 110v. Super efficient operation and top class performance. We knew we had a winner and he assured us we would be able to get them shortly after launch, which was to be in April ’18.

We also knew we wanted tile floors and radiant heating to help make them warm and comfortable (especially considering there is no foundation on a tiny and cold air flows underneath – more on how we deal with that in a later post). We found WarmlyYours to be a great partner here and their customer support has been outstanding.

We also wanted to tile the shower walls, floor, and ceiling. All this tile work raised two issues – weight and potential of cracking while pulling the tiny down the road. We must have spent at least a week researching options for thinset, grout, backer board and the tile itself. Hopefully what we arrived at will all work out.

We started on the main floor, spreading some thin set; used a product with flex compound mixed in. Thereafter we laid down the WarmlyYours heating mat, followed by another thinset layer, a flex layer (the orange in the picture), thinset, and then the tile. We chose a marble/ mother of pearl combination for the floor. It was fairly light weight and we loved the design. For the grout, we used a specially formulated grout with urethane for superior crack protection – Neverseal from Bostik. We used a simple 12×12″ tile under the washer and dryer.

For the shower, we used an ultralight foam backer board, seam tape, styrofoam based floor pan and threshold. After sealing and finishing all the openings, we applied the same thinset before laying the tile. Here we used all mother of pearl tile. Regular tile is about 4 lbs a square foot. This tile is 6 square ft for the same weight. This made a huge difference. We used the same grout and Julia really did an outstanding job. Very happy with how it turned out.

We had plans to add a glass door to the shower, but once again the weight conscious decision was made and we will just use a curtain that hides away when not in use. The shower is too beautiful to not show off.

As you may have seen in our early design overview video, we also incorporated an outdoor shower so that we could easily wash off mud from a hike or bike ride or take a full shower in a natural setting. To accomplish this we added some shut-off valves and drain plugs in the toilet room. We built a small cover of shiplap to make it blend in.

Now for the toilet, as we were going to be off-grid, we needed to find a compost toilet. There are a few choices out there and we settled on Nature’s Head. Reviews were great, no odors, good customer service, and easy to install and maintain.

The cabinetry in this area is not extensive, so we were able to get some standard Ikea cabinets for over the sink and between the washer and dryer. We had to build a small drawer over the base to match which can be used for small storage. Two mirrored medicine cabinets fit perfect in between the above. Since the washer and dryer take up most of the room below, we chose a vessel sink for the counter. Originally we wanted a double sink but the vessel was extremely large for the space and it looked out of place. We had to settle for a single sink but it became daunting since we had to find one that would cover the hole that was originally made to incorporate the plumbing for the double sink. By the way, the counter is quartz which not only is beautiful, but saves weight over marble and will hold up to cracking a lot better.

The ceiling offered an opportunity for some additional storage. You will see in a future post that we built storage into the floor of the sleeping loft. This did leave some room in the ceiling in the bathroom so we added some fold down drawers here too.

We finished off the bathroom by designing and building a pocket door with translucent panels to let the light through. It became a project in itself but gave us some good practice with the router and creating tongue and groove.