Decisions, Decisions

The project is going at full bore and it is time to make some hard decisions about the layout and what appliances we are keeping. As we thought more and more about this being our full-time home, we decided it needed to be setup exactly for us. We went round after round debating, weighing, talking about what if someone wants to stay over, convertible this and foldout that, dinner guest seating and everything else you can imagine.

With 160 square feet of living space, we opted to forgo many of the convertible features and extra seating options in favor exactly what we needed and nothing else. This tiny house needed to fit our life, things and dog comfortably and on an invisible non-existent budget.

Oven/stove – We decided to keep the stove since we cook and bake (by this I really mean my wife cooks and bakes) and it will feel more like a house being able to cook in a more traditional (to us) way. Additionally, it has 4 burners and they will be put to full use.

Furnace – This Suburban was a relic and has the potential to be unsafe so this will be replaced with a new unit into the same space with minimal issues but the duct work for these newer models is now round and not nearly as tidy in space savings as the older model.Not sure how I plan to solve that yet.

Refrigerator – This Dometic propane electric unit works silently and flawlessly and there is not really a reason to replace it for the newest model. Eventually, we might want one that is more efficient and attractive but for now it works and that is good enough.

Water heater – It is not functioning so that will get replaced too. I want an on demand but for ease of install and a quick replacement we will start with a 6 gallon Atwood.

Converter/Inverter – The power does work but if the smoking, occasionally melting wires and strange groaning noise from it are indicating it might need to be replaced.

Water pump – Not working. The seal needs repair or the unit need to be replaced. We are not going to rush to get this one done since we are going to create a more permanent hook-up situation.

Batteries – Replacement needed. We plan to buy two.

Luckily, we have access to a fair bit of the building materials we will need to begin the framing. The Airstream layout needs to be functional, affordable to build, not too heavy and hopefully nice looking. Instead of a gaucho couch, we have decided to build a full size bed with under bed storage at the hitch end of the Airstream. To save weight, we decided to use cedar tongue and groove to cover the storage area floor. Soft focus pic apologies again

Bed Framing

Cedar for under bed storage

Lola approves and actually might be brilliant… dog storage too maybe? She came into the Airstream and just put herself under there and passed out. This definitely has potential! Also you can see where we started the flooring install in this shot too.