I did a lot of tiny house research this weekend. Specifically I looked into toilet systems and a little bit about trailers. I am leaning towards the Sun Mar composting toilet (compact version) right now. I like that everything is contained indoors and there aren't any exterior buckets required. planning to locate my tiny home in maine (on the beach in the summer, and 1.5 hours away in the winter) so I don't think a system with exterior buckets would work in the wintertime. plus an all-interior system seems easier to transport and more ready to go upon arrival.
I am planning to build this myself over the summer, and then have it complete by September to be moved down to the winter location and ready for comfortable habitation at that point! I don't know if that is realistic considering I have hardly any building construction experience. I've built a picture frame. and it was hard! but this is what I want to do and the life I want to create for myself so I hope to find a way to make it happen. I could always pay a carpenter to build it with my help so I can learn and maybe build the next one by myself. I really hope I could get it built for under $10,000 as that is my liquid savings and I don't want to have to dip into my 401k.
lastly, it seems like a 8'x16' trailer is somewhat standard so I think I'll start my designs within that framework. 7,000 pound Gross Vehicle Weight (GVWR I think) also sounds standard, with 10,000 GVWR a safe overestimate so depending on price I will probably err on the side of caution and go with the 10K GVWR option. I want this thing to last for a long time and have as few problems as possible.
being a perfectionist, I need to remind myself that I will run into a lot of "challenges" and confusion and problems. I need to mentally prepare myself for that reality and make sure I'm open to them as they come up. also, I want the finished home to look really nice and I have a very discerning eye so that's something I need to consider when deciding how to do this.
I am planning to build this myself over the summer, and then have it complete by September to be moved down to the winter location and ready for comfortable habitation at that point! I don't know if that is realistic considering I have hardly any building construction experience. I've built a picture frame. and it was hard! but this is what I want to do and the life I want to create for myself so I hope to find a way to make it happen. I could always pay a carpenter to build it with my help so I can learn and maybe build the next one by myself. I really hope I could get it built for under $10,000 as that is my liquid savings and I don't want to have to dip into my 401k.
lastly, it seems like a 8'x16' trailer is somewhat standard so I think I'll start my designs within that framework. 7,000 pound Gross Vehicle Weight (GVWR I think) also sounds standard, with 10,000 GVWR a safe overestimate so depending on price I will probably err on the side of caution and go with the 10K GVWR option. I want this thing to last for a long time and have as few problems as possible.
being a perfectionist, I need to remind myself that I will run into a lot of "challenges" and confusion and problems. I need to mentally prepare myself for that reality and make sure I'm open to them as they come up. also, I want the finished home to look really nice and I have a very discerning eye so that's something I need to consider when deciding how to do this.