DAY 1 6/24/11

So, before I go into the first day of official work, I should give some additional info.  We, my wife and I, wanted to build a tiny house on wheels to use like a cabin for our family of four.  We went out and found the trailer that was going to work for us.  It is a 20' trailer with dual axles and a 10,000 lb max weight.  It has trailer brakes as well as emergency brakes.  Since we bought the trailer used (one year old), we had to cut some of the metal off of the trailer as it would interfere with building the cabin.  We also went out and made our first purchase of material which was enough to complete the floor finished in plywood.

Today is Friday and the first day of work on the “CABIN”.  I started by unscrewing every other plank as I will need to cut one of them up for ground supports under the jack stands. 

 I cut several one foot pieces and used them under the jack stands and leveled all four corners.  After checking the layout for the plumbing in the front of the cabin, I thought it would be easier to cut out a few areas where the toilet and shower drains are going to come down. 

I used some new flashing as well as some used flashing to cover the spaces between the plank boards that remained screwed down.  This will help to keep out the critters. 

I then covered the trailer with Black roofing paper to act as a moister barrier to the wood framing and just seal up everything from under the trailer to the floor. 

I cut and screwed together most of the floor joist on top of the paper and only bolted one third of them down to the plank boards as I ran out of time today.  Every floor joist is laid out on 16" centers  from the front of the finished floor and is getting three – 4” lag bolts and washers from the bottom of the plank boards up.  I used both my drill and an air ratchet to install the lag bolts from beneath the trailer.  This is time consuming as it is not easy to find your layout from beneath the trailer.  I missed a few times and had to re-drill to get the lag bolts into the center of the 2x4's.  It was a good first day and I am looking forward to another good day tomorrow.   6 hours worked today.  (Total: 6 hours)