How to (somewhat) keep your Financial and Mental Health... and other adventures in build planning

AH! I'm getting so excited (and/or vomity?) to start building. I'll be returning to the States in about three weeks, in the first week of March. I'm still desperately trying to find a flatbed, and I've had a few promising leads. One in particular I found in Portland for just over $3k that I wasn't able to reserve online for some reason, likely due to my credit card blocking an online transaction that big from a foreign country. I called yesterday and am still waiting for a response. PLEASE LET THIS BE THE TRAILER FOR ME, TRAILER GODS. So, while anxiously awaiting that response I have been slowly driving myself crazy with this entirely tedious but necessary task: Finding out exactly how screwed I am if I spend $3k on the trailer, having at this moment about $4k in my bank account...

And before I get into this, I just want to say: if you are like me, and you don't have all the resources in the world at your fingertips...don't be afraid. I feel like especially young people, but people indifferently, have such big and beautiful and exciting dreams that they give up on because of the potential for the steps that it takes to realize the dream to be difficult. And, I'm not judging, I think this is a totally human and probably 'responsible' thing to do. Who would want to voluntarily dangle their asses in the wind like that? However, I believe, and I am striving to prove through this project, that with the right amount of inspiration, dedication, critical thinking, and fearless problem-solving... you can sculpt your life to match your wild and crazy and ambitious dreams. I'm a goofy 18 year old kid from Colorado. My dream is to build things that make the world a better place. My dream is to be self-dependent and economically and environmentally sustainable. My dream is to create my own home, that is mine and mine alone, that no one could take away from me. My dream is freedom. My dream is options. This house is gonna get built. If I go broke, I will figure it out. You always, always, always, have a next step, even if right now your feet are in deep sh*t.

All that being said, now it's time to get down to the brass tax. Since I am, in fact, a poor, young tiny house builder, I have to push myself to scrape for every amount of savings possible. I hope that my work will make it easier, more accessible, more possible, for you, reader, if you're wanting to build a tiny home-- or embark on any big dream you may have, for that matter.

I decided to try to plan out how many beams I could buy while wasting as little as possible. My initial idea was, "well, if you add up how many inches of wood you'll need, like as if every piece you've chronicled were laid out end to end, then divide that by how many inches the planks are actually sold at, and figure out the cost of those inches, then blamo you've got an estimation. Great plan. Did that. Took forever. But, then I started realizing, that's not a very accurate estimate of how many *planks* I'll need to buy. Not every piece I need will fit perfectly into a 8 or 16 foot long plank. So... Immediately overwhelmed with the thought of placing every stud, sill, cripple, trimmer, ect. on my house into its designated 16' plank, I began this process by researching what lengths I had available to me, and what the price differences were. I plan to buy from Home Depot, because my uncle Scott (shout out!) gifted me a gift card there a while back, and its just plain convenient. Through the Depot's very helpful online inventory, I found that 2x4x16's are $3.36 each, which is most of what I'll be buying. This is what my brain came up with in likes of organizing this thought process:

Looks like it makes a lot of sense, huh? Basically, I was able to fit all the smaller pieces from the framing into the "spaces" that would be left over after the studs, since obviously those are the longest, and the most crucial that they are uninterrupted. I do have quite a lot of leftover pieces that are 7' or shorter, but I will end up using them for the stairs before I go back to buy whatever remaining wood I'll need for them. Eventually I'll go back and plan out the stair pieces in the same fashion as well. In all, I have 18 full length studs on each 18' long wall, including the clusters of 3 planks that create the California Corners, as I've talked about in earlier posts. I'll buy 51 2x4x16' planks, which comes out to $171.36, and 9 shorter ones for some various cripples and trimmers; $25.11. Through pretty much the same process I moved through Loft, FLoor, and Roof. I have found it really helpful to group parts of the house together, and give them official codes that make documentation and orientating a lot easier. For example, in my plans, I describe the walls by what they are to the inside of the house: Living room (LR), Door (D), Kitchen (K), and Stairs (S). Creating specific methods and forms that make my processes and documentation uniform make them easier to navigate and understand.

From here, I compiled all the calculations and notes into two official documents: an Estimation sheet, and an official Buying Plan.

This is the Estimation sheet. I color coded it so that it was easier to find specific information. There are still things I don't know about the plywood/osb/brown board. The buy plan will be a compilation of all the planks I will need to buy, organized by type of board, not by house category. As you can see, the estimated total of the framing wood, excluding plywood, is $487.21!

So, for me, what does this mean? Assuming I have about $1000 to spend immediately after the trailer... I'll need tools right away, and tarps to protect what I do buy, because I don't live in a warehouse, unfortunately... I already have insulation, sheathing material, and door and windows, which leaves house wrap, siding, and roofing material before I have achieved my dry-in (as well as some smaller things like hurricane ties, sealant for the sub-floor, sheathing tape, etc.)

Home Depot sells house wrap in 3'x165' and 9'x150' rolls for $66.25 and $165, respectively (1). My parents always got me into the habit of checking the price per unit when I'm comparing things and looking for the best value, so here, the 3x165 is .134 cents per square foot, and the 9x150 is .122 cents per square foot, making the larger one a better value. Also, if I were to use the 3x165, I would have to buy two rolls, and because it is less tall on the house, it would probably be a lot more work to put it up, and there would be more breaks in the house wrap, potentially allowing more room for error, resulting in water penetrating the house wrap layer. HOWEVER.... even in buying two rolls of the 3x165, it's still cheaper ($132.50) than the 9x150 . AND, considering that I would have to cut the wrap longways to finish the house,but shortways with the 3x165, that leaves me with a giant piece that would be less easy to resell than what would be a 3x81'8" roll of leftover house wrap. For these reasons, I decided to go with the two rolls of 3x165, and I'll just have to be extra careful when taping down the edges of the material. Sheathing tape also can be found for pretty cheap at Home Depot (2).

What else could I do to achieve the dry-in before going broke? It occurred to me that instead of buying a lot of tools that I won't have any room to store once I'm done with them, I should look for ways to borrow as much as possible. That is also a great way to involve your friends, family, and community in your project! This lead me to the NE Seattle Tool Library (3). I go up toward Seattle pretty often, so this works out for me, but no doubt there are places like this all over! Its free to obtain a membership, although they strongly encourage donations. I was especially excited about the NE Seattle Tool Library because of the massive inventory of tools available for rent, just like a library book! This cuts out my tool cost entirely! Unless you're going into business building things, or you have the finances to invest in a bunch of tools at the same time as your build, then by all means, buy your own tools. But, even if you're not there financially, it's okay! You'll survive and conquer!

Now,

I'd like to take this time to thank everyone that has contributed both physically and with simple shares and comments, everything helps me out so much. From the bottom of my heart, thank you some friends that are very dear to my heart: Aaron Goldfogel, Abby and Kendra Norton (Congrats on the adorable new babies!!) that have recently generously donated to my new GoFundMe account (4)!!! Thank you guys so much. It means the world.