In October, Will drove from Abbotsford, British Columbia to McKees Mills, New Brunswick. Will drove a used 1999 Dodge diesel truck and it worked out great to tow the house.

Will and Alyson created a small blog called Alyson and Will’s Adventure to cover their move and life at their new farm home and you can view it here.

After so many months and so much planning, I drove away with the tiny house and most of our possessions in tow. Left just around lunchtime with everyone on the farm hugging me and saying goodbye. I’ve got my Ipod loaded with songs and we’ll see how far I get today. — Will

Will weighed the house before moving it, it came in at 6182 lbs. empty (well below the trailer’s 10,000 lb capacity). The tongue weight is around 1,100 lbs which is more than the max of 900 lbs recommended in the truck owners manual. He was carrying all his and Alyson’s meagre possessions also and loaded the heavy items in the back of the house to lessen the tongue weight.

Most of the trip, Will slept at truck stops or campgrounds, just stopped and had a snooze when he got tired of driving.

Leaving Glen Valley Organic Farm

Fall Colors

Lunch stop in Golden, BC

I covered about 700 km over the Rockies from Kamloops, BC to Strathmore, Alberta. Kind of slow going over the mountains. It will be flat for a long stretch now. Not too much interesting about driving for hours and hours looking for good coffee and for a place to eat that is not too bad. — Will

Made it to Manitoba

KOA campground near Ottawa, Ontario.

It was nice to start seeing wooded areas in Manitoba after the plains. The northwest part of Ontario was really beautiful with a different lake after every little hill I would go over. Until next time, thanks for reading. — Will

Pulling in the drive-way at our new farm in McKees Mills, New Brunswick.

Will arrived on the farm just before noon today. I am so happy to see him and he is so happy to have arrived! The truck did really well, the house held together and Will survived the days of driving. I think he is feeling a great sense of accomplishment for having made the big trip and I’m so proud of him, too! — Alyson

Got the truck stuck when moving the house so had to use the tractor to move it.

The house after a recent snowfall

*** Sold ***

Grant McComb emailed me yesterday and told me about his Tumbleweed Tarleton he has for sale at what I think is a bargain basement price. Let me let Grant tell you about it:

I just finished building my tiny house from Jay Shafer’s plans. It turned out wonderful and I’ve been living in it for about 2 weeks now. I enjoyed building it so much that I’m going to
build another one.

I’m selling it for only $18,000. The trailer was built brand new and is box frame (not C channel). I paid around $3800 to have the trailer built.

The humanure toilet is working great. I’m using peat moss instead of sawdust and it seems to be working just fine. There is absolutely no odor at all. I chose peat moss because I can go to Home Depot and buy a big bag of it for $6.00. I don’t know where to get sawdust at.

I have a 10 gallon water heater for the sink and the shower that works beautiful. It acutally works better than the house I just moved out of. I have a garden hose coming from the land owner’s house for my water supply.

It took me less than 3 months to build the tiny house. I started in May of 2009. Feel free to call or email me if you have any questions or know anyone interested.

Thank you,

Grant McComb

I have added all of Grant’s photos of his build to the Tiny House Journal, these photos should give you a good idea of the quality of the build.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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Will Pedersen from Abbotsford, BC Canada has been working on a Tumbleweed Tarleton, one of my favorite Tumbleweed Tiny House Company designs by Jay Shafer. I probably should have given him a chance to complete the project before doing a post on him, but was too excited about it and wanted to share it with you.

It has taken Will about 3 months so far (mostly working by himself) and he hopes to finish in about another month.

He doesn’t particulary recommend his techniques or materials but this is one way to go. Will has mostly adhered to the Tumbleweed plans and used materials that are mostly available and in stock at local lumber/hardware stores. The windows and door (not installed yet) and countertop are all custom made. Will says that he just loves the feel and design of the house. His cost of materials to this point is around $17,000 Canadian (about $14,000 US).

He has done most of the work himself except for the hookup of the water and drain lines where a plumber friend (a valuable friend to have!). Will has also hired someone to do the electrical work and he will be installing the lights and outlets and hook the house up to the grid.

Will is also keeping track of receipts and have somewhat of a journal of the building process, he is planning on sharing that when the project is completed.

Will lives and works at Glen Valley Organic Farm, it is a cooperatively owned farm in Abbotsford, BC. The co-op wants people to work and live here but only one single family house (already housing 5 people) is permitted on the 50 acre farm. So a small mobile house is a perfect solution to farmer housing. The co-op sells at farmers markets in the greater Vancouver area (carrots, potatoes, beets, strawberries, raspberries and more).

When Will completes his Tarleton I will do an update with pictures and more of his information from his journal and final costs. So stay tuned and thank you Will for sharing and inspiring us with your tiny house project. You can view more pictures of Will’s project on Flickr.

Trailer and Floor Framing

Wall Framing

Roof Framing

Exterior Siding Instalation

Interior Framing

Shower/Bathroom

Kitchen Counter

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