I ran into Chelsea’s tiny house project a few weeks ago and was not only thrilled that she was building a tiny house in my state of Nevada, but it she was so cool as to paint it purple.
Chelsea Heinrich is a nurse in a small desert town in Northern Nevada and she and her friends and family have been working on her tiny house on wheels since 2014. The little purple home is almost completed and includes a sleeping loft with skylights, discounted windows from Craigslist, French doors and a two part roof that makes the home seem larger than 170 square feet.
The house is built on an 18-foot PJ car hauler trailer with 2×6 studs and 5/8th T1-11 siding. Chelsea also built a deck with a removable sunshade and a skirt for the trailer. Chelsea parks her tiny home in a rental lot zoned for mobile homes. Her 40×40 fenced yard has 50 and 30 amp hookups, a sewer hookup and two water spigots. Friends and neighbors have given her build a lot of positive feedback.
“A few think I’m a little crazy, most people think it’s awesome,” Chelsea says. “A lot of people have stopped by curious about the house and ask questions too.”
Chelsea has had her ups and downs with the tiny house building process.
“The most frustrating part has been re-doing things which, had I been more experienced, I would have done differently the first time,” she says. “For example my bathtub and my stairs. I haven’t spent too much money on these issues, but it has been extremely time consuming.”
“The most fun part was building the frame and basically everything before the walls and floors went in,” she adds. “One thing I’ve learned about myself while doing this, is that I’m not a finish carpenter. I enjoy seeing large gains each day, when you start with studs and finish the day with a wall.”
Chelsea’s ideas came from various locations including photos on Facebook and Pinterest. Her favorite tiny house design has been narrowed down to the Escape Traveler.
“I decided a shed roof would be a little simpler to build, I wanted the extra headroom, and I also wanted it to be a little unique so I did the two part roof,” Chelsea says. “There wasn’t particularly one house I looked to when designing mine.”