Guest Post by Jan Brackett
I first learned about Tumbleweed Tiny Houses many years ago. They are so attractively designed and soundly built; I returned many times to the Tumbleweed web site to fuel and inform my own housebuilding fantasies. I didn’t seriously consider building my own tiny home on wheels, though–until recently.
When I bought property on the western bank of the Kennebec River in Maine 20 years ago, my plan was to replace the run-down, poorly-built home with a new one within a year or two.
Instead, life happened. I have lived in this house, and raised a son (who is now 25 and on his own) in this house. Over the years, I have worked on various possible strategies for living on my land while tearing down my house and building a new one. No plan felt “right,” though, for various reasons until, recently, when it occurred to me that I could build a tiny home on a trailer as my interim living space. Now I am spending every non-working moment living and breathing tiny-home planning.
I designed my own tiny home to fit the way I live; I’m calling my design the “JayBee.”
The design process has been the most fun so far. Every decision involves trade-offs. By creating my own design, I can build a home that fits my needs and my life, rather than having to adjust to a home designed to fit someone else’s ideas and life.
I found someone who has custom built a trailer for my JayBee; the trailer is 26 feet long by just under 8.5 feet wide. It is super strong (8″ steel; three 6,000 lb. axles).
While I wait for the snow to clear out so I can start building my JayBee,
I am refining my framing drawings and researching/collecting materials. I have also started a blog to record my progress with this project: http://riveredge-jaybee.blogspot.com