DIY Tiny House Built By Retired Teacher

Bill Knapp is a retired industrial Arts teacher who after 8 years of teaching teenagers General Shop, printing, and drafting; migrated to teaching adults Industrial skills such as pneumatics, robotics, and electronics.

He retired in 2005 and managed his own construction company renovating inner-city row houses and single-family homes.

Bill started designing his tiny house on wheels when he purchased a scraped 33? travel trailer frame in 2019. Since then he has completed the exterior and is now working on the interior fit-out.

In today’s interview Bill Knapp, and Ethan talk about his build and watch it take shape. It’s been a couple of years in the making. Bill is a retired educator and he’s quite skilled in construction, among other disciplines.

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In This Episode:

  • Electrical design and solar setup
  • Water collection, storage, and plumbing that won’t freeze
  • Walls, trailer, and floorplan
  • Collecting materials and building the tiny house
  • Lessons learned and fortuitous accidents
  • Finding parking and preparing the site

Links and Resources:

tiny house

There is a little porch over the hitch

tiny house build

The diagonal pieces allow bill to forgo rigid sheathing in the corners of the house

building tiny house

He did have to build new bump-out slides

electrical system

A part of the electrical system

insulation and sheathing

He was thoughtful about his insulation and sheathing

leaded glass

The leaded glass cupboard doors were a great find!

tiny house stuck in the move

Moving the tiny house was an adventure, completed by getting stuck!

solar panels

The original plan was to mount the solar panels on the roof, but that changed to a freestanding panel array

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