RRR Tiny House Updates
Updated: Oct 5
RRRuTH is my challenge to build a tiny house entirely out of reclaimed, reused, re(up)cycled materials! Can it be done? We'll see!
This page will be a rolling journal with updates from each week. Drop back and find out what's new, check out RRRuTH on YouTube, or sign up for updates, including a chance to join the build!
Fortnight Beginning 21st September
RRRuTH hasn’t really been my focus the past few weeks, but I haven’t lost sight. I have started making enquiries about getting a trailer built for me by a boilermaker at my new job in his spare time. It involves getting engineering done, but I am hopeful it may work out at less than the $15-20K these things normally cost.
I also put an ad up about land to build my tiny (if the family connection doesn’t come through), and I did have a guy who runs a patio business contact me about his acreage as a possible site. But then he kinda mucked me around, so…. :(
ATHA held their AGM too which I went along to, pumped to hear all about their plans and how to get involved. Sadly there was none of that and I feel a little in the dark about what they have planned and how it benefits members.
Lauren (the VP) and I met up to talk about the Coffs expo and what’s been happening. She’d had a meeting with council and it seems they’re very onboard with finding an approval pathway which is less prescriptive while maintaining the powers to intervene if the tiny house is presenting issues around amenity (urgh!, hello NIMBYs), safety and/or environment. Still, that’s got to be good news, right?
Lou sent me a link to a fabulous news story that was published about the expo in Coffs Harbour. Yours truly got a mention (even though my name was spelt incorrectly).
And lastly, I managed to salvage a kitchen bench left on the footpath with a FREE sign. It’s got a sort of V-groove door paneling with a big wooden butcher’s block. I saw it just as they were putting it out while I was scootering past a few doors from my house. I grabbed a courier’s trolley, loaded it up, and walked back along the road with my new kitchen island cabinetry! Yay!
Humanure is due back this week. I got it on inter-library loan and have not finished reading it in hardcopy. Luckily I have also downloaded a free earlier edition, although I think the composting toilet handbook the author mentioned in the foreword may be more useful overall. My sister is coming home to Australia for a holiday and hopes to go camping off-the-grid while she’s here. She mentioned BYO her D-I-Y camping loo. I said to send me details and I’d try to replicate it so she needn’t pack the toilet in her luggage. LOL.
Week Beginning 14th September
Hours: 4 days!!
Progress: 11 of 29 tasks
Short and sweet this week because I started a job! Yes, an actual job!! One needs money if one is going to build oneself a tiny house. In the great news, they do GVM upgrades and have boilermakers and welders and engineers working there, so if I have trailer stuff, this could be a very useful resource!!
The main event however was the tiny home expo, held in Coffs Harbour. It was a HUGE few days, even though this first one held in Coffs was smaller than Brisbane. She Bangs/RRRuTH was on a speaking panel about women doing it for themselves, discussing the advantages of a D-I-Y owner-build. That was fantastic. I also spent loads of time listing to other speakers, talking with builders about construction methods, learning more about current regulations and court cases (especially in NSW), plus discussions about waste water and installations on land etc. I didn’t make a detailed video of this expo, but I posted a short video and a heap of photos on Instagram.
The next one is in Bendigo in late October (and Perth in November) >> see here for info
Lastly, I’ve spent some time going through all my old video files and FINALLY doing some editing of How-to videos and D-I-Y stuff for Bang!Club and their YouTube channel (members only). No doubt they'll be helpful, albeit not the best videography you've ever seen!
24th August - 13th September
Hours: a lot of hours (days and days)
Progress: 11 of 29 tasks
I’ve noticed the ebbs and flows of this project in particular because I keep records. Some weeks there is a focus on materials, other times on info. But this last fortnight was information gathering and meeting people. I was away in Brisbane and northern NSW for most of the fortnight, but also spent time in the lead up on Facebook Marketplace.
Everybody hates Marketplace, right? We can all agree on that? People treat each other in this commodified way, where it’s a race to the bottom. “I got treated badly by people, so I don’t care – I’ll do the same”. Urgh! So, there’s been a bit of that. I have missed out on a few sales because I was too slow and despite my stated interest, people didn’t bother to communicate. At the same time, I don’t have funds to waste buying the wrong thing. I also had very strange exchanges with the (one and only) reclaimed timber yard here in Toowoomba who advertise but then don’t respond to contact and aren’t open half the time! In any case, it is proving exceptionally hard to procure timber suitable for reuse. Not so much decorative stuff, or doors and windows. But structural timber for the subfloor and of course the walls and roof frame.
I did go to a reclaimed timber yard and saw mill in the Northern Rivers, near Casino. It was an interesting insight into how they’re processing the timbers and creating something beautiful with them. They had a lot of railway sleepers, as well as decking boards. Check that out here.
The Tiny Home Expo in Brisbane was fantastic!! A huge few days – I spent day one looking around mostly. You can watch my video tour here. My overall impression was about the enormous size of many of the homes on display, although there were a couple of small ones. Lots on skids – mostly modular homes as well as containers.
Day two I spent on the Australian Tiny House Association stall answering questions (mostly about council regulations!). I met the current President, Dan Lester, and saw her documentary about the D-I-Y building process, as well as other former presidents and ATHA volunteers. Looking forward to the next one in Coffs Harbour.
Speaking of ATHA, I have been keeping abreast of legal cases and developments across the country related to approval pathways and so on. It’s really not a great situation (still), but there are a few stand outs.
1. Tassie MP, Clare Glade-Wright, talked tiny in her maiden speech to state parliament, and there is currently a petition open until 6th November. Tassie residents, sign that here.
2. Toowoomba Regional Council recently unanimously agreed to review tiny home legislation, but in the meantime, there is also a survey for Queenslanders to have your say. The Tiny Home Expo has put together some guidance (see here), and you can have your say at this link before 26th October.
Then it was time to Live Like Her. I slept out in my van for one night to raise money for homeless older women as part of a challenge for the Forgotten Women. Thanks to the generosity of people in the She Bangs community (and my lovely family!), I raised $1830 to help women secure safe accommodation. Well done you!!
And.... home again, where I continued my research phase with info about insulation and condensation needs in a moveable home. Given that insulation is usually determined by your climate, when your climate changes each time you move your home, it’s a tricky one.
Last but not least, I finished off these past few weeks with a small woodworking project. I have made a how-to video which I’ll make available for Bang!Club members.
I’ve got to admit, I feel like momentum has slowed down, and I am so keen to actually get building. But sadly, there is a lot of prep work that comes first. Stick with me! 😊
Week Beginning 17th August
Hours: ~8 hours? 25 hours? (I didn’t keep good track this week!)
Progress: 10.5 of 29 tasks
A quiet week and not hugely productive in that I didn’t produce anything. But illuminating with a couple of small wins.
I held my free Buy Nothing workshop on the weekend for 5 ladies, which was pretty fun. They say the success of building a tiny house is dependent on the community you have around you (and they also say people are often very willing to help), so this workshop was about building community in my new city.
Tiny House Regulations
Speaking of Toowoomba, we had an exciting WIN this week with the unanimous vote by the council to do some work to allow tiny houses on private property. Honestly, we cannot get too excited because it was a vote to investigate it, not actual permissions or approval pathways. But at least there is political will, even though they keep couching it in a narrative about how “complex” it is. Anyhow, it was down to the advocacy of Holly - a local tiny house dweller I met, Georgie – a woman with some health issues living in a caravan who is getting booted off and started a petition to council, and the Australian Tiny House Association (ATHA) and its VP, Lauren. Read more about it here.
Speaking of ATHA, I officially became a member! Yay! I’m helping out this weekend at the festival in Brisbane. Come along! Click here. I’m then heading off for some time hunting materials and doing some research further afield – more to come on that later.
I found my way to the QLD planning regulations pages about tiny houses too. That was a snooze fest! But a podcast on the topic of advocating to local council was more digestible. Check out Season Two – The Advocacy Season of the Candid Tiny House Podcast.
Salvage Materials
I did manage to secure some framing timber and other bits and pieces from a garage sale. I actually spent a lot of my hours this week on Facebook Marketplace and around the place looking for materials. Getting structural stuff is the challenge really. Mostly because framing timber needs to be, well, structural, and when it’s being reclaimed you don’t really know if it’s still OK. There is grading that can be done, but otherwise you have to just have some faith in what you’re told! But the stuff I bought was stamped MGP10 and it was new and still stained from the treatment, so I was confident to purchase it. Video here.
Apart from that, I was watching a heap of YouTube videos about using pallet timber. I’m a bit sceptical, but for the shed pod it may be an option for the subfloor actually. I’ll keep researching on that.
Energy Efficiency & Compost
I did also do a lot of reading and research this week about passive solar in particular (again/still), and insulation. The book I mostly read is British and older, so a few things aren’t helpful, like:
We need north-facing homes in the southern hemisphere, but that’s as easy as switching the words
They need to keep homes warm, whereas the biggest issue in Australia, and tiny homes in particular, is that the bigger challenge is keeping cool!
They don’t frame much with timber – it’s mostly related to masonry (brick)
The thinking and technology has changed quite a bit in 20 years!
Still, the physics of passive solar is as old as Earth itself, so it was still helpful.
I do a lot of reading, watching videos, researching generally, and often do forget to account for those many, many hours. I’ll try to keep better records, because you know, it’s all about the preparation!! And I want you to have a realistic idea of how much time I sink in.
This week will be slow then quick, and I may be off grid from next Sunday, so if you don’t hear from me, keep posted and I’ll be back in touch once I am back online. 😊
Week Beginning 10th August
Hours: ~10 hours
Progress: 9.5 of 27 tasks
Road bumps and hurdles. That’s the theme at the moment. Partly financial – because I mean who isn’t struggling right now, especially when it comes to the cost of housing? But also sourcing materials.
The Long Road to a Solution
The idea for RRRuTH – at least the reclaimed, reusable materials part – came from seeing the enormous waste in the construction industry. The contribution to landfill is enormous. I saw a post on Instagram this week about a new build that had defects with the brick work (partly structural, but also with the finish!!), that was going to be demolished to start again!! Crazy. Not that I’m looking for bricks for RRRuTH, but ya know.
I did do a call out to builders & trades for a conversation about a mutually beneficial solution to their waste issues (offcuts, over orders etc), but literally got NO bites. Hmmmm. I also got to the tip shop over the weekend, but didn’t find much useable stuff, and certainly not structural timber. You can't just use any old timber for the frame, and careful checking is essential. I can source doors and windows there maybe, but they haven’t been stored properly and the weather is causing more damaged to already weathered stock.
Did you know....when using salvaged materials, it's advisable to source your windows and doors prior to designing the house frame. Why? Because the sizing of old windows & doors is very unlikely to match modern standard sizes, so you want to be able to build around what you procure. No moving studs later!
Good News Stories
In the fantastic news, I learned of an MP in Tassie who is championing the cause of tiny houses and creating legal pathways for them. There seems to be a lot of goodwill. Meanwhile, tired of waiting, the ABC’s Your Say series did a piece on people coming up with their own solutions to the housing crisis.
Speaking of that....
I caused a stir (unintended…cheekiness doesn’t translate in a Facebook comment) about mini mansion tiny houses. I have some concerns about the trends of ever-increasing footprints. Not so much because big = bad (some people really do need a lot of space), but because of how it simply replicates the problems that got us into a housing crisis. Read more about that view here (which links to a broader discussion posted by the Tiny Homes Expo crowd, and my accidentally controversial comment about 'ruiners').
Great News Stories
I spent this week chasing donations for the Live Like Her Challenge, and thanks to the generosity of so many women in the She Bangs community, I’ve managed to break through the $1000 mark! Hurrah!!
This week I have also arranged the Buy Nothing workshop. 5 women are coming along to a mini ToolSchool session to learn to use some basic power tools. For me, this offer is more about connecting than anything to do with D-I-Y, but certainly I am thrilled to be introducing some more women to these simple acts of self empowerment!
The Money Story
She Bangs was a thriving business in Melbourne. In fact, I had more work than I could handle solo. But it all came to a grinding halt with the #SheCanVan engine failure, which led to a decision to relocate to SE QLD (a great choice!), and really the end of an era. I didn’t have the energy to start again from scratch to re-build my business here, and with money so tight for many people, workshops weren’t selling out like they had been.
This represented an opportunity to properly focus on the dream of building the tiny house, with workshops and the online course, and the whole dream. But what about money? How do you pay for a house?
All my savings are gone. I have been looking for work, but would you believe I can’t find a job? Of course you can believe it! An older woman seeking a job in construction? Nobody will hire me….for anything. Doesn’t matter my skills, experience, qualifications, commitment, enthusiasm… apparently a younger, and/or more male applicant will do it better. You can read more about that on my ‘Gram feed.
So, how to fund this project? Sell my unit in Melbourne? Maybe. I vacillate on that option constantly. In a housing crisis where I don’t have another home, and no job + a truncated business, and no prospect of a mortgage at my age, is it wise to give up the only security I have to fund this build?
At the same time, nothing changes if we don’t make changes. Even a low budget, self-built tiny house using reclaimed materials costs a lot of money. I actually haven't created the full budget yet, which is somewhat remiss of me. But I estimate around $50K all up. That's doing all the labour myself (electrics and plumbing excluded), rescuing and reusing as much material as possible, buying seconds, as well as doing the full design myself, framing plan and all.
While I work on resolving this giant finance hurdle, I’ve been keeping myself busy reading about energy efficiency and passive solar in particular (a favourite topic, as far as energy topics go!). I ordered an inter-library loan of the bible on composting toilets; The Humanure Handbook. Small steps and a little faith is still progress, right?
That's it for this week. Till next time. Bang on!
Week Beginning 3rd August
Hours: ~20 hours
Progress: 7 of 26 tasks
BIG WEEK! I have made some fantastic progress this week on a number of front:
Materials
Community building
Framing design
Materials
What do you know about yakisugi? It’s a traditional Japanese technique, literally translating as grilled/charred (or ‘burnt’) cedar (Crytomeria japonica). I lived in Japan and have deep ties extending back to early childhood, and I love a lot of Japanese design and architecture. I made a visit to the Japanese Garden here in Toowoomba and they have a pavilion on the lake with a yakisugi ceiling. Apart from its beauty, for me, the most important reasons to use this technique for my exterior cladding is for the building science of it all. So, that decision has been made. I just need to decide whether I’ll do it the traditional method (see here), or just use a blow torch.
But I also headed out to an industrial goods reseller, NKF. They have loads of steel, which I will not be using for the most part, but one iconic product I will be using is corrugated iron - ideally a little rust-coloured! (And not actually rusted). This is also for the exterior wall cladding. It’ll just be regular Colorbond on the roof.
My errands also took me to Deano’s Timber Yard, which is much more than timber. They’re connected to a demolition company, so they resell a range of salvaged materials – especially doors, windows and VJ panels. I’ll definitely be back.
There was a garage sale at a lady named Pieta’s, who is moving to Brisbane to be closer to family (sounds familiar!) and had loads of stuff to sell. I managed to bag myself some freebies (just curtain rod holders), a metal bucket (purpose TBD) and a set of drawers made from papier mache, making them extremely lightweight!
Community Building
Buy Nothing is this whole worldwide movement aimed at reducing consumerism (mostly for environmental reasons), and encourage resource sharing amongst neighbours. I’ve done a lot of that stuff previously, and recently I started reading the book (I got from the local library, of course!). I joined a local Buy Nothing group on Facebook, and made a post offering a free tools workshop. I’m kind of hoping that it may help me make new connections in this town where I know almost nobody! Who knows; maybe they’ll be keen to help me build RRRuTH when the time comes.
I also launched my fundraiser with The Forgotten Women to do the Live Like Her Challenge in Brissie. For one night, hundreds of people will sleep out in their cars (or van in my case), to raise awareness and must needed funds for homeless women over 55. If you’ve seen the RRRuTH page on my website, you’ll know this wicked social problem was behind my desire to teach women how to build tiny houses in the first place! Me included. 😊
Louise Southerden is the author of Tiny: a memoir she wrote about love, loss and a little house she built with her partner during COVID lockdowns in northern NSW. It’s a great book, and after reading it I connected with Louise. She kindly invited me to visit her tiny house, and we had an hour long phone conversation in advance of my visit in September, chatting about all things tiny house, living simply, finding your tribe, ATHA, tiny house advocacy, upcoming expos (more on that in another update), and the issues with finding land and renting from other people which leaves you exposed to changes of plans. Louise has just been informed she needs to relocate again from her fabulous spot. Finding a new, more permanent location is a challenge, but the costs involved to prepare the site (eg: excavation and adding road base etc), tow and connect to power etc, makes it a very expensive proposition.
THIS is why tiny home owners need land, and the ability to live in small communities on properties they own.
Framing Design
Once again I found myself at the Toowoomba Library, perusing books to help inform my decision-making about the frame. I am focused on the shed pod right now, but with an eye towards RRRuTH and how one absolutely must tie in with the other so maximise efficiency and minimise resource and material use. I read loads of shed building books – it seems to be a theme in a largely agricultural region like the Darling Downs!
I also turned to my building books I own from my time at TAFE studying construction, and the Alan Staines House Building Manual gifted to me from Tow Sheds Bega. I spent some time reviewing Build Sum videos on YouTube, checking for span tables, access to Australian Standards, reading about baffles and how they help with insulation performance, and checking the Vehicle Standards Bulletin 1, Section 22.1 about doors on caravans and trailers!
Fred’s Tiny Houses has been contributing to this industry in Australia for a very long time, but this weekend (8th-9th August), they’re running their very last ever workshop! I went to along in 2021 (when I knew bugger all about building!), and I dug out my old notes from Fred, including his Unified Construction Method, and refreshed my memory about some great framing tips to protect against things like uplift and vibration, as well as keeping the weight down.
I spent a day in the shed re-measuring (measure twice, cut once and all that) so I can start putting pencil to paper and design the shed pod. Plus I’ve made some decisions about the frame, which will help me create a take-off (or materials schedule), so I know what I need to acquire.
I’ve decided on a modified version of skids as the base, so I don’t damage the slab floor in the shed. The shed pod is temporary, so bolting it to the concrete is entirely unnecessary, and the damage is easily avoided. I need to do some further research about the regulations around tiny houses on skids more generally, because this would save a HUGE amount on the cost of a trailer.
I’ll build a platform floor, although I am not sure if it’ll be plywood or yellow tongue. The latter is not reuseable, so I’d have to buy new. On the other hand, the ply can be reused for the underside of the tiny house trailer.
A skillion roof – this isn’t a new decision, but I was reviewing the building requirements. I think I’ll build to 2.4m high, which is really about the maximum in the shed, although I may build it higher on the right hand side (away from the mezzanine) to accommodate the skillion pitch.
And, the biggest change is the shed pod will be built to 2.5m wide. This is the maximum legal road limit for a trailer, but many people say that building to this size (rather than the more comfy 3m) definitely makes things tighter. I figure it’s a great starting point to get a sense of how it feels and whether RRRuTH should ultimately be built to 3m wide, which demands a tow truck for moves. It could work fine if I end up building RRRuTH on skids, because that has to be moved on the back of a flat bed truck anyways.
So, a very productive week all round! Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll try to answer them below. For the latest YouTube updates, head here.
