Truck Update

I haven't done anything of note this week, I have been enjoying the nice weather and putting some miles on my bike.  Last weekend brought into focus that we are now in the hot part of the summer.  

I did just get an update on my truck.  It is now built and in QA.  I have the window sticker now.  You should be able to blow it up.  The EPA rating is confirmed to be 17/23, which will be nice.  I average around 13/18mpg (its EPA is 14/19mpg) in the Tundra.  

I also poked around their online customer guide, and thankfully it rendered the truck with what appears to be an 8' box.  The standard box the rear axle is in the dead center of the box.  Most of the stuff from Ford was just a generic picture of an F-150 with a standard box on it, which made me nervous.  I would not have been pleased if I waited for 4 months and then they sent me the wrong truck.  Nowhere on any document does it say 8' box, it just gives you a wheelbase number which doesn't mean anything to me.

No movement on the list.  I have done some thinking and playing around with how to live in the place while I am building it, and so far haven't come up with much.  I have come up with a solution I don't really like much for the plumbing though: The portable toilet and put a utility sink with an AAV (air admittance valve) for the vent.  The AAV should allow me to get away with not having the vent stack in place, is easy to install, and in a pinch will work for a bit.  Put a wye with a screw cap on it so I have a way to empty the portable toilet, and that covers the basics.  I am not fond of having no plumbing in the kitchen, but I lived in the tiny home for several months before I even had counters, much less a working sink.  Likewise as long as I can get a few circuits installed in the garage portion I will have power.  I will need those circuits before I can live in the garage since I will obviously need the water pump.  I don't really need more than a couple of circuits for short term.  If I get the place put up in the spring, a couple of extension cords would be enough to hold me over until winter.  I was originally planning on building a structure in the garage, but I don't really think that is necessary.  The floor will be really cold in the winter (it will be effectively uninsulated), but I think with a couple of space heaters and the heat pump (which I can install in a window) I should be ok.  This reduces the amount I would need to build while living in a hotel or camper before I could move into the garage.  Any way you cut it I will need something temporary and portable for a couple of weeks though, maybe a month at the most.

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the yard.
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek

Roasting tractor dirty weekend.

This weekend was hot.  Really hot.  That didn't seem to bother the turkeys though when I went out shopping Friday.  

I slept in on Saturday, and decided to do mostly tractor work this weekend because of the temperature and my tractor has been underutilized this year.  I decided to start filling in the big gorge in the backyard where all the crappy fill I put down last year washed away.  Since I have a bunch of leftover rock, I used that for the base fill.  The driveway task for this year won't be putting more gravel down, it will just be re-smoothing what is already there.

I then covered it with a few inches of dirt.  

In hindsight, since it has been two weeks since I mowed, I should have done that first.  Oh well.

After the sun moved behind the trees, I also did a little bit of filling of the tractor ruts that occurred over the winter, since I use the tractor to clear the snow off the slab.  I also went and seeded these areas.  

Sunday I decided to try to do something before it got too hot.  That failed, it was in the 80s by 10AM.  But I still got a rough frame built.  This is a hose holder.  I have destroyed two of them the last few years, so I decided to build one of my own.  

This is what it looks like.  I painted it with some leftover spray paint I had mostly because I like the color and with the faint hope that it will last a bit longer.  You may have noticed in the previous picture that it wasn't pressure treated wood; It was built from random scraps I had lying around.  I also positioned the cheapo universal holder thing so that the top goes above the board so I can hang it in the carport in the winter.

Something that I had been curious of: the AC works a lot better with the bed gone.  Friday was the first time I have turned it on all month, and with it set to 68 it was holding really close despite being 90 outside.  Before I got rid of the bed, it would have been holding 72 or 73 when it was set for 68.  Not because of a lack of capacity (10,000 BTU is more than adequate to cool 192 sq ft) but because of poor circulation.  

Sunday was mostly spent mowing.  Turns out there is something not quite right with the lawn tractor I bought.  After about an hour and a half of mowing, it started sputtering going uphill.  It never stalled, but is something to keep in mind.  It is unusual that I do the whole thing in one go, so it probably won't be an issue, but isn't right.  Of note, the mower seems to be pretty efficient, it has a roughly gallon and a half gas tank on it, and I didn't use the whole thing mowing.  

I also started working on the far back.  Where the pipe was installed has turned into a valley as the dirt has settled.  I got the first twenty or so feet filled in.  

I went until I used up the entire pile of old mulch I had lying around.  

After that I went and did some extra leveling over by the well.  There was still part of a pile of dirt there from when they drilled it, so I knocked that down with the tractor and smoothed it out some.  I also added a couple buckets of dirt behind it so I can drive the lawn tractor through there hopefully.

I also picked up a bunch of rocks out of the back yard.  I haven't hit any (this year), but large chunks of the back yard are still push mower only because of them.  

I have been slowly working through the pile of dirt I got delivered last fall.  At this point I have used almost half of it.  I will easily go through the rest of it finishing the far back and back yard though.  Even using the gravel to help extend the dirt.

I have gotten a couple of nibbles on the trailer, but most were lowball offers that I would rather keep the trailer for.  I am surprised given the current lack of availability that I haven't garnered more interest; utility trailers under $500 are scarce on Craigslist and the Facebook Marketplace thing.  I don't need to sell it, it is just occupying space and I use the trailer sparingly at best (the whole if you're not going to use it get rid of it concept).  For now though, I intend to mark the trailer as complete.  Leveling the back yard is well underway as well at this point.  I also have Barry coming out this afternoon to take a look at removing trees since that one is still leaning on the shed.  I haven't heard from Ford about my truck yet, even though it was supposed to be built last week.  

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the yard.
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek

Bird update.

I have been doing some thinking as I wait for the email from Ford saying my truck is built, which sadly hasn't come in yet.  I am definitely liking the option where I pay cash for the truck, and get the shell put up next year and I finish it.  I think it is the frontrunner at this point.  It gives a year for prices to stabilize, lumber is still really expensive, and should start coming down soon.  While I don't think the cost of the shell will come down, it will make the rest of the construction cheaper.  And avoiding the skyrocketing interest rates for a car loan is a bonus.

The biggest problem I can foresee is the where do I live while I finish it.  My original thought was just part the tiny home in the garage.  That has a problem though: the tiny home is around 12 feet tall.  That won't fit in a garage.  Two feet of that is the trailer frame, but I can't just dump it off (assuming I figured out how to do that without breaking it) since the plumbing goes below the floor framing.  I would also have to remove the roof (where all the plumbing vents are).  In addition, I would have to put a hole in the garage so that I can vent the plumbing.  That idea is looking less attractive every day, especially since I have to find somewhere to live until I get that all done; plumbing is a requirement.  I could probably get by with one of those portable toilets that I was considering for a back of truck camper, but I will still need water, which means the utility room will also have to be done immediately.  Right now I am leaning more towards building a box in garage (which I can have mostly prefabricated by the time the shell goes up), and then just live in that, though the plumbing is still a problem in that case, but at least an easier one to solve.  It also means doing a bunch of throwaway electrical work for example.  The average garage door opening is too short for a camper; my Dad's camper is 10' tall, which is short for a camper, and is is still 3' taller than your average garage door opening, which is only 7'.  A popup could be an option that I could resell afterwards though.  So this is something to think about at any rate.  I am intending on visiting LaValley today assuming I can pull away from work for a few hours, this is something I might ask about.  Maybe I can put the tiny home on the slab and they can build around it, though I doubt that.  

So that is what has been going through my head the rest of the week.  In other news, the birds got a little bit bigger before they took off.  This was taken on Tuesday.

When I came home yesterday, they were all gone.  The nest was abandoned.

I also saw some turkeys on Wednesday.

The trailer is listed for sale, but hasn't sold yet.  

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the side yard.  
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek

Busy cool weekend.

The big task Friday was to get the new house cost analysis done.  I got rough (and I really do mean rough) numbers in the spreadsheet.  In general, the way I picked the numbers was an average of the mid-range cost on Home Depot's website.  So the estimate should be high.  The spreadsheet can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1of4w616ubED7IKwuVprNup7BjnlXKA95wPjGLvukh84/edit?usp=sharing

Despite coming in at the same price as the mobile home, there are several things that should be noted:

1. This comes with everything that I want.  That means I won't be spending the next ten years replacing the faucets and stuff like that with ones that don't suck
2. This includes AC.  The mobile home doesn't, and I would still have to pay about $15k to get a central air unit installed.
3. This price includes things like quartz countertops, and could be eliminated (or postponed) if I start to have cash flow problems, since the second 80k I would be paying as I went.  
4. This includes a garage.  The mobile home I would be building a detached garage down at the bottom of the hill, which wouldn't be included in the mobile home costs.  With this plan, I get the garage included in the cost, and is where I want it.  In general I think detached garages are nearly useless.  
5. This is a proper home and will appreciate with time.  Mobile homes don't appreciate except during housing bubbles.  In general, they tend to stay flat and once they hit a certain age they can depreciate.
6. Something else that might be possible if I go this route, I can just pay cash for the truck since I can save enough in the next year to have a $20k down payment, and just do the house next year.  The mortgage will only be between $80k and $100k, so $20k should be sufficient.  I really like this idea, since car loan rates have been climbing rapidly, and it gives the housing market a little time to settle; it has already started to cool in NH.

Looking at the options, going with the route where I build it is growing on me a bit.  I wouldn't call it the front runner yet, the prospect of it consuming several years is still very daunting.  Technically my variance is already expired (it expired in either April or May), so waiting another year for the house carries risk of the town giving me grief, but they haven't said anything yet.  I think as long as I have plans and submit them next year for approval, I don't foresee any issues.

When I went shopping on Friday, I got to watch a pretty sunset. while I contemplated.

When I went outside Saturday morning, I scared away some deer in the backyard, a mama and her faun.  I wasn't quick enough to get a picture though.  Saturday started with my typical weed killing chore.  There were only a few dozen new stalks this time.  I had enough leftover after finishing up the side that I was able to spray down by the road.  I only do enough there to make sure that I can see to pull out of my driveway.

I also noticed the well drain pipe was plugged up again.  This time I punched a hole clear through all the screens.  It won't get plugged again.

After that it was time to work on the trailer.  The trailer is ready to sell (though I forgot to take pictures for the ad).  I got the last bit of repainting done and got the board ties done.  Though not in this picture, the trailer jack is reinstalled as well.

The back was a real pain.  Because I put the new decking on two years ago (and the board I was using was purchased at that time) everything was badly warped.  I managed to pull most of it out by clamping the boards to the frame using another piece of scrap.  The piece I was adding I just pulled out the warp with the screws.  I also had to trim the boards, since they had all shrunk to different lengths (PT wood tends to be very wet when purchased).  I made a cut with the circular saw set to 1.5" deep and finished lopping it off with the reciprocating saw where necessary.  I nicked the frame a couple of times though, so I put down a couple fresh coats of paint.  

I had a casualty.  I was using the mallet to knock off the little pieces.

The back is done.  They can also use this board to attach a ramp if they want.  I never bothered since I have ramps.

I also apparently forgot to reattach the wiring underneath when I redid the decking.  That is done too now.

While the paint was drying on the back of the trailer, I decided to clean the floor mats in my truck.  They don't look great, but they aren't a mud cake anymore.

After that was all done, it looked like it was going to rain, so I called it a night. Sunday was bed removal day.  Other than being windy, it was a beautiful day, mostly sunny, low 60s.  I started by creating some shelving to make up for the lost space from the underside of the bed frame.  I didn't have enough of the unfinished boards, but still had a couple of the black ones in the shed, so I cut it down to size.  It is pretty easy with a table saw.  

Somebody didn't measure though, and they won't both fit.  Oops.  I assumed since together they were still a foot shorter than the bed that they would fit.  I was wrong.  Oh well, I will put the spare one in the carport most likely.  

Here is a before and after picture.  I had already started to remove the cargo netting prior to the before picture, but you still get the idea.  The shallow shelf is a piece of leftover flooring I trimmed down.  I wanted something shallow so I don't wonk my head if I sleep on the wall side of the bed.

The mattress.  It has a big dip in it now (in the middle), and you can feel the springs if you try to move around at the edges of the dip.  Since the mattress can't be flipped, it got replaced.  All in all though, 10 years out of a sub-300 dollar mattress is nothing to complain about.  I bought this mattress shortly after I moved to Syracuse back in 2011.  

After calling home for father's day, I went and disassembled everything to reclaim the wood.  Hardwood plywood is quite pretty.  I don't recall if this is beech or birch though, and I am not well versed enough to know by looking at it.  

A big pile of lumber.  I haven't had to buy lumber for a while, and this will hopefully help continue that trend, though I only have a single piece of PT lumber left.

Bird update: they are getting big, and I expect they will be leaving the nest soon, they already have their feathers.  They have pooped all over the side of my carport.

All that is left for the trailer is to sell it.  I will take pictures for the ad tonight.  I intended to last night but forgot.  The bedroom upgrade wasn't on the list.  

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the side yard.  
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek

More house plans.

I spent the last couple of days working out floorplans for the shell plan, since I need to know what is in the place before I can estimate a cost.  I spent most of Tuesday evening trying to come up with a 3BR floorplan, but never got one that I liked.  Even with no utilities (which would be in the garage) I just couldn't get the rooms to fit.  It was too square and too small.  

Last night I gave up and worked on a 2BR design.  This one isn't bad.  I might finagle a bit with the master bath and closet around the staircase, but it is close enough to do cost estimates on.  The floorplan looks huge, but based on the numbers, I think that is because I am coming from a tiny home.  I was surprised how small some of the mobile homes I walked around at FineLine homes felt (they had two of them set up as floor models), and this is smaller than those.  This plan does have a large master bedroom (at least for now, it might change if I move the bath and stuff around), and a bigger kitchen.  The island is eat in.  I like the extra closets.  I haven't added windows or a back door yet (probably will go in the dining area).  I also have walk-in closets for both rooms.  I might try to draw this up in sketch-up or something if I go with this option, or at least clean it up a little.

I have begun the cost estimation of how much it would cost to finish the shell into a real house.  That information can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1of4w616ubED7IKwuVprNup7BjnlXKA95wPjGLvukh84/edit?usp=sharing

I expect this will end up as the cheapest option, but I am still on the fence about whether it is feasible.  From a financial standpoint it makes the most sense, not only is it the cheapest option, but it will result in a house that is worth the most.  But it took me a year and a half to build a tiny home.  This would take me several years to complete, and I would have to come up with a way to live in it in the meantime (basically build a small studio thing in the garage) and would still need something while I am building that.  There is no guarantee that I could just park the tiny home in the garage and live in that, it might not fit.  These are all things that I would have to figure out.

I will probably visit LaValley at some point in the near future to get some questions answered and verify my assumptions, like is the staircase configurable for location.  The place comes with 8 windows, are those fixed in location, what kind and size of window are they, and so on.  

No movement on the project list.

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the side yard.  
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek

House Update.

I went and visited Fineline Homes yesterday.  I got to walk around in a couple of double wides they had set up.  Turns out they don't do modular houses anymore.  It is kind of scary how much mobile homes have gone up the last couple of years, though they aren't as bad as I feared they could be.  I was chatting with the sales guy and he mentioned that one of the ones I was looking at was $89k just before Covid.  It is now $140k.  $140k is more than I wanted to spend, at least on a mobile home, since they don't appreciate like a regular house.  Single wides are up over $100k now.  The current list of homes and their prices is available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dJYcN3IxmtNkjRoJp90_w1lmRJyozsoqfOYdaoYQGkw/edit?usp=sharing 

Something else I found out is that my slab won't meet the current code in NH.  They are required to be 6" now with double reinforcing 4' in from the edges.  That means one of the main cost advantages of a mobile home, only needing minimal site work, is now moot.  Needing a slab likely adds almost $10k to the cost of new construction.  It also adds a lot of complication.  Instead of just picking up the tiny home with a forklift and moving it when the new house arrives, I will have to get it moved before work on the slab begins.

Without the slab, I lose most of my utilities.  This means I have no water or sewer while this work is being done.  I can jack-hammer the old slab out and find something to do with the old concrete, maybe use the concrete on the hill by the creek to reinforce it instead of building a retaining wall.  Of course, doing all this myself means I have to move the tiny home myself.  That means getting new tires on it and stuff.

I also poked around at a place to put a prefabricated shell.  Some guys at work recommended https://lavalleys.com/products/

One of the ones I like was the Nash (https://lavalleys.com/products/garages/nash/).  It only comes to 28x36, so it is a bit smaller (and I would lose space for stairs), but since I would have a garage the square footage is not a big deal.  It would give me a two bay garage and the home over top of it, which is kind of nice.  The shell alone only costs $73k.  He said the fee to set it up was only a few grand, but that was many years ago.  Since the slab is now required regardless of route chosen, this becomes a more favorable idea.  The guy at work who recommended them got a barn from them and he said it was up in a weekend.  I will want to calculate how much completing the home will cost, but that might be the better option (at first blush it certainly seems like the cheapest option unless building materials have gone up in cost more than I think), especially if I can get them to put a large opening (basically frame around the tiny home so it can be pulled out later and then I will complete the wall when that happens.  I am still debating whether I want to spend the next 5 years of my life building a house though.

I will have to find a new vendor to look at modular homes, but if their price premium over mobile homes still holds true, they are almost assuredly not in my price range.  If a double wide is $140k, I am thinking that a modular is likely going to be $250k to $300k.

The house plans are now in progress.

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the side yard.  
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek

Disassemble, Reassemble.

Friday I went and took the loveseat to the dump.  It was kind of a pain to do myself, but thankfully I have a nice wide standard 36" door and didn't need to play games curling it around the corners.  The hardest part was getting it to the door since the door opens inwards.  It is no more though.

When I got home (I made the dump run on my lunch break), I finished cleaning up the area.  Apparently my Swiffer is dead and wouldn't spray, but I just squirted the juice manually and got the floors cleaned.

The it came time for some assembly required.  It took a while since the area isn't really big enough and the Allen wrench they provide isn't very good.

But the frame is assembled, it just took a bit longer than expected.

And this is an example on why you don't let floorplan dictate your electric layout.  This outlet wasn't accessible before, now it can be used for the shelf that will replace the bed.

Looks like I mis-measured (or added wrong).  The chair juts out past the edge of the door by more than an inch or two like I thought.  It hasn't been a problem yet.  

The futon.

Saturday I started off by taking new pictures for the housing documentation.  I realized when I was all set to go to FineLine homes that all my pictures were snow-covered, not giving a good view of the features.  I also missed some important pictures that became apparent when I was looking at floorplans last week (like the size of my pressure tank and water system).  That document is now up to date and is still at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14WgIvIaH2oGHtBOF50b3kvNYJGwmeKhZ34cWlwqmqGo/edit?usp=sharing 

After that I decided to work on the trailer.  Turns out my 4 1/2" angle grinder isn't really 4 1/2" despite that being what the sticker says.  

The wire brush was difficult to get on under the guard.  It touches the edge.  

I used it anyways.  It chewed up the edge of the guard a little and the grinder has to noticeably work with it on there though.  

After beating up my grinder, I got the trailer frame primed.

While I was waiting for that to dry, I found the wrench for my grinder (the first time I used it after buying a new wrench).  It was actually in a logical place; it was in the drawer right next to my spare grinding discs.  I apparently missed that drawer when I was poking around in the shed for it.  D'oh!

While I had everything out, I decided I might as well repaint the hitch on my truck.  

Sunday I didn't do much.  I slept in (I am sleeping much better on the new mattress) and some storms rolled in early afternoon.  I mostly did chores and spraying down the knotweed.  It looks like the stuff I sprayed last week didn't have much affect.  I went to tractor supply and got regular glyphosate this time since the internet said Home Depot had stopped carrying the stuff I was using (which was actually a lie).  

I did have enough time to put the final paint on both the truck and and the trailer.  I still have the underside to do on the trailer (which is primed, just needs paint), then all that is left on the trailer is the board ties for the ends (which I already have the lumber for).

When it started drizzling I decided to work in the carport.  It has become a mess since the switch to the futon meant cleaning out the house, and a lot of the stuff that was formerly behind the couch ended up in the carport.  I did some organizing and I finally got the ramps hung up.  

On a side note, they apparently decided to use the side nest this year instead of the one in the back.  There are little babies poking their heads up out of the nest now.  Last year they abandoned this nest and built the one all the way inside the carport, this year they used this one.

The trailer isn't done yet, so no movement on the list.

Summer projects:

• Prep truck for trade in
• Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
• Get my power service upgraded
• Shed floor
• Shed doors
• Concrete shed supports
• Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
• Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.  
• Level the side yard.  
• Investigate retaining wall construction. 
• Install windows in the shed.
• Fix/sell the utility trailer.
• Driveway round 5
• Get building permit
• Determine the future method of travel.  Build prototype?
• Come up with garage plans
• Clear walking trails on lot.  
• Build a bridge over the creek