It’s the little things

Today was kind of a big day. We finished putting the flashing on the trailer! For those of you that don’t know what flashing is – no, it is NOT the act of showing your bits and pieces to unsuspecting passersby – it is thin sheet metal, or other material, that is meant to act as a water/weather/insect/rodent barrier.

There are many steps in building a Tiny House and like any building, it starts from the ground up. For us, our “foundation” is a custom-built 22ft trailer. Since our foundation will be rolling down the highway, we needed to protect the underside from the elements using such flashing.

The reason this is a big deal is because we have finished a step! We have spent so many days prepping and planning and buying a ton of stuff, and driving all over Missouri and Arkansas to get said stuff, that it was starting to feel like we were never gonna start building this thing! On top of that, this step was a difficult one, not only mentally, but physically (poor Anderson!). Without going into too much technical detail (if you want that, watch the videos we will be posting on our YouTube page), Anderson figured out a way to install the flashing so that he didn’t have to crawl under the trailer and drill straight up, into thick metal, for days on end. This meant, however, spending much more time in the shop cutting and bending the flashing into a bunch of trays that would sit between the metal beams that span the trailer. This proved to be a back-saving, yet, still very time-consuming task.

Both Anderson and I sometimes have a tendency to get overwhelmed by looking at the big picture. We forget that all we need to do is focus on the small (tiny?) steps directly in front of us. We are working on slowing down and using this as a lesson as we move forward in this huge Tiny House adventure. So at the end of a long day, we tell ourselves we are celebrating Step 1 of the build by soaking our feet in epson salt and drinking whiskey in fancy glasses. But, who are we kidding? We do this most nights.

Tomorrow we insulate the floor!!

Picking up the trailer…isn’t it beautiful?!

Cutting the flashing. Buckley likes to watch. He’s gonna build his own tiny dog house one day.

Putting the trays in.

Had to make different trays for the sides.

Taping the seams with metal tape.

So shiny!

The flashing is DONE!

Buckley is either totally judging us or REALLY wanting a sip. #probablyjudging