We took the house out for a spin on Saturday and it was glorious! Watching it pull out of the shop into the sunlight… I felt so proud! For those of you new to our journey, we bought our trailer at the end of February, worked out the design at the end of February / beginning of March, and built our own custom designed Tiny House in ten weeks. We’re moving out of our 2BR-2BA rental house into the new 200sf tiny house this week on Wednesday. We’re parking it on a residential lot here in Prescott, AZ for $300 per month, including all utilities. That’s a savings of about $800 a month.
Without further ado, here’s a photo of the house out of the shop:
Taking the house out for a drive.
Before we could hit the road though, we had to install our front door handle / lock. Which means we have keys to our own house now! Andrew Odom, of Tiny r(e)volution, who interviewed us, asked when the house is going to feel like a home, and I think for me, it was when we got the keys.
Our door handle and house keys!
You can see in this photo just how exciting it was to open the package containing our door handle! Just like Christmas. except better, actually.
Opening the package containing our front door hardware.
Well, you’re probably wondering how the house did out on the road? I was the follow car, and it went great from my perspective! No wobbles, no shaking, just all glorious beauty cruising down the road. We got a LOT of head turns and quick glances in the rearview from anyone who drove by. And I can see why! A house – driving down the road!
Everything held up fine. We actually had two screws sitting on an interior window sill and they didn’t even move! The drywall is great – we didn’t notice any movement or damage, so it’s fine. Which was a relief. Nothing to fix afterwards, or tweak, or anything. Shane did say that the house felt quite heavy behind his truck. It handled it fine, and we measured the truck wheel well before hitching up and after, and it squatted the truck 2-1/2″. Not bad for a house! We kept it around 55-60 mph.
Here are some more photos of the house out and about:
Our house out of the shop.
The touring line-up.
Out for a drive.
Following behind the house on the road.
Getting passed by a motorhome… the house looks so small by comparison!
Then, as we’re heading back to the shop, Shane decides to pull into the gas station to get a cup of coffee. What?!
Grabbing a cup of coffee at the gas station.
The amount of attention received was incredible! The most common question was “What is it?” Really? Oh. It’s a house. (Did we do that bad of a job designing it?! haha.) We gave a tour, chatted it up with folks, and realized we really needed to get business cards made. So that’s what I did yesterday.
Our new business cards
I also took a lot of videos… but wow, do I know NOTHING about making movies. Dangit. They always seem to be in the wrong format when I try to combine the files and edit them. I need to learn how to do this. I’ll work on it and post that later. I’m going to try using Shane’s Mac and iMovie, instead of windows movie maker.
We’re all set up for our interview with ABC on Wednesday morning. then we’ll move the house to our new site that afternoon. Meanwhile… Shane is finishing things up on the house, cleaning the shop, doing dump runs… and I’m… writing blogs! Who got the short end of the stick there? I’m also working my day job, doing laundry, cleaning our big house that we rent, and packing stuff to donate, put in storage, and move into the new Tiny House! “First things first” is my motto. That being said, I still haven’t eaten breakfast. I’m working on it. 
Thanks for following along…
take care,
Carrie
woohoo! congratulations! i love it!
you’ve gotta keep us posted about when your segment will air on ABC! So exciting, congrats to you both! What an adventure you’re embarking on, happy trails! (or parking)
hi Sarah,
yes, we’ll let you know when we’ll be on the news. and we’ll ask for a copy of the segment so we can put it on our site too. happy parking, I like that.
- Carrie
I am so daggum proud of y’all and so happy for y’all. I can’t wait to see a pic of the Clothesline Cruiser in her spot with maybe a few flowers or cactuses potted around her and then a big honkin’ clothesline flappin’ in the breeze!
Congratulations, my friends.
I wish I could come and snap on y’all shoulders (you know, pop your collar) and say something witty like “Your tiny has been pimped” or something. HAHAHAHAHA
Hahaha! I wish you were here to pop our collar bones too? oh wait, is that a sign of affection or pride? we can’t wait to set up the clothesline!!!
Yipee!!!!!!!!! How exciting for you guys, can’t wait to see it set up. I think your business cards are adorable, however, you might want to double check them, I think you left off a parentheses on the phone number….
Hmmm, yes, I meant to only use one parenthesis. thanks though! and thanks for the excitement!
Thank goodness that’s how you intended it to be, I had this horrible thought that you’d had sent it to the printers already. Didn’t mean to butt in, but had thought with everything you had to do in the home stretch, that maybe it was just a formatting issue. My bad
w00t!
I’d be curious to find out what it weighs. Are there any truck scales nearby? Sometimes landfills have scales for weighing dump trucks that pay by the ton to dump trash. If you had an idea of the weight, you might be able to find out how close, or not, the trailer is to capacity.
hey Dave,
we’ll let you know the weight.
yes, we definitely want to run the house through the dump scale and see how much it weighs. we wish we would have weighed the trailer itself prior to starting… next time.
- Carrie
Can you get your original trailer weight from your registration or maybe the manufacturer?
Wonderful!
So glad to hear that your drywall handled the travels.
Woohoo – it looks fabulous! Love all the pics of the interior finish. All is so tastefully done. I bet you would have quite the turnout for an open house. Any plans to do that in the future? How wonderful to have a home that is truly ALL YOURS – congratulations. You two are just incredible!
Amazing that this was once just an idea on paper. To see the house outside, on the road; wonderful! Just gotta say again, I’m still glad that roof angle made the cut! The design of this baby is so distinctive.
Do the tires extend out beyond the fenders? Here in NJ, that’s not legal. Also, here in NJ; your incinerator toilet exhaust extends out beyond the legal width.
Please don’t think I’m a Debbie Downer, I’m just looking out for you! I truly am excited for you both, you’ve done a fantastic job and I have followed every step!
I LOVE IT! So excited for you. Hope you have many happy years in your tiny house…
Wow!
WELL DONE guys! Looks great and obviously everyone thought so too by the siund of it! I am really interested to be kept updated about the dry walling (or Plaster as we call it in the UK) as to whether it cracks: this will mean driving it about, so don’t get too settled on your parking pitch!!
LOVING the business cards: they really look SUPERB. Love ‘em.
Well GOOD LUCK guys, sit back inside the house and marvel at what you’ve done and remember to expect the ups and downs of unconventional living: being prepared to make the little sacrifices will keep you in a positive frame of mind,
Best wishes Steve
amazing! Love all the pictures!
what a fresh and unique take on a tiny house on wheels. i like this think-outside-the-box box you’ve built! best wishes in your move!
I couldn’t be more excited for the two of you…..
There is something to be said for putting pen to paper and ultimately standing back and looking at the realization of the vision.
I love this style, I love that it has lofts as well as a bed that you don’t have to climb into a loft to get to, it looks comfortable, peaceful and like you could be very happy there….
Congratulations!
All of these things said and more! You guys are amazing! I love the door handle, and the cards, and everything else
So awesome…. Move it to the beach!
Pingback: Out for a Drive – Part III – Our finished Tiny House « Clothesline Tiny Homes
Hello, my name is Jake. I am interested in building my own tiny home and I appreciate your blog and detail. The work looks great and ideas are sound. For now I have one question about the residential lot with RV hook ups. Could you clarify or provide more details about the lot. I am currently in a bind trying to find a friend or place that would be willing to let me park the tiny home in their yard. I was wondering what type of residential area you found, and how you went about finding out about it. What sort of places did you contact in when looking for a place to park the home? Thanks. jbhaggy@gmail.com.
hi Jake!
we just looked on craigslist for the first space we rented for our house. it was just space on a landlord’s property where a garage had been torn down so there was a concrete slab. the landlord had added a water spigot, 30amp power, and a sewer connection.
Now we are living on our family’s land and we had to bring water and power out to our tiny house site from their water supply and electrical box.
If your house is small and efficient enough you my just be able to get by with an extension cord and a garden hose coming from a friend’s garage…
best of luck!
Carrie