I’ve been silent I know. The timeline for the tiny house is far from tiny. Progress is creeping along.
About six weeks ago our construction drawings were completed. This set of drawings includes everything either a contractor or manufacturer needs to know in order to price the site work and the house itself and consists of:
• a site plan;
• a foundation plan and foundation details;
• the house plan with attached deck;
• a reflected ceiling plan, primarily showing lighting;
• a roof plan;
• four elevation drawings;
• four internal sections;
• detailed wall sections;
• bathroom elevations, showing the location of shower, toilet, sink , mirrors, etc;
• a finish schedule;
• a barn door detail (for the bathroom door); and
• a bed and floor detail.
Since the house is small, we decided to pick very good finishes, including beautiful tiles for the bathroom, lots of built-ins for storage, a gorgeous appliance package, high-quality windows, great light fixtures, a lovely wooden floor and even a bed. We’d like the house to be a perfect gem and wanted to see what we could afford. We sent the drawings to a manufacturer to price the house itself and also to a local contractor to price the foundation and site work. Alas, both were much too expensive. Rather than value engineer (reduce the quality of fixtures and finishes), we decided to send the drawings out again, this time for a bid from a group of smaller contractors, all who would build the house from ground up. Keep in mind that each contractor must get prices for not only the materials they will have to purchase, but also sub-contractors they will employ (such as electricians and plumbers), so it takes time to put a bid together.
And so we wait again.