The build, in brief
Tiny House Build
The Strickland Chateau, as it is now being affectionately called, was a dream I had when I first purchased the property in August of 2019. As I looked down, daily, from the main house at this sort of flat area about 300 ft down below, I thought, hmm... this would be a great place to develop a small house. Make it a place to hangout or maybe even rent for the weekend or rent out to small weddings.
As you can see in the gallery, this property came with a fantastic view, so it was hard to pass on this vision. Two years later, I rented a small excavator and began the work of flattening it out. I spent about 3 days learning how to drive the thing. Then it was on like Donkey Kong. I kept working at it 3 to 4 hours a day and longer on the weekends till I had the entire area flat (took about a month) and I could drive and park my Terrain on it. I thought if I could do that, then it'd be good to go... I did (see the pictures in the gallery).
Once it was flat, I started buying the material to build the foundation of the tiny house, then frame it and build the carcass. I soon learned that I had no idea what I was doing, so I enlisted the help of a few friends. One guy, Weyland, was, thankfully, an expert at building these small houses and was looking for some work. He became my right-hand man and together we built the house and the foundation for the gazebo.
After that was done, Weyland, well, let's just say, wasn't allowed to come into the town anymore, so I had to move on.
My friend and neighbor Dustin helped me next... together, we built the gazebo as best we could, but we lacked the engineering knowledge to fortify it, so for about two years it felt like it would topple over. I spent those two years having nightmares whenever I heard that a strong wind was blowing through... but somehow it held on... so that was great.
Then, through sheer luck, I found some homies, my close friends now, and they have since helped me with fortifying the gazebo. It's so strong now, I can't even shake it... yes!! They built the retaining walls, cleared all the weeds and made the place look nice.
Next on the list is to finish up the yard and the inside of the house. I have already piped in all the electrical wiring... a guy I worked with was, in his previous life, an electrician, so he helped me design the entire thing... like Steve Jobs says, he's never been turned down asking people for help... and I never turn anyone down if they ask me for help... gotta help it forward or however that saying goes.
Most of the material is from Home Depot with the exception of a few items that I found here and there.
Check out the gallery.
It's still a work in progress but almost finished, but really, it'll probably never be finished.
