Things You Didn’t Know About Going Off Grid that sucks
7 Things You Didn’t Know About Going Off Grid That Sucks
I have been semi off the grid for just about two years now. I moved to the off grid tiny house in January 2015. There were a lot of things I didn’t know about going off grid. On a lot of the youtube videos and blogs they only tell you all the great things about going off the grid. No one talks about the parts of Going Off Grid That Sucks.
I do love my simple life in my tiny house and never want to go back. I don’t want to discourage anyone following their dreams. If you are don’t listen to any assholes on the internet telling you anything. You follow your passion to where it takes you.
This post is to make you aware of a few things that no one tells you about going off the grid. I went from living in an apartment my whole adult life to owning my tiny house and having land around me. Definitely a big change.
You may be familiar with the word homesteading but may not be quite sure what it means. Homesteading is all about living a self-sufficient lifestyle. It is about being more reliant on the earth and nature, using less energy, recycling, growing your own vegetables, perhaps raising chickens and living off the grid. With these 7 Hacks for Homesteading with Almost No Money you wont have to spend a fortune.
Today I have another update for the tiny house build. I shot some new video after the ceiling was up. There is a bit more done after the video. Finally all the ceiling boards are up. In the video there is still a gap in the ceiling. We had to cut boards to fit where the boards met. Above the loft we removed the support brackets to give more head space. The rest of the ceiling has a flat area in the center. As of right now where they meet is a hollow triangle that needs to be covered.
I’ve touched on this subject before. Overcome and adapt. With the tiny house build I’ve embraced it further. Many will fall apart when they get to a problem. Things have to work out right or they loose it. I would be screwed if that was the case. House building will teach you to overcome and adapt.
It’s like a battle between you and the house. The house will only accept you if you can beat it. For being such a small house it has thrown a lot at me. Today I just got two more delays. Making the movie in deadline of a week from now seem that much harder. I’ll overcome and adapt of course. I’m already thinking of solutions. My impatience is kicking in though.
Another update on the tiny house build going on at Dual Homestead. Smitty and I have been killing it. Even with my recent winter cold. I shot some video after a long day out there. I went back one more time but was so tired I didn’t get any video. This update has two major completions. With the move in date getting closer the need to be done is ramping up.
Plywood Walls Going Up
The walls are finally going up. In fact they went up surprisingly fast. Which was what I thought. I figured using plywood sheets instead of drywall would go very fast. I did not realize how many pieces would need to be cut though. Which turned out to be every sheet. Not a single one went up whole. With that said though we covered the walls in two days of hard work.
The back wall still has a piece to go up. We are building a wall for the bathroom. The ceiling still needs to be covered as well. As you can see in the video though the rest is up. We have not even stained the walls yet and they already look great. The next step on the walls is to fill holes with wood filler, sand and stain it.
I’m still going back and forth on whether I want to use a stain with or without polyurethane. Do I want them shiny or not? Still not completely sure on the stain color either. I’m leaning towards no polyurethane in a red oak. We will see though.
Insulation Is Finally Done
Doing the insulation on the ceiling was becoming a pain in my ass. The problem was the ceiling rafters are about 22 inches apart. The insulation we had was 15 inch wide. Our original plan was to cut down one piece and add to a whole one to make up the difference. Doing this on a ceiling was nigh impossible. It took me about 30 minutes to get up one piece. And it looked like crap.
So the solution was to go get the right size insulation. I also picked up some metal rods to hold them in place. Those speed up the process. I got the entire ceiling done in a few hours. It was so rewarding to see so much progress. Now we just need to get the plywood up there. I can’t wait to show you guys the finished house.
