Removing Subfloor, Insulation, and Prepping for Paint

We are now at the point of removing the OSB subfloor and seeing what is left to deal with under the subfloor.  After examining it closely we noticed that it was all one sheet of subfloor.  The subfloor was also screwed down.  To proceed with removing it, we took out the screws in sections then used the awesome sawzall to cut out the sections.  This took a couple of days considering we work in the evenings when my husband gets home. 

Next, after removing the subfloor were 3 large tanks that were also bolted in, another layer of insulation that was attached to the aluminum flashing, wiring, duct work, the potty, and plastic piping.

The tedious chore of removing old glue and OSB.

Water tank waiting for removal

The hard yellow insulation that took a few days to remove

We did lots of work with the hammer and putty knives for the next few days.  We had a lot of blown in insulation around the frame that needed to be removed so we could brush away any rust to prep for painting. 

After much perseverance we finally got down to clean rails!!! 

 

We are currently prepping by sections and painting.  We are really hoping to have it painted and ready for frame building by the weekend.  Hopefully, there will also be some exciting news after Thursday and will update soon!

Getting Rid of Stuff and the Removal of the Camper Shell

We typically take a week to travel to see family and this trip we would only be in NC for 3 days so we were pushed on time to visit family and friends.  We were given beautiful weather to work in a building that was slam, packed full of our stuff that we had to leave when we first moved to New Hampshire.  After going through it we had almost four trailer loads of stuff and we only could bring one trailer back so it was time to purge quickly.  After a phone call, made by my husbands problem solving cousin, we were able to donate almost a trailer load of furniture to a newly married couple.
What to do with the remaining 3 trailer loads??
We hauled the next 3 loads to my mother in laws house and dropped each load off in her yard.  Then we did the daunting task of going through everything and deciding what was to be donated, going to New Hampshire, and garbage.  It actually went faster that I expected and it took one full day from building clean out to sorting to the final load.
So this happened....

What I wanted to donate was put beside the road with FREE signs.  I didn't have the time to try to sell and I just needed to get rid of as much as possible.  This was the beginning of the ever building pile.  The good news, I only had to take a small amount, less than half a trailer load, to the thrift store. 
In the end, we came up with 1/2 trailer load to the garbage, 1/2 to the thrift store, 3/4 to New Hampshire (the other 1/4 was camping gear), 2 1/4 loads given away by the road and to friends of the family.

Once we returned to New Hampshire I was very motivated to get rid of more. My husband and I have went through our closets and was able to get 4 contractor bags FULL of clothes.

After Purging

Before Purging

Before Purging

After Purging

Time for the yard sale...

Kid stuff

Treats and Snacks

Our son had his own area of snacks and popcorn and I think he was more profitable at the yard sale than me.  To help encourage him to sell his things, getting a child to part with their things is no easy task, whatever he picked to put in the yard sale he could keep the money.  That was the motivation he needed! He kept putting things out to try to make more money and he ended up making $54.  To a kid, that's a lot of money.

The yard sale wasn't extremely successful but I already determined that I wasn't bringing it back in the house.  The trailer was loaded again and I took a trailer load to a local thrift store that recently opened in a nearby town.  I think the owner was overwhelmed with the stuff but she was very thankful.

Through all of this, Scripture kept coming to me, especially while purging my clothes.  For some reason, I felt like I needed to hold on to lots of clothes.

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" -Matthew 6:25

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown in to the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

- Matthew 6:28-30

After getting rid of 2 very full contractor bags of my clothes it feels so freeing! I haven't missed any of them and it is much easier picking out what to wear with a less cluttered closet.  I still need to purge my closet one more time because I found a large tub of summer clothes but considering I live where it's winter longer than it is summer this should be much easier. 

We are now in the final stages of getting down to the rails of the camper.  Here is where we are now:

 This is a big step so now after we do some major clean up we will start removing the subfloor and seeing what the rails look like to begin the build.  Exciting stuff right there!

Empty Camper Shell and Successful Craigslist Shopping

 The past few weeks have been really busy with demolition, purging rooms, looking at land to park the Kozy Kottage, and preparing for a camping trip that we have been planning for months to visit the Joel Salatin farm. 

Here is the latest of what has been going on in the Kozy Kottage destruction.  After going through layers of mouse poo filled insulation (YUCK!), foam board, carpet, vinyl flooring, and paneling we have finally reached the aluminum frame.

 As I am writing this my husband has the sawzall cutting through the aluminum frame so hopefully by the end of the week he will have the frame cut off of the trailer.

We love the idea of re-purposing and found people that have been able to use some of the pieces that we don't want.  The windows and door were sold to someone who was building a small camper on their truck, the propane furnace was given to a lady who needed heat for her camper that she currently lives in, and the aluminum frame will be sold/bartered to someone that is building a fishing icehouse.

*My own plug for homeschooling* Through this project we are traveling picking up Craigslist finds throughout New Hampshire.  Today we were talking about the places and decided to flag each spot on our New Hampshire map as a geography lesson for our son.  My son loves to talk to people! Needless to say, he has done lots of talking the past few weeks.  This has been a great all around homeschool project.

We have found some great deals on Craigslist! I have become a Craigslist addict savvy shopper.  A couple of days ago, I got an alert for some free Andersen windows.  After several emails we scheduled a day to go pick them up.  These are heavy duty, double paned, casement windows. This saved us tons of money! They are in great condition and did I mention heavy.  If the ladies of church are reading this, start sneaking in some muscle building protein in your husbands diet because we need the extra muscle for the day we put that beast of a window in the frame. 

The Beast of All Windows

 

 The next Craigslist find we picked up today that was 20 minutes down the road will become sheathing.  We found 20 pieces of OSB in excellent condition for $54.  We need a total of 37 for our Kozy Kottage so this was a huge blessing.  Normally, these cost around $9 a sheet so we basically got 14 pieces for free! The guy threw in a piece of plywood and some other scrap pieces of OSB.  This utility trailer that we built for less than $500 has been a great tool the past few days!

I just LOVE our trailer!

I am off to go rest the back after attempting to help lift those heavy windows. May need to throw in some of that protein in my smoothies.  

How We Made a 10' x 6' Utility Trailer for Less than $500

We have been busy the past couple of weeks doing some demolition but mostly building a trailer so that we can haul stuff that we find on Craigslist, Freecycle, supplies, or lumber from the local sawmill. 

We really want to repurpose or upcycle as much as we can to build our Kozy Kottage so I am always looking for free or great deals.  As I find these deals we have discovered that we have no way to haul these supplies so I was on the hunt for a utility trailer. Utility trailers are not cheap, wow, I had no idea. The cheapest I could find was around $750 used and most are in the thousands.  I found a great deal on a pop up camper trailer, that was already stripped down to the rails, on Craigslist for $300. We offered $250 and the guy accepted our offer. We pulled it home, luckily, it wasn't the adventure that we had with the camper.  We had to start with sanding off any surface rust then applying a primer.

After applying the primer the trailer needed side rails so we repurposed the bed rails from the beds that were in the camper.  My husband used a sawzall to cut up the rails and a welder to put them on the trailer.

Once the side bars were put on we applied a layer of black paint and now it is ready for a floor. Just down the road, 1.5 miles, we have a lumberyard and building supply. We got a really good deal on the lumber since we could buy directly from the supplier.

The trailer is very close to finished just need to add some side walls and possibly some kind of tailgate. The trailer came with all the wiring for lights and electric brakes so I found some trailer light kits at a local bulk supply store for a total of $8. We are already using it to get more lumber and now I can keep looking for building materials on Craigslist or Freecycle! :)

Here is what we have spent to build this 10' 9"x 6' 5" trailer:
Trailer: $250
Side rails: Free re-purposed bed rails
Paint (leftovers will be used on the tiny house trailer): $60
Lumber, Screws, and Washers: $140
Lights: $8
Total: $458.00