October 4, 2015 – While I didn’t meet my self-imposed deadline to officially finish the tiny house, we have made some serious progress. We’ve held my mom hostage a few times and put her to work painting and varnishing our windows. It’s time-consuming and tedious work and I’m super thankful my mom was willing to do it. While she spent a few long weekends working on windows, I’ve been working on the trim work; also time-consuming and tedious. And while my mom and I have been working on the tiny house, Pete has been working on farm projects; the tedious finishing work is not his forte.
Other tasks my mom took on was varnishing the counter top and refinishing the cherry drop leaf table she gave us for the tiny house. Thanks Mom!
We recently dug a trench for a gas line so we could hook up the tiny house to the large propane tank. We also decided to have a concrete slab poured for the tiny house to sit on. The slab is complete and we moved the house onto the slab this morning. We have to wait until next week to have the gas line hooked up and then we’ll get an electrician out to run power to the house. I have more trim and molding to install and will tung oil the walls when that’s complete. And of course, we still need to build the ladder.
Once all of the above is done, we’ll move back in. At that point, I’ll call the house done. However, it will still need kitchen shelves, a couch, two storage ottomans for our feet/dining chairs, and any other finishing touches that make a house a home. But, we’re getting there! 🙂
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- Zoey helped dig the trench.
BIG LAKE ~ tiny house 
Woohoo! I was curious what you all were up to and am happy to see that progress continues. Happy fall!
Thanks Maria! We’re still going strong. Happy fall to you as well!
Hi Pete abd Erin – I just found out about your blog today while attending the Tumbleweed Tiny House workshop in Ann Arbor. Congratulations on your tiny house! : ) I was excited to read that you live near Marquette because that’s where I had just decided I want to live in my tiny house! This spring I’m going to make a trip up to Marquette and look for property. I don’t need much – just a few acres with some trees. I’ll be retired by then (hopefully! ). I’m a backpacker, hiker, bicyclist, and cross-country skier, and Marquette has all that, plus it’s a college town so there are concerts, theatre, etc. But I like the idea of living as simply as possible, so my tiny house will be perfect for my values of lessening my footprint on this beautiful amazing planet we call home. All the best to you both. I will subscribe to your blog. Pax, Kathy Handyside
Hi Kathy! Marquette is a great place. Email me at biglaketinyhouse@gmail.com if you have any questions about the area.
Thanks so much! I attended the Tumbleweed Tiny House building workshop in Ann Arbor a week ago, and bought my plans for the 20′ Linden. I have a cousin who is a licensed contractor/builder and a master carpente and he’s going to be helping me. My brother is good at building and he will be helping me, too, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get the house put together correctly! LOL
Did you have any trouble with municipal regulations or zoning? I’m going to buy my own land – I want to be close to nature, not in the city. I know about U.P. winters and will be doing the extreme weather wall assembly and insulation.
I can’t wait to get started! Hopefully, I will start in the Spring.
All good wishes,
Kathy Handyside
We haven’t run into any problems with zoning issues; however, we stayed under the radar while on our first piece of property and now we’re on property with a so-called existing house. So technically we live in the house and have our tiny house parked out back. I will say though, knowing that we were planning on buying land, sometimes I wish we saved the money and built a small foundation house on the property. The nice thing about building the tiny house was that we were able to start three years before we even had land and could build as we went so I don’t really have regrets. But there are some impracticalities with the tiny house. However, had we bought our land and built a small house we would have had a much larger mortgage, which we were trying to avoid. Regardless, I LOVE my tiny house and we learned a lot and we plan on living in it for a very long time!
I just came here from the other post for your anniversary. That drop-leaf table is precious. What a beautiful gift from your mom! The view from your windows looks heavenly, also. You’ve done such a wonderful job with your place. It’s been fun to follow along.
Thanks Pat!