The Tiny house is home!!!

Hey Smidgers!

I have great news! The Tiny House is home. It has been a crazy few weeks or so. Sit back and let me tell you all about it.

I came home from work in early October with plans to get the Tiny house ready to move then, but life got in the way as it is prone to do. I have had a small umbilical hernia for a while now that hasn’t really been giving me any trouble, however, it decided to pick this time to tear more and start causing me some problems. After talking to my doctor, it was decided that I should have surgery to repair the hernia. This set me back six to eight weeks. Grrr!

I had the surgery on October 27th and was given orders to not lift anything for at least six weeks. This really put a damper on doing anything to get the Tiny ready to move. Those six weeks seemed to drag on forever. It was killing me not being able to lift anything. Of course, The Lovely Amy was there making sure I followed the doctor’s orders to the letter. Mostly.

After six weeks, we hit the ground running.

First I had to move it from my Brothers driveway where it was being built. I’m sure he was happy about that.

Since the Tiny was built on an old homemade farm trailer from Texas, I had to have it inspected by the Louisiana State Police before I got it registered. I towed it to the State Police office to get it inspected. This was one of the most nerve-wracking parts of the whole operation. I was basically towing an unregistered trailer down the Highway. I was so nervous the whole time. I could just imagine getting pulled over and having to explain to the police officer that the State Police told me to tow an unregistered trailer to their office to get inspected. I’m sure that that would have flown like a lead balloon. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. I got it inspected and registered without any trouble.

After I left the State Police office, I towed the Tiny to our “Big” house. It was exciting seeing it at our house finally.

The neighbourhood we live in has an HOA and covenants that forbid trailers and RV parking in driveways, so before we moved the Tiny, we got permission from our HOA to have it in our driveway for a few days. This didn’t mean that we didn’t get dirty looks from the little old ladies that cruise the neighbourhood looking for violations. When we saw them drive by and stare, the Lovely Amy and I would just smile and wave. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the little ladies went to the HOA and tattled on us, only to be told that we have permission.

While backing the Tiny into our driveway, I managed to give the tiny house hauler what my friend calls a “character dent”. I was backing in and was watching the house, and trying to listen to The Lovely Amy give me directions. As I was watching the edge of the house, The Lovely Amy yelled something at me. I went to look at her to see what she was saying and heard a small crunch. Ugghhh!!! Well, it is a truck. A few dents make it look like it is a working truck. The good news is that it didn’t kink the metal or chip the paint so I should be able to have the dent rolled out. Hopefully, it won’t be too expensive.

Once we finished getting the tiny loaded and ready for the road, we hired a professional driver to move it to its new home. I have never been so nervous watching the Tiny pull away. Completely out of our control. The move was expensive, but I really didn’t feel comfortable moving the Tiny that far by myself. That and the mover was insured so if something happened during the move, we wouldn’t be out a ton of money.

The move was supposed to take about 12 hours, but there were a few hiccups during the move. The rear lights look ok in the picture, but the driver called me a few hours into the move and told me that the lights are hard to see because of where they are installed and how much the house overhangs the trailer. He had to add some temporary lighting for the move. After the lighting situation was taken care of, it started raining and a thick fog rolled in. The driver decided to stop for the night because it was almost impossible to see with the fog.

Once the fog lifted the second day, the driver was able to make pretty good time considering the weight of the Tiny house.

The move ended up taking about 30 hours or so, but finally, I got texted this picture…

So all told it took about six months longer than originally estimated, but the Tiny House is home! Finally. I can’t even begin to describe the relief.

We were planning on following the Tiny up to North Carolina, but on the day of the move, The Lovely Amy came down with the flu. Ugghh… So we have to wait a little while to go up to where it is. In the meantime, The Lovely Amy recorded a walkthrough video to show everybody what we have done.

The daughter loves the fact that it is at her house so we have our own little getaway for when we go visit her and the grandkids. We are so excited.

So that’s about all that’s been happening in Smidges little world.

Tinys are love people!