2017 Projects' Review: A Home For Every Trailer

With the decision not to show came the need for a temporary trailer home - not for me, of course but having the trailer outside come sun come snow was not an option. I spend hours polishing it and a year without traveling and waiting outside would increase this effort tremendously. Thus, I decided to build a trailer home.

How difficult could it be to build a semi-open shed? When it comes to trailer dimensions: very difficult. I had no idea that building something more than 3 meters high would be so annoying. And heavy. And dusty. And fragile. Oh my God was the thing shaking before we put up the walls. Even though I had never build something that big before it worked out in the end and the trailer is now safe and sound in his new home - even though I have to admit it is pretty... crooked. And mathematically speaking it is not a rectangle but a parallelogram. But honestly, that is something we only realized when we put on the roof. Nothing a chainsaw and buzz saw could not mend *sigh*



It started off with a little research on Home Depot's website.



I quickly realized that the measurements of the trailer would never ever ever ever fit into the standard solutions that you can get - of course with little adaptions. So we decided to start over from scratch.



On the way to the barn, somebody else just had a carport built. I guess it was professionally set up, unlike the one that we did.

First of all, you need a little concrete - for the deep-foundation. You could have asked the company to bring some with a truck OR you borrow your neighbor's tractor and go for it. It was only a few kilometers but the whole town came to a hold because we were that slow on the roads.

Then we ordered natural finish timber. At least, in that case, the five and four meter beams were delivered. There is a need for certain professionalism here. And you guessed it, I CONSIDERED transporting them with the trailer (would have been a bad idea). Well, natural finish means a little extra work, thanks to my Dad, he did it all by himself. Guess where the shavings ended up? Right, my dad packed them neatly in plastic bags and they now live in the trailer. Well, yeah.

 After that, we could cut the timber according to my gorgeous plans and put the first one up:

Ok, do not ask how we manage (it was only my dad and me) to put another one up and then linking the two with rail - all of that with only two ladders of which one was too short actually, nothing to lean against and in more than three meters hight! I almost died of fear of dying! But at the end of day 1, we had two U-shapes:

Putting up the middle rest was awful and while trying to fix the middle, the back part almost fell over. At least, no one was injured and after day 2, we had three rests and 9 cross rails in place. The foundations were laid.

Day 3 showed how tilted and not rectangular the whole thingy was. At least, there was the basis for the roof.

Due to "some" minor (major!) measurement errors, the whole carport was, let's say "mobile". So we needed to set up some walls to fix the unwanted movement. Nevermind, my dad was tilting back and forth while putting up the boards for the roof. Oh, I forgot, the timber itself was skewed as well - which you will never see in the pictures as I have chosen the perfect angle where the carport almost looks perfect...

A little more cosmetics with green blinds that should keep off the sun and we called it a day (4).

It soon turned colder so we had to wait a little (oh yes, there was Christmas and New Year's in between as well, and me being sick) to put up the tar paper but with that, the major work was done. I ordered a color-changing remote-controlled LED light which now gives me the possibility to light the trailer home in 14 different colors - there is even a disco mode. Party!

Last week, it snowed. It seems that the roof can keep up with the weight as well:

Oh I love looking at my first DIY trailer home. Next time, I need to be a little more precise I guess bit apart from that, it keeps the trailer comfy.

A special thanks to my Dad, who did most of the work with me and my mum, who cooked tea and food and even more food and my brother for all his tools he borrowed me.

Who is in for building my dream house next?