5 things I Learned So Far About Building a Tiny House on Foundation for Shellmate Island

I think if you would have asked me a year ago what would life look like one year from then, I would have told you something along the lines of: "I will be living on Shellmate Island and cruising on my vintage bike with Sam around Sarasota to all the good food and local water holes 🍻". The reality today? We got cabinets installed this week and I still mind wrestling with the GC and some contractors on things that need to get done or need to be redone. 🙄 The process from buying raw land to building a house, let alone a house that has an exception for almost anything, is a long exhausting process. I know it will be worth it so we keep on grindin’ our hearts out into it.

I wanted to make this list not to just blab about things but in hope that someone considering doing something similar will take these words seriously. I heard a couple of the things I list below such as "Account for being 1/3 over budget", but my response to this was "I am frugal and trust me, I can stick with the budget". Well, after living through over-budget after over-budget that person was right, as always, thanks Dad. And secondly, I wanted to share some advantages as compared to a tiny house on wheels. Weeks ago we joined Alan from DreamBigLiveTiny for his new up and coming podcast. I mentioned that for some reason tiny homes on a foundation aren't as popular as tiny homes on wheels. There are a ton of advantages to having a mobile home, don't get me wrong. But, looking into the future, the structure that's already in place for buildings makes this seem like a smaller hurdle, making tiny living more accessible to a larger audience. That's a whole other blog post or talk, anyways, on with the almighty catchy blog post list!

1. More freedom in the space than Tiny House on Wheels

Not having our tiny house on wheels means we are able to build different kinds of structures and shapes. With tiny houses on wheels, there are obviously certain road requirements you need to abide by. Such as 8 feet wide is standard until it's considered an "oversized" load. Height requirements are typically around 13.4ft tall so that you can get under most bridges. These things and more such as weight, limit what you are able to do with something on wheels.

Having the ability to make our new home octagonal created a space that is much more open. Rather than having a rectangle, the space has transformed a tiny house (320sqft) into an open floor plan and a home that feels so much bigger even my mom can sit in and not feel claustrophobic. It’s quite mind-boggling once you're physically in the space.

2. 1/3 Over Budget Across the Project

As mentioned above, this is a big one for me. I didn't think this would happen to me, but I still budgeted that it would be 1/3 over so I wasn't in a situation where I was caught with my pants around my ankles. It’s almost scary how well that over-budget was 1/3 down to a science with almost every quote we received. You feel you’ve thought of everything it would take to complete a task and something pops up where you miscalculated and now all of a sudden you’re looking at about 1/3 over budget.

You can almost smell the contactors that you know are going to be over budget and typically once the job has already started or towards the end, something will happen or a change to the task will need adjustment and ends up being 1/3 more. I can give you countless examples but won't bore you with that, just trust me, please. Take this as if it was written in stone by Moses himself.

If you’re going through a GC this typically doesn't apply to anything other than things they classified as a $$ "allowance". This gives them the ability to say it was over-budget or an upgrade aside from what the contract says. On our project, we were able to see both sides of how it works since we used some of the GC contractors and some of the contractors I found. In some cases even, being 1/3 over budget, we were still able to save money from what the GC quoted us.

3. The County Can Be Friendly and Helpful for Tiny Houses

I think the county gets a negative view in the tiny house world since they don't allow tiny house on wheels in certain areas. I agree that they shouldn't be such sticklers on that topic but let's put those differences aside and talk about the zoning/building department on the laws already in place.

Sarasota County was amazing. I could ask them as many questions without feeling like I was bothering them. They knew I had no clue what I was talking about but were patient enough with me knowing I want to not only learn the process but help make my goals a reality to better the community in some small weird way.

Typically they got back to me within 24-48 hours and didn't treat me like some young kid. I've even thought about dropping off a basket of mangos from Shellmate to Chris and his team in the zoning department since they were so helpful.

And as far as inspectors, most contractors will tell you they are hard to work with and will flag you for this or that. Well, they saved our butts a couple of times from contractors cutting corners or doing subpar work. I am extremely grateful there are inspectors out there that are sticklers to make sure our home is built right.

4. Construction Isn't As Intimidating As It Looks

Projects around the home can be over thought, but once you get the first couple steps down its not rocket science. The start is always the hardest but after that, it's just doing it. You CAN do it.

I was scared to do things like tiling the shower but once we got things rolling it wasn't too bad. It’s not done perfectly but it's perfectly imperfect in some cases. I think this can apply to life in general also. Just go out and try new things you'll only get better.

5. Timelines don't exist despite what contractors say

I am not sure we had a single project that stayed with the original timeline. You are relying on one contractor to finish up before another contractor can do his job ect. Where we build, in Florida, the supply and demand is crazy for contractors. They are so booked up they barely have time for new jobs. Also, the reality of a tiny home, it’s a small project which can mean small profits for them compared to a traditional home. And when they are overbooked guess what gets put back on the burner, the tiny home. Some will say “oh that won’t happen to me. I’ll be more strict with them” well they will realize you have no control if they show up or not, especially when good work is hard to come by.

Hopefully, this will help give you a couple of things I learned so far and be prepared for your build!

-Tim