semi-trailer house

The Lift Bed: Four Years Later, Here’s the Verdict.

If you’ve followed the build, you know the bed goes up into the ceiling. What you probably don’t know is the myriad of optimistic/terrible ideas I went through before landing on the one that actually worked.

Attempt one was basically a forklift. A full structural mechanism was desired, but there were too many load calculations for my brain to comprehend or even bother dealing with. This one was mostly chasing an aesthetic rather than a solution however. Then it occurred to me I could just put cables on each corner instead, and suddenly the engineering genius I thought I needed to be turned out to be unnecessary. A few more dead ends followed, hidden weight panels, a powered mechanism, roller tracks, before the cable and counterbalance system won by simply being the one that didn’t fall apart on paper.

The real problem was that our roof is foam filled vinyl and was never going to hold the 220 kilos this system needed. The fix came from some heavy duty poles I’d salvaged off the trailer’s old back doors, which happened to be exactly the right length to span the whole thing and let the load hang off the rigid frame instead of the roof. Very deceptive looking at it now. A genuinely absurd amount of planning went into something that just looks like a bed with cables at the corners.

The other half of the counterbalance is a cabinet of secondhand gym weights, because apparently the structural integrity of my bedroom now rests on bargain-bin dumbbells someone was desperate to offload. I’m choosing to see that as resourceful rather than concerning!

Getting the height right was its own litany of challenges – and I still got it wrong. I built the cabinetry early, guessed at clearances, forgot to account for the pulleys, and then we upgraded the mattress a few years later just to make my past self look even more optimistic. Somehow it all still lines up, in both bed mode and the dining chair, boat seat, feature wall version of the room.

So how do I feel about it four years on? Genuinely good, mostly. It works exactly as a bed should, hasn’t dragged us into the ceiling in our sleep, and the storage box access underneath is pretty cool and handy. It’s not perfect though. Heidi has strong opinions about changing the sheets on it. It’s a bit noisy going up and down, easy to knock off balance, and slow enough to deploy that we often just don’t bother and treat it like a normal bed with junk shoved underneath.

What I’m actually proud of isn’t the carpentry, it’s that this was a physics problem wearing a carpentry costume, and it came in thousands $$ cheaper than anything commercial. Check out the full build, how it works for us and my verdict in all its glory on the video on YouTube.

If you’ve ever built anything with a counterbalance or a load-bearing mechanism, tell me your version of the story. Even if it involves secondhand gym equipment!

View of the back of a semi-trailer tiny house entrance

My First Client Build — Done…but there’s a catch.

I’m Glad This Build Is (mostly) Done. I’m Proud of It!

Building for a client is a different beast to building for yourself. With my own tiny house, the frustrations were mine to deal with on my own terms. This time there were two of us invested in the outcome, and we didn’t always share the same vision. That added a layer of pressure I felt pretty much every day on site.

This was my first semi trailer tiny house client build and I’ll be honest, it took a lot out of me physically. I’m not as young as I used to be 😛, and tiny house construction has a way of reminding you of that fairly regularly. But there’s something that happens when one of these builds finally comes together; suddenly all the sore muscles get a bit forgotten in place of what has turned out to be a successful project.

Make no mistake; there were heaps of moments during this build where the stress was genuinely dragging me down mentally as well. Anyone who’s built anything with their hands knows that the Instagram version of the process and the reality of it are two completely different things. The reality involves frustration, mistakes, and days where you seriously question why you bothering with ay of it. I had way, way many of those. What I try to remember is that momentum builds the further you get in, and eventually the thing starts looking like something. I don’t understand the psychology exactly, but it’s like a bit of positive reinforcement or affirmation makes the hurdles and pain leak out of your brain.

The house itself turned out really well. Loaded with all the niceties: composting toilet, Cubic Mini fireplace, ducted aircon, bespoke cabinetry, a walk-in wardrobe that would embarrass most apartments — it punches well above its weight for the footprint. I lived alongside it for months during the build and genuinely think whoever ends up in that space is going to have a good life in it.

What made this one harder and also better than expected was the collaboration itself. The client was detail-oriented and deeply invested. My wife, who is a hawk-level critic, came and had a look and was quick to point things out. Between the two of them, I was pushed to dot my i’s and cross my t’s. The finished house is genuinely better for it, I’m sure.

The circumstances around what happens to it next are out of everyone’s hands, which is disappointing after a year and a half of work. That and councils interfering where they don’t need to, but that’s a topic for another post. At least it got built, and whoever ends up living in it gets a well-considered, eco-conscious little space that I’d be comfortable putting my name on.

Anyway, It’s done! And I’m pretty proud of it. 😊🙌🏼

For some work-in-progress footage and photos, check out my first post about this build.

The Perils of living in a house on tyres

Do tiny house tyres explode? Unlike some tiny houses which live on small trailers and get propped up off their tiny wheels when parked, it’s a bit different with our semi-trailer home.

In this short video, we respond to questions of how durable our tiny home tyres are and how we have prepared for their support and maintenance. Enjoy and thanks for watching! 💚