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Our Tiny House. Part 4. Working on the inside.

Almost ready to move in.

With our last post we had the hull and the electricity done. Now we move on to the interior.

Since I liked the rustic barn-style look of the under construction planks, we decided to leave a part of the under construction planking visible. Since we did not plane these planks we could not leave it all like this because of the children. We do not want them to get grinder when they walk along the wall. Therefore we started adding planed planks up to a curtain height. We put the heater back right away, since it is getting colder.

For the main part of the Tiny House we used Spruce. Only at the entrance we used Larchwood.

At the corner where the stacked bed for the 2 older kids will go, we added planed planks up to the sealing. We added in an ornament by using Spruce and Larchwood and we used a different orientation as the planks below. We love how it turned out.

We put in the basic construction of the kitchen, so we could lay the floor. The kitchen is not finished yet, so the kitchen will be covered in a different post. We laid a laminate and used Larchwood for the trimming. We are not big fans of laminate, but at the moment it is the most practical for us.

We used a minimalistic trim out of planed Spruce around the windows.

Next thing we put in our beds and dressers. Some of you might recognise them from Ikea. The 2 older kids wanted to paint there dressers them selves and give it there best shots. They had a lot of fun painting. Then we added an old cupboard which we decorated with some life edge Larchwood to make it pretty.

With the small room that should become the bathroom, we did not really know what to do. We need the room for storage and really wanted to move in. We did not have the wood to finish this room, so we put some cardboard on the walls to prevent grind from getting on our clothes and other things we wanted to store there. Some day we will change this room, but for now with a composting toilet in there and the storage it is just as we need it.

Than we have the wardrobe to do. We already have the Larchwood on the lower wall, but in order to hang our coats without getting grind in there we need to cover more of the wall. We decided on a bit of a contrast. We put up some screen printing plates which are black. We put up a lower wardrobe for the kids and one on a normal height for us adults. And for some storage we put in another old cupboard decorated with some life edge Spruce.

We also put a shelf on the wall with some decorative lantern and a small drawing. This drawing symbolizes our dream.

A small farm on which we can provide for all of our needs ourselves.

Now we have moved in with at least a sink in the kitchen. Once the kitchen is finished I will post about it.

Cutting back Willow Trees

We did some necessary cutting on our Willow Trees, which turned out to be ill

When we bought our property it has been neglected for 10 years. So the willow trees where very dens and big. Far too big for the type of willow tree and our windy location. So one of the first things we did was to shorten the willow trees. Not all of them but all the dangerous ones first. This was 3 years ago. 2 years later we did the remaining big trees.

Now it is time to start maintaining the willow trees. Normally you cut back every other willow tree and the next year you cut back the other trees. This keeps the habitat for the wildlife available and the willow trees that are not cut back still function as a wind breaker.

Unfortunately our willow trees are not very healthy. We have a lot of problems with the willow borer and even the small branches have holes from them. You normally would cut the trees down by the roots and hope that you can kill the larva of by drowning them with rain water. The branches need to be shredded so the larva in there get killed. The willow borer lays its eggs under need the bark and the larva eat there way up the tree about a meter.

To start a few pictures from before we started cutting down.

All of the smaller branches we cut with a hand tree saw. These branches are too small to cut with a chainsaw. But therefore this was a fun family job. The kids helped with stacking the branches to piles which the tractor could pick up and bring to where they get shredded.

We do not cut the willow trees down at ground level, but we leave a meter or so. This will be the main trunk and all new growth will be cut back every other year to this height. After a number of years this will look like the willow tree has a head with hair. This was very common in this region.

Sometimes you will find some nice things wile working in nature, like this mushroom growing on a willow tree.

We also had a bigger tree to cut down with the chainsaw. These branches we collected and brought away with the tractor and the winch.

Some more smaller willow bushes to cut back.

And piles of branches to bring to the wood chipper.

One of our friends has an organic farm where he produces eggs and he likes to use woodchips in his chicken houses. So the branches where shredded into one of his containers and put to good use. In return we get some manure from him for our garden.

Here we want to take out some willow trees which grew on the concrete. Some soil has been blow on here and the trees grew in that. Now we want to clear the concrete, so we have some more space to move around with the tractor. We have an entrance to our barn here. Also these willow trees are not rooted very well due to the concrete, so they could be blown over very easily.