Frequently Asked Questions on the Road
This blog was primarily created for our friends and family to know how & where we were and what we were up to. Along this journey, we have met more of our human family who are curious about our tiny house. As we listened to their questions about Casita Grande, we decided to make this page for them/you!
1. Did you build this?
No. But we worked with a contractor, Nook Tiny Homes (Spicewood, TX), who put our design ideas into this custom built tiny house on wheels. The 35’ gooseneck trailer “foundation” was manufactured by L&D Trailers in Missouri and included the porch extension (an extra 4’) that folds up for travel. It took around four months for the house to be ready for move in, which we did the Summer of 2019.
2. How much does it weigh? Do you pull it with that truck?
Fully loaded with our stuff, the house weighs about 20K lbs. Yes, that’s fairly heavy but also comparable to the larger Class A Motorhomes or Toy Hauler RVs out there. We go slowly and ideally only move the house 2-3 times a year. Yes, our fantastic truck, Babs, pulls the house really well. She’s a Chevy Silverado, 3500 dually, and can pull 23K lbs. So maybe we should get some more stuff?! 🙂
3. How tall is it?
On the high side of the pitched roof, the house is 12’11.” To be road legal, you must stay under 13’6” high and 8’6” wide. Folks often comment that the house looks taller than many RVs. In fact, many of the large ones reach around 13′ high, but mainly due to the A/C units etc. on top.
4. What’s the square footage?
In classic, he said she said: If you ask, Jesse, he’s says 280. Khara says 300. Our bedroom is over the gooseneck. Go down a few stairs and the bathroom is on your right. Above it, is a storage loft. Then you enter the main room, which is floor to ceiling kitchen/living space all the way out to the porch. A literal catwalk wraps around this main space starting from the loft. We wanted extra room for our cats to explore and plenty of windows for natural lighting.
5. Some other basics…
We don’t function off grid: no water tanks, propane or solar panels. Maybe one day, we’ll add these components in. But for now, we use water, sewer and 50amp hookups, fairly standard at RV parks. A ductless, mini split provides our heat and air conditioning. We have a small oven, apartment-sized fridge and small stackable washer/dryer.
6. Are you retired? What do you do for a living?
We are not retired. We wanted to travel before we reach retirement to allow us to explore more places with more physical capability. Commonly we are workamping, working for employers who offer RV spots as part of their compensation. Workamper.com is our primary resource for finding these kinds of jobs. Other times, we are working local, part time jobs in combination with camp hosting, aka volunteering part time hours in a county, state or national park that provides us with a full hookup RV space. There are lots of other ways to do this, but this is what we have found to work well so far.
Thanks for your visit! May you travel well.
For a deeper dive on the tiny housebuilding process, visit the Vida de Casita Grande section of our blog.
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