Does anyone of you ever get this feeling: You watch all these TV shows and are stunned how quickly and easily they can build a beautiful tiny house? Or you follow someone else’s construction online and every time you check they are several steps further, until one day you notice, “Oh, look, they are already living in it?” Then you reflect on what you’re doing and you realize you’re still trying to figure out last month’s problem? Welcome to our world.

By the time we began building, our trailer had been sitting around for one whole year, and then it almost took us another one to have our house weatherproofed. When we thought the rest would be a quick finish, we were delayed for another six months…

I know I’m always complaining about this, but I wanted to mention it one last time. 🙂

Insulated, hooray!

Since we finally had our home spray foamed at the end of 2015, I feel like we’re now running a marathon: Every other week we get a little closer to completion. Don’t get me wrong, I’m indescribably happy about our progress! It’s just… I can’t even imagine to NOT be building a tiny house… That’s how long and intense it’s been since we started out. People are always asking us how our house is coming along, and almost everything we earned in the last couple of years went into our home. It’s really frustrating to always give the same answer, but even more to spend your money on something you can’t even enjoy yet.

1×8 Tongue & Groove Standard Eastern White Pine

Hopefully these times will be over soon! Before we can finalize our plumbing and electrical we have to install our interior walls. So, in early January we visited several lumber yards to get an idea of the different wood species and prices. Geez, interior paneling is pricey! Our whole ceiling alone is 220 sq ft. That’s why we decided for Standard Eastern White Pine, one of the most inexpensive options.

Our first shelf. 🙂

For our bathroom, which is less then 60 sq ft, we dared to opt for something more expensive: Western Red Cedar. Finally, our wood floor – and the two smaller walls – will be reclaimed barn wood. We found something online, and just couldn’t resist.

We ran out of paint and still have to finish one wall.

Since mid-January we spent several weekends installing our boards, and many weekdays staining our wood floor with tung oil. We also whitewashed the pine with milk paint from Miss Mustard Seed. We love this kind of paint because it’s 100 % natural, non toxic and biodegradable! It also doesn’t smell, comes out easily (brushes, fingers, clothes) and dries within half an hour. It was the perfect thing to do during those really frosty winter days, we didn’t even have to open a window.

Applying milk paint feels like meditation…

…but the tung oil is a different story.

Once everything is installed, we will treat the wood once again: The Cedar and floor with more tung oil, and the milk paint with hemp oil.

Just mix the milk paint with water and you’re good to go!

I can certainly get used to this workflow. 🙂