Tag Archives: Cape Breton

And the Building Has Begun!

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It’s been a busy week here at Howling Dog Construction, with construction starting on the Tiny Home.

Despite the cold temperatures and heavy snowfall, we were able to successfully spray foam insulate the trailer frame, which will become the floor for the Tiny Home. In order to meet the conditions required for spray foam installation, a temporary structure had to be built around the trailer to keep the weather out, and the heat in (there was a lot of ice on the trailer to melt!).

Matt also got started on the walls, starting construction outside with the long walls, and then moving into the garage due to weather to complete the end and dormer walls. Here are some pictures from this week’s progress:

Up next this week: laying the plywood for the floor and attaching it to the trailer, followed by the standing of the walls! It will be an exciting week of transformations and development, all in our driveway.

Stay tuned for regular updates and pictures as the construction progresses. And if you are interested in learning more about the process of downsizing to a Tiny Home (or the adventures in ‘right-sizing’ as they describe it), please visit the blog kept by the soon-to-be Tiny Home owners.

The Tiny House “Foundation” is Done!

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We have some great news here at Howling Dog Construction: the “foundation” (i.e. the custom Trailer) for the Tiny House is done, shipped, and has arrived in Cape Breton!

Ronnie from Kerr Trailers in Quebec was kind enough to send us pictures of the finished project before it shipped, and we are excited to share! It’s now sitting in our driveway, covered in snow, and getting ready for construction to begin.

This tri-axel trailer is 25 feet long, and custom-built to carry up to 18,000lbs. I worked back and forth with the manufacturer over several weeks to make sure we got the specs just right. A strong foundation is essential to building a strong Tiny House, and we are pleased with how this turned out! Can’t wait to start building.

Tiny House on CBC Mainstreet Cape Breton

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On Thursday, January 8, 2015, Matthew Willox, Owner/Operator of Howling Dog Construction, joined host Wendy Bergfeldt on CBC’s Mainstreet Cape Breton to discuss the Tiny House movement and designing and building a Tiny Home right here in Cape Breton. Here’s how Wendy introduced the segment.

Since 1973 the size of the average home has grown by 50%, but that trend seems to be reversing. The tiny house movement is about getting less space for a lot less cost. It’s about living more simply and about not having things you don’t really need. This is a great idea if you live in California or Arizona where you don’t have to worry about the winter cold but in Canada is a tiny house a possibility? Some people think it is. Matthew Willox is a contractor who’s building one for a couple right here in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

To listen to this great interview, and to learn more about Tiny Homes, click here.

Tiny Home Building

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While I enjoy all sorts of renovation and construction challenges, over the last six months, I have been working on an exciting new project to design and build a Tiny Home for a great couple who are on a quest to downsize, simplify, and live in a more environmentally-sensitive way. This has been a great learning experience, that has stretched my learning and design skills to a new level, and challenged the way I look at houses, housing solutions, and space usage.

We are now moving into the construction phase, which I hope to start by the middle of January, pending the completion of a custom-made trailer that is currently being manufactured by Kerr Trailers in Quebec. Given the size of this Tiny Home (175 square feet, 25 feet long by 7 1/2 feet wide), I’m going to be building it in my driveway here in Coxheath. For more information, check out my Tiny House Project page, where I lay out more details and share some photos.

Stay tuned for pictures and videos as the project continues.