Featured at Build Small Live Large Summit

The city of Portland recently hosted a summit of regional thought leaders, architects, designers and home owners involved with small footprint housing, Homesharing and rentals via Airbnb and VRBO, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and the Tiny House Movement. 

Homegrown Trailers and the Green Trailer Project were featured and we received hundreds of inquiries on sales and rentals. This official pushed us over the tipping point and we are putting plans in place to launch a Crowdfunded rental and sales campaign in January, more to come soon!

Read more on our partner website - 

http://commonagenda.net/services/build-small-live-large-summit/

Office with a View

While an office with a view comes with a hefty premium in Seattle these days, I have found some great spots to setup shop at local parks and along strips of waterfront parking where I am not robbing others of two parking spaces or paying an hourly rate. As a consultant with a home office, I often find that I will have hours of downtime between meetings. This typically results in trying to find a quiet corner in a coffee shop and buying enough snacks and drinks to not feel like I am loitering all afternoon.

Today was one such day and while the weather called for a 90% chance of rain, I decided to turn my 6 hours of downtime today into a productive day and adventure to Seattle's Magnuson Park. Plus, I avoided putting an extra 30 miles on my vehicle and saved at least an hour of commute time by not heading back to my office in between meetings. Productive, lower carbon, happy camper kind of a day!

What Makes This Project "Green"?

With Earth Day just a month away, and the International Living Future Institute's 2015 "unConference"  (where I happen to be presenting) just a week away, it seems prudent to talk about what really makes this project green.

Green has become synonymous with marketing and I am definitely a pawn in that game. While I
am comfortable admitting that, my fear is that people will think that the use of the term was just that...a marketing concept. Quite the contrary, and I am going to spend the next 5 weeks, right through Earth Month, sharing the thinking behind this project with the hopes of inspiring and motivating all of you to consider some new or enhanced lifestyle choices...because in the end how green we are really comes down to the choices we make in life.

The ultimate goal of this project is to provide my family and friends with a higher quality of life while producing the smallest environmental impact possible (vs. the status quo) and doing this in an economically feasible way for a family of four on a relatively tight budget. As a professional who makes a living as a self proclaimed Sustainability Coach in one of the greener cities in the country, Seattle, I claim to know a thing or two about what makes something truly sustainable. I am also an avid "polar fleecer" who has survived some crazy adventures in wild places and more recently weathered the great recession by innovating personally and professionally and came back stronger and more prepared for the future, so I also claim to know a thing or two about resilience. 

While I gained tons of motivation for this project from the Tiny House and Teardrop Trailer movement, it was truly the inspiration of the  International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and the Bullitt Foundation project to design and build the greenest office building in the world based on the Living Building Challenge (LBC) standards. The Bullitt Center is not only uber green, but incorporates cutting edge technology, has bountiful natural light (even in grey Seattle) and is a gorgeous piece of architecture. To frame my thinking on the Green Trailer Project, I am going to walk you through my thinking in the context of the LBC Petals - Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, Beauty and I hope you will join me by sharing and tagging me on facebook, twitter (@CoreyWeathers) or Pinterest or just leave a comment with your thoughts in return!

Spring Arrived Early in the NW!

Wow! 68 degrees and sunny the first week in March? That was the reality this weekend and we just had to get out of town for the weekend!

I put the girls to work early Saturday morning packing their bags and decking out the trailer with its new address to share our story with all of the admirers we see along the way. Shoot me a comment if you saw us on the road this weekend heading from Redmond to Vantage, WA!

The road in is a bit rocky so we took it slow and our little cabin on wheels hung on just fine, we actually faired much better than the Prius who tried to camp nearby!

We settled into a sweet and cozy campsite near the Feathers climbing area  around lots of other climbers who made good company and stopped by frequently to admire our home away from home.

Two of our best friends joined us for the weekend, one is a green building guru and we came up with a new idea for the solar system. Rather than mount the panels on hinges on the roof, we are going to build a stand that attaches to an upright on the trailer frame and pivots to track the sun. As you can see above I positioned one of the panels at an angle to track the sun and we were able to improve the efficiency of the panels by 30-50%...I was even pulling about 80 (out of 200 potential watts) at 9:00 in the morning after the sun first came over the ridge.

Best part of the weekend was sharing all of our comforts with friends. More than once our friends remarked how amazing it was to have a kitchen, sink, toilet, power and a warm place for breakfast early on a frost covered morning in the desert! 

Mobile Office for the Day

Some people dread going to the office, I cherish the opportunity! Since the girls are out of school and so is Heidi as a teacher, I needed a place to work away from the house for the day. Considering the weather was cold yet beautiful, it was a perfect opportunity to deploy the newly attached solar panels and work remotely for the day.

I packed up my Google Chrome laptop with LTE service and headed to King County's Marymoor Park (http://www.king county.gov/recreation/parks/inventory/marymoor.aspx) and for the $1.00 parking fee I had the best net zero energy office with a window, two actually, for the price!

Adventure #6 - Snowy Snoqualmie Pass

After making some winter upgrades it was time for an adventure in the snow. While I would have loved an overnight, Heidi and the girls were a bit leary of how comfortable the trailer would be in below freezing temperatures.

I turned on an electric heater inside while still in the garage before departing to warm the core of the trailer, and after 90 minutes of driving in below freezing temperatures, the trailer was still quite warm inside when we arrived! Walls are made if 1/2" beveled cedar siding, tyvek house wrap, 1 1/2" EPS foam core insulation, then either 1/4" or 1/4" interior ply glued and stabled to the 2x2 and 2x3 frame.

After we deployed the pop-top to make dinner in the indoor kitchen, we did lose some of the heat as instill need to install a neoprene sleeve around the opening on the rear hatch, this will be the next step before we venture out on an overnight. I also need to install a carbon monoxide sensor for the propane stove and possibly consider a small propane heater as the electric heater I have tends to trip the alarm on the inverter when it starts up, but that is a topic for another post. I also am considering an induction cooktop so that we can be truly "net zero" on energy use and also create a healthier indoor environment by not burning propane indoors. This would require a larger battery, inverter, and additional solar panels.

After dinner and a very cold beer we got to take in an extraordinary moonrise and sunset, then headed home as the temps dropped back into the teens, brrrr.

Overall, I was quite happy with the winter performance of the insulation and very pleased with how easy the trailer was to pull in the snow. The VW Tiguan did amazing, didn't slide or lose traction at any point, even on then icy inclines. Can't wait to head back to the snow!

Finalizing the Interior

While the exterior look has been an incredibly important part of the project, getting the interior space right has been a bit of an obsession. From finding a bed that would fit inside and be long enough for my 6'1" frame to sleep in comfortably, to the right combination of lighting to fill the trailer with sufficient light without requiring excessive solar panels and batteries, the details have been exciting to work on, especially with the goal of making the interior both aesthetically appealing and functional. 

Queen bed converted to dining area, composting toilet, entrance.

Initially, I had planned to have the bunk beds fold down from the wall, but after realizing I could make the trailer 6" wider (7'4" vs. 6'10"), the bunk beds could be permanently in place and still provide sufficient room in the kitchen. While the bunks are just over 6' long, they have hosted adults once so far who seemed to have sufficient space. The kitchen still has a few quirks to work out, but is a dream to cook in while camping...I have always been accused of being a gourmet on the road and the kitchen was really designed to fit me and my cooking style, there is plenty of counter space, a sink, powerful gas cook top, and almost everything one could possible want for the ultimate "glamping" experience!

Kitchen with refrigerator, foot pump sink,
two burner cook top

Twin bunk beds