HAMILTON Ontario and area people. Fred’s House needs volunteers for building the house. Even if you can’t come, please share if you are local!
Please inbox here or on Facebook with contact details if you are available.

NEED: Today or Tuesday with a truck for 1.5 hours. (to pick up some building supplies).  Please bring work gloves.
ALSO NEED: daytime Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to finish two frames and to insulate and close them in.  Even if you have only an hour or two, please.

REALLY NEED: Many people Saturday December 12th (morning to complete) to put the house together like a jigsaw puzzle.

If you can come to help with labour, and you have them, please bring gloves, charged cordless drill/driver with a 10 robertson bit, charged cordless circular saw, hammer, tape measure, saw horses.

ALSO FOR SATURDAY NEED: Fred’s House also needs a truck or two on Saturday, early morning for pick up at Laura’s house and drop off at Fred’s

Also if you have been thinking about making a donation and have not done so, we are still a long way away from what we need to make this happen.  There is just enough money for the structure, if there is NOTHING that comes up.  We do not have heat, a bed, storage, hooks, a counter, a butane cooker.  Which is to say that all she is gaining at this point is protection from the wind and rain as well as a locked door.  I hope we can do better! Lets get her a warm place two weeks before Christmas!  It is getting so cold out there!

Fred’s current house

(Follow up on the topic of Fred’s House – see the next post down)

Good morning everyone!  I just picked up the 2×4’s and screws at Arruda’s hardware store.  The 2×4’s cost a little more and will all need to be trimmed because they don’t carry stud sized, but they donated the delivery and will come shortly (today).

Receipt number one!

We have collected $938. in less than 24 hours, so we are a pretty united community here!  Thank you to all of you who donated, shared and sent will wishes!  This means that Fred’s house is not far from being a reality.  Just heat and a light to go!

MEET:   We expect a nice weather day tomorrow, thus, I think we should start by framing the panels. I don’t want to put my address and phone number on the internet so, I ask that you meet me tomorrow morning at the Tim Horton’s on Barton Street (the new one between Wellington and Ferguson) at 9:15.  This is 9:15 SHARP.  Please don’t be late. because I will stay only five minutes to collect the volunteers.  I have a car, and other volunteers will too, so if you are taking the bus, we can hopefully car pool to my house.

If you have a drill, circular saw, gloves, please bring them.  I have only got one of each of these things.  I am also hoping someone will bring a set of saw horses.

If anyone in the group has a truck, it would be seriously appreciated if you could do a plywood pick up with me some time today (or very early tomorrow morning before we meet).  Arruda does not carry thin – light cheap plywood (they start at $20 sheets and we need and want to have the $10 stuff.)  If anyone can do this, please comment here or on Facebook PRIVATELY with your number and I will call you ASAP to arrange).

Next weekend when we build, I will also need a truck or two, and some people to help lift the panels on the truck at my house and off the truck, at Fred’s house site.  So I am looking for volunteers for this (otherwise I will have to rent one).

Depending on how many come, I think that we can frame all the panels in one short day.  But if we don’t get the hands, I will be back here Saturday asking for people to come.

There is a woman, named Fred, who is currently living homeless in the Hamilton community. I don’t know what brought her to this, or why she has decided that it is safer here than in a shelter, but I thought, lets help her. I also thought, there are others who would feel the same.

As you all know, I have some expertise in the tiny houses, so I went out to the building supply places in the community and did the math. A little bit of money and some elbow grease and we could build her a 4×8 shelter with a door and a lock.   I know this is not ideal, by any means, but it is a HUGE improvement over the ten pallets that she has leaned together.

I stopped to speak to her today, and ask her if she would want a tiny house.  She said that she would love that.  Then I think it was too much for her to hope for and she said that there are a lot of people who are full of shit like me.  I guess she has earned the right to be suspicious. I think it is rough for people who don’t have a safe home.

So, I think we should just simply build her one.

Here is the list of NEEDS (tax roughly figured in):

36 2×4’s is about $100.

18 sheets of thin plywood for the inside and outside is about $400,

1 thick sheet of plywood for the floor is about $50.

A keyed entry is about $20.

A 1×4 sheet of steel for the roof is about $50.

A door with a window that opens is about $250 (unless someone has one).

2 bags of insulation are around $100

Plastic vapor barrier is around $30

4 pieces trim for the door (to keep out wind and pests) is about $25.

Unused exterior paint can be picked up from the dump free

Screws, nails, staples about $30

2 pressure treated 4×4 x 10 rails to raise the structure off the ground $30

I think I am pretty spot on with these figures since I went to Rona, Home Depot and Lowes and got the lowest prices.  So what I figure is that $1085. would build her a tiny insulated shelter with a locked door.

BUT!

There are other things that would make this structure more comfortable and livable.

They are light, heat and a bed that can double as a seating area.

A decent solar powered LED shed light about $100

Roughly $650 would buy her a vented propane heater, vent, a propane tank and fuel.

We can build a bed for about $30 and a mattress is about $100.

A shelf, a few hooks, a butane cooker and some canisters about $100

So an additional $980 would get other things that would make her life more comfortable.

This would be a good hard day of work for a 4 or five people. Many hands make light work. People with cordless tools would be most appropriate but you don’t need to have these to be helpful.  I am hoping that the funds can be collected and I can find volunteers for the 19th and 20th of December.

Since there are always things that are forgotten and other things come up when you are building, I think that collecting $2K is the goal

The thing is, that even if I can’t get many people to chip in, I will still go ahead and do what I can with the money that I collect.  Lets make this happen!

What I am hoping for is something similar to this, but with a flat roof.

Here is the link for this crowd-funded project.

LINK

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Those who are already following the tiny house movement – that have been wanting to attend a tiny house workshop, here is your chance.  It would be nice if you threw $100 toward this cause, if you can attend on the 19th and or 20th of December.  This is a lot cheaper than a tiny house workshop, I am not selling anything and you will learn some hands on skills.  I am going to frame this up this weekend because I have already collected enough to get this started, so if you want to give a hand then, it would be awesome!