JC2, I ran drain tile all the way around the base of the basement, sloping from the back to the front and draining into gravel filled holes. Also, the drain tile has a fabric around it which is supposed to keep silt from infiltrating. Hope it works! Additionally, the Drylok water sealant claims to keep your concrete dry up to a hydraulic head of 26 feet. Given that I applied two heavy coats on the outside/inside and more in the floor, I think it will work. The Quikwall is also an impermeable barrier, so that's one more thing. It's been bone-dry so, although it never seems to rain anymore.....
This is, to me, one of the key parts of the Tiny House movement that gets so often over-looked... yes, you lose a lot of the "economy of scale" you would get by buying large quantities of supplies, but since you're buying so much less you can afford to really upgrade and over-engineer things where it's important to you. If there's any question at all about getting a premium material or putting in a few extra features you can do it with only a handful of extra dollars.
On most Tiny House sites you read they do touch briefly on this, but mostly when it comes to expensive finishes or luxury items. Very rarely do they touch on engineering or structural issues.
When you're building a McMansion for sale to the public, it's really easy to trade out $5000 worth of structural modification that will probably go unnoticed anyway, especially when you're going to be putting that $5000 into a stone facade or granite counter-tops... things that will add to the market value and get the attention of most buyers. When the builder is doing that for himself he's probably not scrimping on those things, but his house is also more expensive.
When you take all that material and labor and divide it by 10, suddenly it seems a lot more worthwhile.
Yes, I can see the value in putting another $500 into the structure as well as paying a few hundred extra for some cosmetic stuff.... You're not forced to constantly compromise, you've probably got enough resources to do both.
Anyway, this is looking great... and I really like the fact that you're not building it on wheels... that part of most Tiny House blogs has really gotten on my nerves. I know it's a building code thing in most places, but the idea of dragging my house down the highway really takes away from what I think makes a house a home. I like that this one has a structure that's a part of the land.
