I think of our trailer as being just a little bit better than a tent as far as retaining heat.  After all, with walls built out of 2X2s and a roof made from 2X4s, there's barely room for insulation.  However, when we opened a great gaping hole in the side of the trailer, I could really feel the difference, with autumn chill creeping in as soon as it got dark.  So I was very relieved we got the wood stove alcove nearly closed in on Thursday before showers sent us scurrying for cover.  (I'll be even more pleased when we add in the wiring so that the kitchen isn't operating on extension cords.)

Continuing to learn from past mistakes, I tore the backing paper off our leftover insulation before handing it up to Mark to lay multiple batts in our alcove's "attic" (between the ceiling and roof.)  I had gone a bit overboard leaving space for insulation, laying 2X8 rafters over a ceiling made of 2X4s, which allowed us to put in around R38 in the lowest part of the roof and more closer to the trailer.  It's a lot easier to talk me into overbuilding when we're working with a space only twelve square feet.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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