Framing the interior walls in my tiny house

We’re FINALLY working inside, and it’s time to build the interior walls!

These walls make up the bathroom. The ceiling of the bathroom is also the floor for the bedroom.

I’m going to use a pocket door for the entry to the bathroom, so I’ll need a kit for the 24” wide door. The height of the door will be whatever it ends up being. But because it’s a custom size, I’ll have to build my own door.

We first started with the wall that separates the living from from the bathroom. this is also the wall where the shower head will be installed. I drilled holes for the water pipes. This was probably the first time where I felt truly confident in my skills. I had already framed the exterior walls, so this was NO PROBLEM.

I went ahead and pre-cut the lengths when I had a free evening. Then, Phil, Doug, and I met up to put it all together.

Phil made sure the studs were straight while I nailed them in. Then, we put the wall up to make sure it was level. We glued the footer to the floor and also used 2 1/2” construction screws. We had to add 2x4s to the exterior because this wall did not line up with a stud. We screwed the walls together, and voila!

Then we put together the short wall that is up on the loft. We first made sure the height was level to the wall we just built. It was a 1/2” off from the plans, so I’m really glad we double checked this before cutting. We repeated the same assembly with this wall.

Now it was time for the tricky wall: the pocket door. Roadblock one: the toilet water pipe was too far in. I went ahead and precut all the pieces for the wall. When Doug was back, he was able to cut a hole to move the pipe over and Phil and I assembled the wall.

When putting up the wall, we realized it was NOT level. We had to shave off a bit on the bottom that rested on the loft floor. Phil used a zippy saw to work on it. This took a while, but it was better the disassembling the whole wall to refit it!

For the pocket door itself, I bought a kit that allowed me to install a custom door. The instructions weren’t the clearest, but Phil and figured it out. It has a soft close mechanism that’s pretty nifty.

It took us all day to just install the pocket door frame and wall, but it was worth it!

While we worked on the pocket door, Doug built some stairs for the tiny house. Tess took a minute to figure them out, but now she joins us all the time when we’re working inside! <3

Next, was the bathroom ceiling, which also is the bedroom floor. Phil and I cut the pieces, but I came back the next day to assemble them all by myself.

Before putting the wall in, we had to drill a hole through the studs to fit the vent for the bathroom. It’s in a tricky spot, and we needed room to drill. We ran into a couple nails, but we were able to get it done.

Back to the floor, there was NO WAY I would be able to lift it to where it needed to go, but luckily, Wade and Phil came another morning to get it up there. Later that day, Phil and I used lag bolts to bolt the floor to the walls. First Phil drilled a countersink for the bolt. Then, he drilled a hole for the bolt to fit through. He then tightened the washer and nut to pull the walls together.

This floor can now handle the weight of my mattress and me. 🙂

This project took many days, but it’s the first time I felt like I knew what i was doing. Except for the bolts. Thanks, Phil!

Next up is finishing plumbing rough-in for the walls. This is mostly vents for the kitchen, bathroom, and washing machine. I’ve been watching LOTS of videos on plumbing.

Watch the full video on my YouTube channel!