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Wheeler Inn This page is more blog than FB page. It then continues on as I finish off and enhance the build as I live in it.

It's my documented journey from buying a 45ft decommissioned refrigerated pantech trailer to living in a 13.7x2.4m semi-mobile tiny home.

So yesterday my friend Judy patiently helped me do the measuring required for the site plan to be finalised. Was hot and...
14/09/2026

So yesterday my friend Judy patiently helped me do the measuring required for the site plan to be finalised. Was hot and sunny and was going ok, till the goats decided the tape was REALLY tasty. So what started out as a 50m tape ended up in 4 bits, and we spent a lot of energy chasing goats away from the tape (to no real avail). Got the job done though. The first markers are in the paddock now for where the trailer will be sited.

The garden disassembly begins in earnest. Over the last 3 days I've emptied the soil out of my "rose and herbs" garden, ...
12/09/2026

The garden disassembly begins in earnest. Over the last 3 days I've emptied the soil out of my "rose and herbs" garden, having potted out the roses and calendulas. In doing so I also harvested about 2kg of potatoes as they just keep growing every year. Today I finished putting the last of that soil into the 20 or so big pots I'll use over the coming weeks, and unscrewed all the timber cladding I'd done around the garden to support the box I used as a base.

This morning my builder Anthony, came over and we went through in detail how the verandah relocation process will go and what needs to be done at the other end to prep it for being closed in.

Tomorrow I head up to the farm to take the measurements required by the site plan drafters (the interim plan arrived in email yesterday so now I know what needs to be measured). We'll also identify the area the trailer will be located in so the ground levelling process can start.

So things are certainly starting to move now.

Here's a photo of the rose box carcass with all the pots around it that are filled with soil now (about half a trailer load). I'm now tired.

09/09/2026

RELOCATION UPDATE:
Just got word today that Annie Brown is fit to be taken on the road. So I can use a prime mover to shift to the new address - yay. This is the best news as a low loader would have been hugely expensive. Saving money left, right and centre at the moment - which is such a relief.

Builder comes out on Saturday to discuss how we segment the verandah for transport. I should have a draft site plan by the end of the week to take to the farm on the weekend so I can do some site measurements (which saves the drafting company doing it and hence money). Once I have the final site plan we have all the paperwork to submit to council for the permit.

So the last week has been great news as it also appears, according to the local zoning and state laws around a relocatable secondary dwelling, that I only need site and crossover permits. Don't need a building one. (Crossover is needed to access the road as I'll have my own gate on the road at the other side of the property)

So long as I comply with the fairly new liveability standards and energy efficiency rules. The planning people think I've already complied with these, so getting the permit shouldn't pose any huge problem. I may have to adjust the angle of my ramp but as it already exists that may be ok. Depends on what the building surveyor says and what the council then say. But that's no biggie.

I luckily found a REALLY good geotech company evidently, and the report he provided me with which had to go to the planners and the sewerage plumber is evidently far more detailed than they usually get. It also answered questions that I was otherwise going to have to pay an engineer to find out - so more savings. Anyone needing any soil testing or geotech work done, I'm happy to recommend DBM Geotech who are based on Mornington Peninsula but service Gippsland etc too. Cost me just over $2,000 for the report, but given its quality and the fact that they're responsive and professional it was worth it.

The truck mechanic today tested the air bags and brakes and all the other bits needed for moving the trailer. The air bags are a tad dodgy, but not outside the limits for moving the girl, and as the mechanic's garage is on the way out, they've suggested stopping there to have it all double checked and pumped up fully before heading up the freeway on moving day (it's 67km from site to site). More sheer luck on finding them and being so close. Was driving to town and noticed trucks in the yard and drove in to find out if they knew of a mechanic - and THEY ARE!

They'll also organise the prime mover for me - so bonus there.

26/08/2026

So the entire relocation process is proving to be a financial nightmare and will likely cost in the vicinity of $50k to complete - with around $12k of that being the cost to get the permit and another $15k to do the ground works and utilities connections.

Then there's the cost to disassemble the verandah, truck it and reassemble it at the other end, and the cost to sort out the plumbing for the move, and then the cost of whatever trucks I have to use (whether it's a prime mover or low-loader as well as a flatbed for all the other stuff that has to be moved.

So once again (as with building out Annie Brown in the first phase). I'll be flat broke and in debt again. But I'll be a lot safer than I am here, with a lot more security for aging in place. And I won't be living in a constant construction site, never knowing what crackpot dig-up plan the owner might come up with next.

As he's already cramming in more and more cabins on 12x12m sites now - so that there will be no gardens or grass - and intends to add even more cabins so I heard today - I'm glad to be out of here. What was once a lovely rural setting with a distinct country feel is now like inner suburbia, but worse. At least I have my long view over dairy farms to the Bunyip State park hills out of the windows on one side of my home - because the view out the other side is of a dug-up, muddy area filled with building and industrial junk - and now 5 cabins where there once were trees at least.

I have no idea how I'm going to fund this move in its entirety, but I'm definitely going to do it - come hell or high water. I'll be a month off 75 by the time it's done and I doubt I'll be capable of doing it in a couple of years even - so it HAS to be now.

So to this end, I'm having to get a plan drawn up of my house - haha. Imagine that - an official plan for my trailer home - have to giggle. And a plan of the property showing where I'll be sited. I've had the geotech stuff done, so am waiting on the results for that and the report which has to go to the building surveyor and to the plumber who's installing the sewerage system. I have the quotes for the plumbing and for getting the power run down from the house, and I've spoken to a truck mechanic to come out and tell me whether I can use a prime mover or have to get a low-loader. I have the quote from the builder, and I have an estimate from the plan-drafting company and the building surveyor. I have no idea yet what the cost is to then submit the plan to the council - but at this stage, I'm beyond getting upset about every cost - I'm just resigned to it. Just more I'll have to pull out of the ether. I wish there was somewhere that I could apply for assistance for this - but no - of course there's nothing.

Anyway. I've started potting out all of my garden as all of my beautiful natives will be coming with me. And yesterday and today I've been under the trailer cleaning out the stuff I've been storing there for the past 5 years - all the building material and other stuff. Have thrown away a load of crap, but most of it will be coming with me. At least it's now all rationalised, and stacked neatly and all on pallets under the trailer. Will be a lot easier to relocate now. And the mechanic will be able to get under to assess the running gear. And the plumber will more easily be able to do his work securing everything to the trailer for transport.

These are things I can do. And getting them done makes me feel I'm getting somewhere - because jumping through official hoops is soul-destroying. But the upside is that I've done a lot of weight lifting and bending and generally aerobic workout stuff - so I'm getting exercise and getting tired out.

I fully understand why tiny houses end up in place under the radar - given the council processes. Even though here in Victoria it's legal to have a secondary dwelling on a property, you still have to comply with council regs and overlays. Luckily, I've made sure right from the first work done on Annie Brown that everything was done to comply and have the electrical and plumbing certificates to prove it. And have used compliant materials were required. That little bit of forethought is now showing HUGE advantages, as I shouldn't have too much problem complying with the energy rating and liveability requirements for the permit.

Keep fingers crossed for me over the next couple of months as I go through the council process. Once I have the permit I can set up a schedule with the builder, which means I can schedule the plumber and electrician and the site prep work. I'll have a timeframe.

Things are still on track for the move. Getting all the logistics organised.I'm having a Graf sewerage system installed ...
02/08/2026

Things are still on track for the move. Getting all the logistics organised.
I'm having a Graf sewerage system installed - so new, poly technology. Far easier than concrete for setup, installation and maintenance - making it also far more economical.

We're bringing power down underground from the main house.

Water will be my existing rain tank supplemented by a hose from the house when needed.

I've received the quotes now for all this, plus the dismantling and re-build of my verandah. All my plumbing work under the trailer will be firmly secured to the underside of the pan and made easy for dismantling and re-connection at the other end.

We can't get to the paddock with the tractor untill it dried out after winter, so work on preparing the site, installing a gate and culvert over the road drain and laying a driveway won't begin until later in the year at least. Hopefully the plumbing and electrical will be done in January, and the site readied during January/early February.

This means I'm hoping to move Annie Brown (also hopefully) by prime mover late in February. I've yet to get a truck mechanic to do an assessment of whether the trailer can be road-hauled, or whether I have to pull her up onto a low-loader, but hope to have that done in the coming couple of weeks. Then I can start work on planning and organising truck/driver/prime mover or whatever.

In the meantime, I'm getting all my paperwork ready to submit to council for permission to put Annie Brown on the site. As you're allowed (in Victoria) to put a secondary permanent dwelling onto a property that has an existing primary dwelling, I don't have to get council permission, but I do need to submit a plan. However, I'm assured this is not an onerous process so long as I have all the necessary certification and plans (this is yet to be tested).

A weird mindset has settled in though since the move actually became a "thing". I've kind of already left Settlers Rest. I don't care how many more invalid breaches the owner can dream up to annoy me or anyone else. I no longer care that the entire park looks derelict, or that all of the trees have been cut down and replaced with palm trees (totally stupid given we live in cow paddocks in Gippsland), or that all the birds that used to come around here have all gone. Or that so many of my friends here have left for better places. Although I have an amazing view from my big picture windows, the view from the other side of the trailer is over what looks like a muddy industrial dump (I've included a picture here. But somehow not even that bothers me so much any more. I'm leaving. I'm not trapped here any longer.

Anyway - I thought you might like to see what Annie Brown looks like inside these days, so I took some pics for you. Not much has changed, other than all my plants being so much bigger really. I still love living in her, and there are bits of sheer aesthetic joy around me. She's my haven, my refuge and my cocoon.

18/06/2026

So the big news is -

I'm moving Annie Brown again - to her forever home in Hazelwood North.

Move should be happening within the next 6 months and will be a bit of a saga, so I'll post the progress here and you can see what I have to do to relocate not only the trailer, but all the infrastructure I've had build around her - and my entire garden.

So you've seen the front ramp with the lattice work installed. Here's the back steps - all done now. New handrail and wa...
30/04/2026

So you've seen the front ramp with the lattice work installed. Here's the back steps - all done now. New handrail and wall section added a few weeks ago along with wider treads which I then painted. Now I've installed the lattice work, same as for the front. Really finishes both front and back off. I love them. Just have some paint touchups to do and trims to add. Work for another day though.
With my garden now lush and bush-like and everything zinging along. I really love my back garden other than the section where my potting and work stuff gets done - which is next on my list of improvements/cleanup.

Pics are 1 of the steps when the new handrail had just been installed, and the other 2 are of the finished product. Again, have to thank my neighbour Ron for his help. Expanding the lattices to get the right cut marks, then fitting them was impossible without a second pair of hands. And having the sudden brainwave that I should be using the multitool to cut the lattice rather than a handsaw (which was painfully slow and tedious), made fitting the second panel about half the time.

I showed you the before pic in my last post, and here's the "after" one. Now have the lattice work up and just have some...
25/04/2026

I showed you the before pic in my last post, and here's the "after" one. Now have the lattice work up and just have some trim work to do. I'm REALLY happy with how they look. My little experiment worked far better than I'd envisaged.

The way I painted them still closed up means they actually look like they wrap over at the top and bottom edges.

Couple of things have happened building wise over the past few weeks. Firstly, I had the builders in again and this time...
22/04/2026

Couple of things have happened building wise over the past few weeks.
Firstly, I had the builders in again and this time they added to my existing side panel (properly, not like the dodgy little job I'd done to stop things falling off the verandah). And they also added a proper hand rail to my stairs and put wider treads on them - which I then painted a couple of days ago.

You can see the before pic on that job in my previous post about extending my front door. The finished job pic is below here. I still have to paint the upright.

The second big job - currently underway - is me (with significant help and advice from my neighbour Ron) which will see my front ramp transformed. I'm adding painted lattices between the uprights. Bloody awful job to do because 1) painting lattice is the worst job ever, 2) because lattices only expand in a certain way, these needed to be custom cut to fit the gaps and all that measuring and tweeking and re-adjusting because the damned things would not behave, and that's not even including the uprights I had to add (angled because of the ramp) and getting them to work. So much pre-painting and prep work, then doing other jobs while the paint dried ..... Honestly, once these are finished I'll be happy if I NEVER EVER see a lattice job ever again.

So here's a pic of the job as it's started with the railings now painted blue instead of the white they were. The lattices are silver. I just sprayed pre-painted (green) Bunnings lattices before expanding them. After expanding, the green adds a lovely depth to them with a fine silver line running across them with the spray that went between the main timbers. (It will make more sense when the finished photo is up). Still have to do the 2nd and 3rd coats of blue on the hand rails, but that's been delayed because the putty doesn't really get much chance to really cure - might need a hair dryer job.

And a few days of lattice and other various bits painting etc, and a few more of those niggling jobs that you see EVERY ...
17/02/2026

And a few days of lattice and other various bits painting etc, and a few more of those niggling jobs that you see EVERY day are finished.

I was given a metal 3-panel triptych of a boab tree about a year ago, and I'd always intended to mount it somewhere, but didn't know where, then it came to me a few months ago - that it would work well inside my verandah, but not on the trailer wall - so why not between 2 of the uprights on the laserlight wall? So I've been looking at these panels and the 2 bits of timber Ron next door ripped down for me - for months.

And on top of that, the 2 bits of off-cut fascia board I'd put onto the old treadle frame to use as a table for plants had been there so long the undercoat was peeling off, they needed to be joined properly and the packing I'd had to use under them to get them level was only ever meant as a temporary fix - 2+ years ago.

The "see-through" laserlight I'd had installed, which gets too dusty to actually see through and is now more translucent than transparent really needed to be sorted out, at the same time as a hoya I'd bunged in a pot next to the treadle has been so successful it had wandered everywhere and had no framework to climb up - so kind of lay around. So I decided that I'd put up a latticework panel to a) cover some of the untidy laserlight, b) provide a framework for the hoya to climb up and c) create more interest on the verandah walls - something nice to look at.

Here's what I've done in the last 2 days:
a) The timbers for the triptych have been painted, screwed up and the panels mounted - they're actually pale dusty blue not the grey colour the photo shows them as.
b) Painted a Bunnings hard wood expanding trellis with the Costa Rica Blue of the trailer (really dodgy job, but honestly, painting trellis is the pits and it's going to have plants growing up it), fitted top and bottom to a length of timber and screwed it to one of the upper wall joists.
c) The facia boards have been sanded and painted, joined and a more appropriate levelling pads applied. Looks great back on the treadle set against the trellis panel and the hoya has somewhere to grow.

So now I just have to pot out all the new plants I bought last week, flowers for a big pot against the trellis - a bit of colour.

Address

111 Morrison Road
Longwarry North, VIC
3816

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