Story:
I've spent the past week preparing to put up the siding. Since I can't very well operate miter saws and sanders at 5 am, today's bounty of work begins with a nice, relaxing cup of coffee.
picturesque
The siding we got, after much hunting and searching, was 1x6 tongue and groove ponderosa pine. It cost between 60 and 75 cents per lineal foot. I really wanted a lap siding, particularly cedar, but that cost about $1.50 a lineal foot, so it was kind of out of the price range. Anyway, we trucked it home from west Phoenix (an hour each way) and commenced with sanding and staining and sanding and staining and sanding and staining.
lots of this type of action went down
First we got a "Semi-Transparent" stain called "Light Mocha". That went over about as well as the Hindenburg.
ew.
By "Semi-Transparent", it appears the manufacturer meant "Mostly-Opaque". Also, by "Light Mocha", they must have meant "Poop Stain". These are easy mistakes to make as I'm sure the factory is a busy and hectic place. I do not blame them. Reality is subjective anyway.
To remedy this eyesore, we ended up using the garbage stain to seal the back of the boards, grabbing some "Toner," and trying that for the front of the boards. Result:
urge to kill... falling... falling... gone.
Pretty boards! I am happy. We finish every last one and are ready to go. Then, this morning at about 1 am, I found this Craigslist posting:
WOOD SIDING - $7
This siding is brand new rough sawn pine. Each board is 13' long
I am selling them for $7.00 each.
pictured: exactly what I wanted... two weeks ago.
This stuff is beautiful. I stay up all night over it and kick my feet in the dirt a bit before mom suggests I call the guy because I'm going to have to live with whatever I put up and if this stuff is perfect, I'll never like the other siding again. Turns out the posting is from some very cowboy-sounding person named Ken (henceforth referred to as Cowboy Ken). Well, Cowboy Ken actually cut down the trees and milled this lumber himself. Much later on in the day, I went over to look at the samples of the stuff he had (which was in the form of a massive barn that could fit three of the tiny houses in it along with extra room for some horses, a few shotguns, and a mess of spittoons. It's gorgeous. End of the story, we're getting it Thursday and I'll spend all weekend with mom re-milling and staining the new siding. I'm not sure what we're going to do with the pile of newly spurned siding in the yard.
fail. so much fail.
So I focused today on continuing to frame out and fur the house. I have one wall totally completed. I will take a picture and upload that tomorrow.
I made a few mistakes here and there. Okay, quite a few mistakes...
oops.
But, overall, I think I did a pretty good job at this stuff. We'll see how the new siding works out, but not very soon, because tomorrow I start my new job! This way, I can work five days a week to make money so I can spend it on materials to use in the other work I do the remaining two days of the week.
WHEEEEEE!
Finally, one really cool thing I did was download Google Sketch Up so I can make a 3D model of my house and try out ideas before I commit to them. Also, having a set of visual plans reaaaaally helps in this process (By helps, I mean is absolutely 100% indispensable). Here are a few screen captures from what I've been able to put together so far:
the program comes with a free flatlander!
Anyway, I think that's it for right now. I'll fill you all in when I get the new siding this upcoming week. SPOILER ALERT: More staining. Right now, I'm going to go sit by a fire and summon flame dragons to destroy my enemies.
welcome back, my sweet. there is work to be done.
Schematics:
(Work in progress. Will finish tomorrow when I have more pictures.)
To help other folks get an idea of what I've done and if any other tiny home builders stumble across this blog looking desperately for help (there's not a large amount of nuts and bolts info out there, certainly not for free), here is what's going on in this picture:
1. DuPont Tyvek HouseWrap: This provides a vapor barrier so that moisture outside can't get inside, but moisture inside the walls can get outside of them. This helps reduce condensation in the finished house. That's important because, in a tiny space, condensation happens very, very fast (Think sexy time in a car. Windows fog up immediately. If you're doing it right :P). There are free instructions online here about how to properly put up Tyvek HouseWrap. I didn't put it up myself, so I don't know how well they were followed initially, but I know I've definately gone over the 90 days they suggest as a maximum to leave the Tyvek wrap exposed. It'll be covered up soon enough.
2. Furring: These are designed to place air between the siding and the housewrap. This provides better insulation as well as helps the house "breathe." I used 1"x2" furring strips available at Home Depot or Lowes. It is a consistant battle to find any decent stick of wood in Arizona because the dry heat and the sun sucks all the moisture out of the wood and warps it instantly. For example:
top: hockey stick bottom: lock pick rake
So make sure you check every board you get. This goes double for siding and long finishing boards. A warped board sucks to work with. And if you live in a hot, arid climate, stain the boards IMMEDIATELY to make sure they don't warp on you. I mean it. 5 days in the sun is TOO MUCH.
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