I am not dead...

...yet.

It's been almost two months since my last post. Sorry I've been waaaay behind on this, friends. Most of July and the beginning of August was monopolized by my job former job. I worked full time Monday to Friday, and that left me only Saturday and Sunday to work. This meant that, if I never took a day off at all, I'd get to work on my house 8 days a month, about 104 days a year.

So, I quit. I was bummed out because it was decent pay and I actually liked my boss (better than my co-workers, which is unusual), but I have no plans on making this house building project last 3-5 years of weekend blitzkriegs. Also, the job was rotting my brain and my body. So, out with that, and in with building the house...

...just after I spend about a month in Chicago and Michigan with friends and family. Hey. I needed a break. I took it. It was marvelous.

Alright, house time...

 

yaaaaaay!

When I last left you, the shakes were still up on the house and I had no door. Times have changed. First things first was taking down all of that ugly, poorly installed, grayed, faded, and moldy shake from the front and back.

The last of the shake goes down

As far as the door goes, it was a nightmare and I have no pictures of the process. Mom had to sand and scrape and strip all of the old paint off of it. The layers of stubborn nastiness would have come off a whole lot easier, but the paint stripper's optimum temperature to work was "between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit." The temperature never went below 100, even at 2am. As an interesting aside, this was around the same time I baked two pans of chocolate chip cookies in my car.

Bake for 3 1/2 hours at room temperature

At the same time, I was ripping apart the old door frame, which was smashed up and would end up being more wood putty than wood by the time I was finished. I opted to build an entirely new frame (as finding an exterior door frame for a 24" door is impossible). After about five coats of paint and two weeks of work, we had a door. Oh, also, I slapped up some new siding where the shakes were formerly busy uglying up the front of the house.

At this point, a new window had been delivered from Lowes. I decided that the slide window at the top wouldn't cut it and wanted something really cool that would also allow me to put my head out of the window and, just in case, be able to crawl out of it in an emergency. I was so excited about the new window that I promptly got to pulling the old window out of the house.

Wheee! There's no way I'm going to regret this decision!

Then I went and actually opened the box with the window inside to take a good look at it. The window, badly marred across the entire face from being shoved into the box, did not open all the way (as I was told it would), was made of dozens of different pieces and grades of wood as to make staining not an option (as I was told it would be), and, here's the kicker, was put together with STAPLES. I felt as if it would fall apart when I picked it up and it indeed already had started falling apart. So, after returning the window, I have a gaping hole in the loft and have basically committed myself to building my own casement window so that I don't have to spend 400-500 bucks on something that wouldn't be valued as a stocking stuffer.

After that setback, I decided to continue with the front by finishing all the movin' and de-shakin' that it so sorely deserved. This involved most of the same processes that the siding required: furring, cutting, staining, etc. Except that the peak was a HUGE problem. The guy who framed the house used a 2x4 instead of a 2x6 as the roof's spine, leaving a 2" square hole in the front that I had up until now been running an extension cord through to get power inside the house. Additionally, had cut everything at such wonky angles that nothing lined up, nothing measured the same in any two spots, and there was all sorts of magic I would have to pull out of my butt to make sure that it didn't end up looking like Jenga blocks.

This shot is about an hour before I had realized all those problems, which is why I'm using the hammer to put boards in place and not to knock my self unconscious

I ended up making everything fit together fairly nicely for all the problems. To even out a bad 2x4 cut the original owner did, I needed a very small block cut on three sides and sanded at a slight angle. Creating this piece was such a tremendous effort on such a small block of wood that a wound that I got a few days prior from striking my index finger with a hammer reopened onto the wood, permanently staining it with my blood.

When I originally was thinking of starting this blog, I wanted to make a counter for how many times I had bled or otherwise injured myself in the process of building this house but I thought there was no way I would injure myself enough to necessitate a counter. I've probably bled about 12 or 13 times now and injured myself another 4 or 5, so this house very much figuratively had my blood and sweat in it. I thought this piece would be the perfect way to literally put my blood and sweat into the house. So I dabbed the block on my profusely perspiring forehead and signed it. I built this house, damn it, and now I've got the block to prove it.

It also just so happens that that block is right at the top of the front of the house. It's basically the keystone. So, I finished things up and hammered it in place.

riiiiight there

And that's it for now. Tomorrow I stain the remainder of the front and start in on another project. See ya'll later!

Just Pictures

Okay folks. I'm not really up to doing a whole bunch of text today. In return, here are a lot of pictures. Sounds good? Great. I'm going to go grab a soda. You enjoy.

Yes. Yes. And More Yes.

Story:

So, yes, I know I haven't posted in almost a month. I am sorry. I have not, how ever, been just sitting back and relaxing for the past 20 or so days. I forget where I left off, and am very tired, so this post will be quick but very rewarding.

First, I had to get a table saw. I did that, total success.

 

My my, what a sexy table saw.

Then we spent a week worrying about killing or maiming ourselves using the table saw.

I also spent a lot of time that week complaining how 

it was hotter outside than Satan's crotch.

Then we got back to work.

The first thing we did was run five 4”x4” boards through, cutting a 2”x2” strip out of them and making really good looking cornerpieces. We put those up to frame the house. With cornerpieces this nice, I realized that the previous window treatment I did looked comparitavely crappy. So, I did a little demo on the house (it's not even close to done yet and I'm already doing improvement projects), ripped some 2”x4” boards in half, sanded, beveled and stained them to create really nice window trim.

Finally, we started cutting and dadoing the boards. There are no pictures of this because running a 150” board takes all three of us to do. Cutting out the wheel wells with a jigsaw proved to be the most annoying to get correct and have the least margin of error.

This makes it look about 1000x less tedious than it was.

But we did it. We worked our asses off, I fell asleep three times sitting up because I was so tired, and I accidentally dropped a small board in between the siding and the wall at the end of the day (a mistake which I have absolutely no chance of rectifying), but we got it done. I present to you, the progression of the siding:

Looking good...

Almost...

Taking a short break to do pull ups on the door frame...

HELL YEAH!

Awwww yeaaaah. I am so happy not to have a giant advertisement for TYVEK TYVEK TYVEK TYVEK in the yard. I'm probably going to stain the boards the same or a little darker color than the cornerpieces and trim are, so it's not a totally finished look yet, but I'm very happy. Even better, we're 5 boards up on the opposite side and still have another day left in the weekend!

Well, there you go. Hope you enjoyed the pics.

***

Schematics:

We put the boards up using 3” hot dipped galvanized casing nails along the run and 3” red decking screws along the sides. The nails hold up just fine, the screws are there for extra strength because the ends of the boards don't match up with a stud. There's no glue behind these boards. I have come to discover that using glue is a very, very stupid idea. Mr. Ed disapproves of such methods.

 
We used nylon mesh screen at the bottom of the boards to make sure no creepy crawlies run up in there. We folded it under and over the furring, making it effectively one long screen.

Using dadoed or bevel siding is really nice because it gives you a wiiiiide margin of error if the board is crooked/wobbly/screwed up because of human error. Tongue and groove does not have this luxury.

Using furring strips serves a few purposes. It helps you see where the stud is inside the house so you can effectively secure the boards. It also adds an air space between the siding and sheeting. This helps with condensation and rain (they drip out the bottom as opposed so waterlogging the wood.) as well as provides much better insulation (the rate of heat transfer is much worse in air than it is in a solid.). Just make sure to use furring under everything (including the window trim and the cornerpieces) so that everything sticks out the right amount.

It's a good idea to use a block to make sure you're drilling the holes in the same spot on each board. Use a scrap piece of 1"x2" furring so that you can consistently put the nail in 1 1/2" above the bottom of the board. This just helps it look nice.

Use a nail punch to get the nails sunk into the board and then cover up the tiny spot with paintable wood putty. Leave about 1/8" on either side of the board (where it butts up to any trim or cornerpieces) so that you can caulk it. Too snug, and the caulk will peel off. Too loose, and you'll use gobs of caulk to fill it in.

Alright, that's it for now. I'm going to sleep so I can wake up early and get at it tomorrow.

Title goes here.

Story:

There isn't a whole lot more to update folks on right now. Due to my new job, I only have two days a week to work on the tiny house, so updates may become even more sparse than they have been. In order to stay updated but not have to check in and be disappointed a whole bunch with no new content, I suggest subscribing to the blog :D

Two things happened of import in the past week; One tiny house related and one not so much. The not so much part is that I finally received my diploma from Evergreen. Hooray! I guess! It's certainly the most expensive piece of paper I've ever held. With my receipt finally in hand, I am officially finished with college.

Second, I've gotten the new rough sawn pine for the exterior siding and have been working on getting that ready to go. They were really dirty, so I had to powerwash them all down. They all cleaned up beautifully and are now looking really nice. As an added bonus, because they were sitting outside in Arizona for 2+ years, they had already acclimated to the hellish heat out here and, after a good wash, returned right back to being straight as an arrow.

After that, they'll require sanding, notching (which means using a table saw (which I need to acquire) equipped with a dado blade with a 3/8" kerf to cut out the notches to turn the boards from this into something like this.

Schematics:

I'd like to point out here that Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. founder Jay Schafer claims that he has built a dozen small houses using only 14 tools. They are: Skill saw, jig saw, pliers, files, miter saw, hammer, wrench, goggles, tape measure, drill and drill bits, pencil, box cutter, level, chisel. He adds a caveat about how people call him "a fool for not using a table saw". I agree. Here is a list of other tools I have needed/been greatly aided by in my construction up until this point (which involves almost nothing in the overall picture of building a tiny house):
 
1. Brushes - He lists "pencil", but not brushes? Am I to believe that he used no stain on any of the exterior boards of his house? Or, since it's obvious that he has used stain, that he took a big swig of Olympic Semi-Transparent and spat it all over the boards until achieving a nice, even finish? I find this prospect unlikely.

2. Nail punch - I realize that he mostly uses screws for outside construction, but he does mention nails for finishing work. And, unless you want to have nails sticking out all over the place or have a bunch of hammer dents in your finishing material, you damn well need a nail punch. Or perhaps he just got a really really hard pencil and used that. 

3 & 4. Painter's mask or bandanna and gloves - Eye safety, but nothing to stop yourself from inhaling particulate matter or your hands from getting torn up?

5. Sandpaper - Come on. Everything you bought could make a baby's butt look like crocodile skin?

6. Orbital sander - I'm not sanding 1200 lineal feet by hand.

7. Caulking gun - If you refer to the "screw and glue" method, I hope you're not referring to Elmer's glue. Liquid Nails, the only stuff even worth using for structural applications, will only come out of a caulking gun. I'm assuming I'll need that again when I work on the bathroom and the sink).

8 & 9. Car jacks and jack stands - Pretty important, especially if you can't complete the house in a month and it needs to sit out for a long time (and flatten the tires so you have problems on a long trip, something which I have absolutely no experience with whatsoever :| )

10. Corded drill with high speed steel drill bit - This is the only way that I know of to get through the angle iron of the trailer to bolt the house down.

11. Razor scraper - A very easy way to undo a bit of overzealous caulking.

12 & 13. Power washer and spray gun for stain/paint - Admittedly a luxury item, it can make life very easy. However, when using a spray gun, use only oil based stains. Water-based paint or stains screw up the gun and leave a bunch of spotty water marks on your boards.

I've almost doubled the list right there and my house is barely more than a wood box right now.

Wood, Poop Stain, Fire, and a Cowboy

I've decided to split the tiny house portion of this blog into two parts. One, more interesting to my friends, will be the story. The second, more interesting to those with the crazy notion of building a tiny house themselves, will be dedicated to schematics. Aaaaaaaaannnnnnd go:

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.

Hi there folk(s) (I'm not sure how many people read this blog at this point),

It's been a little while since I've updated, but I haven't been sitting idle (too much). I've ordered, received, and started working my ass off on putting up the siding. I'll have pictures and info on how we're overcoming little problems at every turn after it looks a bit more impressive. Right now, I'd like to put up the first of a two part story I promised on how exactly I got down here. With no further ado, part one:

*-*-*-*

Too excited to sleep, I leapt from bed (well, groaned as I rolled out of bed) at 4 in the morning. I busy myself by burning CDs for the trip. At 6:00am, I'm at the house preparing for the journey.

The first thing we have to do before even thinking about hitting the road is secure the house to the trailer. I haven't the faintest idea why this was not done when the floors and walls were being built, as the house was towed to my yard attached to the trailer by four wood screws, but after working on this a bit, I am seeing how easy it is to miss a crucial step.

Anyway, we have the power drill, the huge bit to plow through all the wood and angle iron, the long ass bolts, and the washers and nuts. We're ready to go. It's raining, it's cold, it's 7:00am. All nine go in with what seems to be little effort. Though, I wasn't the one doing the drilling, so my evaluation of the effort required may be skewed. What I'm saying is, when I tried, I failed miserably; when Andy put the drill through, it went like butter. There was one point when I had to tighten one awkwardly situated nut and made sandwich meat out of my finger with the bolt and the angle iron as the bread. The rain caused my hand to quickly become rather covered in blood and I enjoyed my new status as a psuedo-action-hero-looking individual.

On the last hole we have to drill, right after it punched through the trailer, the drill broke. The good news was we didn't need to drill any more holes in the trailer. The bad news was, we still had more holes to drill in the house. My friend Alex comes over with my old drill. We put a plywood board over the windows so they didn't get broken by rocks on the highway. With everything in place and bolted down, we hitch the house up to the monster truck that Andy is driving. The house tilts farther and farther back to reach up to the hitch until resting at an angle that makes it appear as if I've decided to launch the house into space rather than tow it. 

T-minus one brake light.

We begin our journey by testing the clearance above and below. We get a total of 10 feet (yes, that's feet) before the trailer bottoms out and smashes off the left brake light. This will be a recurring theme. By the time Andy brings the truck around front to investigate, the wires in the broken light touch causing a short circuit and blowing a fuse in his truck, shutting off ALL the brake lights. Cue the first of multiple trips to Wal-Mart.

***A disclaimer before I continue. I am an avidly anti-walmart individual. Anyone reading this should know as such. However, we were traveling on a Sunday, at all hours, in unfamiliar places and needed a store which was open 24-hours, guaranteed to have the part, and had a large parking lot capable of easily setting up a temporary workshop to quickly do repairs. I begrudgingly agreed that Wal-Mart would be our best option. On with the show.***

We get to Wal-Mart and fix the brake light and blown fuse. After a brief stop home to collect a few last things and to say a some depressing “So-long-for-nows”, I gathered up my nerve and we headed onto the I-5.

We had gone almost 20 miles before problems arose.

The tire on the right side of the trailer appeared to be in serious jeopardy. We pulled into a truck stop off of exit 88 and jacked up the house for the first of about six or seven times. The wheel is warped from not being moved around for many months. So we made it twenty miles before needing to use our one and only spare tire. As we're changing the tire, I see some state troopers slow-roll by us from the gas station. The passenger cop points at the house and looks at his partner. His partner shrugs and they speed away. I am relieved.

After pulling into another gas station across the road, we discover that the other tire we didn't change is about 20psi too low (read: what we just did was tremendously dangerous). We inflate it back to regulation and get back on the road.

We make it another 60 miles before the other wheel starts to go.

I call up Andy and we decide to make it to Portland because that's where our best chances are of finding an open tire shop. In Portland, we begin to pull into Wal-Mart #2... and crack off tail light #2. 

  

We don't need no stinkin' tail lights... oh... we do? Okay, let's get a tail light...

Fortunately, we're at Wal-Mart, so we don't have to drive on one light. Andy goes inside and discovers that there is a 3 hour wait to install the new tires. I stay outside and discover that my car won't start. I decide we'll deal with that later. We pick up two new brake lights (one for a spare) and a new hitch that has a 5-3/4” drop. This levels the house out a bit. I call around to tire places and find a Sears Auto open about three miles down the road. Checking my car, I remember that Alex miraculously fixed my car a few days previously by slamming the hood. So, like a jukebox or an old TV, I wonder if my car only requires a good, swift, Fonzie-esque kick to get it going. Sure enough, slamming the hood works. Andy installs the new taillight and I buy a lower drop hitch to help us clear the ground easier because I really don't feel like buying 15 replacement taillights that last only until we need gas again (which is about every 100 miles). We drive out to Sears Auto and they do not have the proper tires. Realizing I should have asked about the particular tires on the phone, I begin searching for a new auto shop. About this time, someone comes sauntering up and asks if he can look around at the house. I was expecting, even looking forward to this kind of thing, but now was not the time. I say sure, but am very short regarding his questions, promptly telling him it's on dead tires and I need a tire store that is open at 4pm on a Sunday. I happen upon a local tire shop that has the right tires for $87 each installed right away. We get over there and everything goes beautifully (except that about $200 evaporates from my pocket). We hit the road again.

There are no problems for a while now except that we discover exactly how many miles per gallon the truck is going to get hauling a house.

The answer is 3.

3 mpg. Highway. The truck needs to fill up it's two tanks, 17 and 19 gallons respectively, about four times for every time I have to fill up my 12 gallon tank. I leave behind a bit of my misty-eyed infatuation with this project at every gas station, along with a proportionately-sized wad of currency.

Near Eugene, we pull into a gas station which has an S-mart. I had no idea that S-mart was a place that existed in the real world. Thinking it was only relegated to the “Evil Dead” world, I was delighted to take a picture of the sign. 

I swear to imaginary god, that crummy picture is of an S-mart sign.

While I was doing so, Andy's truck overheated and threw up anti-freeze all over the ground. He proceeded to remedy that situation and we were off again.

Later on down the line, Andy pulls over to sleep. By this point, I have had a total of 1 hour of sleep for nearly 18 hours of driving, but I've also consumed 14 shots of espresso. I am obligated to keep my focus unbroken or suffer the after-effects of so much caffeine. Like an engine, I know I require much more force to overcome inertia than to just keep going. I play guitar and read.

Back on the road, we make it to California. Of course, the obligatory fruit-and-vegetable shakedown occurs at the border:

“Are you transporting and fresh produce?”

“Nope!”

“Have a nice day.”

I have never understood this.

*-*-*-*

Part Two is forthcoming.

First Night in the Tiny House

Okay, I still haven't completed the story of the trip down, and the next few posts will probably involve a LOT of catching up and disjointed, chronologically out of place updates until I'm all caught up to speed on this blog, but oh well. Eventually I'll even it out...

I guess the biggest update is that I slept in the tiny house for the first time last night. Well, it was more of a camp over than a move in type situation, but I spent the night in there nevertheless.



It was actually really great. Because the house has very little weight in the bottom of it, every time I moved the slightest bit, the house would sway back and forth. Even breathing seemed to make it more like sleeping in a boat than sleeping in a house. Still, I got to see the stars as I slept, wake up with the sun streaming in that window behind me (it faces directly east), and it was a lot cooler out there than in the much bigger house I usually sleep in.

Speaking about not a lot of weight...



We weighed the house about a week ago. 2580 pounds. Taking off the 900 pounds that the trailer weighs, that gives me 1680 pounds of tiny house. The trailer can only take 2600 pounds total weight, so I've got a little less than half a ton to work with. I'm not entirely sure that's going to be enough (I'm pretty sure it won't be), but I should be able to get some new springs in the trailer to beef... er... tofu it up to 6000 pounds.

Other than putting up some Strong Ties in the rafters and cutting out hundreds of Jenga-esque blocks to help the future insulation stay in place, that's what's happened with the house in the past week as far as physical action is concerned. My mom and I have spent a lot of time in and around the house just looking at it and brainstorming ideas. I think we came up with some really neat ones last night (such as how to merge the ladder to the loft with a bookshelf we'll eventually build.) The first item on our agenda, however, is to get some siding on and give the house a much needed departure from the Tyvek Box I've grown accustomed to staring at.

Okay, I think that's it. To close, and for seemingly no reason, here's a picture of me learning how to use a bench grinder...



- N