Early October Progress

Posted on October 18, 2012

We had another trip to prepare for, so in went the stairs/ladder and we finished up the exterior paint (aside from the door and touch-ups). After getting back from the northern VA adventures, it was time to finish the propane lines! Finally we could test the water heater, oven/stove, and the Newport P9000. As much as I wanted a woodstove (and still have the one I bought sitting in storage), this little heater is a good option for tiny houses because of how little clearance it needs around itself. I ended up buying the woodstove from myself to save for another house down the road 🙂

Besides all these pictures, I have a video treat for you all coming up. If only I could get it to load…I took today off from work, so I’ll do my best to post the vid today sometime in between my various construction projects.

: Flooring planks right after staining.

: And right before staining.

: I love how each board takes the stain differently!

: Mixed up something a bit more redish orange.

: View down the stair/ladder combo. This was a test-run to see if everything would fit.

: I needed to stain the ladder to match the stain I put on the stairs, so apart it went!

: Sanded down the sides, and ready for stain.

: I used the darkest stain I had here. I might come back and put a warmer stain over it to change it up a little.

: Ladder put back together.

: Trying out the stair/ladder idea.

: Here you can see the dilemma…this ladder was used on a bunk bed so it wasn’t made to angle. I predict some customization….

: We took chunky blocks of scrap wood we had lying around and cut them into a more pleasing shape, then stained them.

: …and now we have ladder feet! It also moved it higher so it attaches better to the loft.

: Here’s where the stove goes. I stained the inside to match the cabinets.

: Here it is in place. Needs an end panel! I sense more staining in my future….

: We used scrap luan from the walls to cut this end panel to size. I love using up all the scraps…this project has turned me into a bit of a construction material hoarder…

: Here’s that same panel stained to match the cabinets.

: And here it is installed!

: Newport P9000 propane heater.

: I also stained the luan panels around the composting toilet. I’m now thinking about painting the chair since there’s no golden oak colors in the house aside from this…

: Here’s the end of a countertop. Since these came from the ReStore, there’s no end caps to finish them off.

: This is probably where I get my material hoarding from – see the date? 2007?? It’s a beige paint he used in their own house, sealed in a canning jar and PERFECT for the ends of the countertops.

: Sanded and painted!

: Here’s a shot of the soffits painted to match the roof color.

: The second green coat is done and so is all the trim.

: More trim.

: Just an alt view since I never seem to get this angle.

: I also framed out another window. Here you can see the interior of it framed.

: Here’s the exterior part in-progress.

: And installed. I was nervous about staining these so dark, but I like how rustic it feels.

: Prepping the interior for the long trip north.

: Getting ready to leave!

: It’s cool with the lights on I think. A good reminder that this house is, in fact, attached to a trailer.

: Going down the mountain! Yes, we have proved that you can successfully haul a tiny house up and down curvy, mountainous roads. Fear not, tiny housers!

: Stopped at the hardware store 🙂

: First time attempting to pull this into a gas station. Inches of clearance!

: This was actually fun…we gave a quick tour to a few folks at the gas station, including to a guy planning to build his own tiny house.

: In-progress view from the bathroom.

: Back to work…one hole down to the bottom of the trailer to connect to propane, and another hole through the cabinet/end panel to attach to the heater.

: Farther away shot of the same thing. It’s the space where the stove goes.

: The heater is hooked up! And yuck…you can see how badly we need to enclose the wheel wells here. Caulk and spray foam everywhere on them…

: Testing the stove top.

: Testing the heater.

: Lumber for the door jambs.

: More staining! I love this! …..

: Putting in the first piece on the bathroom doorway.

: And same thing on one of the closets.

: Bathroom doorway with the rest of the pieces.

: Same thing with the closet. Now I just need to put some trim around the doorways!

: I went with green for the closet doors. These are hollow core doors so they won’t weigh much, and they are used so not really in stain-condition. I like the green accent. I also plan to use chalkboard paint and cork. You’ll see soon 🙂

: Really bizarre corner cabinet I picked up at the thrift store. Two questions – what the heck was this used for before? And what the heck am I going to do with it?

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Caulking, Composting toilet, Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Doors and Windows, exterior siding, gas stove, kitchen cabinets, Lumber, pallet, reclaimed lumber, Siding, Smart Side, Smartside, Soffit, Stove, tiny house, Wood

6 Comments

So much to catch up on!

Posted on September 25, 2012

Well, I suppose this means the end of “build days” and the beginning of a very belated post of all the progress over the last month. It’s, well…AWESOME.

Ready. Set. Pictures:

: The interior panels are luan.

: Walls going up

: “Couch” ready to prime. Found this at the thrift store, and it’s perfect for the house.

: Primed “couch”

: Custom rain-guards over the heater and fridge vents.

: Kitchen ceiling

: Ceiling paneling going up

: Bathroom paneling in-progress

: Paneling in-progress

: Recessed LED light (7 watts I think)

: These were brass. Ew

: Luan panels around the kitchen.

: First coat of green on the “couch”

: Super bright lights!

: View from the loft of the new walls and lights.

: Exterior lights.

: Water heater in its home.

: Starting to stain the walls 🙂

: Bottom = stained; top = naked

: Toe-kick/raiser for the cabinets.

: Plumbing behind the cabinets.

: Testing the countertop we just cut

: The used sink needs some TLC, but the faucet is new and fancy.

: Framing for the countertop. The cabinets are wall ones so they’re not deep. There’s a good reason for this with the plumbing, explained later.

: Bathroom window trim in-progress. I added a deep sill so things can go there (plants, toiletries, whatever)

: We planned switches and outlets pretty well…there are way more in here than anyone would probably need!

: Switch plate in the loft

: Painted a plywood top to deepen the sitting area on the “couch”

: Adding some boards to the bottom to raise it up a little.

: Green upcycled couch base.

: Plumbing for the kitchen tucked behind the cabinets instead of inside the walls.

: Getting ready for another piece of countertop.

: Carpet tiles in the loft…Habitat Restore!

: Desk area next to the kitchen.

: Stained toe-kick.

: Terrible shot of bathroom window trim

: Window trim in the bathroom.

: Door in-progress on the storage area.

: Added some foam to seal off the doors.

: 35 gallon water storage tank.

: Loft view after carpet tiles were installed.

: Sweet, sweet solar panel.

: Solar stuff worked out well – charge controller, inverter, lots of cords, 2 batteries…

: Tiny house travels to the hardware store!

: Catawba Farm Fest set-up.

: Catawba Farm Fest

: Green = good for solar

: Made the newspaper 🙂

: Leaving the fest

: Trying to select boards for the trim is hard…they are all warped!!

: Window trim in-progress

: Tiny house travels to Blacksburg 🙂

: How many kid can you fit in the loft?

: Fam touring the house

: A tiny birthday cake in the tiny house!

: Framing the other side of the kitchen

: Space for the stove to hang down, and provides some storage as well

: Countertop in place

: Hole cut for stove

: Great oven/stove top for the tiny house.

: Stove

: Random stairs in a thrift store that would be great to get up to the loft.

: Trim made from pallet boards, and stained to match some of the other darker wood tones going on.

: Propane tanks. 30 lbs each.

: Close-up of the awesome shirt sis had made for me!

: In-progress planing of pallet boards. Left = planed, middle/right = unplaned

: Getting ready to flare the copper pipe

: I forgot what this piece is called, but the pipe is flared.

: Success!

: Wrestling with copper pipe under the trailer was not so much fun.

: Shower and kitchen sink plumbing.

: Main propane line strapped to the trailer

: Running propane lines under the trailer

: Cutting and recutting the copper pipe…whoops…

: Propane line hooked up

: Water heater pipes finally completed.

: The treads need to be sanded, as well as the rest just to clean up the steps

: Don’t know if you can see, but there are pencil marks I’m trying to sand away

: Sanded, ready for stain

: First bit of stain…I like it!

: Staining in-progress

: First coat of stain done

: Side view

: Final stain. I’m thinking decorative tile on the spaces right above the treads, so I didn’t do much stain there.

: Sample of the pallet flooring – planed, sanded, and stained

: Pile of pallet boards ready to sand and stain for the floors

: Exterior paint color!

: Exterior paint.

: One side down, 3 to go

: Above the door

: Front getting painted

: Thanks mom 🙂

: Exterior paint

: First coat of exterior paint – done!

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Smart Side, Smartside, tiny house

13 Comments

Build Day 37 (8/2/12)

Posted on August 8, 2012

The good news is that I’m finally caulking the siding and trim and whatnot. The bad news is that it’s a very tedious task! After 2 of us working on it for about 3 hours, I think we’re 1/2 done with it. We went all around the window and door trim and in EVERY seam between siding pieces, as well as where the siding butts the trim and around the wheels. We didn’t get to caulk up top around the soffits, and there are some places that need touch-ups. I apologize for the dark pics, but we were caulking until almost 9!

: Goes on white, dries clear. Paintable and low-VOC.

: Where the siding meets the trim.

: There’s so much in these areas that it’ll take a week to dry!

: I can’t even guess how many of these seams there were…

: Last one of the evening.

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Caulking, Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Siding, Smartside, tiny house

2 Comments

Build Day 36 (7/29/12)

Posted on August 8, 2012

Last day of siding!!!!!!!

Also one of the trickiest days of siding. All we had left to do was put some on the small, side triangles on the dormers. Tough angles though! Thankfully I wasn’t the one doing the mathematical calculations, so it went pretty well. We also pondered exterior paint colors (finally mom gets to be more involved!). The trim will be the same color as the roof and the siding will be a medium green. Eco-friendly paint, of course.

: Tight space to work in…

: 4 of these to do, not so bad.

: Geometry lesson.

: Other side, with looming storm clouds…

: Another side…

: Last one!

: Exterior color options.

: He couldn’t stand this one slightly crooked piece! At least we’ll know it’s perfect now 😉

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Siding, Smartside, tiny house

3 Comments

Build Day 35 (7/28/12)

Posted on August 8, 2012

As I’ve stated previously, life got crazy! I was able to order appliances and do some theoretical work on the wee house, but no construction to speak of. Back in the swing of things now though! While I was in Las Vegas for a conference, the roof crew was working. Although I had wanted to do this myself, time is of the essence (and somehow I’m justifying the cost….) Also, a random fun pic of my sister’s camper with my tiny house. 🙂

For the actual day of 7/28, we finished up the siding on the dormers and the ends (minus a few small sections, saved for the next day). There were a lot of odd cuts and tricky sections but we got it done! Definitely helped having an extra person there too. I’m thinking painting party for the siding – who wants to join?? 😉

: My sister’s camper behind the tiny house…and the big house in the background 🙂

: Men-folk assisting with putting up some trim.

: Dad nailing up the last piece on this part.

: 🙂

: Another side done!

: Closer shot.

: Tetris?

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Dormer, Smartside, tiny house

Build Days 32, 33, 34 (6/21,6/23,6/24)

Posted on August 1, 2012

We kept chugging along at the end of June to get most of the siding done. Since we had already completed the longer walls, it was time to tackle the siding around the front door. The straight cuts were super easy, but then we had to cut around that lovely trim I picked out. After that, we stopped for the day since we needed soffits before continuing the siding up to the top.

The next days focused on soffits and finishing the siding on the back and above the front door. We were still waiting on the roof before we could official finish the siding. Luckily the roof was done while I was out of town…look for a post on this soon!

: Siding by the front door.

: Four leaf clover taped above the door for luck!

: Notching around the door trim.

: We took a break once we hit the angled part.

: Soffits are next! Then we can continue the siding up to the top.

: Alt view of the door.

: Cutting these at an angle required an expert’s skill. I left this up to dad!

: Eye-balling it…

: And yet another piece that needs to be notched…nothing is simple on this project.

: Soffit 1!

: Soffit 2!

: Soffits on the back as well.

: I did mention that the window trim was complicated to cut around, right? 😉

: Angled pieces – begin!

: Another pain in the butt, but done.

: Starting on the small, back pieces.

: Getting the box all sided up.

: Tiny siding for a tiny house!

: Other side of the box.

: End of day shot.

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Materials and Supplies, Siding, Smartside, Soffit, tiny house

Video interlude

Posted on July 11, 2012

No time to actually post, so here’s a video update instead 🙂

My paper is due this weekend, so next week I’ll be back to full-force construction! So excited!

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Smartside, tiny house

4 Comments

Build Days 28 and 29 (6/9/12 – 6/10/12)

Posted on June 21, 2012

Pretty short update that will be mostly photos…I’ve been behind on these because the draft of my research paper is due this weekend and frankly that’s more important to me right now! 😉

On 6/9 and 6/10 Dad and I trimmed out the storage area on the back and put up the fascia boards around the house where the roof meets the walls. The photos will tell you the rest…

: Storage compartment trim.

: Done the same way as the windows.

: Dad explaining how to do the next piece.

: Side view.

: Other side view.

: Fascia boards above the door.

: First fascia board on the side.

: And another side…

: End of day photo.

: So we have ticks everywhere, and Mom found a giant one to scare me!

: Speaking of pests, we were also visited by a black snake. This was real though, unlike the tick…

: Fascia board at the top.

: Longer view.

: Ah, corners 🙂

: Another view of the board at the top.

: Nailing up more exterior trim.

: I also caulked a few windows today.

Category: Tiny House Archive Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Do it yourself, Smartside, tiny house

1 Comment

Build Days 25, 26, 27 (6/6/12-6/8/12)

Posted on June 12, 2012

I’m combining these 3 days since they all deal with trim and would have been too short to separate and still be interesting.

6/6: We put all the corner trim on (well, almost all of it…there are some corners on the dormers that still need it, but we have to wait for the roof to come in). It’s Smartside trim and siding from LP that is pretty environmentally-friendly. I got a good deal on it through the local hardware store and the company didn’t require a minimum order. I had looked into cedar and other options for this stuff that seemed cheaper, but everywhere I looked required a minimum of twice what I actually needed.

6/7: Trimmed out all but 2 windows after debating which style to go with. It’s certainly different, but it fits in with the vision I have in my head. Keep any disapproving comments to yourself please 😉

6/8: Finished the trim on the last windows, around the door, and spray-foamed (that’s a verb, right?) around the wheel wells on the inside of the house and around the windows. Even though I knew it would expand a lot, I still managed to overfill the cracks. At least you know it’s extra sealed!