Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Update!

Hey Everybody!

At long last I am making an update! I've been running hard with work as of late and so the Tiny House project, and more so my blogging, have taken a back burner. All kinds of stuff has gone on since I last updated. I'll do my best to not sit here for four hours getting it all out!


From where we left off: Shortly after I got my first shipment of lumber I started making my individual wall sections. Above I'm getting my first wall measured and laid out in the driveway.

Here is my foot as I took over the porch for a bit to screw everything together and take advantage of the sun.
I had some help holding my drill bits from falling through my deck from this very kind rosemary plant I found out back!
 I also pulled my work car into the back to borrow its speakers for a bit. Mostly Pretty lights and Ramona Falls in case you're curious.
Here's my roommate Fred keeping me company and eating funky African food.


 Once assembled I got a chance to rough fit the first wall section to the trailer.










Flash forward a couple of weeks and I'm starting to fill up all my storage space. I've managed to knock out a wall section here and there on my weekends and afternoons.



Aside from framing, I learned a great lesson, and I should note that there are some people who told me to watch out for this in advance(Joe Sr.), but hey I've always been the one to touch the stove to learn it's hot...

In the process of moving the project up to Independence, despite my best effort getting everything tarped, the trailer got completely soaked with rain and my decking was saturated.
Cut to the scene of a very cold, very wet me under the trailer in independence stabbing my new PVC barrier to let all the water drain out. :( I thought I could get away with letting everything dry out for a few weeks, but alas everything warped like crazy and rotted through... So I ripped off the old decking and gave it to my neighbor. I'm really glad I learned this BEFORE I put my walls up! It could have cost me a lot more money and time than just the plywood. Lesson learned.









Also, I tracked down  a welder off of Craigslist, John Hood, to weld my sacrificial angle iron for wall attachments. This guy was awesome. He's done just about everything awesome for work. He owned a custom car shop, was a tattooist, & all together was a very zen guy for a CL welder.



 The grass only caught fire once!









Again a few weeks forward. Lately my work has me out in Eastern Oregon quite a bit, and on the way back over the mountain I saw a tiny house for sale!! I pulled over and knocked on the door. You can tell from the picture that I wasn't happy at all, totally nonplussed. This was my second time in a Tiny House after April Anson was kind enough to give me a tour. Her blog here. The folks that gave me the tour were caring for the house while its owner was out of town. We ended up hanging out for an hour or so talking about houses and ecology and whatnot. Such nice folks!








Flash forward! After learning my lesson with rotted decking, and troubleshooting my timeline for putting up walls I decided to make a move. Further, at my current location I was running out of storage space for my walls and my trailer was on an non-level surface. I decided not to chance rushing the construction to cut corners or more rain and lost time.

On the 15th of July I packed up my wall sections, lumber and workbenches, and again found someone from Craigslist to haul my Tiny project.












 To where you might ask?? TO MY AWESOME SHOP SPACE!! YUSSS!

 I found a guy out in Aumsville (about 20 miles from my place) with a two bay shop for rent. We worked out a deal for me to have it through the end of August! The space has 2, 12' roll up doors and 1, 14' roll up, a bathroom, an office and a nice level concrete floor! AwweYeaSoSweeeet!!




The first day I had keys I unloaded my wall sections and built my back wall in less than an hour. I was already expecting things to go better/more quickly with the new space but I was still surprised at just how far having the right workspace goes. I see the irony in my being all excited about having copious amounts of space in which to build a very tiny space. But lets just move along, yeah? :)

Now current day, a little less than a week later I have made SO much progress. It's stupid how much, really.






This morning I had my second shipment of lumber arrive at the warehouse. This was special ordered KD 2x6's and 2x4's for the lofts, floor and roof AND my new decking and sheathing. The pic below is what Boise Cascade thinks is acceptable KD 2x4's. These are BS 2x4's. I sent them back and made loud noises over the phone. Bunk. 


In the time created by the vacuum of  lumber for the lofts today I finished all of my wall sections, downstairs and up! Once I re-deck the trailer I'll be ready to start attaching walls!! Take a look!





My loft walls:

 I've found that having a time frame for getting this built is crazily good for me. There's something about the feeling of losing money if you don't get your butt in gear that I find strangely motivating!

As of now I have a little more than a month and a week to get the exterior built. I am way on track to knock it out. :)

Other developments:

I ordered my new snazzy energy efficient windows yesterday, on track to show up in a couple weeks. BIG thanks to Mike Leupold on this!

I'm getting new BETTER 2x4's delivered day after tomorrow!


My short term work list moving forward:
        1. Track down a good source for cedar siding.

        2. Find a manufacturer to set me up with brackets to hold my deck beams in place.

        3. Look into Standing seam metal roofing, and try not to get ripped.   
Any tips on these would be superbly appreciated!


Thanks for reading everyone!

I'll follow up soon!

-J