Busy, busy, busy!

 

Look how far it's come! We have been working like maniacs, and its paying off. The insulation went in a few weeks ago and its been full steam ahead since then.

We chose closed cell spray insulation for its high R value, even though it's heavier. With the Andersen windows and the insulation, the house will be sure to stay nice and toasty in the winter, and cool in the summer months.

Next, the floor went in. We used salvaged oak my dad found extra from a job site. Its beautiful wood, and was a great find.

 And check out that built in couch! I'm particularly proud of that one. There will be drawers underneath for extra storage, and there's actually quite a bit of room in there! There will be bookcases along both ends. It' going to be a useful piece of furniture!

Then came the ceiling. David worked really hard on gathering pallets (with Jeremy's help, of course), breaking them up, and placing them on the ceiling. The result is a really beautiful patchwork of wood tones and textures.

 This has gotten whitewashed since, and looks like a sky of many blues.

We put spruce tongue and groove on the interior walls too.

 

 

For the bathroom wall we salvaged the cedar from an outdoor shower that was being ripped off a house that's getting moved soon. It looks awesome, and is semi water resistant. I think it's my favorite wall. Great thanks to my mom and dad for that project!

 

 

Before the bathroom wall could be closed off we had to get the tub in the bathroom. Its too big to fit through the bathroom door!

 

 

 

And we got a door!

 

Ani painted it a green to match the roof. We have keys to our home!

Its coming along, and more was done this weekend. April flew by. Between work, moving, and making progress on the house, we have not been sleeping much! But it will make sleeping up in that sleeping loft when it's all finished all that much sweeter.

 

 

 

Building party! Today, Sunday April 13th

Hello friends and family!

I know this is last minute, and you all are busy prepping gardens, and maybe packing for that rental shuffle coming up, but if you can lend us a half hour, an hour, two- we'd appreciate it! We're getting down to the crunch, we too are moving at the end of the month, and there is still lots to do!

Today David is working on the ceiling and needs some extra hands. My mom is shingling and could use some assistance. My dad and I are on various ceiling and framing projects. There is plenty to do! If you've been curious about progress, or have been itching to get that hammer out- come on over to 17 Okorwaw, off the boulevard. We'll be there until probably around 5 today!

Hope to see you there!

Our little ship

Our little ship has a figure head, and a name!

Nantucket has the tradition of naming houses. It's a nautical island with many of its original settlers finding work on the sea, and often supplies for their houses along the beaches. This closeness to ships, with a few washed up boat names thrown in, and naming your house just like a boat seems to have evolved quite naturally.

We decided to have a quarter board with 'Sweet Pea' made up, with a nod to its green roof and general cuteness. That's the name of our ship!

And this is our figure head, just installed today-

Can't wait for this ship to sail!

We're building a (love) house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru8DlHoOFM

First, go start this playing.


Ready?


Me too.


David and I are building a house. We are getting married. We are becoming us, and building the first step of our future, quite literally. Nail for nail, and board for board, we are watching our future come together.

Our kingdom.

A small one for now, with a garden and a wood stove. Lots of romance and hard work, and compromise. Lots of laughing at ourselves, a few swears and tears. Learning from each other, about ourselves, and about what we expect and need from one another to make our future work.

My man. The one who was so excited to use a saws all it made me smile, and the one who talked me so gracefully out of a meltdown that my family can't help but love him. And as much as sometimes I'd like to wave a wand and have this building done and live-able, this... this right here... this is part of it too. And part of us.

 

 

That  I wouldn't give up for all the mansions in the world.

 

 

 

 

A Labor of Love

I started up landscaping again for the season last week. It was a beautiful first week with lots of sun and the bulbs just starting to appear. I even found my first blooming daffodils!

Work on the house of course, has slowed. But we've been putting every minute we have on the weekends and evening towards the house, and progress is still being made. Friends and family have been out to help whenever they have time too, and the accomplishments are sweeter for the extra effort.




Here  I am after a day of tar papering and adding cheek spines (those lines of  tape you see between the two roof levels- keeping the seam moisture tight)




 

Next we started adding the trim. We needed to get the roof trim on before the metal roofing could be started. Roof trim is categorized into fascia and rakes. Fascia are the horizontal edge pieces- straight and therefore relatively easy. Rakes are the angled end edge of the sloped roof and require a lot of geometry. The trim was a challenge, especially for my mathematically challenged brain. It took two tries with the very expensive cedar trim to get it right, and I have to admit, some cursing and a few tears. Spollet came after work the day we had to restart the trim project, and revitalized a very depressed David and Rachel and we got the fascia on with his help.

               Here we are looking rather smug with our fascia and the dormer rake on.


Next came the gable rakes with so much geometry my head nearly exploded and my dad walking 5 miles in trips between the chop saw and the gables in question. An older chop saw, my inexperienced hand, and a half degree angle difference all lead to a simple looking project extending all day. But gosh darn it we got it right in the end, much in thanks to my dad's humor and energy. And that trim looks good. Its starting to look like a house, not just a box.

       Also, just look at that scaffolding. We were pretty proud of ourselves for that creation.


You can see David taking a photo in the shot, and he got some good ones, but his phone just went caput. Hopefully the phone company can recover the photos soon, he got some great shots of Andrew and Ani building us our first stack of shelves in the kitchen!

       

Here you can see the shelves all complete. Perfect for spices or mason jars! 

 

Jeremy and his family have been out to help too. Emma was Ani's helper in building the shelves, carrying wood over to the kitchen for her. This is what its all about. All that love into a stack of shelves. Jen if you got any shots of Emma that day, send them over so I can (further) document how darn cute she is.

And of course, my mom has been cooking us dinner when we are all too tired to cook, and bringing out lunch and snacks to the work site. We've been wonderfully supported in this venture.

 

My dad came over everyday after work last week and worked until we ran out of sunlight to get the electrical done. Here is the little box squeezed in between the studs.

 And me running thermostat wire for a LED puck light in the main room.

 

 

And stapling the wires to the studs so they don't get ripped out when the spray insulation is installed. I look sorta like I know what I'm doing here, but its really all I can do to keep the wires organized. Electrical work is complicated! Afternoon coffee is a must.

 

And look the roof went on! Paul, Lester and Pat helped with this, and I was so relieved. Paul has put on metal roofing before when he did carpentry in Jamaica, so we had the huge benefit of experience. Turns out its a kind of puzzle- once you get everything cut to the right length without gashing yourself on the metal first. The green looks nice. I was worried about the obviously unusual roof color for the island, but its pretty without being so standout once its on. We could have gone with a more traditional color for sure, maybe the town would have been more easily appeased with a gray roof. But we like it. The green reminds David of his forests back home in NY, the cedar trim reminds me of my home in Nantucket, and since this is our first home together what could be better than combining our loves? So cedar and evergreen it is!

We are working on plumbing now. Still waiting on windows to arrive for progress to continue on the exterior, and insulation on the inside before interior siding can go up. I'm looking for some siding if any one has any leads! Project scrapes, job site cast offs, tongue and groove, ship lap- I'll take em! I have about 300 feet of siding to put up in total, but there's no need for all of that to match. Eclectic is good! Imperfection is beautiful! and free is glorious!

In other news David and I have been going through our stuff in preparation for downsizing. It can be an overwhelming process, but also freeing. I do feel lighter without so much stuff. We still have a long ways to go, but we have reduced our clothes by half, I've gone through my craft stuff for the first time in years, and we are both starting to get excited about living more simply. This article on decluttering and our culture's need for "stuff" has been an inspiration. The best inspiration of course has been seeing the tiny house evolve, laying out our tiny itty bitty closet and the craft/tool/shoe storage we'll have under the couch. But to live in such freedom, I'd be willing to give up all my stuff to fit!

 

 

 

Its solid.

Sunset on a tiny house building day

 

All last week I've been working on the tiny house full time. I luckily have gotten leave to start landscaping in the middle of  March, and this week David got to take a few days off and lend a hand too. We've been moving right along and pictures really will tell the best story here...

Insulation was added to the sub floor frame and then sheathed with plywood.

Next day, the walls were framed and put up one by one. Here I am screwing in the frame.

Windows are framed out- final decision time! I decided to go ahead with the side door as opposed to the front door, and added bigger windows along that back wall, which will end up being our reading nook/couch area.

Kitchen window in the background, living room window center, door forefront.

Lester and Paul working to secure braces so our work stays level while we work

Bundled.

Look at the sky. Almost felt like spring!

Next Day, started the gable rafters. Lester and Paul are standing where our sleeping loft will be!

Ladders everywhere!

Back windows I was talking about! Imagine all that light!

Sleeping loft. David and I decided to add one more joust to the loft space to make the lost 16 inches longer. It went from being exactly the length of our mattress, to a foot and some longer- much more comfortable! I had visions of kicking our quilts to the floor and having to trudge down the ladder in the middle of the night to retrieve them, or worse kicking them on to the woodstove. O hey, yea, we bought a woodstove on Saturday! Its a Fisher Baby Bear. Pretty small, but still big for our space. Hopefully we can keep it stoked low enough to stay nice and toasty but not over heat!

 

Sheathed. It looks kind of plain all sheathed! Wish I had a more focused version of my mom and that jack back there, they look pretty elegant in a strange way.

Sweeping my home! Ladder is where the tub would be to orient you, I'm in the living room, awfully close to where the wood stove will be.

up among the rafters

 



and a drink with friends to celebrate our progress!







wooooweee! its been a whirlwind of nails, lumber, and screws! Everything has been nailed, screwed, glued, and tied in. This this is as solid and solid can be. And that my friend is what we call a solid start.

PROGRESS MUTHAH TRUCKAH!

Me and the jovial Lester and Paul just put on a sub sub floor (extra support and a layer to easily attach the sub floor frame).

Photo taken by my non smart phone- but you there it is!

The Creation. Sub floor framing on aluminum flashing all on 2x6 supports. o and plywood covers since Lester was concerned the deer would think we made them a playground. Man knows deer.

                                                             


 Now, having a brand new trailer is great- but it presented some logistical problems. Like how to attach the aluminum sheathing to a much stronger metal. A strong metal like the steel my trailer is made of needs a lot of torque to penetrate it. That amount of torque shreds the aluminum sheathing I need to use to moisture and mouse proof the insulation. Dilemma? Well yes. And a relatively undocumented one. Trailers made just for tiny houses are a relatively new thing, and tiny house resources are still catching up. I found a few posts similar but not relative for either reasons of a different made for purpose trailer or different moisture barrier requirements, but nothing exactly like I needed. So, since I had the space (and a height restriction is nerve racking, I had a mid project freak out that we'd added too much height) we just added 2x6's like the ones you would normally leave when deconstructing a utility trailer for a tiny house project. Honestly seems kind of odd and backwards, but the extra work in the beginning makes the work of  sub floor attachment much easier. Not having to center 30, 1/2"x 6" lag bolts on a 1" wide  3 " thick metal support beam easier. Nah, I need some 3 inches or so to attach some things. And Paul and Lester would tell you I'm all about attaching, just eh, not so all about the exact. 3 inches of give and take are for me.

          
                  Aren't we cute? Right after we leveled it. I'll give you some leveling photos too!

 

                    High and low, and down, and down again! Leveling. Hey look, 3 inches!

Geometry at work. And I thought I'd never use it in the real world. I had apparently never lived in the real world, or realized math could be so cool. This was the math class I should have taken.

 

 

 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

BUILDING BITCHES!

O and happy Fat Tuesday! I'm giving up beer for my first ever lent. First because I'm feeling gluttonous after my winter of hibernating, and more fundamentally to acknowledge the hunger gap of early spring even in our on demand world. Even a pagan-quaker-catholic-jewish-congo can realize strength in less.