A Productive Vacation

Pete and I had every day last week to work on the tiny house; typically we only work two days every weekend.  While we didn’t accomplish everything we had wanted to, we got a lot of little details taken care of and are that much closer to having the exterior complete.  My mom also spent the week with us and she got busy staining boards and sealing the door when she wasn’t working her own job.

Here is what we managed to accomplish:

We installed the Denver gable trim on the back of the house, but still need to trim it at the top; we installed the soffit boards at the front of the house along with the Denver gable trim; we installed the soffit boards on the dormers; we installed the end wall trim under each of the dormer windows; we installed one 10′ 6″ section of ridge cap over the 12:12 pitched portion of the roof; we framed in the dormer windows, storage loft window, and finished framing the window opposite the porch window (we still need to frame in the porch window but we were waiting for the door to be installed first); we installed sidewall trim on one side of each dormer along with the fascia boards and Denver gable trim; we put up more corner trim in preparation for siding; we stained the porch ceiling; we sided the back of the house; and had the door installed.

We brought the door over to the tiny house for the first time since we picked it up from the door people.  My mom was going to start sealing the door and before she got there we decided to put the door in place and see how it looked.  The company that made our door did a fantastic job; however, they apparently didn’t pay too close attention to our rough opening size because the door/frame was a half-inch taller than our opening and it just barely fit from side to side.  We figured our only option was to sawzall the door header.  We borrowed our friend Eric’s sawzall and Pete went to work taking out an extra inch.  We then proceeded to put the door in place and start leveling it.  After messing around for about half an hour, we decided installing a door was beyond our skill level and had my mom call for help.  She called our long-time family friend John who runs his own carpentry business, JW Ferguson Contracting here in Marquette.  John showed up just before dark as Pete and I were still putting siding up on the back of the house.  We watched John quickly go to work and while he said we could continue doing what we were doing, we wanted to see how a door is supposed to be installed.  We had watched a few YouTube videos, as usual, but quickly admitted defeat.  While we watched John work, we realized we were on the right track to start out, but he knew the order of how to go about screwing and shimming and in no time the door was installed.  When I asked him how much we owed him, he said one hug!  Apparently that’s only his rate for long-time family friends; he has after all known me since I was a baby!  Thanks John for showing up in the evening after a busy day and installing our door!

We had really wanted to get the roof completed this week, but realized we still needed to order a few trim pieces and that would take a week to come in.  We also had to get more trim boards and since we cleaned ProBuild out of their stock of 5/4 cedar we were going to have to wait a few days for that to come in as well.  In another couple of weeks we should be able to declare the exterior complete.

Getting creative while boards dry.

Removing a portion of the header so the door would fit.

The blue painter’s tape will be removed.

Since the Last Post

We’ve been slowly plugging away at the tiny house making small accomplishments almost every weekend.  I’m on annual leave next week and Pete has been laid off early due to the government shutdown so we’re hoping to get the exterior completed on the tiny house.

Since the last post, we’ve continued putting metal up on the roof and as of yesterday, have all the metal sheets installed.  All that’s left for the roof is the ridge cap, end wall trim in front of the dormers, sidewall trim along the sides of the dormers, and the Denver gable trim along the edges of the roof.  We’ve had to stair-step the metal roof panels in places due to things not being perfectly square and we discovered how much harder it is to keep the panels square when you cut a huge section out to go around a skylight.  So the roof is not perfect, but like I probably mentioned in the last post, it will keep the elements outside where they belong.

We installed all the windows in a day and a half.  Putting in the windows has been by far the easiest part of this building project.  We decided that if we have to find new careers, we could be professional window installers.  We did have a close call with one of the windows though.  The instructional video that we watched said to make the windows level horizontally and put a couple nails in.  Then it said to check the level vertically and prior to nailing in around the rest of the window, open the window and make sure it opens as it should.  So we did this on all our windows, sometimes forgetting to open them before nailing on a couple, but we didn’t run into any problems.  On the final window, one of the big ones in the dormer; we did exactly as the instructional video said.  Well, we’re just lucky that I was sitting on scaffolding and not balancing on a ladder!  After putting in our two nails at the bottom and making sure we were level on the sides, Pete started to open the window. When the window was open most of the way, the window proceeded to fall out of the opening!  I was able to stop it from falling all the way out while Pete was pulling it back from the inside so all ended well but it definitely got our hearts beating a little faster.

We also put the trim around most of the windows, got the fascia up along the sides of the house and at the front and back of the house, and put soffits in along the side of the house and at the back of the house.  We also have the fascia installed in front of the dormers because we had to do that before we could put the drip edge on and the rest of the metal panels on the dormer section of the roof.

Our local Menard’s is having a lumber sale, so we took advantage and picked up the bulk of our beveled cedar siding at the lowest price you can buy it in town.  We spent over an hour at the store opening up each package and picking out the best boards.  After going through everything they had in stock, we wound up with forty-one twelve-foot boards.  We’ll probably have to get a few more but this is a good start.

Once we put up all the roof trim pieces, we’ll get the last few windows framed in, finish framing in the corners, and start putting up siding.  We’ve talked my mom into coming and staying with us next week; she’s very good at staining boards! 🙂 Here’s to a productive vacation!

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Tiny House Building Spirit Renewed!

The recent blue skies got us back into tiny house building mode.  As I type this post we do not have blue skies; it is currently overcast and snowing.  However, the past two weekends, while cold, were clear of precipitation and allowed us to get back into full tiny house building swing.

Because I have procrastinated on blogging, this post will be short and sweet and not too detailed.  Two weekends ago (October 20th & 21st) we got back to work and finished putting up the rafters and put in the blocking at the base of the rafters.  We also trimmed the ends of the rafters to what we think is the appropriate length.  As I type, I question whether we cut them short enough.  We did account for the fascia, but we need to figure out how long the metal roofing is supposed to hang over the fascia and possibly trim them a little shorter.  We need to make sure we are road legal and that means not having the rafters/fascia/metal roofing hanging out further than the wheel wells of the trailer.

The following weekend (October 27th &28th) we put in the blocking between the rafters where plywood sheeting seams will land.  We also framed in the opening for the skylight and framed in the gable end on the sleeping loft side of the house.  We chose not to put the skylight above the sleeping loft like the plans call for; instead we placed the opening for the skylight in the great room centered between the two lofts.  We also modified the gable ends slightly so as to lift the window opening as high as we could place it while still keeping the typical window header.  In doing so we only raised the window up about 3/4 of an inch.  Another modification we made to the Fencl plans was to keep the 12/12 pitch roof all the way across instead of going with the dutch hip roof at the front of the house.  This allows us to have a little more space in the storage loft as well as being able to put in another window.

Tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be partly cloudy without precipitation so we will finish framing in the gable end above the storage loft and start putting the roof sheathing on.

Skylight opening.

Sleeping loft gable wall framed.

Starting the framing for the storage loft gable wall.

The Walls Are UP!

September 30, 2012 – Several weeks ago, we planned for the last weekend in September to put up the walls, the roof, and get the windows in.  We realized these were lofty goals, especially since everything seems to take us a little longer than we’d like; however, Pete asked his parents and one of his brother’s to come up and help us tackle the tiny house raising.  As to be expected, our lofty goals went to the wayside.  Two weeks ago, Pete got called out to northern Minnesota to fight wildfires.  He wasn’t due back until Saturday the 29th, so his family made other plans.  Pete ended up coming home a few days early and the weather was supposed to be great this weekend, so we decided to proceed as planned.  Thankfully, Pete’s co-worker, Vince, came to the rescue.  We knew we couldn’t get the whole house up in one weekend without a lot of help, so we decided to just tackle the walls and buy some heavy-duty plastic to cover the house with until we can get the roof on.

For several weeks our roofing, skylight, and loft beams had been sitting at ProBuild and our windows came in a little over a week ago.  We decided to wait and have everything delivered at the same time which was scheduled for Friday afternoon.  We ran to ProBuild in the morning to pick up some heavy-duty plastic, and an assortment of structural screws for putting the walls up; and also to give them a large sum of money…windows aren’t cheap.

We also decided to move the build site to our current residence.  Since June, we have been occupying half of Jeff and Cindy’s garage and we are so grateful for their hospitality.  However, the folks who own the home that we are staying in, moved a bunch of their stuff out and we have an empty garage to work in.  We also thought, that by having the tiny house just outside, we might be able to work on it in the evenings and not just weekends.

After leaving ProBuild we ran to Jeff and Cindy’s to start gathering our tools and building supplies.  We waited for our delivery of other supplies and then went back to Jeff and Cindy’s to move the trailer with all the walls stacked on top.  Once we got the trailer to our place, we had to start installing the scissor jacks so the trailer could be leveled.

We were drilling through steel, so we needed a small 1/8″ drill bit to start the hole and then an 11/32″ bit to get the final size.  We started with the front jacks because there was only one good place to put them and it didn’t require modifying the trailer.  We placed the jacks under the trailer and raised the jacks until the trailer just started to lift off the ground.  Then Pete marked the location where the holes needed to be drilled.  He drilled both holes with the smaller bit and then drilled out one of the holes with the larger bit.  When he went to drill the second hole to the final size, the drill bit was already dull. We managed to get the second hole drilled out and the one scissor jack installed, but had to call it a night because it was getting dark.  We were also going to have to pick up some new bits the next day to get through three more jacks.   The jacks that were installed on the back of the trailer had to be placed in the location that originally stored the loading ramps that came with the trailer.  Because of that, we had to grind off steel plates on both sides that held up the loading ramp.  Long and boring story short and many drill bits later, we managed to get all the holes drilled and all jacks installed.

Meanwhile, while Pete was working on the scissor jacks, Vince and I got to work cutting the window openings on the smaller walls.

It took us until 4pm Saturday to get the last of the jacks installed and the window openings cut.  At this point we had to make a decision on whether or not we should start putting  up walls or wait until tomorrow.  We decided to proceed and started with the heaviest of the walls. This was no easy task, as the longest wall was super heavy and had to be picked up and set down so that the rebar would come through the holes on the bottom plate. With a little forethought, some concrete blocks, and a lot of luck, we managed to get the wall up and in place without anyone getting hurt. After the big wall was secured in place, the rest were a piece of cake. The next wall to go up was the second longest wall, followed by the end wall (the wall at the front of the trailer).  Once these three walls were in place and temporarily secured, we called it a night.

We got a 10am start on Sunday and finished securing the first three walls in place.  This required a run to the hardware store to pick up a deep well socket to secure the Simpson strong ties in place.  I ran to Ace, since it’s closer to our house than Lowe’s; however, I have now learned to just go straight to Lowe’s.  I stopped at Ace for a nut driver and the deep well socket.  I brought with me our socket wrench so that I could get one that was compatible with our wrench.  I’m pretty sure I knew more about tools and Ace itself than the kid helping me, which isn’t saying much.  We found a deep well socket in the right size, but it didn’t work with our socket wrench.  So I came home with a regular wrench instead.  The wrench was too long to fit in the space and wasn’t working and Pete and Vince told me that there is an adapter I can get to make the deep well socket fit into our socket wrench.  So, off I went to Lowe’s this time as I didn’t trust the kid at Ace to help me find the adapter.  Another long and boring story short, I got the deep well socket and the adapter and we were able to secure the walls to the Simpson strong ties.  We got the remaining walls in place and all the walls went up fairly smoothly.  However, another trip to Lowe’s was necessary as we were two nuts short for the Simpson strong ties.  It was at this point, that we were so grateful to be living closer to town than when we first started this whole project.  Prior to current residence, it would have been a 1/2 hour drive to Lowe’s.

We got back to the house and needed to get the house wrap on.  We had purchased a roll of house wrap a while back, but a co-worker of mine had a couple leftover rolls that he said we could have so we had the ProBuild delivery driver take back the roll we had purchased.  We picked the partial roll of the house wrap that looked to have the most on it and started with the shorter of the long walls;  the roll had just enough to cover this wall.   We decided to proceed anyway and that’s when we learned how difficult it is to put up house wrap.  The house wrap was not going on well.  It was wrinkled, we had a big crease, and then put a hole in it when trying to fix the crease.  At this point we decided we were going to need to buy more house wrap anyway and ripped the sheet down to start over.  For the final trip to Lowe’s, I ran and picked up a new roll of house wrap and some smaller sized staples as the ones we were using were bigger than they needed to be.

The learning curve is pretty short as far as house wrap goes and when I got back with the new roll, we had a new plan and determination to get it right this time.  The final long and boring story short, the house wrap went up the second time without any issues.  By this time we were all a little tired and ready to call it quits but we still had to get the heavy-duty plastic and a tarp over the house to protect it until it has a roof.  This too, is not very exciting so I’ll let the pictures tell the rest.

 

Getting ready to move the trailer and walls.

Our new build site.

Installing scissor jacks.

Our windows! I really want to take a peak, but I’ll wait until we put them in. I really hope they got the order right.

In honor of Michael Jackson, Pete works with one glove.

Drilling holes to cut the window openings.

Vince exercising extreme safety.

The fall colors are in full swing in the U.P.

Pete and Vince super excited to be looking out the bathroom window.

The extra sheating above the wheel well was keeping the wall from sitting flush. There was also a screw head sticking out and sitting on the wheel well and the trailer became slightly less level after putting the back wall on. All these things combined had to be addressed so that the wall would sit flat on the floor.

When we originally cut out the sheating for the wheel well, we left it a little long thinking it would be ok and that we’d remove it later if we had to. Well, later came and we had to take it off with a hand saw.

The CS14 strap kept the walls from joining together, we chiseled a portion out to help them join better.

Removing extra rebar used in securing the Simpson strong ties.

A mock up of our floor plan.

Pete and Vince putting up a temporary beam to help shed rain.

 

 

Walls Framed & Mostly Sheathed

September 4, 2012 – It’s been a full month since our last post and I am very happy to announce that all the walls for the tiny house are framed in!  Unless you count the small triangular sections at each loft end, we haven’t started on those yet. But the main walls to the house are not only framed, they are mostly sheathed as well.  We still have the back wall and 1/2 the front wall to sheath.

This has been a major accomplishment for us and it’s exciting to see the tiny house really coming along.  For the most part it has been a fairly painless process.  We did run into some issues along the way, mainly making sure walls were square.  The most frustrating portion of the wall framing happened this past weekend on our final wall.  The wall was built and when we measured from corner to corner, the wall was square.  However, when we laid out our first sheet of plywood we could not get it to fit squarely.  We could get the proper overhang all the way around, except in one area where we were 1/2″ off.  Unfortunately too, we had already put down the construction adhesive.  We fought with the sheet of plywood for a while, only to admit defeat and had to scrape up all the construction adhesive.  We measured the wall from end to end and top to bottom all the way across.  We did have a 3/16″ discrepancy when measuring the length along the top of the wall and the length along the bottom of the wall.  This was a tricky one to figure out too, because we had to modify the plans to accommodate our wheel wells.  In the end we fixed the discrepancy in length and still could not get the plywood to sit properly.  All our measurements were right on and we still were square when measuring corner to corner.  However, when we put an actual square into the corners of the walls one was always a little off.  In the end, we decided to keep the sheets of plywood at 8′ lengths and sheath the whole wall. Afterwards, we snapped a chalk line and cut the plywood leaving the appropriate overhang. The sheets went on the wall just as they should have, landing right on the center of our studs.  All we can figure is that the beginning of the wall must have been bowed or something. It was a rather frustrating day trying to figure this out and we put in many phone calls to all our resources looking for advice. A big thanks goes out to Chris, Kirk, and Pete’s dad, Sid for helping us figure it all out.

On the front wall the plans for the tiny house called for using Parallam beams and posts. The posts were 5.25″ x 5.25″ and were quite heavy.  To join the posts to the 5.25″ x 3.5″ beams, we needed to cut a sort of stair-stepped notch to join them.  This was rather difficult as not only were these very heavy, they were also too big for our tools.  We had to use the table saw, chop saw, and then a hand saw to make all the necessary cuts.  We were a little confused at our plans, because none of the other tiny house blogs we have followed used these laminated beams; however, we found out after the fact, that the Tumbleweed plans are now certified by a structural engineer.  They may be overkill, but if two elephants decide to sit on our front wall, we’ll be covered.

On another exciting note, we ordered our windows!  This was a long drawn out process and every time we thought we were ready to order them, we were faced with more decisions.  This was also a scary step, because the windows will be the most expensive part of this whole project.  We went with the recommended Jeld-Wen aluminum clad exterior/pine interior awning style windows.  We chose to stick with the awning style, even though they are more expensive than single or double-hung, because the house will not have much of a roof overhang and we will still be able to have the windows open if it’s raining.  We also went with the mesa red exterior that you see in many of the Fencl pictures on the Tumbleweed website.

Our roof and skylight were ordered and are being stored at ProBuild until we are ready to install them.  We were originally planning on going with the plain galvanized metal roofing; however, after some encouragement from others we decided to choose a color.  We chose Hawaiian blue.  This too was a scary decision.  Fortunately, we were able to get small samples of the roof color, the window color and thanks to my co-worker Brian, whose house and garage are sided in the same cedar siding we’ll be using, we were able to get a sample of the siding to compare all three colors together.  We think it will look quite nice.

This weekend we will finish sheathing the remaining wall and start framing in the loft ends.  We will also start cutting out the notch for our rafters and pre-install the joist hangers on the ridge beam.  Our goal at this point is to have the walls up and house wrap on, roof up, and windows in by the end of September.  Our tasks always take a little longer to complete than we think and at this point we’ve learned not to hold our breath.  However, we would like to have the tiny house up and weather proof before first snowfall, which has been known to happen as early as October.

Drilling the holes through the subfloor for the rebar

Joining the parallam posts and beams

Installing the Simpson Strong Ties

CS-14 strap

Gus & Rosie

Mocking up our future sitting area. Nothing like a cinder block couch!

Cut out for the wheel well. We hope it’s right!

Cutting the sheathing to the appropriate overhang

Pete cutting out the sheathing around the wheel wells

Small wall next to the front door

Starting on Walls and Discovering Mistakes…Again

July 22, 2012 – We started framing in our first wall this weekend and of course in the process discovered another goof-up.  Well, it wouldn’t be homemade if there weren’t some mistakes right?  That’s my mantra I try to repeat to myself when frustration sets in.

In past blog posts I talked quite a bit about the welding that needed to be done on the trailer.  After many delays with the welding aspect, we finally found a welder who was able to get the job done.  Prior to the welder starting, he asked us to measure out how long the all thread rod needed to be and give him the measurement.  In order to do this, we put one of the pieces of all thread rod through the drilled hole in the subfloor and set a 2×4 next to it.  We then put one of the Simpson Strong Tie connectors on the all thread rod with the mounting hardware and measured to a point where we had 5-6 threads exposed.  This would be how long the all thread rod would need to be in order to go through the bottom plate of our walls and into the Simpson Strong Tie connector.

Here is where is gets frustrating.  We started on the back wall of the tiny house this weekend.  The back wall is designed to have a 2 – 2×4 thick bottom plate, as opposed to the side walls that have just 1 – 2×4 bottom plate, making the pieces of rebar too short to mount the Simpson Strong Tie connectors.  This discovery was disheartening to say the least.  Our project was started two months later than we would have liked trying to prepare for the welding portion of the project and find a welder only to now realize that after all that time we screwed up.

Well, like my brother told me during our last episode of frustration, all of our mistakes can be fixed.  Today, our friends, Kirk and Tami flew into Marquette for a day trip (Kirk has his own plane!).  We picked them up at the airport and before going out to lunch, we brought them to the build site.  Kirk has a lot of welding experience and came up with a good fix for our goof.  His solution was to cut the rebar shorter, use some permanent loctite and a coupler and piece together another length of rebar to make it the right height.  Thank you Kirk!  It’s so nice that we can fly out consultants for the project!  🙂

In the meantime, we built our first wall.  This wall was pretty straight forward.  We were able to follow the plans and other than building it as a mirror image to the plans, we did not have to make any changes.  We did discover, once the wall was finished and standing up, that the window is a little lower than we would have liked.  For my 5′ 3″ height, it’s fine, but it’s a little low for Pete’s at 5′ 10″.  Luckily it’s only the bathroom window and the other windows will be higher up on the wall.  The final touch was adding a CS-14 strap along the wall.  The plans call for this and we’re thinking it’s for added support for tornado-like conditions when the house is pulled down the highway.

Next weekend we’ll start on another wall and fix the rebar situation.

Rebar too short for the 2 – 2×4 bottom plate

Simpson Strong Tie connector

Simpson Strong Tie connector with the mounting plate

Back wall

Simpson CS-14 strap.

4th of July and Moving

No work has been done on the tiny house since we finished the floor.  We took the weekends before 4th of July and after the 4th to visit relatives up from Georgia.  I hadn’t seen my aunt Karen, her daughter Kendra or my aunt Donna in six years. It was nice to take a few days off work here and there and relax at my mom’s house.  Pete was with us the weekend before the 4th, but after that I was flying solo as Pete had to represent the Forest Service as Smokey in the 4th of July parade in Munising, Michigan.  Sorry, I have no photos, but he was told he was one of the best Smokey’s!

It was nice to relax and visit with family while sipping a gin and tonic on a hot and humid day.  I also took Karen and Donna tubing down the Sturgeon River; we had a blast.

This past weekend we moved from one rental house into a new one.  This is the 9th time we have moved in 4 years! It will be so nice to finish the tiny house and simplify to the point where moving isn’t such a pain. Even now, we don’t own much stuff, but when you put it all in a pile and get ready to move it, it seems excessive.  We did however, take the opportunity to think of the tiny house as we packed and got rid of unnecessary items.  We still have a long way to go in order to fit in the tiny house, but it was a great start at de-cluttering.  We took three garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill along with a large box of miscellaneous items.

The house we are now renting is owned by a co-worker that transferred to another area.  The house is up for sale and we will be renting the place until it sells or until we are ready to move into the tiny house.  They are anxious for the house to sell and at the same time we’re hoping we don’t have to move again a few months down the road. 🙂  Thanks Tim and Julie!  You have a beautiful home and it is going to be a real treat to live here for however long that may be.

We will be getting started on a new phase of the tiny house today – building walls.  We had the majority of our framing materials delivered yesterday. There are a few more odds and ends that we’ll need to get, but for now we have enough to get started.  Harvey, the delivery man was unloading our materials with Pete’s help and asked if we were building a shed.  Pete told him, “yeah, something like that”.  Harvey was a man of few words and didn’t really seem like the kind of guy to be telling about the tiny house.  When I asked him if he could accept tips, he gave a disappointed look at the five dollar bill in my hand and it was almost like he was debating on if it was even worth.  In the end he did take the tip.

Next up in the planning process is to make a final decision on the windows we’ll be ordering.  The windows recommended for the tiny house are Jeld-Wen awning style windows.  We will use what the plans call for in most of the house; however, we will put in one double hung so that we have the option of using a window unit air conditioner.   We are also switching up the design for the bump out area on the front of the house.  At first we were hoping to turn this into a bay window as I envisioned how nice it would be to sit on the couch in the bump out and have a place to put a cup of coffee or tea; however, this no longer seems to be a viable option.  The plans call for the large window in the front of the house to be three window sashes; however, the door to the tiny house will only be 1′ 10.5″ wide.  A couple of the appliances that we’ve picked out for the house are 2′ x 2′.  This is fine as long as we put them in the house before attaching the front wall, but what happens if our washer/dryer combo unit breaks (a good point reminded to us by my mom’s friend Joyce)?  In light of this potential future issue, we’ve decided to make the front window one large awning style window.  We could go with a double hung, but I’m not a huge fan of double hung windows.  I want as much light in the tiny house as possible and I don’t want the view from the inside to be obstructed by extra window frame.

Off to go build a wall.

McLain State Park

Walking the seawall/fishing pier

Sturgeon River

Aunt Karen tubing the Sturgeon