Wood Stove, Siding and Roofing Oh My!

So I guess it was time to oil the cedar siding...

It didn't seem like too much since we were able to fit it all in my Saturn. But once you have to oil all 6 sides of 450 boards then it starts to feel like a never-ending task...

This stack here is about 20% of the siding. 3 days of Camille and I oiling and we were done! Just needed to wait a few days for the oil to penetrate and dry out.

We took a well deserved day off and drove up to Hill Farmstead Brewery with Tim and Jesse. We were hoping to do some Vermont sightseeing, but the short days and the 3.5 hour drive to Hill Farmstead made that impossible. A bit too much driving for beer, but it's pretty tasty beer!

Here's an update on the back electrical service box.

My brother has been helping us with all of the electrical work. It's the one area of home construction that truly requires a trade professional and something I wouldn't want to try and do on my own.

I also threw in some insulation that I got from Christian's neighbor. Now that we're getting the plumbing and electrical figured out, I'm hoping to install all of the rigid foam insulation that we've had sitting around for months now.

We also installed the wood stove which is a huge milestone considering it's almost January! Now we can work inside and outside and keep our hands and feet warm at all times.

Here's a couple shots of the interior at this point. Quite messy with tools and materials everywhere, but that will get cleaned up soon soon.

And now the metal roofing and the cedar siding are getting installed! The roofing is tricky as Christian and I have never worked with metal roofing before and the shed dormers make for some interesting angles, but Christian seems to be getting it figured out one corner at a time.

And the siding looks great! Camille and I are learning the delicate task of properly installing such a soft wood. Can't wait to see how it looks when it's finished.

Many many many thanks to Christian, Camille, my Dad, brother, Keira and everyone else who has selflessly spent their free time helping me get this house constructed. Looking forward to being able to have people over and provide hot meals and cold drinks!

The House Moves! And It Didn't Fall Over!

We finally installed the door! Christian and I want to eventually build a custom (read: nicer looking) wood door, but this will do for now. Felt like a big moment for Tiny McBoatface!

Some serious concentration from Christian as he freehand cuts a nice curve into the loft floor beams.

Work lights installed and loft framed out!

Camille and I spent an evening eating bread and cheese and figuring out what color to choose for the exterior trim. She has the final say for anything related to color or design.

Wish I kept a tally of how many trips I've made to Home Depot or some other building supply store. Feels like at least 30 by now... S'pose that's part of building a house. Especially without a fully fledged design.

Went to Cowl's to order pre-primed pine for all of the exterior trim. Total came out to $800. Couldn't justify it so we decided to buy standard 2x4 and 2x6 pine, rip the sides and prime it ourselves. Saved a ton of money but adds some extra work. Thankfully Camille and Jay were more than happy to help paint over 300 feet of pine with 2 coats of paint. A huge help!!

While they painted, Christian and I installed the loft flooring. Same floor that we installed for one of his clients so it went in super quickly. Tiny house, tiny floor!

My Dad stopped by early Saturday morning to help out. We finally installed the huge living room window. By some miracle, we didn't break anything. And it looks great!

And then the moment Christian has been dreading for months, moving the house to its semi-permanent location in the corner of his yard. There's some hilly parts along the way and we were nervous that the house might tip over. We loaded the inside with tons of old beams that we would eventually use to jack up and level the trailer. After resolving some tongue weight issues, we were hooked up to his truck and ready to go. Somehow it went incredibly smoothly!

A couple hours playing with sights, levels, jacks and beams and we had the house leveled and off of the tires.

Then Saturday afternoon and Sunday were all about trim. With the help of Christian, Camille, Jay and my Dad we were able to get most of the trim finished. Kevin and Stephen also stopped by to check in on the progress.

We also started building a small box on the back that will contain all of my batteries and electrical components.

It's all coming together! Lots of little things need to be worked on as we prepare for installing the siding. Also need to oil the siding as soon as possible.

Also hoping to get the wood stove and chimney pipe installed soon so we can start heating the inside!

Camille Has Arrived!

Camille is here!

And of course I didn't waste any time putting her to work!

The house is coming along nicely. Got it all wrapped up in tar paper and ice and water.

Then the windows went in surprisingly smoothly. Just need to install the big living room window which has been sitting at my Dad's house.

Despite the uncomfortably cold weather, Camille has been helping out a lot with the house. We built the roof rakes for the gable ends. We're pretty much ready to install the metal roof now. Just need to buy the materials!

We also helped Christian frame some interior walls for a client. Although Camille and I have very little experience with construction, Christian is a very good delegator and the 3 of us fell into a productive rhythm and got a lot done.

Also, not trying to brag but I think I finally have a sourdough recipe that has been making some pretty tasty loaves.

And then we went camping with a bunch of the college guys. Camille was pretty nervous about trying to stay warm but she bravely committed to the event. 

We kept a roaring fire going all night and kept ourselves plenty warm.

Hopefully this week we can install the metal roofing and cedar siding and begin focusing on the interior of the house!

We Have Walls And A Roof!

So we last left off with some trailer issues. No VIN or Title means no registration.

So I went and bought another trailer! And it has a VIN and title (at least it came with one, not really sure if it actually belongs to this particular trailer).

I then called up the RMV to ask some more questions to make sure I take the proper approach with registration and confirm that I have what I need.

But upon further inspection of the title and some quick googling, I notice that the 2 names on the title are the original owners who have died a decade ago. And the signatures on the back are their son and daughter. As someone who went through similar issues with transferring title ownership of my first Saturn, I knew this wasn't going to work. I would need to track down the son and daughter and request copies of death certificates for both their parents.

But I figured maybe I could get the trailer registered with only the VIN, stating that the title was lost. Maybe I'd still have to track down the original owners, but maybe not.

So I call the salvage inspection, leave a message, call back every day for 3 days. A trooper finally returns my call. He informs me that the state is working to implement new regulations for inspecting and registering tiny house trailers. He says the guy in charge will be in on Monday and he will get the necessary information then and call me back. He never calls back. Many e-mails and calls later and I can't get a hold of this trooper.

So it was time to give up and just build the damn house!! After all, winter is coming...

Christian and I kick it into high gear and start throwing some walls together. We framed them out on a workbench and added some of the sheathing because it's easier to add when the walls are laying down.

Luckily and thankfully Christian's family as well as Keira were over his house for the day so we had many hands to help us raise the walls. They went up surprisingly easy (Thanks Lynn, Peter, Wid and Keira!).

It was very exciting to finally be building vertically. It was the first moment that felt like we were actually building a house.

And of course, if you live in New England you're very well aware of how much it has been raining for the last 3 months (it's raining as I'm typing this...).

Now that we have untreated wood installed I'm becoming very paranoid of the rain and how much damage it could potentially do. Ain't nobody wants mold or rot in a brand new house!

The huge tarp is helpful, but it's riddled with holes and the rain was still getting in with ease. I tried lighting a small fire inside to try and dry it out. It didn't help and all and made a lot of smoke. But it was worth a shot.

With luck, we got a couple sunny days and worked quickly. Some more good timing with Steve coming over to use Christian's wood shop. We borrowed his muscles to help us install the absolutely massive ridge beam. Weight is a slight concern with this monster, but it's just too damn beautiful to leave out.

The roof rafters were a bit of a pain and made us very aware of how warped and out of square the frame is. Should be sturdy enough with those brackets and ties installed.

But look at those pegs! A nice timber frame touch to the tiny house.

And with beams so large, sometimes the tool of choice is a chainsaw.

With some more impending rain, we felt the pressure to finish installing and protecting the roof. Once again, we felt the pain of dealing with an out of square frame. But it's good enough!

Looking like a home.

With Christian gone for 4 days on a work trip, I'm on my own attempting to seal this bad boy up. Another 12 hour day (we've had several of those so far) and I trimmed the sheathing, installed the fascia board, drip edge and ice dam underlayment. It was too cold for the adhesive backing to stick but at least the roof is protected.

And that brings us to today. Another 12 hours of rain. The roof is staying dry but the wind is blowing some of the rain in through the window openings. 

Once the wood dries out, I will finish the sheathing on the front wall and then install tar paper. One step closer to a weather-proofed house.

Also, Camille arrives in 8 days! 

Tiny House Update #3

Well the last tiny house update was a month ago. I wish I had some crazy exciting progress to report... but I don't. Funny that the last sentence on the previous tiny house update was "pray for a painless VIN/Registration/Titling process".

Well the State Police Officer at the title salvage office told me the my trailer is worthless and unqualified to be registered since it has no VIN or title. I guess without any identification or paper trail, they can't prove that I didn't steal it.

 I might have a solution in progress. A solution that cannot be discussed with you here...

But aside from jumping through bureaucratic hoops, some things have been accomplished.

Remember that storage unit that Christian and I paid $500 for all of the contents? We've already sold $1,000 worth of stuff. So profit has been made and anything we decide to keep will be considered free. Not bad.

I was also able to sell the old tires and axles from the trailer for $200 which made me very happy. 

While the house construction is stalled waiting for a trailer registration solution, I've been doing lots of research regarding the rest of the house setup. E.g. wiring diagrams, plumbing layouts, solar system requirements, etc...

The most fun research so far has been re: the composting toilet. I decided that in order to fully understand my requirements, I would need to build prototypes and begin testing. That way, any design changes can be made before the real toilet is installed in the house.

So behold, composting toilet prototype #1!

I've read from all sorts of sources that one does not need one of those fancy $1,000 composting toilets with urine diverters, fans, bells and whistles. Just poop into a 5 gallon bucket and cover it with something and it won't smell.

Well guess what? They're totally right. As soon as the delivery has been made and covered with some sort of material, any smells disappear completely. So I've been using this system for almost a month now, testing out various cover materials. Most people recommend sawdust which is great since Christian's timber frame company has beyond an abundance of that. shredded paper/cardboard seems to work okay as well. Grass clippings, not so much. Leaves and moss, decent.

So I will continue testing and documenting my findings.

I've also been checking Craigslist like a lonely millennial checks Tinder, picking up things as I see them. Like these nice kitchen knives, for example. 20 minutes of sharpening while sipping bourbon brought them right back to life. 

I've also been making screens for all 7 of the windows that will be installed. One of the greatest aspects of this project is picking up a whole array of new skills that will prove useful down the road.

Speaking of Craigslist, I've become addicted to free estate sales. Basically people selling the entire contents of a home (because they've inherited it from a relative or they're moving far away). After a few days of selling items, sometimes they put an ad online saying the rest of the contents are free.

I've been to 4 of them now. It's insanely fun digging through another person's house and seeing what comes up. 2 of them have been okay, containing mostly knick knacks and old furniture. But the other 2 had lots of construction materials which is perfect when you're trying to build a house. One was a barn where I spent 3.5 hours going through and hauling out tons of massive beams and boards.

I've scored plenty of things which will further help keep the cost of building this house down: lumber,  drywall, screens, hardware, flashing, wire, paints, stains, tools, jacks, tar paper and so much more.

The new axles came in as well. Felt good to have those installed. They have a 4" drop and we underslung the springs which drops the trailer a scary amount to the ground. But it also gives us about 7 inches more height to work with when constructing the house. Just gotta avoid any large bumps when transporting it.

Also helped Christian install a tongue and groove decking floor in a clients house. Not only did I get paid, but I learned a ton about installing flooring which will prove useful if we ever get around to building this tiny house.

Although we've already acquired a wood stove, we had concerns over how large it was. Then low and behold I found this beauty on Craigslist. I talked the woman down to $80 and I'm now the proud owner of a tiny stove for my tiny house. 

It's about half the length of the other stove so it will fit snugly between the countertop and the door.

I spent 2 afternoons grinding away rust and refinishing both stoves. Upon testing the new stove I decided it would be convenient to also heat up some soup and attempt to bake bread on top.

The stovetop bread recipe will need some tweaking but it's promising. I still need to buy some fire bricks and stove pipe, seal between the cast iron plates with furnace cement and perhaps replace the gaskets.

The wiring on the trailer is finally finished. I also finished screwing down the subfloor. She's ready for inspection as soon as I navigate around the documentation issues. I'm hopeful that it all gets done this week and house construction starts this weekend... Cautiously hopeful...