Tiny McBoatFace, Where Art Thou?

It's funny how quickly I forget to update this blog as soon as I start working full time... 

C'est la vie !

Probably a good idea to mention again that you can subscribe to email notifications so that you don't need to try and remember to check this silly blog for updates. You already have enough to worry about (also, I really appreciate all of you that have kept up with my travels and projects and musings for this long, so thank you!).

You can subscribe to updates here

Anywho! Easter was nice with the whole family. Of course Jude and Chloe were the center of attention.

My Dad hosted his 7th annual golf tournament. Despite some cold and rainy weather, he still had a great turnout and raised a ton of money for cancer research and patient care. And once again Jude stole the stage...

Also, my sister graduated with her Masters from Quinnipiac! So proud of her! Anyone looking to hire someone in the field of Forensic Science??

And back to the tiny house. It feels like I've accomplished nothing since I've started working. But since I've neglected this blog for weeks, I guess I've got some updates...

SOLAR!!

Do you remember back to last Fall when Christian and I purchased the contents of that storage unit? Well these 3 beauties were in there and now they are finally generating some electricity for me. 

And my brother stopped by again to help with more electrical mumbo jumbo. He wired up the solar charge controller to the battery bank. I was happy to let him do that because that charge controller is way too expensive and I would definitely break it.

I also put my fridge in the house. It looks kind of silly in that big compartment. A shelf will be added at some point.

 Then I decided that a temporary outhouse would be nice to have until the bathroom is finished. This was built entirely out of scrap wood and provides a nice "plein air" experience which I absolutely love.

As I get closer to moving into the house, I've begun working here part time to experience life in Tiny McBoatface. It allows me to continue working on the house as well as test out the layout and see if there are any design changes that could be made to the furniture that still needs to be build.

Painted the stair risers too. Looking pretty good.

Christian has been helping a bunch with the kitchen counter. It's being built out of some pine slabs that I pulled out of a barn last Fall. Pine isn't an ideal wood for kitchen counters, but it looks pretty good and it was free!

After a few coats of poly (that Christian did with his sprayer... I didn't trust myself to do it properly), here it is being test fitted. I think it's going to look pretty damn slick!

Progress has definitely slowed down a bit as I try to balance work and house work, but we'll get there! I'll probably even finish the exterior siding within the next month or 2...

Shower Work and a Week Climbing in Kentucky

Long time no update!

Well, here's more tiny house pictures.

Interior walls are completely installed and painted with 2 coats.

Plumbing is almost done. Just need to finish hooking up the water tank in the bathroom. But here's the water heater, filter and manifolds under the kitchen counter.

Built out a double shower niche.

Installed all of the cement board in the shower.

Added way too many coats of Red Guard to waterproof/crackproof the shower walls. Next step will be to tile (but I'm probably going to ignore that for as long as possible).

This is what it looks like to power sand the loft at 11 at night. One step closer to moving my bed in!

And then at the very last minute I decided to drive down to Kentucky for a week with Koti and Tim Murphy. We booked an airbnb and climbed in the Red River Gorge for the week. The weather was perfect and the climbing was super fun. 

It was my second week of work, so it was a bit of a difficult decision to make, but my boss seemed okay with the idea. I just worked a little each morning and night as well as in the car driving to and from the climbing areas. All in all it worked out really well and I'm very happy to know that my schedule really is fairly flexible (at least until I potentially take on more work).

The Red River gorge is a massive geological feature in Kentucky comprised entirely of sandstone. Throughout the gorge is hundreds of overhung falls full of pockets and huecos. The walls are tall and overhung so the climbing is super physical and enduring. 

It only rained on the first day and the storm passed us within a half hour. Since the walls are so steep, we were able to continue climbing without ever getting wet.

I'm back home now so I suppose it's time to get back to working on Tiny McBoatface!

Chugging Along

Is it Spring yet?

Survey says no.

But all of the walls excluding the bathroom are installed. So I went ahead and put up the first coat of paint. Looking pretty good. Definitely adds brightness to the interior.

Finally committed to buying a shower pan. Was hoping to find one used on CraigsList or Facebook, but it's an unusual size (36"x34"). Found a fairly cheap one at Lowe's so I picked it up. I padded out the interior wall to fit the shower pan. Christian and I drilled out the hole for the drain then I installed the pan with some spray foam underneath for support. Then I installed the shower mixing valve.

Plumbing is chugging along still. Went with a new layout per Christian's recommendation. Trying to take up as little space as possible is certainly a challenge. This should work just fine.

Worked on the door for the electrical box on the back of the house. Started by recutting the plywood to fit better, then framing it out with some 1x2 to provide rigidity. Then added the piano hinge to the bottom.

Once I determined it was a good fit I added siding to the outside to match the rest of the house then added a couple slide latches to hold it closed. Looking good, just ignore the fact that I still haven't finished the trim, soffit and siding at the top of the walls.

And a small but satisfying detail: the exterior light next to the door. Sometimes it's the smallest updates that feel the best.

And on a side note: I have finally returned to the working world. After 3 years and 7 months of funemployment, adulting time has come. I got pretty lucky and was connected to a small consulting company that provides development work for companies using Rally, which is the software I was heavily involved with at my last job at Optum. The company was started by a former architect on the Rally team. I'll be working fully remote and work will be fairly flexible. Couldn't have asked for a better opportunity! Will most likely be starting Monday, if not sooner. Looking forward to getting back to the grind. This house isn't going to pay for itself!

McBoatface Gets A Ceiling

Finished up all of the insulation so it's time to cover it up!

Picked up some tongue and groove cedar paneling to install in the ceiling. The paneling is incredibly thin and delicate thus making it a real pain to install, but I got into a groove and made some good progress.

Here's what I decided to do to provide some additional support around the recessed lights. Seems to work pretty well.

After finishing up the loft I tackled the cathedral ceiling.

Almost there.

And here's the finished product. Super happy with the results. Another step closer towards looking like a home. I temporarily wired up the lights to a couple of batteries to test them out. It's nice to be able to use the wall switches and have those work lights out of the way.

And now I've been working on the walls. We decided to go with a 5mm pine underlayment. It's fairly light and inexpensive and it won't crack like drywall when the house eventually needs to be relocated. The plan is to paint it white once it's all installed.

Hoping to finish installing the walls in the next few days so my brother can come back and help finish up all of the electrical. Almost time to move in!

Jardín, Medellín and Home

So Jardín is beautiful. It's a small town nestled in the mountains. And there's lots of outdoorsy stuff to do, so it was a perfect end to our Colombian travels.

On the first day we did a few hour hike to a nearby waterfall. We made friends with a guy from the hostel by the name of Swain. He was also a programmer, and also quit his job, and was also traveling around Colombia. So he joined us for our little day hike.

The waterfall took about 2 hours to reach. It was quite splendid. 

On the way back down, we stopped at the local Cristo Rey, a statue of Jesus overlooking the town. The statue itself wasn't much to write home about, but the view certainly was. 

Once back in town we stopped at a vegetarian restaurant that served amazing homemade hashbrown delicacies. And then we explored the main center. 

Oh yeah, we also had one of the dogs from the hostel follow us for the entire day. Her name is Fiesta. She was very well behaved and helped us find our way along the trails when we got a little lost.

The next day Camille, Swain and I decided to hike to another waterfall inside a cave called La Cueva del Esplendor. Swain's friend also joined us. He was friends with some local guides so we stopped there to see if we could pay for a Jeep to drive us closer to the entrance of the cave. We got a good deal on a one way drive to the cave. Probably saved us 2 and a half hours of walking. Also, one of the guides decided to join us for the day and hang out. That was especially cool because he knew a lot about the area and the local plants and wildlife. He was also fun to talk to (and useful for practicing my Spanish...).

The Jeep took us way up into the mountains. From there we still needed to hike for an hour or so. Then we arrived at a farm, which apparently owned the land on which the cave was located. We had to pay an entrance fee and wait for the owner to take us down to the waterfall. A bit of a bummer, but totally worth it once we got there.

I saw photos beforehand and they really don't do it justice, just like my cell phone photos won't truly convey how special this place was. The light was incredible, the cave was magical and the waterfall had an incredible energy coming from it.

And the owner encouraged us to swim. Now, I absolutely loathe cold water and avoid it at all costs... but I felt compelled to go for a quick dip, especially since there was jumping involved.

(Thanks Camille for the video)

After plenty of swimming and exploring we began our hike back down into town.

The views were incredible!

Once back in town we offered Manuel (our new friend/unofficial guide) a drink. He brought us to this crazy private resort place where we had some cold Club Colombia beers. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day. 

The next day Camille and I left Jardin and made our way back to Medellin the day before our flight. We stayed at her friend Jessie's place (the one we met up with in the beginning of our trip). She was beyond generous and kind to choose to sleep in a hammock that night and offer us her bed.

That night we went out with her and some of her roommates to a local brewery. We unfortunately arrived just before closing but they were nice enough to let us grab one drink first. And I have to say it was by far the best beer I had during this trip to Colombia. A very pleasant way to end our brief trip!

The next morning Camille and I made our way to the airport, flew to Fort Lauderdale and then took another flight back to Laguardia in New York. Then a cab to the bus station and a bus to Springfield where my Dad happily and graciously picked us up at midnight to take us home. A long day indeed, but a day with no issues and very little stress for which I'm thankful.

Of course as soon as we recovered, caught up on sleep and washed some clothes, we made our way to visit Christian (and check in on Tiny McBoatface).

Christian made some very nice progress on the stairs! It's the first piece of finished furniture to go in the house and it looks great.

After lounging around for a week and readjusting to life in cold New England, Camille had to take her flight back home... She's now currently in Paris visiting friends. Soon she'll be heading back to her parents to relax a bit (where it's already springtime) and eventually looking for some short term work to save some money before she comes back here in late summer.

As for me, I've been working with Christian on the house as well as following some leads on potential jobs. Have a big phone call tomorrow to see if there's a position available and worth taking for some short-term work similar to what I was doing almost 4 years ago.

I know I know... I've mentioned wanting to work more than a few times in the last couple of years, but this time I think it's for real....

Building a house isn't exactly cheap!