Sunday, May 17, 2015

Post 10 (May 17)-Do hard things...it is incredibly rewarding.

Our tiny house has half a roof.  A tiny roof for a tiny house, I suppose :)

So...remember how our very first blog post was titled "This is gonna be fun"?  The karmic gods must have thought we needed to be brought back down to earth so they threw a few (figurative) wrenches in the works.  The wrenches took the form of:


  • two broken hammers
  • a faulty nail-gun
  • wind
  • a torn tarp
  • feeling "hangry" mid-afternoon
  • decreased visibility (because of awesome progress) that made effective communication nearly impossible
  • sunburns
  • chills
  • and last, but certainly not least, glue that spackles the entire interior (along with hair, paints, shoes, the dog, and favorite shirts) when hit with the nail-gun.
We woke up joyfully this morning, jumped out of bed and thought, "Another day to work on the tiny house together!"  Little did we know, the karmic gods were already chuckling.

In spite of it all, we had a very productive day.  We built an outrigger for the front of the house.  I will never look at building exteriors the same way again.  Everywhere I go, I see outriggers.  On Lowe's, on Safeway, on Costco, on...wow, I haven't gone very many places recently.

We then put 1/2 inch plywood on the rafters, a process that closely mirrored that of sheathing the walls.  Glue, stick, and nail.  Glue, stick, and nail.  Glue, stick, and nail.  At this point in our build, I'm more thankful than ever that we are building a tiny house.  Sheathing a full-size house would probably do me in.

It isn't always fun, but we are learning so much about diligence, resiliency, and patience.  And, while we might not be laughing the whole time, periodically we look over at each other, smile, and think to ourselves, "Wow."  It's a less feisty type of fun than I typically like to have, but a deep, contented satisfaction.  

So, it is very challenging indeed.  The most involved project we've ever undertaken.  It's also the most rewarding.
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Have you watched the show Tiny House Nation?  The carpenter, Zack Griffin, is an absolute genius, and the other lead on the show, John Weisbarth, helps people downsize like its his job.  I mean, it is...  Anyways, Kacey and I were catching up on back episodes and happened to see a couple in Pleasant Hill, California (where we live!!!!) as the featured couple on the show.  Their tiny house is so beautiful and we were so excited to know that there were kindred spirits in our neighborhood.  Their blog, Tiny House Basics, has already answered some of our pressing questions.  Thank you so much, Shelley and Josh!
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Two weeks ago, on Kacey's day off and our construction day together, we built all of the rafters for the main part of the house and the dormers.  See pictures below.  I didn't get around to a blog post after those couple of days of exciting progress, so I am including the pictures below.
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On Kacey's day off, he very precisely cut the rafters.

Each rafter is attached to the house with a hurricane tie.  Not common (except in Florida), these help the roof stay attached to the house in the event of high winds and while driving down the highway.

Gus looking nervous in the loft!  No, he didn't get up there by himself.

House with all rafters in place.

We absolutely love this picture!  It's a view of the interior of the house while sitting in the loft.

Gable (the part away from the front of the house) and roofing.

The gable up close.
Did you know that the roofing does not butt up to the ridge beam?? There is a 3/4" air gap so that the house can ventilate.
A view from the top.  You can see the space between the ridge beam and the roofing.  You can also see the Simpson Strong Ties that connect the rafters to the ridge beam.  This house is really strong. 
A view of the inside standing at the front door.  We still have to put roofing on the dormer and cut out the windows on the right (passenger) side.





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