Tuesday, March 24, 2015

(Post 6) Mar. 24-Raise the ... Walls!

All FOUR walls up! If you squint, you can see the metal wrapping that goes around the four walls.  This Simpson Strong Tie strapping will keep the walls up when we are driving down the highway.

We learned a TON this week.  About tiny house construction, our own tolerance of learning curves, our need for visible progress, and how we support each other in this construction process.

Learning #1: Two sets of eyes are better than one.  Previously, Kacey has been looking at the plans, and I had helped in executing.  This weekend, we both consulted the plans, and then I participated in the planning and execution.  I don't know that I added all that much knowledge, but I did ask lots of questions, so it made us a bit more thoughtful.  For all you professional women out there, I "leaned in" to our tiny house construction :)

Learning #2:  We have the same low tolerance for learning curves--just in different areas.  While neither of us has ever built a house, Kacey is more familiar with power tools, home remodels, and consulting schematic plans than I am.  Since Kacey has some experience in this type of endeavor, he was half expecting that we would get everything right the first time.  When we had to measure, measure, measure and still make corrections, it was really easy to get frustrated.  We now know that in the same way we have to be patient with our construction, we have to be patient with ourselves since we are, after all, learning.

Learning #3: For weeks, we were framing out the walls on the bed of the trailer.  So... to the naked eye, it looked like we had made NO progress.  We started to despair.  As you can see, this Sunday we stood all of the walls up.  It took under ten minutes, but boy! did we feel accomplished!

Learning #4: This project is better done together.  There was a moment when we had to do some (ahem) sanding to get rid of 3/16 of an inch (refer back to aforementioned frustration with the learning curve).  We only have one belt sander, so I thought, "What a great opportunity to spend a bit of time getting dinner together!"  I went inside and after a few minutes was disappointed that I wasn't out there.  Kacey kept sanding and was disappointed that he was Han Solo.  Now we know--there might be one person sanding, but there are two of us on the team.  So we'll be out there together :)

If you're starting to think, "This blog is called 'Adventures of Cope-Beck: Tiny House Edition,' not 'Adventures of Cope-Beck: What we learned about ourselves and our relationship,'" you're right and I apologize.

Here's what we did this Sunday:
1. Stand the walls up.
2. Make sure they line up with the *&*^% all-thread rods.
3. Build the hole for the front door (french doors).
4. Put Simpson Strong Tie strapping around the house so that it doesn't fall apart going 25 mph down the highway.
5. Cover it in a tarp so that the floor does not get water-logged.

One down, three to go.  I mean, one UP, three to go.
Two up, two to go.
Three up, one to go.
Four up!
Close-up of the metal strapping.  
Kacey smiling at me from the living room window.  Notice the table saw in the front of the picture.  It's AWESOME.
Catherine smiling at Kacey from the living room window.  
All wrapped up!  Biggest piece of wrapping paper ever?!


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

(Post 5) Mar. 17-Better Late Than Never?

KP and Uncle Mike helping move the wall (!!) off of the trailer.  Check out why below.

After a flurry of blog posts, there was a two week delay--our apologies!  If you were anything like us, though, you needed a bit of a break.

I've had a sizable break and Kacey has rested for just one day.  For me, the past two weeks have consisted of trainings--participating in 'em and leading 'em, giving me no time to work on the tiny house since I was out of town.  All of the trainings were successful and I'm happy to be back with the boys (Kacey and Gus).

One of the things that Kacey and I are realizing is that with something so exciting happening at home, it is challenging to stay focused and present at work.  Yikes!  (Let the record show that I am working on this post over my lunch hour).  For all you SuperCamp folks out there, my 9-5 is a GREAT place to practice "This is it." I'm better than ever before.

Okay, enough chit-chat.  Since I've been out of pocket, Kacey has had 3 full days to continue our build.  In that time, he has framed out the two long walls that run along the sides of the trailer.  Slightly worrying that he is so productive without me, though he assures me it's purely coincidental.

Kacey also discovered that the plywood we put down at first was 1/4'' too thin.  Boohoo.  So, he had a few work friends (see above) help him move the walls off of the trailer bed so that he could put down yet another layer of subfloor.  At this point, the floor of our tiny house could withstand the Hulk doing jumping jacks.

Next steps include standing the walls up vertically and framing out the roof and dormer.  I'm really nervous for that part.

Any couple that's done a home remodel has probably experienced what I am about to describe.  Imagine that one half of the couple asks the other to make a decision about, say, the style of the windows (which, by the way, are SUPER expensive).  That half indicates his/her preference, to the slight dismay of the other half.  The preference for the style of window is different!  Have you experienced something like this?  How did you make your final decision?

If you're curious, Kacey and I have decided on windows with wood interior trim, red exterior trim, no grill, some kind of opening mechanism (TBD), and screens.*
*subject to change
Look at the very precise framing over the wheel hub.  Go Kacey!
The two large walls, one on top of the other.  Go Kacey!
Another view of the two walls.  Go Kacey!
No, you're not seeing things wrong, we (Kacey and a few buddies) had to take the wall off to add another layer of plywood.  Bring on the Hulk.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

(Post 4) Mar. 1-From The Window...



Looking at you from the spare bedroom!
Kacey not hitting his head - woohoo!

Today was a very exciting day--we finished putting the sub-floor on the trailer and then, as you can see from the pictures, framed out the first wall!

We started the day at about 8:00 and worked quickly as we got the rest of the sub-floor in.  If you picture a learning curve, we had already plateaued--we were sub-flooring experts!  Our egos grew slightly, but shrunk immediately when we realized that now it was time ... to ... build ... a ... wall.  With the sub-floor, you could literally cover up your mistakes.  I mean, do people even know that a sub-floor exists?!

We procrastinated a little bit (10:30 is lunch time, right?) and then checked and double-checked the plans and the instructional DVD.  Somewhat reluctantly, we walked back outside and carefully measured the 2x4 for the edge of the wall that runs along the front of the trailer.  The plans said that it would measure 88 inches.  It measured only 86.  So confident were we in our sub-flooring skills that we uttered something like, "You buy plans and you sort of hope they are actually accurate..."  Some karmic god somewhere no doubt started chuckling.

It was after we had the whole wall framed out flat on the trailer, not yet nailed together that Kacey (oh, thank God for Kacey!) thought to make sure that the all-thread rods would fit where they were supposed to.  They...did...not...

That's right, folks, we forgot one little step when building out the sub-floor.  It was a 1.5 inch mistake and was fixed in about 20 minutes.  We had to put 1/2 inch plywood around the edge of the 2x4s that were along the edge of the trailer.  So, basically, we've got a trailer wrapped in 2x4s wrapped in plywood.  Wrap that whole thing in bacon and you'd practically have a meal.

Anyways, we were quickly back on track, humbled, and steeled to finish the wall before sundown.  As you can see, we were successful!  After posing for pictures, we rested the wall back on the trailer.  Once all four walls are built, we will have a "Raise the Roof Walls" party!  Beer might be provided, but bring your own working gloves.

One more piece of sub-floor left.  
Gus and two bones.  Does he need two?!
The sub-floor's done!  
Beginning to frame out the wall.
Gus and me in the spare bedroom!