Update 5.20.13
May 21, 2013 § 5 Comments
I was trying to get the barn-door done tonight, no such luck but I did get all the ‘hard’ parts done. Here are some pictures:
- Welcome to Idaho, I was tempted to try to drive under this!
- Tonight’s agenda was the barn door for the bathroom door. Nathan is a jewel, we measured up and cut the pieces
- Laying all the pieces out on the ground to be welded
- The beast that makes the magic happen
- the REAL beast that makes the magic happen :)
- Slightly off on one side so we had to take it off and re-weld it.
- All right!
- Then grinding the finish
- and getting ready to cut off the bottom of the hooks
- and the hooks all cut off, these will not be weight bearing, they are just hooked over a bar to make the door stand upright,
- Tacking these in place, I just measured them out 6 inches from each end.
- and the other
- And placing the wheels, also 6 inches from each side, i wish i was able to find some skinnier wheels, these ones poke out on one side really bad, yet another issue to work through.
- The are flush with the outside but the inside will need some craftiness to make them look intentional… hmmm
- The pieces to the bar to hold it upright
- And installed. I was hoping to get the wood in it too but it didn’t happen. Tonight I work on the wood pieces. And try to get ahead of some more siding.
Update 5.19.13 – with blood…
May 20, 2013 § 14 Comments
We (James and I) rocked it this weekend, we didn’t get as much as I idealistically wanted to get done but we got exactly what I realistically hoped to get done and a smidgen more! This was the big weekend for siding, it will take more and it will take longer because at this point it is all ladders but it is looking AWESOME. Pallets are a TON of work to re-use but personally I think it’s worth the look. At this point the wood is just decorative, the moisture barrier is behind that. It is a rain-screen wall designed to let water through and vented out the top and bottom. Do not use this same system without setting it up as a true rain-screen, it will rot out all your hard work!
Also, I would like to dedicate this post to Ms. Freeman’s class in Texas, I know how much you guys like to see me get hurt
. Be warned, the last two pictures have blood, it did not hurt but it is gross… caused once again by, you guessed it, me being klutzy! (I will give a warning in the slideshow view to not look at the next picture if you don’t like blood)
And there is a Denver update, he’s getting big and even more handsome!
Thank you James for all of your help this weekend, I could not have got this far, this fast, without you!
Tonight, I (Nathan) work on the barn door for the bathroom…
- First the good stuff! This is Denny, my soon to be here Great Dane!
- I have wanted a Great Dane for like, over 20 years, seriously! One of the things this tiny house enables me to do is pick my priorities and focus on them. My living expenses are small so I don’t have to work so much and I get to spend my time doing the things I want to do instead of need to do, which includes lots of dog training and walks for me!
- Hes three weeks old here and growing by the hour, I get him shortly after he turns 8 weeks old, there is a lot of prep-work left to do but he and I will both call this tiny house home, some people find that crazy but it has been designed completely with him in mind!
- A separate note, my brother is back to the furniture making, this is a nightstand he’s made with steps for his little weiner dog Jack to be able to hop into bed, Jack is going to love it and I think it looks awesome! My brothers bad-ass furniture is my inspiration for my kitchen and dresser :)
- So, to the work! We got some siding going! Made it up to the windows by the end of Saturday before we went to a birthday party
- James spend his precious Friday evening helping me de-nail and plane down some pallet wood to be put up on Saturday
- Then Sunday we hit it hard again to plane down even more wood, it was ridiculous and got a little more in place.
- I think/hope we have enough wood on hand to just put up, it will be a big job with lots of ladder work for sure!
- The overall, this will be stained darker to match the kitchen/loft area but each of the woods will look different so it should really bring out the variation.
- I am not sure why I have never been photogenic and also why I make weird faces while I work… this was the best of several though… uggg
- I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘free’ siding because there are a lot of man-hours put into it but really I didn’t do it soley because of the price-point, i thought this would turn out great and it definitely has to this point!
- A little sun-shiney…
- The shadows are getting long and it’s time to wrap up the weekend
- A couple more evenings (or another weekend) and it should get done
- This is nothing as far as the total amount of sawdust goes… there was at least four times this much, I thought I had a picture but I didn’t, this all came from the planer prepping the wood
- The scrap pieces that probably aren’t worth saving, not bad for 80 or so pallets… I expected more
- James did most tof the dirty work of searching for those left-over nails that could hurt the planer blades
- I am very thankful for his help. VERY, this was NOT a fun job at all.
- And the remaining wood left to put up, ready to go, just have to rip it to size and nail it up! (This is where you stop looking if you don’t want to see the blood)
- I was trying to change the blade out in the planer and slipped trying to un-do one of the bolts… turns out I suck at reading directions, they turn the other way… I hate tricky bolts, I’m used to righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey…) I ended up punching the metal which happened to have a blade in it… the cut didn’t actually hurt near as much as the punching of the metal…
- But it turns out if you keep working and don’t let an injury set just a bit it will just keep bleeding… I had to change a few bandages… This happend Saturday and it is pretty much all better today, biology is amazing! Sorry for the gross factor, I did it for the kids ;-)
Update 5.15.13 – Night :)
May 15, 2013 § 3 Comments
Collecting some odds and ends. Here are some pictures:
- First and foremost, my cousins became home owners today! BIG congratulations Sage and Mikel!
- As for the house update I wanted to get the bathroom sink millwork done so that the sink could be installed
- This is the same tongue and groove wood that the wonderful Ms. Stacey found on Craigslist. This has become a major component of my house, I don’t know what I would have done without her finding this deal, for free!!!
- Got it all glued together, trimmed to size and stained to match the rest of the wood in the house
- Installed even! Looks great
- AND the cabinet is functional :) The first cabinet door installed :)
- The corner detail, it isn’t ‘perfect’, close though! :)
- The door, I don’t think I’ll put a pull on this since it really is more utilitarian under there then a real cabinet
- These are my hinges, they were a great deal AND perfect functionally, they let the cabinet doors sit right next to the wall and lift them to open.
- Aside from that I also got the next round of pallets ready to go, over the next few days I will be de-nailing these, planing them and ripping them to size in preparation for the next round of siding!
- And another pallet of pallet wood, this is about 50 pallets taken apart, really that is probably the hardest part, the rest just takes time…
- In case I don’t have enough taken apart I do have some ‘extras’ for taking apart.
- Also, I de-nailed and cut to size the hardwood flooring to be used on the bathroom barn-door, Nate has agreed to help me weld up a frame for them soon and I need to figure out the home-made hardware part…
Update 5.15.13
May 15, 2013 § 2 Comments
My next mission has been the siding and/or the plumbing (as dad is able to help), well dad was able to help and I believe I will have water soon! Crazy. Once I have a shower I will be living in there, even if I don’t quite have my toilet yet
. So, I meant to paint out the cabinet Monday night and i totally spaced it, which is a bummer because dad had some time to work yesterday, he was trying to surprise me with a working shower yesterday which was really really sweet, but I messed up, I didn’t paint the counter space which will just help with it being a moist area. He still did a TON of work that is very exciting! He dry fitted some stuff and prepped the water heater. I got home and painted out the cabinet. It will be a little while longer I think, he’s got some busy days but that was sure a cool surprise, even though I didn’t really get a bunch done personally I feel like a lot go done!
Thanks Dad! Here are some pictures:
- I have a tricky problem here since the cabinet is outta whack…
- I figured I would stick one more tile there, square the sink up with the cabinet and grout the difference, it will be a noticeable flaw to me but hopefully not that big of a deal, it just wouldn’t be a red-neck state without a plethora of red solo cups… which come in handy if you ever have to set one tile
- a butter knife comes in handy too.
- and in place, most of this will be covered with the sink but should make this an easier gap to fill.
- AND look, its a box for my washer/dryer :)
- The vanity sink all dried in. As far as budget, I bet I could have saved another 500 bucks if I didn’t put a bathroom sink in, but I like it! :)
- Everything had to be re-routed a little bit, looks nice though!
- Here is the diagram for the water heater, the heater itself says that it comes with the manual gas appliance shut-off, but it didn’t… bummer
- And how the heater will sit :)
- Painted out!
The real update 5.14.13
May 14, 2013 § 1 Comment
Here is the house process, I wish I had the time/energy/stamina to type out all the things I want to but posting something is better than waiting for the winds to shift and not posting anything at all! I hope you all had a wonderful mothers day and are having a fantastic week!
- Time to bust into the plumbing, I made a mess of this!
- But it comes right off! this particular sink is either a wall mount or a
- Good as new!
- Fresh out of the box, my bathroom faucet
- and connectors
- I got a weird faucet (weird=cheap) and as such its tricky going together, my wonderful father was working on the plumbing and pretty much had to assemble the whole thing together, he said it was weird.
- First thing he did was throw off the cheapo gaskets that it came with and use his plumbers putty
- this should provide better seals
- I think it looks pretty neat going together, when I asked him if he liked doing the ‘pretty parts’ of plumbing and he said it was nerve wreaking, which makes total sense, there are lots of down and dirty to the job but then it has to finish off all clean and tidy, and the clean and tidy parts are the expensive ones!
- because we used the putty we still needed to use one of the original gaskets to tighten it down right, and dad says over time those gaskets just disinigrate into the metal connectors so I cut out a cardboard ring to go between, this will allow it to tighten down well but not get as cut up by the metal.
- Like a clove! The white part in the back is the original gasket
- Isnt she pretty!
- These are the parts that made it have to be assembled all together, they wouldn’t fit through the sink together AND hook to the faucet so it had to be threaded through, hooked to the faucet and then put together
- Here is how it hooks to the faucet
- Hooking it up, another tool for the tool list, cowbells (more cow-bell)
- tightening the stopper
- and yet another ancient looking tool, pretty sweet
- The stopper looks HUGE in the tiny sink. it is a push down kind, not the lever kind :)
- Slick!
- and the overall, I still have to figure out the cabinetry
- It’s a little out of square, that makes it tricky, I forgot to check this before tiline the floor, so now it is tiled into an out of square position… hmmmm :)
- The stuff under it is the filter for the whole house’s water
- And on to the water heater, I do in fact meet the clearances, I will have to add another angle to the vent to get it outside, I can’t go straight out the wall both because my trailer width is already mazimized so it would have to be removed during travel but also because my window goes so low behinde my sink. I will be routing it out onto the poarch, i have some ideas on how to make it look less tacky
- And here is the reason I have decided NOT to put both my propane tank AND my water heater under the sink, pretty important paragraphs that will make me sleep better at night :) I think I will move the tank out-doors under the trailer anyway, save myself a lot of risks of keeping it indoors. It’s just one more hole in the envelope which I was trying to avoid but I feel like my house is actually still really tight! and I will fill the gaps as needed
- On my trip i experiences my first impulse buy ever… and I bought dog butts… these are the towel holders in my bathroom and this is my accent color :)
- I also grabbed a rug for in front of my kitchen sink, and some king size sheets for my bed!
- And on to the shower which is still pretty filthy! Here is my hardware for that though
- And the shower head, which is neat, I like the geometric shapes
- I am happy my dad is a plumber :)
- It’s a beauty!
- Still a lot of work cleaning it up and several more wipe-downs to get rid of all the mortar I messed up on and dust but it is actually still coming off pretty well with water and a scrubby pad, just lots to do there…
- Overall
- And! It was mentioned that this could help remove the grout, I have to say I am just afraid of it as it is :) My dad just happened to have some left over from one of his projects, I may test it out before I go all in
- I am sort of afraid it will eat my house! not just the grout :) and possibly damage the tile maybe, thoughts?
- Believe it or not we had four people and a dog inside pretty darn comfortable!
- Mom! the neighbor and dad, the farm cats were accumulating on the porch too, they wanted in
- and Tobi of course, who just barely counts as a dog but still does!
- I love it!









































































































