Updated 10.9.12

I haven’t updated in a while but I do have updates!  This last weekend my friend Stacey (who is going to start building her tiny house really soon!) found an amazing deal on reclaimed hardwood flooring.  It was FREE.  The ad said it was about 800 square feet, pick it up and it’s yours.  It was from a remodel so it was used but in really great shape!  I showed up to help Stacey and Lou who were already well underway loading up the wood, it must be almost double the amount guestimated.  I am guessing it is a lot closer to 1,500-1,600 square feet of flooring.  I was stretching my brain to figure out how I could use the wood when it occurred to me, I still need some sort of flooring in my loft area, some hardwood floors with look amazing there!  I also can laminate the wood together and make my counters.  I could also use some pieces mixed in with my recycled pallet siding, it’s birch wood, I think it will look really nice!  It’s a pretty heavy wood compared to a lot of the rest of pallets so I will use it sparingly but I think it will look great mixed in!   I am pretty sure Stacey could do her floor, I could do my loft and counters AND she could side her whole house if she wanted, there is a ton of it!  It was quite the awesome find, go Stacey!  We loaded it up and stashed it in the shop for safe storage.

I also managed to get my deck boards on.  I ran out of screws so they are only about half on but I have a deck!  And some window trim!  I have the deck opening to do tomorrow, then I’ll be taking a small vacation but hopefully can get the remaining 6 openings trimmed out and will *hopefully* be focusing on the siding from there.  I think I will make the goal to get that on by the end of the month.  That is a pretty lofty goal though really because I don’t have any more weekends this month and it’s starting to get dark a lot earlier.  I will shoot for it though!  It could be done…  I’m thinking about maybe using a vacation day or two here shortly, I REALLY want it done because then I get to work on the inside.  It is driving me nuts that I am ready for drywall but am making myself wait until I get the outside done… It will look SO cool with drywall… soon!  I also ordered a sample of my tile today, I am using a black tile with sort of a wood-grain-ish texture/pattern, the tiles are 6″x24″ and I think I will quarter them and do the shower out of the same thing.  I haven’t decided that for sure yet but maybe.

In other exciting news!  I get to meet Merete and Christopher this week from TINY: A Story of Living Small, they are going to be in Boise for an American Planning Association Conference.  This is VERY exciting to me, not only do I get to meet two key players in the tiny house movement but my home town is having the first Tiny House planning driven session/panel for tiny houses specifically that I have ever heard of (I’m sure there have been others but I haven’t heard of any).  I don’t exactly know what this is going to be about or how it’s going to go, I am sure I will eventually get nervous to be a part of it but I am so grateful for the opportunity to help influence codes at this level.  Quite amazing really.   I am sure to follow up with an update!  I believe I even get to chat with Christopher and Merete for some special features for their movie, how stinking cool, right??? I feel like a rock star… only I’m not… I’m just a nerd :).   Anyway, it’s been a good week :-).

AND last but not least, I get to go hang out with my cousins Sagey and Mikel this weekend for the annual Halloween party, super exciting!

Once again my Prius acts as my truck. I ALWAYS get a comment from Lowe's somehow on how I need a bigger truck whenever I put lumber or concrete in there, But I don't, my car plays the role really well AND I get 60 mpg... it's a beast. I drive a boy Prius, if there is such a thing...

I cut down all my deck boards to size, my deck is 5'-2" deep and 8'-0" wide, it's one of the bigger tiny house decks I've seen and it's only that large because I have the dove-tail and it seemed to make sense. I am still planning on having the fold down side deck as well so there is oodles of outdoor space!

I could't really find a stain color that was what I wanted or had pictured in my head (picky artsy type) so I mixed some! I wanted a darker hue but not a dark application. I ended up mixing about 3 parts 'natural' stain with 1 part 'special Walnut' I like the tone that gave me.

I also went with just a standard 2x4 rather than cedar or redwood or treated lumber, mostly because of cost. It was about 4 times more to do redwood or cedar adn more for treated so I figured I would just stain and seal standard 2x4s, this will probably require more maintenance but it's also a small area, I can see how it goes and if I have to replace it a bit down the road.

The finished deal.

The magnificent Stacey and the piles of birchwood. This stuff is all in really great shape.

Piles and Piles! this is part of one of the three piles 🙂 Once I run a couple pieces through my planer this will make a great counter!

Heya!! 🙂 Awesome people!

Here is about half of it, getting it all sorted and stored!

And the rest! There are four pallets, each about 3-3.5 feet high with lumber and a whole other stack of longer pieces. I still can't believe this was all free.

James and I went on a little walkabout this weekend and we found this table, it's sorta the same construction I was going to make my couch like. Some simple angle iron and this could easily be pallet wood topped but I am going to make cushions for it. but that is a project for down the line... James however may practice welding with a coffee table for his house. could be cool 🙂

I got some windows trimmed up, I decided to use 2x2s on the TPO side, I like how it turned out but I suck at measuring... I will have to re-cut a couple pieces, I tried to hurry up and cut them all before dark one night and rushed it a little fast...

Getting ready to do the deck. I took off the plywood makeshift deck and unveiled the wonderful job dad did at getting this all leveled out earlier this summer!

On goes the first piece...

And that is how long it took to get dark, seriously, there was no break, it took about 4 boards to go from light to dark!

I ran out of battery, changed it and came around the corner to see this, its cool, it looks like the house is having moments of life, I like that you can see light through the opening. 🙂

And here we have it. My math was off... I am one board short, I will grab one though and stain it all up and throw it on, hopefully tomorrow!

I'm a fan, I think I will stick an over-sized patio chair out there and cuddle up with a book sometime!

And here is our fat dog Gage. He's a good boy. 🙂