Tiny House Update 9.29.13

I worked my little tail off this weekend in preparation for the photographer coming Monday (because of rain we had to reschedule to Tuesday), my place is looking great!  Hopefully it pictures well for Marc, my photographer friend who has quite a knack for making the mundane look amazing :).  I took some images at the end, not nearly as cool as Marc’s will be but at least there is proof of my workings (I thought I had transferred these over but they didn’t make it into this post, I will post them ASAP)!   So this entry is just about the work we did this weekend and I didn’t get pictures of all of it.  James helped me put the trim around the exterior lights, I cleaned and ironed all the curtains (even though it’s a tiny house there are A LOT of curtains, this was no small undertaking!) and lots of other things that I have no proof of yet but that I will show you all very soon :).

Special thanks to mom and dad for babysitting Denny between now and when Marc comes so that all the cleaning is not in vain and the photos can come out nice and pretty (he is a tornado of mud and slobber!).  Wednesday I am giving a presentation on my house to the National Organization of Women In Construction, this upcoming weekend Extreme Homes UK will be here to film the house as well as James will be turning 34.  Then, next weekend we have an open house on the 12th (all are invited).  After that I officially call this project done and can move on to other projects!  I will update here occasionally about things involving tiny houses, mine in particular, benefits, drawbacks, baby meets tiny house etc.  I also have a couple more smaller projects on my radar to do with it but nothing near as huge as the whole undertaking has been but I will certainly be around.  I also want to put together an e-book of my specific trials and tribulations, what I did for all of my systems and why as well as what I would do differently if I had to do it over again and why.  I also get a lot of requests for my specific floor plan, I’d like to put that together for people to be able to use.  So even though the tiny is wrapping up I will not be disappearing… and of course I will continue to be an active supporter behind the scenes in order to try to make tiny houses more ‘acceptable’ in the main stream.   I appreciate everyone who has supported me through this whole thing and I am SO happy to be so close to the finish line!  Thank you everyone!

Look at Dennys handsome new collar, I thought he needed to get a little more dressed up for TV. This was a gift from Stacey at Just a Smidgeon Tiny house from her business Upcycle Attire, which I think is SO damn creative!

Its still just a bit big for him but it works, he never tries to squirm much anyway.

And if you'll notice, he's got a new custom bed. I made this for him Friday. It's just a left over comforter that I basically made a custom sized pillowcase for so it will just fit right in my home. He digs it.

And this is where his bed goes.

You'll notice in the previous photo I changed the location of the desk. This allows me to do the dog dish like I wanted to but also, more important, If I want to have a nice candle lit dinner with my awesome partner in crime I have a two sided table to do that on! As a third benefit... now when I sit there to work I can still watch TV... which makes me uber productive... luckily I mostly just have a TV for sound... I don't actually 'watch' most of the shows that are on... they are just background noise 🙂

look at how cozy this is. I don't think I have mentioned nearly enough either how stinking AWESOME radiant heat floors are... It keeps his bed warm and toasty and is seriously the most comfortable heat I have ever experienced. I am SO glad I forked out the money for the system. Honestly I have always hated tile floors because they are so cold and harsh... I freaking LOVE my floor.. except the color... that should have been different 🙂

The neighbor stopped by and offered to take Denny on a walk with her dog Tucker, Tucker and Denny are BFFs he came back just wiped out, that was SO nice of her. Thanks Michelle!

Just another paw comparison... I think Denny may be beating me now... He's 26" tall and 73 pounds, he's got another 10 inches or so to grow and almost another hundred pounds... crazy! He's the best dog ever, seriously recommend Danes, they are big sweeties... if you can stand the drool... 🙂 the only down side.

I also went through and fixed all of my drawers. They had settled a little and the spacing wasn't equal anymore, it was driving me nuts... while I was at it I glued the face of the drawers to the box, before they were just held on with the hardware, it's much more sturdy now. One of those corners I had cut... should have just done it right the first time 🙂

And, since we were using muriatic acid to clean the shower the fumes started oxidizing all the steel in the house... It went from bright and shiny metal color to pure rust... which I don't mind but I don't want rubbing off. I decided to get some steel wool and WD-40 to scrub it back to shiny before sealing it with some rust sealer... which also should have been done from the get-go... but everything in this house has been done the hard way, this is no different.

Wiping off the coats of rust.

ALSO! There is greenery back in the wine bottles I made with Ms. Carissa. It isn't herbs, I killed all those off in the move by getting distracted with other things, this is my namesake, Artimisia, which will just have to do until next spring when they start selling herbs again. (I was named after a great aunt Artimisia who, for some reason was called Macy for short... I've always wished my name was Artimisia!)

The trim is all up in the shower too, I didn't have tape to hold it in place but I did have band-aids 🙂

They worked like a charm!

It's hard to see but if you look close it just finishes off that rough edge that I really should have used some schluter edging on... but I missed that opportunity!

And, the barn door got fixed, one side was always a little low. it worked, it just needed to be raised on the one side.

Now the hooks fit just right, before there was about a 1/2" gap here which made it wobble a lot more, not a deal breaker but annoying...

I'm not sure I ever showed that I got my microwave up either, I had to buy an extension cord for it because it was about 3" too short to reach the outlet!

And the final piece of the media center got marked off the list too... I ended up going with magnetic holds on the computer door (I have better pictures I will post ASAP of this). I had to epoxy on the pieces of metal because I used such thin boards, I would definitely go a little thicker on my millwork doors next time...

The magnetic backers to hold the door on.

I took Denny to my folks' place while I cleaned up the whole house (thank you mom and dad, you're a lifesaver, this place would not be clean if you didn't snag him in all this rain, that just equals a muddy house). I was able to get on my hands and knees and scrub all the grout that I never sealed before... another shortcut that I now have to go back and fix... I got it nice and clean though and sealed! Looks like a new place!

And this isn't the best picture but this is my new recliner. I imagine when baby comes I will be sitting here a bit so I am glad it's comfy... it was a wild card I ordered off of Amazon. I took lots of better pictures with my real camera that I thoguht I transfered over but they didn't come through, I will post another post with all of those photos of the final shots after the space is all cleaned up. I love it it looks so damn good in there.