Tool Shed

My house has a parasitic twin!

Isn't it cute, though?

We're not done with it, yet, but this will be the "tool shed" for any outdoors-compatible stuff that I'll need to store during my tiny house life. Bike pump, extra hoses and extension cords, a few tools, who knows.

Roof Underlayment

You know when something looks so easy to do when you watch the instructional video? How the people demonstrating it just crank it out like it's nothing? How the instructions sound so simple, almost foolproof? And then when you actually try to do it, it all goes wrong.

Grace Ice & Water Shield, you are so guilty.

Or at least, at first you were.

Bathroom Wall

It's not often that you can get this far in a home construction project before learning how to frame a wall. That's SIPs for you! But even SIP houses (usually) do have conventionally framed walls, since it doesn't make much sense to use SIPs for the interior partition walls.

My tiny house only has the one interior wall, to separate the bathroom from the rest of the house. Too bad there's only one--it came together much more easily than I might have feared, and that was with me working basically by myself.

Fascia, Soffits, and Verge Rafters

Goodbye, rafter tails; hello, roof trim!

I'm using 1x shou sugi ban cedar for my fascia boards, soffits, and verge rafters. It will blend in with the shou sugi ban siding and contrast nicely with the roof and steel siding. Plus, being black and textured, any mistakes or not-quite-tight joints will kind of... disappear into the darkness. Perfect!

Loft Joists and Danish Oil

As you may have noticed in the June 18 post, when I installed the loft ledger boards there were joist hangers already attached. Those ledger boards, glued and bolted to the wall, are there for the sole purpose of holding the loft joists--the structural skeleton of the loft--and the galvanized steel joist hangers are how that connection is made. 

Cutting three pieces of 2x6 the correct length and nailing them into a joist hanger is not that much to write home about. But things got a little interesting due to the fact that these joists--like the ledger board--will be exposed. 

Dry-In: Windows - Day 1-3

With a project this size, you get the hang of a new building skill at just about the same time as you finish the job that required it. These past three days, that skill has been window installation.

The thing is, though, even the first window wasn't difficult to install, per se. We did it wrong, is all: we used too-short nails and forgot to create a gap for sealant along the bottom.

Two lessons learned. But the main one is Lesson 50: Communicate constantly with your work partner--don't assume they know exactly what you think should be happening at a given moment, and double-check that you are both following all the steps correctly. Just keep up a constant patter of checking and double checking and one of you, at least, should catch when you're going wrong!

Dry-In: Weatherproof Barriers - Day 2

The walls are (almost) completely wrapped and taped! And I'll tell you, I am glad to see the back end of this stage of construction. See: my previous comments about the infuriating nature of Tyvek...

As you can see in the photo, I've chosen to extend the house wrap all the way up between the rafters, nearly to the sheathing. The roof overhang will be so short that I wanted the extra protection there. Aside from that, the coverage is pretty much typical--that is, total coverage, even over the window and door openings. (More about those in a moment...)