KCI-the move

Putting the battens on has made a world of difference in how the tiny house looks.  I love it now.  It’s gorgeous.

Bob has made some ingenious shelves in one of the bathroom walls.  He’s an excellent cabinet maker, and my cupboards are better than what I have in my house

The tiny house moved to my parent’s property.  Another teacher drove it down and he was masterful.  He pulled that 8.6 foot wide baby into a 9 foot laneway while we stopped traffic.  He made one correction then backed it the rest of the way into its new home.  I just stood there mouth agape.

Today we primed the door and the underbody of the trailer (boy, should that have been done before this time.)

My husband stayed  at the property to meet with the guys who will finish the electrical and the plumbing.  Another guy is putting in the glass into the door.  Next week, someone else will do the roofing.

It’s all coming together which means I can finally sleep.  I’ve lost weight because of the stress -  the kind where you’re so nauseous you can’t eat.  I’m not sure why I thought the sky was falling, but I did.

We’ve still got miles to go, but they’re short miles now.  Before they were the miles that stretched into infinity.  We need to panel the ceiling and do some finishing touches to the kitchen cupboards.  All the battens need caulking, but this is all doable.  Only the caulking and painting needs to be done this summer.  Everything else can wait.

KCI-windows and doors, oh my.

Having the tiny house in our driveway means there’ve been a lot of visitors.  Everyone in the neighbourhood wants a tour.  Normally I’d love this, but right now we’re on a serious deadline, and I’m feeling resentful of the time it eats up.  This is hardly the way to convince people this is a  great thing to do.  I’ll try to smell the roses when we get it moved to its next home.

Well, torrential rains – the most rainfall in a short period our area has ever had prevented us from driving down to Sarnia. The plus side is it gave us two more days to get work done. Now we’ve got an exterior door actually hanging in place and the cupboard doors are on too. Bob built all of these.  The exterior door was built from exterior plywood with 2 inch foam sandwiched in between. A window opening has been cut and we’ll need to install a window later on. For now, it’s got plastic stapled in place.

The windows have been stellar.

KCI Hard at work

Since my husband returned from his meditation center, we’ve kicked some serious butt.  Bob, Jeff and I have built cabinets, caulked and insulated the ceiling, put the battens on, and, and, and.  I’m sure there’s a bunch of other things but my mind is mush.  We start at 8 am and usually finish by 6 or 7 pm.  Dinner has not been much to speak of as you can imagine.

Insulating is interesting. Maybe there are quicker ways of doing it, but it seemed to take me forever.  First I cut and glued 2 inch extruding foam between each roof truss.  Each one had to be individually measured and cut, and then there were little jigs and jags around roof protruding things – usually wood, sometimes misfired nails.  Styrofoam boards at the top need to be cut on a 45% angle, otherwise it’s just straight cuts. The 2 inch boards were cut with a skill saw. Then I did it all again with a 1/2 board.  This took 2 days. It was a mistake to apply low expanding foam in between the first and second layer.  The 1/2 inch boards were a pleasure to work with. It’s just a matter of using a T ruler and cutting with box cutters.  A good snap pulls it apart.

Bob built the front door, but we’ll have to get glass put in.

We’re moving Friday, so whatever isn’t finished by tomorrow, is not getting done until a later date.

KCI The saga continues

My Dad is concerned that the place we’ll be parking the trailer is a bit soft.  If you remember we had to clear a huge pile of compost to create a space.  It’s now spread out over my mother’s gardens, but then when we got too lazy to haul, we just started spreading it in the clearing.  There’s probably a good 4-6 inches of compost over the whole space, so yeah, it’s soft. I suggested my Dad start parking his vehicle there to firm it up.   By the time we get there a few tons of SUV will have done the work necessary.  It’s either that or me jumping up and down on the spot, and since I only weigh 110 pounds that’d be a lot of jumping.

I got to help build kitchen cabinets.  That was a great day. I held and screwed and applied melamine to edges.  This involved ironing, filing and sanding.  Three skills I am proficient at – not that I ever iron clothes, but theoretically I know how to, so I could apply those skills.

10 days after it arrived at my house, the roof sheathing is done.  The weather has not co-operated at all.  Today was supposed to be clear so that’s why we left it until now.  Of course, the rain clouds are moving in.  Argh.  I’m hoping it’s all done and the seams caulked before it starts to pour.  We no longer get light rains these days. It’s all torrential monsoon like weather.

KCI Torrential rains

Denny and Aaron added more flooring to the loft.  I am happy, my tall husband will be even happier.  They also got the final roofing truss up, because that night the torrential rains came down.

The rain lasted about four hours; fortunately there was only a wee bit of water in the place.  It was easily cleared up, and I placed a bucket or two to catch anything else, then my daughter and I threw on yet another tarp.  This one isn’t nearly as large as the first one. It’s held down with skipping ropes since all the real ropes are holding down the other larger tarp.  We had quite a bit of fun getting the tarps up.  First we attached ropes to one side and then attached the ropes to croc shoes, then we started throwing.  It should have been a contest.  In general, three tosses and we got it over far enough that we could grab the other end, then it was just a matter of hauling the tarp up, then tying it down.

Tarps tend to get caught (and torn) on the roof peaks. That’s where the water gets in.

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