“The best propaganda is not pamphleteering, but for each one of us to try to live the life we would have the world live.”
— Mahatma Ghandi
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21 February 2024Posts / Tiny House PostsI have to get something off my chest. It’s been a big downer throughout the process of Hygge Hale’s build, and that can weigh heavily.
I’m continuously surprised by how many people are themselves surprised–and sometimes judgemental–about how long it’s taking us to build this tiny house.
Considering how few people I’ve known who’ve actually built a house themselves, no contractors involved (and I’m not talking about renovation to a room or basement, I’m talking built the entire thing from the ground up), I’m surprised how many people seem to have a definitive determination of how long it takes to build a house. I’m going to guess despite their conviction in their idea of the timeline for building a house, most people haven’t really thought about what that involves.
We ourselves, started out in that place: When we first rolled the trailer into our yard, we thought we’d have a live-in-able house in a year. So, really we perpetrated this misinformation ourselves from the get-go. But, with lots of hindsight, I’m going to throw some things out there for consideration:
With zero contractors, not a single bit of this build has been outsourced. None, nada. Just the two of us–and a bit of help from our parents.
Eli may have experience in home building from years ago, and I, myself, in assisting my parents with home renovations as I grew up, but neither of us are experts or professionals.
Tiny houses are not a traditional build. Let me repeat that. This build has been in no way standard. The building of a tiny house on a trailer takes a lot of head scratching, weighing traditional knowledge (which is often conflicting even for normal house-building circumstances) for applicability to abnormal house-building circumstances (man, I’ve read ALOT of articles, books, and chat room posts on home construction), uncertain decisions, innovation, and inventing solutions. What you hope to be sound solutions. So, considering from LOTS of angles. So, so much of our time has been spent discussing and researching and discussing the best method to do…well, pretty much everything in this build.
So, let’s consider those three elements I just noted: Eli and I are a two-person crew constituting the Research and Development team, the architect, the construction team, the electrician, the plumber, the office team for locating materials and sellers and placing orders, and handling all the other random things that come up. Not a single part of this tiny house build has been outsourced–I’m going to reiterate that again: none. …Okay, maybe just a bit: we didn’t build our own windows (though Eli contemplated it, yikes!) or refrigerator or stove/oven or toilet. And, no, we did not mill our own wood (though we honestly would have liked to). But, to make a tiny house as livable as possible, everything has to be efficient… and so very often that means custom-built. We even built our own light fixtures for heaven’s sake! When’s the last time you designed and made a light fixture? And, how long did it take? Actually, if we could, maybe we would have even built our own stove/oven…
So, our entire crew is only the two of us, and we both work full-time challenging jobs (that have nothing to do with home-building) that already drain our brains and emotional capacities. Yes, we need time in the evenings–and even sometimes on the weekends–to recuperate, which does not involve working on aspects of a difficult house build. Some weekends we just really need to catch up on lost sleep from the work week.
And, to be honest, sometimes we like to be able to see our families. And, occasionally spend time with friends. Or, more boringly, our time has to be spent on the regular chores of living and of maintaining the rental house and yard where we currently live. You see, even if you’re building a tiny house, you still have to do laundry and sweep the floor, mow the lawn and clean the gutters, make dinner and do the dishes, do your taxes and pay the bills, can the peaches and dry the persimmons your trees are so kindly providing an abundance of… you get the drift. Just because you’re building a tiny house doesn’t mean the regular bits of living disappear.
We’re also regular people (not the hyper-productive stylized people our culture seems to idolize). We need to just take a break every now and again. Have an adventure. Yup, we too, like everyone else, enjoy and need vacations—from both our day-jobs and the job of building Hygge Hale. We enjoy getting out and experiencing the world, too, along with our work and projects. For example, on one weekend we “should” have been working on the tiny house to complete it more quickly, instead, we took a mountains to sea tour, snowshoeing in the Sierra Nevada mountains on Saturday and heading out to Point Reyes National Seashore on Sunday:
So you see, we haven’t received a large inheritance that allowed us to quit our jobs and build the tiny house full-time (we’re actually paying for the whole build as we go with no loans or debt accrual), we aren’t professional builders being paid to build this tiny house as our regular day job, we aren’t experienced contractors who know the ins-and-outs of where to find materials and all the current tech and products, and we aren’t family-less and friendless people. And yes, we too enjoy–and dare I say need–leisure.
There’s A LOT to squeeze into the waking hours of our days… I honestly think we’ve done pretty damn well at balancing all the demands, needs, and wants for our time. And, really, why are we always in such a rush?
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18 February 2024Posts / Tiny House PostsI know I haven’t posted on this blog in years now. There have been some difficulties and hurdles in the past few years. And, I realized I needed to downsize my task list (along with working on downsizing my house 🙂 ).
I needed to stop trying to accomplish everything and realize there will never be enough time to do that since I’m a many-interest kind of gal. So, I had to do some difficult prioritizing. And, what really needed to be prioritized was the actual building of this tiny house, my love for spending time with my family, and, really importantly, my mental health. I too often sacrifice self care for checking “to-do’s” off that list.
So, writing and sharing about building Hygge Hale had to take a back seat to actually building it!
But, since I still get a number of inquiries from family, friends, and colleagues about progress, I wanted to at least throw up a few photos of the current status of elements of the build (some photos are repeats from earlier blog posts). Sorry these photos have little description. I do hope in the future to fill in some empty spaces as this blog is helpful for my personal recollection and reference, as well. But, we shall see how I end up prioritizing the use of my limited time in the future. I would like to, at minimum, still try to post photos. And, as we’re actually nearing completion, perhaps that won’t be a huge lift!
Love and thoughts to all. And, I hope none of you are running yourselves ragged with all the things you “need” to do.
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19 November 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsWe decided next to work on the cabinet that will be at the head of our bed in the main loft. Having this in place would help prevent us from bumping the log lights. And, it would be another element that was a final finished product!
We first wanted to put trim along the seam of where the walls meet the lofts that will be in the interior of the cabinet. This was much easier to do prior to installing the cabinet than after installation when working on anything within the interior of the cabinet would be much harder. So, a little more trim work! Luckily we had planned for this when installing our ceiling trim, so had pieces already prepped and ready. Same as the ceiling trim, we cut the angled ends (easier this time with clean 45-degree angles!) and used pin nails to attach them.
Then it was back to sanding, painting, and finishing the boards that would be the front and top of the cabinets. For the boards that will make up the front of the cabinet, we again used leftover boards from our wall tongue-and-groove board stash and white-washed them to match the walls. For the top of the cabinets, we purchased some really nice pine 1×10’s that we cut to our exact dimentions. All edges that would be exposed got a bit of a round-over with the router so they’d have a nice smooth look and feel.
Eli had made plans on how to construct the cabinets, making sure the cabinets would be sturdy and all boards had good support and tie-togethers. We glued and nailed a small board along the length of the bottom front board which would allow us to nail that board to the loft floor. We also had to provide support and attachment points to hold the three front tongue-and-groove boards together. We used small scrap pieces for this that we cleaned up and finished.
Then, it was into the tiny house for test fitting. We tested to make sure the three front boards would fit and everything was aligning correctly. Then, we laid them all out on the floor and glued and nailed the tongue-and-groove boards together and to their supports. It was nerve-wracking nailing the supports on because we didn’t want the nails to poke through the front of the face boards. But, all went well, and the front faces of the boards remained clean! Once all the glue was dry, we’d install the assembled piece.
Installation went smoothly with everything fitting together nicely after our dry fit tests. No installation pics because we both needed all our hands and attention to make sure the piece was installed tightly and straight.
The support strips on the back of the front boards will also serve the purpose of supporting the backer strips that will hold the top pieces of the cabinet. We’ll have two cabinet doors, one for each of us to access half of the cabinet for our personal storage, so we’ll have three fixed pieces on the cabinet top surrounding the doors. We need wood pieces to which we can nail the fixed top pieces, as well as a backer strip that runs the length of the back wall. The back strip along the wall will also be where the hinges for the doors will be affixed.
Once we had all the support/backer boards attached, we also added the last two bits of trim on the interior of the cabinets in the two corners where the walls meet.
All that was left was to install the top pieces and doors. We glued the fixed top boards to the backer support boards and nailed up from the bottom so the nails would be hidden. Nailing up from the bottom was no easy feat; it was a tight squeeze in that cabinet for the nail gun. It was also nerve-wracking because we couldn’t really see well in there, so it was difficult to tell if we were aiming the nail gun correctly. If aimed poorly, the nail could end up too close to the edge of the support board, which could cause the board to split, or we could hit the support board well, but be too far over and miss the top board. Or, our aim could be angled, which could cause the end of the nail to come out the side of the support board. There was only one mishap, where we had the nail gun over too far so the nail went through the backer board, but just to the side of the top board. It also chipped off a small piece of the backer board, but luckily nothing but an aesthetic mishap. We just put in another nail (this time with no error), snipped the blundered nail off, and glued the tiny piece that got chipped off back on again.
Then, it was on to the doors. We picked hinges that attach to the inside of the cabinet doors so we would have a nice smooth, clean surface on top when the doors are closed. Installing the hinges required drilling holes for the hinges in the bottom of the door boards, then screwing the hinge to the backer strip on the wall. The hinges were adjustable, so we can tweak them once the doors and hinges are in place.
And, with that, we have some bed headboard cabinets! These will be a nice little bit of storage in the loft. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out.
And, one more sweet aspect of these cabinets, the hinges we bought are “soft-close”—no accidental slamming of cabinet doors if we were in a hurry.
Photos of the finished product, and a video of the soft-close hinges!:
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13 November 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsWe still have one last electrical project to work through on the tiny house. Intermittently, we’ve continued to work on figuring out our last type of lighting. Along with our log lights and box lights, we’ll have LED strip lights embedded in the top of the loft joists to provide light in the kitchen, bathroom, and above our daybed couch in the living area.
Before installing the lofts, we routed out a small ledge on the top of each 4×4 joist to put a strip of LED lights. We were a little leery of how reliable these LED strip lights would be for every day lighting, so we didn’t wire them directly into the house. Instead, we made sure to have outlets specifically for the LED strip lights to plug into, making them easy to replace, if necessary.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on these LED strip lights. So many options and considerations. One of the benefits of LED strip lights is they’re really customizable with the ability to cut them to length. But, there’s also wide variation in the size of the LEDs on the strips, the density of LEDs on the strips, and the quality of both the LEDs and the strips themselves. You also have to consider the length of the strips you’ll be installing, which dictates how much power you’ll need to provide for the strip. And, of course, there’s also lots of options for lighting color, dimming, switches, and remotes. So, lots of researching–as with all other elements of this build.
I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with trying to balance quality (perceived or real) and cost. These strip lights can get expensive. Initially, I ordered a cheap short string of them off of Amazon to see how they work and to play around with for snipping and soldering practice. I then also bought a strip from a mid-price-range company, HitLights, and a strip from a high-priced company, Flexfire LEDs. I have to admit I’m stuck in vacillation trying to decide which brand and type of lights to purchase. I’m not convinced the expensive ones are worth it, but I also want to assure we get good quality strips that last and are reliable.
So, I keep experimenting with how they function and the best way to wire them, improving my soldering skills and testing the lights in the tiny house, and trying to gain more experience and knowledge to inform our decision in which strips to ultimately purchase as our lighting. The verdict is still out… [...]
7 November 2021PostsA tiny step, but we finally got the plywood enclosing our wheel wells in the house painted white to match the walls, and finished with a couple coats of Polycrylic. This isn’t a big deal as the wheel wells will be fully within our kitchen cabinets, but we wanted to protect the wood and keep things tidy. It does look more finished. Will also make the interior of the cabinets a bit lighter with the white to reflect some light in there.
Every little bit! [...]
3 November 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsEli was all sorts of jealous of the new streamlined, quiet ear muffs I had purchased a few months ago, so I went online to get him a pair, too. When I looked up the Pro For Sho ear muffs again, I was so stoked to see they had them in teal! My favorite color! Eli was definitely getting my old blue pair and I was getting the new snazzy teal pair. Sometimes when you’re the one doing the online searching and ordering, you get to decide your husband gets your hand-me-downs. 😉 [...]
29 October 2021Adventures / PostsAfter completing the ceiling trim on Hygge Hale, Eli and I decided to take a tiny house build interlude and go for an outdoor adventure for my birthday.
Birthdays are important to me–celebrating each person’s unique character and special existence in the world–so I like to treat myself to something fun to celebrate mine. [Okay, embarrassingly, this is showing just how very far behind I am on posting to Live The Ideal… my birthday is in January!]
Eli and I decided to go camping on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Toiyabe National Forest. We’ve spent a lot of time outdoors in our lives – both for work and pleasure – so winter camping isn’t daunting to us. However. As the weekend approached, the forecast was for snow, not a dumping, but snow… and also 5°F nighttime lows. Umm… But, I’m a tough guy, right?
We went for it.
We arrived late, finding an adequate spot for dispersed camping in the National Forest, loaded on the warm clothes, had a quick dinner, then climbed in for bed. We’ve got a pretty good set up in the back of our truck: a platform for sleeping installed over two wood drawers for storage (all Eli-made). The headspace is a little tight, but it makes for a nice nest. So, we went to sleep like this:
And woke to this:
Eli, being a champ, braved the cold first and started making breakfast and hot tea. After a number of threats from me about not leaving my sleeping bag EVER, the tantalizing thought of snow (it doesn’t snow where we live) got me up and out. Brrrrr!! BearBear, my trusty companion since my single digit years–despite being a polar bear–opted to remain in the truck nest (whimp).
Then we strapped on our snowshoes and headed out into the white-frosted, forested mountains.
And, it was all worth it.
We had the place to ourselves and soft white flakes falling all around us… all day long.
Besides, at the end of the day, a hot dinner by the truck and tasty birthday beverages awaited us to keep us warm. …And, the down pants Eli had gifted me! Perfect! Man, those suckers are amazing! So, we spent some time toasting my birthday with imperial stouts and amaretto (my favorites!) as we again braved the dropping temps.
But that extra toasty sleeping bag and blanket nest in the back of the truck was calling my name. Time for bed.
We slept soundly, despite the cold, in our zipped together sleeping bags and lots of down and fleece.
And, again, we awoke to this:
But also this:
I may not love being cold, but oh do I love cozy — and I definitely love being in beautiful nature vistas. No matter the time of year. [...]
25 October 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsDoing the ceiling trim was an exercise in trigonometry.
The trim is installed where the ceiling meets the walls providing a nice clean aesthetic at those transitions. Simple 90-degree and 45-degree cuts if your room is a box. But, our ceiling is angled as it’s installed direct to the rafters and mimics the roof pitch. That meant lots of angles to figure out with multiple angled cuts on each trim piece! Not only the ends of the boards where each piece of trim met another piece of trim in the corners, but also the backs of the trim pieces that would run along the long walls because of that angled ceiling.
And, cause we’re us, instead of just buying pre-made quarter round trim pieces, we had to make our own… I mean, we already had spare wood lying around from the excess wall boards, so why not? Besides, this way we knew the trim would match the ceiling and wall boards really well!
Unfortunately, no photos of the initial cutting of these thin pieces from our long tongue and groove pine boards–it took two of us to hold and feed the boards as we ran them along the table saw. After a few loses (some boards unexpectedly produced really curved pieces when cut so thinly, which weren’t usable, and a knot in the wrong place would lead to a trim piece that would break apart), we then ran them along the router to give the one corner a round-over that produces a quarter round. I also forgot to get shots of us using the router to round them over. Once they were all cut and formed, it was on to sanding, finishing, sanding, finishing,… you know the drill. We then cut them roughly to size.
We then moved from the shop to the tiny house for installation, and brought along the chop saw for making the final exact angled cuts to the trim ends. We cut a few small tester pieces so we could check the angles in place and make sure they aligned snugly. Then, we cut the ends of the actual trim pieces and installed with pin nails. I swear, I really was working on all this, too, and not just behind the camera–I gotta get Eli to take more of the pictures…
As we worked, our foreman kitty had to survey our progress and assess future trim needs around the windows.
While we were doing the ceiling trim, we also added some more trim around the roof window. If you recall, we had covered the rafters with trim pieces, but we hadn’t yet installed the trim to hide all the seams. I must not have been in photographer mode during that bit, because I only have one photo of us working on the roof window trim. We still have a few little bits to go in the corners of the window bay, but it comes along!
Once we had the trim installed, I went along each trim piece and covered up the pin nails with just a smidge of wood putty. This hides the nail and makes the nail holes blend in with the surrounding wood for a much cleaner look. While I put the finishing touches on the trim, Eli swept up the sawdust from using the tiny house as a shop space.
So much more trim to go (wall corners, loft/floor transitions, windows), but ceiling trim is complete! Hygge Hale with one more element in place! At least we can look up and see a final product! [...]
24 August 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsBeing environmentally conscious folk, we’ve been taking measures to decrease the amount of waste generated from our build. Among other strategies, this can mean considering where we can use leftover materials in other parts of the build and being creative in reusing packaging our items were shipped in. To illustrate, many of our materials have come wrapped in plastic. I’ve been cutting and stapling/taping this plastic into trash bags–both large bags for our tiny house build trash, and small bags for our regular household trash. Waste not, want not. 🙂 [...]
20 August 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsIt was time to spruce up the interior just a bit more. With our electrical mostly completed, I wanted to get some cover plates on all the switches and outlets. Along with providing safety by having the wires covered and electrical boxes enclosed, putting on the cover plates will also give us another boost by making the walls look ever more polished and a bit more finished. In less visible locations, such as behind the fridge, we went with cheap white cover plates.
You can see from those photos above that, as always, I’m far behind in my posting–no, I’m not wearing a beanie in California (at least not where we live) in August!
For the spots where we’ll see the switches/outlets regularly, we wanted to keep with our wood motif.
We found some nice, simple wooden plates at Lowe’s. Finally, something made out of wood in the tiny house that we didn’t craft ourselves! Although we didn’t make them, they came unfinished, so we did still have to put our Polycrylic finish on them. So, more sanding, sealing, sanding, sealing, etc.!
The plates are made from birch and have a metal backing to reduce fire risk. The birch introduces yet another flavor of wood into the house, but also being light-colored wood, they match nicely with the pine and redwood. And, they’re really a quite attractive offset against the white-washed walls!
Unfortunately, Lowe’s didn’t have any three-gang plate covers, but we needed one–just one!–for the three switches by the front door. Luckily, the internet came to the rescue! I was able to find the exact same style of covers at Wayfair, where they carried a 3-gang option.
One more step completed! Hygge Hale continues to emerge one little bit at a time…
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15 May 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsLet’s keep this tiny house real. There are going to be things I’m definitely not excited about having to be miniaturized in a tiny house: a smaller stove (we cook a lot), smaller sink (that cooking makes some serious dishes), and smaller storage capacity (we love our outdoor recreation). But, some things we’ll barely notice are reduced–our half-size fridge has been great the past four years we’ve already been using it. And, then there are those things that are just so FANTASTIC in miniature! I’ve already noted how stoked I am for the tiny wood stove we’ll install, but another pint-size appliance that stole my adoration is the tiny ceiling fan.
I first saw the potential for a tiny ceiling fan while reading an article about Andrew Odom’s tiny house where his tiny ceiling fan is pictured. I was smitten! I knew our tiny house just needed a mini ceiling fan. Especially with our “cathedral” ceiling 😉 in the living room.
We actually found our ceiling fan quite awhile ago on a fortuitous trip to Lowe’s. I had been in search of ideas for a porch light (no luck on the porch light back then), but while passing through the ceiling fan display, with a brain focused on tiny, I spied the smallest little fan tucked in among its domineering neighbors. And it was just what I was looking for. With a tiny house in particular, where it can be no easy feat to find what you need, when you see something that’s perfect, you snag it up right then and there, timelines and order of operations be damned.
So, with our ceiling and ridge trim installed and after much anticipation with the ceiling fan boxed up in our spare bedroom for months and months, we were stoked to have its time for installation come.
Knowing ceiling fans can sometimes be a beast to get installed well for smooth operation, we were a bit apprehensive about the placement. And, how exactly do these wires attach? But, I’m a thorough directions reader and had already read through them immediately after opening the box while perusing the included parts. So, while rereading them again as we went through the actual process, I coached Eli through the steps of wiring, attachment, and adjustment while prepping and handing up consecutive parts. (Okay, it was really just a refresher for him on the wiring as he’d already delved into that when doing the electrical work on the house.)
Then it was just assuring the switch was connected correctly–the ceiling fan specific switch has an on/off switch for the light and a smaller side switch that includes three speeds for the fan. Then testing and putting on the glass light shade. Voila! We have a smooth spinning, efficient air circulating, aesthetic ceiling fan! Another one of my favorites in the tiny house! And, it’s the perfect complement to the box lights! [...]
9 May 2021General Living / PostsEvery now and then you have to take a break from the tiny house build to work on another project of real significance. Like a flag stand for your flag that’s taking a stand. Though, I can’t believe the statements on this flag are a stand. Can’t believe these things don’t just go without saying. But, when the world requires such a display, so be it. [...]
7 May 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsWith our spectacular log lights (if we do say so ourselves) as motivation, it was back to work on the box lights.
These took a bit more prototyping and processing than the log lights did. Despite the single blog post about them, the creation of these bad boys extended over quite a bit of time and progress on the build. These words and images don’t convey nearly enough the brain cells, retries, setbacks, googling, curses, sharp words, and persistence devoured and projected into the world from this process…
BUT, once Eli got the prototype down–and I was in agreement on it 🙂 –“mass” production began. Eli built all the boxes, painted their interiors white (to help brighten the light output), then sliced them up into sections. Three sections would make up each light fixture. We rounded over the edges of the sections and sanded, sanded, sanded. Then,….. (you know the drill…) we coated each one with Polycrylic for that protective finish! Once we had our three coats of finish, we assembled and connected the three sections of each fixture. As always, we were calculated about what pieces of board we used for the light fixtures so we’d get some beautiful wood grain and knot patterns!
Once the wood exterior of the lights were assembled, we made the opaque plexiglass inserts to hide the bulbs from view and spread the light. These also took a lot of brainstorming, a bit of trial and error, and a few broken attempts (and a few broken curse words) before we got the product we wanted. Since it took a few iterations, Eli was particularly proud of the form he created to mold the plexiglass inserts into the correct shape. The inserts had to leave room at the back to slide in past the socket.
Then, it was on to adding the electrical components. Again, we had a lot to research and figure out. Eli’s getting good at this electrical wiring! Because this is a tiny house, we didn’t want the light fixtures to be un-proportionally large. So, we did some searching for smaller bulbs that still had good light output. To throw in a little more complexity, we wanted the light fixtures to be dimmable, so yet another requirement for the bulbs. We settled on some we found at Home Depot that were 750 lumens 60W equivalent LED dimmable bulbs with a E12 candelabra base. They look like normal bulbs, but are in miniature. They’ll put out plenty of light with the five light fixtures. We also decided we wanted the light fixtures to hang lower than originally thought when we placed the electrical boxes in the wall, so Eli put the plate in the back of the fixture higher up.
Then, all that was left was to flip the switch…………………… and they work!! Installed and amazing! Only thing was, we noticed they weren’t dimming very much–definitely not nearly as much as we expected. We spent a good bit of time researching and Eli kept fiddling with his wiring in the fixtures and he tried replacing all the wire connectors thinking that might be it, but still minimal dimming. Finally, Eli took a look at the switch and its wiring, and on close inspection he realized the dimmer switch for the lights had a built-in tiny switch on the side that allowed you to adjust and set a minimum to which the lights could dim. Once we reset that, we could rock some serious mood lighting!
The final piece of the box light fixture puzzle was holding the plexiglass inserts in place once the lights were installed. We landed on velcro (keep it simple stupid) to hold the plexiglass in place once inserted, so the inserts wouldn’t fall out. One nice thing about plexiglass, it’s lightweight. Worked like a charm.
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30 April 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsWith the ceiling finished, we wanted to make a little more headway on making it look nice, so wanted to install the trim piece along the ceiling ridge and also all the nice pieces around the roof window. Really, there were three more ceiling board pieces that had to be installed next to the roof window, so we weren’t quite finished on the ceiling, as I had claimed in my last post. 😉
We had to make some clean tight cuts on these last three pieces of ceiling board so they fit snug at the change in plane. Also had to put a shim in so the board next to the roof window would seat tight up against the window frame. Sooo many little details.
Okay, now the ceiling is FINISHED!!
On to the ridge trim. We cut and routered a couple of the remaining unused wall boards to make three trim pieces to our needed specs for covering the ceiling ridge. Then, as always, sand and seal. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of creating the trim or installation of it. But, did get some of the finished product! (The anticipation, I know!)
That spot where we had a few ceiling boards go up to the roof window created a little gap above our ridge trim, so we had to install a sliver of wood to fill it. Again, those little details. While Eli cut the sliver, I utilized this bit of down time waiting for him by sealing up the house just a bit more tightly, shoving wool insulation into nooks, cracks, and crannies. (Take no notice of my beanie hat as a telltale sign of how behind I am on getting our progress posted about! No beanie now as I sit here writing this post in 80 degree temps. D’oh!)
After installing the first piece of ridge trim, since we were already up in the loft, we figured we’d work on the finish boards around the roof window. I picked some of my favorite boards for this. Love, love, love those little knots! And, we had a couple of boards with some real character that we put in here. Since the boards we used for the walls and ceiling were just a bit too narrow to completely cover the rafters around the roof window, we’ll need to use some wider trim, but–waste not want not!–we had the boards, so wanted to use them. And, like I said, they were some beauties!
In the midst of all this, our kitty had to check out the tiny house in progress, too. After some exploring, he found a sweet sleeping nook. I think he’s accepted his (hopefully in the not tooooo distant future) new living space.
Finally, it was back to the ridge trim to install the final two pieces. We had to butt these pieces up against the trim around the ceiling fan electrical box nice and tight for a clean look. Like I said before, no installation pics, but here’s the finished product!: [...]
7 February 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsAs Eli was working on our homemade light fixtures, I was prepping (sanding, sealing, sanding, sealing, sanding, sealing) the remainder of the boards to finish up our ceiling. Once I had all the rest of the boards ready to go, and we’d gotten our bedroom log lights installed, it was back to finishing up the ceiling.
By this point, we were in a pretty good groove for the ceiling work. As I mentioned previously when describing the ceiling install, working in the bedroom loft was much easier than the “cathedral ceiling” portion of our living room. One thing I didn’t mention previously about installing the ceiling boards was where the board ends meet at the “seam”, we have to cut the ends of the boards at a 45 degree angle, which makes for a tighter seam. (As described in an earlier post, since none of the boards are the full 24-foot length of the house, we had to decide where to “break” the boards over that length. Instead of staggering the location of the break, we decided to make the break at the same length on all rows of boards, creating a single “seam” in the ceiling, which we’ll later cover up with trim.) But, just as before, to install the boards, we’d cut the board to length, do a dry fit to make sure all was good, then apply adhesive, put the board in place (with a little coaxing from the hammer and chisel if necessary), and nail it into place.
And, there it is, a completed ceiling!! [...]
31 January 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsWhile I continued sanding and sealing the final boards for the ceiling, Eli jumped on working on our homemade light fixtures (astute folks will have noted a sneak peak prototype in the final picture on my last blog post). After seeing some really cool custom light designs on the internet, Eli and I worked out how we might make similar ones ourselves (okay, I might have had to do a little convincing on this… Me: “Check out these awesome light designs!” Eli: “Um, we’re going to make our own light fixtures, too?”). 🙂
We decided wooden box style lights for the five that will be our main lighting in our living room would look striking, and log lights for our bedroom loft – rad!
As I mentioned, Eli had already been tinkering around with a couple iterations of a prototype for the box lights. But, after fortuitously spotting a discarded pine branch along the side of the road that Eli snatched up while I was changing shoes (I didn’t even see him grab it), he was pumped to get to work on the log lights.
Eli had thought the log lights would take more head-scratching and tinkering than the box lights, but they just came together really well, and he ended up being able to knock them out pretty quickly.
He cut the log up into a couple chunks, hollowed out each log chunk, trimmed the pieces to the size we wanted, then used a jig and our router to carve out a shallow rectangle in the back where we’d attach an electrical wall plate for mounting to the electrical box.
We had to do some searching around for light bulbs that would fit and not get too hot in the narrow hollow inside the log, but would still be bright enough to provide some light. Thank goodness for LED technology! Once Eli got the bulb socket, wiring, and wall plate in place, we were ready for install.
Holy crap, they look amazing!! Even better than I was imagining.
These log lights will be our reading lights at the head of our bedroom. Although the LED bulbs are surprisingly bright for their size, the log lights still won’t light the entire bedroom. We decided we’ll need to probably install a string of LED strip lights along the ceiling ridge for added light. Too bad we didn’t realize that earlier to be able to direct wire them, but so it goes. So much of this tiny house build is uncharted territory! [...]
16 January 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsNo longer having the help of my parents, progress on the rest of the ceiling boards went a bit slower. Luckily, though, my parents had helped us prep so many boards we had a good stock to keep us going. I really enjoyed watching the ceiling materialize as we put up more and more boards.
With a few boards up on one side of the ceiling, we had to start putting some boards up on the other side so we could make any needed adjustments along the way to assure both sides would align evenly as we made our way towards the peak of the ceiling. You want to make sure you end up with the final board on each side at the peak about the same width so the sides look symmetrical. This may require a bit of tweaking as you go as sides never really are fully symmetrical! At least our trim piece at the ridge would cover minor inconsistency. In the end, we were pretty even, though, as no real adjustments were needed to have the peak line pretty centered. Nice!
Putting up the ceiling boards was similar to installing the wall boards, except in this case we were working overhead – an added challenge! We’d do a dry fit of each board, making sure it would install correctly, if necessary trim it to the correct length, apply adhesive to each rafter where the board would fall, then nail the boards through the tongue at each rafter. Sometimes, if the board was wonky and had some warpage, we’d have to use a buffer board to hammer it in place or use the buffer board and chisel to pry it in place for a tight fit. As with the walls where we had to cut boards to fit around outlets, light fixture boxes, etc., we similarly had to cut a few boards to fit around our smoke alarms and ceiling fan fixture box. More fun times with the jigsaw!
Now, on to the loft side. These boards were only, at most, 10 feet long, and we had the loft platform to work on, so much easier to install this portion of the ceiling. It’s definitely exciting to be covering up the wool insulation, as our tiny house was smelling just a bit like a tiny barn. 🙂 You’d climb into either loft and think, “Why do I smell animal?… oh, right!” Cracked me up every time. I love the wool insulation!
Since we have a roof window over our bedroom loft, on the side of the ceiling where the roof window is, the boards were even shorter – six feet on the left side of the roof window, and less than two feet on the right side. These were waaaaayyy easier to install than those long 14 footers. I had a grand time picking out my favorite sections of boards for those short little two(ish)-footer boards since they’ll be right over my head when lying in bed. So many great grain swirls and little knots in those bits of boards. My bedtime view will be fabulous!
Unfortunately, we were a few prepped boards shy of finishing the ceiling, so it’s back to sanding and sealing more boards. But, so close… [...]
10 January 2021Posts / Tiny House PostsWhile Eli and my dad were manning the installation of our wool ceiling insulation, my mom and I were prepping the boards that would cover the insulation and finish our ceiling. We used the same boards for the ceiling that we used for the walls, but for the ceiling we went natural finish sans white wash. We did, of course, still have the layer of paint on the back of the boards, and the three layers of polycrylic on the board faces.
Since none of the boards were the full 24-foot length of the house, we had to decide where to “break” the boards over that length. Instead of staggering the location of the break, we decided to make the break at the same length on all rows of boards. This way we could cover the seam with trim. A big part of this decision was that the seam, even when trimmed, will be under the area where we’ll have a shelving unit to “wall-in” the bedroom loft, so it will be even less noticeable. We thought this strategy would make working with the boards easier because we wouldn’t have super long boards to wrestle with. Our miter saw also seemed uninterested in making a straight and clean 45 degree angle cut (despite Eli’s multiple attempts at adjusting it and adjusting it and bouts of internet research on what the problem might be. It seems something is off with how it was manufactured – argh – and we’re not buying another miter saw). So, the trim would hide that.
Just like she did last year on the windows, my mom offered to do the “painting” of the layers of sealant on the boards. So, I would find nice boards and cut them to length, then pass them to my mom for sealing the back side. Then, they’d come back to me for the sanding, then back to my mom for the initial coats of the polycrylic on the fronts. Mom was such a trooper! I know from experience how tedious doing the polycrylic application can be – we are forever in her debt for all the coats she applied! As the final stage of the board prep, I had the honor of doing the final finish coat of polycyrlic on the boards.
We did get some assistance from my dad and Eli with the cutting and sanding of the boards after they finished up the insulation install.
We focused on the long 14-foot boards first that would span our living room area. Once we had a few of these finished and dried, Eli, my dad, and I jumped right into to get them installed (while my mom kept working away sealing more and more!). It was soooo great to have my dad’s help for the 14-foot boards. That’s a long span when working over your head with gravity working against you for only two people to try to hold up on each end. It was way easier to have my dad in the middle helping get the board aligned and holding it in place. Wish we could have had his help for installing all the boards!! But, we were happy for the time he was there to assist!! Unfortunately, as we were all working away, I didn’t get any photos of us in the midst of installing the boards. So, just some pics of the boards in place.
In the midst of ceiling installation, I decided to get some new PPE (personal protective equipment). I wanted a nicer pair of safety ear muffs and safety glasses, so went back to my internet searching! What I really wanted were safety glasses with arms that were thin enough to fit smoothly under my ear muffs. I was tired of the muffs uncomfortably pressing on my safety glasses and the glasses arms preventing my muffs from getting a good seal. I was ecstatic when I came across the Pro For Sho Safety Glasses. These bad boys are bomber! They’re amazingly comfortable, even under ear muffs. I just walk around with my glasses and muffs on all the time. As I mentioned in my last post, I liked wearing safety glasses when working overhead around the wool insulation just to keep any wool fibers out of my eyes. Since my new Pro For Sho glasses were so comfortable, I just left them on constantly.
The rest of the ceiling — to be continued! [...]
13 November 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsWell, as progression on the build has continued, so has progression of the seasons. Here’s the tiny house yard in the dry mid-late summer days:
But, progression and progress go hand-in-hand (hopefully!), and we continued on our build. Next up was insulating the ceiling.
I was really excited about insulating the ceiling as we decided that, despite some extra weight, we were going to go with more healthy and environmentally friendly wool insulation. This was soooo much better than the foam board insulation we placed in the walls. I had also found an awesome semi-local (130 miles away) company, Havelock Wool, that sold wool insulation. Not only was their business wool insulation, but they also shared many of my and Eli’s values: environmental consciousness, healthy living, even enthusiasm for alternative living spaces! Their accommodation of van retrofit projects meant they also weren’t fazed by our request for a small scale order (something we often run up against building a tiny house in a gargantuan house obsessed society – in general, the building industry has little time, patience, interest, and willingness to assist in small building). Havelock Wool also has a really informative website with a number of explanatory and how-to videos. When we discussed the shipping of our order and our inquiry about the cost-saving potential to pick up our wool at their location in Reno instead of shipping it, the Havelock rep even went a step further and proposed an option of picking up our wool in a town closer along our route! So, we didn’t even have to make the full two hour trip! Awesome! Havelock’s website lists a multitude of benefits to natural wool insulation, and we’re in complete agreement. I was elated my endless internet searching (about this and every element of this build) begot such a fruitful find. 🙂 Thanks, Havelock Wool!
We went with Havelock’s batt insulation (as opposed to loose-fill insulation), purchasing three bags, which would be more than enough to insulate our ceiling. Our rafters are 24-inch on center, and Havelock had an option for this width for their batts. So, all we would need to do would be to cut the batts to length. We were originally hoping we could have one full length batt in each rafter bay that would span the entire ceiling width, but alas, the batts weren’t quite long enough for that. So, we had to cut the batts so they’d run from the eaves to the ridge on each side.
We were lucky to have some assistance in the ceiling work as my parents were in town visiting! And, they were oh so gracious in their willingness to again help with the tiny house build! Eli and my dad got to work tackling the insulation batt prep. Apparently cutting the batts wasn’t quite as easy as we had hoped, but my dad and Eli rigged up a system. Unfortunately, I missed all the cutting and didn’t get any photos of the process. 🙁
One of the awesome things about wool insulation is that it’s non-toxic and non-harmful, so doesn’t require any special protective clothing or equipment to install. As you’ll see in the photos, Eli did wear his dust mask, mostly because he didn’t like getting little fibers of wool in his mouth. That didn’t bother me, but since we were working with the wool over our heads constantly looking up at it, I preferred to wear my safety glasses to keep those same fibers out of my eyes!
The first step in installing the insulation was putting up something to hold the batts in place. We’d purchased wire supports to hold the batts up, but weren’t happy with their performance. But… we’d also just bought some netting to put over our peach tree to protect it from fruit-piercing birds, and Eli unwittingly purchased 100 feet of it! (our peach tree is not large and only needed maybe 10 feet of netting to cover it!) It occurred to me the bird netting might work great for holding the insulation. It turned out to be perfect! It was even already the proper width to just run it along the length of each side of our ceiling.
Eli and my dad continued their work as “Team Insulation Installation”. They rocked the wool installation, making short work of getting the batts into place. It took a bit of finagling to work each batt into the bay over the netting. Our ceiling/roof is vented with vents along the eaves and ridgeline, so the wool doesn’t completely fill the bay, but needs an inch of airspace above the batts for proper air ventilation. So, while installing, they had to be sure the wool wasn’t bunching anywhere and filling that airspace. Particularly along the eaves where it got tucked in over the top plate of the walls. We did end up putting one wire support in each bay over top of each batt right by the eaves to provide further assurance that the insulation wouldn’t block the eave vent. We also stapled the wool to the rafter beams to keep the batts in place.
I found it quite fun to play with the wool. I was very enamored with this natural building material and just kept thinking about the sheep who shared their wool with us (even if unwittingly). Much nicer to think about sheep than plastic or petroleum when considering the origin of your insulation.
Because we had to trim the batts, there ended up being lots of little pieces piled around. I couldn’t resist taking them and stuffing them into cracks and crevices to insulate our house just a wee bit more. In a tiny house, even tiny contributions matter! 😉
I’m so stoked to have gotten to use this material, even if for only a portion of our insulation. I think it will help the house breathe nicely, and even do a bit of air filtering for us. Thanks to all the sheep of the world! [...]
1 November 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsEntropy. I guess you know it’s taking you some time to complete your build when in the middle of construction, you’re already having to start on the maintenance of your tiny house.
I noticed that the outside trim around our windows was already starting to look weathered and in need of a second staining. Well, it had been a year since we finished staining the exterior siding and trim. (While the trim is smooth, the siding is rough, so seemed to soak up more stain on the initial application, so the siding boards still look good. Hopefully another year before they need restaining.) Guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. But, it seemed so soon! So, let the tiny house maintenance begin… [...]
30 October 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsNow back to getting the rest of those wall boards installed! We just kept on trucking with dry fitting, trimming, gluing, and nailing. Our interior walls are getting higher and higher!
As we got to the last boards below the lofts, we realized we should have cut a bit more off the bottom of that first board right above the floor. We ended up with this tiny sliver of board that needed to go in right beneath the loft ledgers. D’oh! Should have been a bit more accurate with our calculations. Ah well. Those last boards for the “first story” walls could have been a bit easier to install if taller, but we made it work. Could be an interesting look once we install the trim… As with so many things with this build, we shall see!
We realized, before we could move on to installing the boards above the loft, we needed to finish putting in the last bits of insulation in the loft walls. We hadn’t put the final sheets of foam board insulation in the bays were the plumbing tubes ran yet, since we were testing the plumbing for leaks. We got right on that so we could keep making progress finishing the walls. We also decided to put foam board insulation in the ceiling bay where the plumbing tubes run, so had to put that in along with sealing up the insulation tube that covered up the actual plumbing tube.
With that finally finished up, we could get back to the wall board installation. We were getting so close!
Throughout all this, we were also back and forth to the barn sanding, painting, and sealing more boards as we made space and were ready for more to install. Our walls will have a lot more character than drywall, but holy crap, prepping the boards is A LOT of work!
As we continued installing boards, we had to work around the lofts, and then lots of windows! And, of course, more outlets and switches, too. The jigsaw was getting a lot of use! We set up a work bench and “shop” on the back of our truck so we could do any modifications right outside the tiny house instead of having to walk all the way back to our main shop in the barn (the tiny house is sitting in our front yard, and our barn is in our back yard).
The boards that went on the walls of the lofts were great, as we could just sit and work in the lofts, but the boards that spanned the two lofts required some ladder time. Not a big deal, but one more complication. The really long sixteen foot boards for the long walls were definitely more of a bear to install than the nice short boards on the small walls.
And, it continues… sand, paint, dry, sand, seal, dry, sand, seal, dry, sand, seal, dry, measure, cut, dry fit, maybe measure again, cut, dry fit, glue, carefully place board, hammer in place, nail, hammer in place, nail, nail, nail, nail, nail… one board installed! ……Repeat!
The angles around the octagon windows added some complexity, as did the roof angle at the ceiling – particularly the boards that had to be cut around an octagon window and had to get the angle for the ceiling. But, it went quite smoothly with no errors (and therefore no trashed boards, which would have required more sanding, painting, sealing (repeat) to prep a replacement board…WHEW!!! I’m glad we didn’t screw any of them up!)
And then, the final glue stripe was applied, and nail set, and – it was hard to believe – the final wall board was in place!!! (Okay, well, except for the bathroom walls… we’ll tackle those in the near future).
Well, it took about 3 months of weekend work, but those walls are up! And, oh man, are they lovely!! We’re super stoked about the look of the whitewash. It’s coming together! [...]
15 October 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsGotta make sure in the midst of this build we’re still eatin’ good! Along with working on the tiny house on the weekends, we also squeezed in some springtime grilling. Yum!
Umm, so a little embarrassing how this shows how far behind I am in getting our progress posted up here for y’all – here it is October, and I’m still posting what we were doing back in April! I gotta take a weekend off from the build to try to catch up on the blog! With a spot like the hygge yard space we created next to the Hygge Hale tiny house, I couldn’t complain about a weekend spent writing there. Since we put in the paving stone walkway to the tiny house from the driveway, we couldn’t resist sprucing things up outside the tiny house even more by moving our patio table and a couple chairs to a delightful nook under our mulberry shade tree beside the juniper and brick wall lined garden spot next to the tiny house. The leafy bear’s breeches plants make a nice backdrop to the table. Not bad for a blog-writing station, eh?! (though, definitely greener back then in April than now in October! 😂) [...]
12 October 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsOh the excitement! The walls begin to take shape! With the initial boards for paneling the walls prepped and ready, we could start nailing them in.
You work from the bottom up with tongue and groove boards. So, we ripped the groove off the first piece that would start the bottom of the wall, as it wasn’t necessary. We also had to make sure to leave a gap at the bottom above the subfloor to allow for wood expansion, so used a couple pieces of scrap OSB to hold the board off the subfloor as we installed it. A quick dry fit to make sure everything would align correctly, the length of the board was accurately cut, and all was well, then application of a good bead of construction adhesive (“cheap insurance”) along the bottom plate and each stud, and we were ready for permanent placement of the first board!
Tongue and groove boards are installed by shooting a nail down at an angle through the tongue of the board and into the stud behind aiming the nail for right above the edge where the tongue meets the face of the board. This means the nail will be covered by the groove of the next board installed on top hiding the nail attachment. (Theoretically, at least, but it requires quite accurate placement of the nail – too low and the nail or hole of entry is a bit visible on the face, too high and you can split the tongue. It’s an art for sure.) On the initial bottom board, you also nail into the face of the board at the bottom, but this will be covered by trim (i.e. the baseboard), so will also be invisible. I was stoked to be using the nail gun again – quite the fun tool (at least when it’s working correctly)!
We started on the wall that faces the tongue of the trailer where the bay window is. These shorter boards are easier to work with than the long boards that would be needed to panel the long walls of the house, so seemed a good place to start. We decided to go a couple boards up on this short wall to test out our process and see how it would look.
We didn’t want to get too high up that first wall, though, as we would need to make sure each “layer” of boards on each of the walls lined up at the corners to keep everything looking tight and level. So, we then moved to putting boards on the long wall across from the door. The second board on this wall required going around an outlet – our first brush with this complication. Cutting a piece of the board out to allow for the board to install around the outlets was no problem – a couple measurements and a few cuts with the jigsaw made for a quick cutout. But, we also had to contend with the plate that attached the outlet box to the stud. The plate itself was pretty thin, so didn’t really cause problems, but the screws to hold that plate to the stud stuck out quite far. We figured out using a large drill bit to cut a shallow hollow into the back of the board worked quite nicely and allowed the wall board to again lie flush to the stud.
So, with two of the walls started, we had a much better feel for what it would look like and had ironed out a few of the kinks in our installation process.
Then, keep on keeping on! Next was the first board that will be the wall of the closet, then the wall to the right of the door. We’d get a couple rows of boards up on each wall section, then move to another section, so we could make sure our elevations of each section were lining up. Then we’d move back to the sections we had initially started on to put a couple more rows on them, and start the course all over again.
The adhesive we started with was pretty frustrating because it never stopped oozing from the tube, so was really messy, dried quickly, so required us to move too fast to try to get these long wall boards installed, and smelled terrible. I forget what it was, but we eventually ended up switching to the Loctite PL 375 Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive that was so, so much better for our application.
We had to work around the wheel wells, outlets, and plumbing. Jigsaws are the best. Easy to work with and great for the small cuts into the boards to work around wall elements.
We used finish nails to nail the boards in place and the pin nailer nail gun was a blast! (Did i mention that already? 😉 ) Definitely one of my favorite tools!
The walls were taking shape! I couldn’t believe how amazing the walls looked with each higher row of boards installed. The more boards we put on, the more we were really thrilled with our decision to go with white-washing the boards. I love the look!
And, with that, we’ll take a little intermission. Because these are our walls, and we’ll be staring at them for years to come, we took pains to make sure they were aligned well, tightly abutted, and had patterns in the wood we really liked. All this attention to detail took some time, so the process wasn’t super quick (the name of the game in this build). I loved picking out the boards and deciding on the order we installed them for an aesthetic effect. Wood has such beautiful patterning and markings!
Soon, we’ll be into the “second story” of our house, installing the walls into the lofts. Halfway done! [...]
9 October 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsIn the midst of all the tiny house build tasks, our barn was also getting a revamp this spring/summer. Our landlord had been wanting to redo the decrepit walls of the barn on our rental property – with our wholehearted support – and with Eli between jobs, it seemed perfect timing. So, she hired Eli to master the tear down and re-framing of the barn walls with her assisting. Once they had everything re-framed and prepped, she would hire a professional crew to put on new stucco walls. We were super stoked about having this work done on the barn because we’d been using the barn as supplies storage and shop for the tiny house build. The barn would function much more effectively at both with walls that weren’t swiss cheese and didn’t flap in the breeze. Our landlord also decided to put some windows in the walls, which would be fantastic for more light and ventilation in the barn. She and Eli made short work of the demolition, wall rebuild, and window installation, but the stucco guys were busy (everyone doing home repairs doing the COVID-19 pandemic?), so that part stretched out for a few months until the barn was fully redone. (note the change from cloudy to sunny skies and the drying out of our grass as spring progresses into summer…) But, holy crap, once done, the before to after was stunning! It’s SUCH a better shop now! [...]
11 September 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsWhile I was the master painter on the wall paneling boards, Eli was in brainstorm mode. Since the tiny house, and therefore trailer, spends 99.9% of its time sitting in one place, we wanted to provide some protection from the elements to the trailer tires. We definitely have quite a bit of left over materials from past aspects of the build, so Eli was feeling we could go the homemade route for a solution.
Being lost in the land of paint and Polycrylic and sanders, I missed much of the creative process exuding from the mind and fingers of Eli, but with some OSB boards, a pattern jig or two, left over 2x4s, old climbing rope, and a coat of paint to match the house trim, Eli brought a pair of tire covers into existence! The rope that wraps around the tires to hold the board in place even doubles as a carrying strap. Our tiny house now has a pair of… hill silhouettes, of course! 😉 [...]
4 September 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsAnd now for a less stressful and more exciting part of this crazy project. I love doing the elements of the build that will be visible finished products. Where you can see the inklings of the final abode as it will be when we’ll be living it. More fodder for the dreams of day-to-day life soon to be (hopefully!). Much more motivating! The interior paneling for the walls is definitely that!
We searched long and hard for wall boards. We knew we wanted tongue and groove boards to cover the walls, but commonly used 3/4″ thick boards seemed much bulkier than necessary, adding unwanted weight (always watching our weight!). Various tiny house plans called for 1/4″ tongue and groove boards, which we found packs of at Home Depot, but they just seemed so flimsy. What we really wanted were 1/2″ thick boards… but, that didn’t seem to be a thing… however, we persevered! After lots of internet searching and calling around to local lumber suppliers and home improvement places, we found one that had a source for 5/8″ thick pine tongue and groove boards – we’ll take it! We put in our (tiny) order and shortly after, our boards were delivered.
Eli and I both love the beauty of wood, so didn’t want to paint the boards and hide that character, but we also wanted to have more contrast to the space than everything being normal wood tones. I also really like how light-colored walls create a more spacious feel in a room – especially important in a tiny house! So, to try to open the interior of Hygge Hale up a bit, we decided to white-wash the boards. A little color contrast and a lighter hue, but with the knots and swirls and grains of wood still shining through. Some internet research gave us the modern take on white-washing of using latex paint diluted with water. So, we bought some inexpensive white latex paint, and I played around with the ratio of paint to water to get the exact opacity we liked.
After some trial and error, we decided on a 1:1 ratio of paint and water. Seemed like good coverage, but also good transparency. With that settled, the first step was to give the back side of each board a quick coat to help keep them from warping when we painted the fronts. Then… yeah, you know what’s coming… sanding! Since these are finish boards, we had to get them all good and pretty. So, that meant four stages of sanding: 60 grit, then 80 grit, then 120 grit, then 220 grit. LOTS of quality time with the orbital sander. Until our hands were vibrating …and remembering that vibrating still half an hour after leaving the sander behind. But, man the boards looked so good, and the white-washing paint went on so smoothly.
After the white-wash, we again sealed the boards with a finish to protect the wood and paint. I don’t remember exactly why, but we moved to Polycrylic, instead of water-based Polyurethane like we’d used on the lofts, for the wall boards. Maybe the internet videos I was watching for white-wash training and tips used Polycrylic? As far as I can tell, they both have the same application. Anyway, for whatever reason, that’s what we did. So, the procedure for finishing the wall boards was a single coat of the diluted paint, and then three coats of Polycrylic over top (with light sanding between each coat) until the boards gleamed (and would be easy to clean).
We quickly learned that stacking the boards once fully finished was a very not-good idea. The polycrylic was only so protective, so could get scratched when stacked, or worse, the board faces could stick to each other and pull bits of the polycrylic off. After all that hard work of finishing the boards, we wanted them to look their best when on the walls. Careful with the placement!
Since the boards couldn’t be stacked once finished, that meant we could only do so many before we needed to start getting them installed as we had only so much space to store them. So, the process ended up being paint and seal maybe ten or so boards, then install them in the house, then back to sanding, painting, sealing, sanding, sealing, sanding… you get the drift. I’m not going to lie, just as before with the siding and other various components of the build that got really tedious, after prepping and finishing all those wall boards, I’m soooo glad this is a tiny house. By the time we got to the last few boards, when a miscalculation meant we came up a couple boards shy, I was not happy when I realized I had to paint/sand/seal even just a few more boards. I, of course, powered through without harm or affliction, but not without some grumbling. 😉
There are points you have to celebrate, in what can sometimes feel like a frustrating, befuddling, and occasionally demoralizing build. We had one such moment of triumph as we finished up the painting of the wall boards: That first gallon of white paint we purchased, it just happened to turn out to be almost the exact amount we needed to white-wash our boards! There was, maybe, an 1/8-inch of diluted paint in the bottom of the can as I brushed over the final feet of the final board. Those times when the quantities work out to be the Goldilocks amount – not to little, but not too much – feel like a stroke of amazing luck! [...]
29 August 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsSometimes, we like to just take a recess, sit outside the tiny house, and admire the completed exterior. (And, okay, yeah, maybe do a little fantasizing about the interior having just magically finished itself and it’s a fully completed house we’re admiring. 😉 ) [...]
21 August 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsFor those of you who are dedicated readers, you’ll remember way back when to when we put in the first layer of insulation in our walls. Much to our chagrin, we decided to use foam board insulation to insulate our walls. This was not an easy decision, nor one we were very happy about as we hate the environmental consequences of plastic and potential unhealthy off-gassing, even if claimed to be marginal, of the foam board. We are most definitively not excited to be living in a styrofoam take out container… BUT, this was the lightest weight option. And, since we’re filling every square inch of wall with it, it’s a good place to save on weight without compromising integrity (well, at least build integrity if not ethical integrity… argh). Perhaps if we get to the end of this build and have a much lighter house than we anticipated, we’ll regret this decision, but we’re doing the best we can with our estimates, and those estimates are telling us we need to watch our weight. Honestly, if we were starting all over again, I’d probably be sure to design the house so that we were comfortable using slightly heavier and more environmentally-friendly and health-friendly options like wool insulation. But alas, we are learning as we go.
Before we could start putting in the second layer of foam board insulation in the walls, we had to first finish sealing up all the nooks, crannies, and cracks around edges with Great Stuff Insulating Foam Sealant. Crazy stuff with its expansion as it dries. Seemed to fill and tighten everything up nicely. For whatever perverse reason, I actually kind of liked going around looking for every little void to fill with that stuff. So, Great Stuff application was largely left to me.
We also had to finish up any of the plumbing in the walls not yet completed and test all the plumbing by pressurizing the system with water to search for noticeable leaks and assure the pressure in the plumbing lines wasn’t dropping, which would indicate a leak. We wanted to be able to search for any leaks while all the plumbing lines and connections were still visible and easily accessible before being covered by the insulation.
Then, we were ready to actually install the second layer of the foam boards. We’d gotten quite a bit more effective at cutting the boards to size by this second layer, but it was still time-consuming cutting each piece and “snowed” tiny styrofoam balls all over the tiny house. Ugh. We tried to cut the boards to the exact bay size so that they’d be nice and snug and would seal against the studs well (meaning less Great Stuff to have to squirt in). Sometimes that meant having to punch and kick the boards (gently, of course – after the annoyance of cutting them neither of us wanted to break one and have to do it again) to get them to squeeze into the bays.
Since all the electrical wires would also be covered by the second layer of insulation, now was also the time to install protector plates everywhere wires or plumbing lines ran through wall or ceiling framing. Along with us having made sure all the wires and plumbing lines were at least 1.5 inches into the stud or rafter, these metal plates protect the wires and plumbing lines from accidental puncture by a nail in the future.
The hardest part of installing the insulation was having to cut holes in the boards for the electrical outlet and switch boxes and cutting out channels in the backs of the boards where plumbing tubes or electrical wires ran. Figuring where, exactly, the channels should be cut out of the back of the boards for the tubes and wires wasn’t simple, but we found putting a line of paint on the tube/wire, then pressing the board in place while the paint was still wet left a telltale line of paint on the board marking where to cut the channel. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of us doing this since we were quite focused during the process.
Once the final layer of insulation was installed, it was back, again, to squirting Great Stuff foam in all the cracks and such.
As with some of the other tasks of the build, the insulation install seemed a bit endless (especially since it was spread over two stages), but it, too, was finally completed, came out great, and gave us some temporarily “gilded” walls. Look at that silvery shine! [...]
12 July 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsYou know what’s a great addition to a house — a porch. Not only does it keep rain off of you when you dash up to your entryway in a downpour, but it also keeps all those drips off your door. And, we’ve found out from more experienced folks, and also now realized from personal experience, a door is a notoriously difficult place to prevent leaking… Even a small porch is helpful. We’re already excited for the day when our tiny house is in a more permanent locale and we can build a porch over the door.
Some of the more astute observers probably noticed in the photos from my last post on the electrical work that our door was again missing from the entryway. Yup, it was leaking… again. We’d already had to pull up the threshold once before because of some leaking, and made a few modifications (as I mentioned in the original post about the door), but those were apparently not enough. Sigh.
So, we had to un-mount the door, rip the threshold out, and pull the trim off. Eli basically had to rebuild the entire threshold using thicker wood to which he gave a deeper angle, so it would shed water more effectively out of the house, not allowing it to pool on the threshold and find its way into the house. Our recommendation is not to waste your money on a (poorly) pre-made threshold unless you have a solid porch that will be protecting that door. We also added more waterproofing membrane under the threshold and used the membrane to form a “tub” of sorts that wouldn’t allow entry of any water into the house, but would again, shed it back outside. And, of course, thick beads of silicone in connection cracks.
Our fingers are crossed that this will be the last time we redo our entryway. It only rained a few more times (before the summer dry season began) after the threshold revamp, but we didn’t see any evidence of leaking, so we’re hoping once the rains come again next fall, we’ll be watertight!
On a more pleasant note, notice in the first photo above, the stepping block pathway from our driveway to the house! It saves the grass from continual trampling and the tiny house floor from tracked mud. Gives it quite the homey look, too, eh? 🙂 [...]
20 June 2020Posts / Tiny House PostsAnd, we’re immediately on to the next challenging bit. Maybe after the relief of the tiny house coming in at a good mid-build weight, we were feeling up to the next big task: the electrical. Since day one, thinking about doing the electrical work has been daunting to me.
I’m a pretty safety conscious lass, so doing our own electrical made me pretty nervous. Hearing so many warnings about the possibility of electrocuting yourself had me spooked. But Eli, the less risk adverse half of our pair, felt we’d be fine to give it a go, so he lead the charge with me anxiously aiding.
Using my digital model of Hygge Hale, we had already determined where our lighting fixtures, switches, and outlets would go. Eli then drew up the circuit map, figuring out how many circuits we would need and which fixtures/outlets would go on which circuit. I assisted by testing all our appliances (like blenders, fans, laptops, computer monitors, hair straightener, electric toothbrushes, etc.) for their power draws using my trusty Kill A Watt Meter – a Christmas present I got some years ago. (Seriously, this meter is awesome; it’s super cool to see how much power anything that plugs in is drawing.) We needed to know how much power we might be using and where.
While Eli was developing the electrical plan, I finished up the final coats of polyurethane on the bedroom loft. We went with four coats for the floor since it will see some substantial wear and tear from us crawling around on it. The shine makes it look so good.
Back to the electrical, once the plan was laid out, we had to move from paper to real. We definitely did some homework throughout all of this. We watched the video series by Andrew Morrison, Building a Tiny House, that includes some tips for tiny house electrical work. (Andrew Morrison’s series is actually an excellent resource that’s done very well by an experienced builder that takes you through the entire process of building a tiny house – we’ve been reviewing this series for our entire build for great info.) I had also purchased a book, Tiny House Design & Construction Guide by Dan Louche, that had some helpful advice. Our local library provided a few more books on do-it-yourself home electrical work. One of the books we found exceptionally helpful was, Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell. That book was such a great resource, we decided to purchase it, and have since loaned it to a few folks.
And, there is always the internet, that bed of thoughts, advice, answers, and opinions. I’m becoming a master of the most effective search phrases in internet search engines – and, also in realizing you may find informative tidbits in the strangest chat forum posts (those Q and A’s can often diverge a bit – particularly the A’s). So, I did the online and book research for any questions we had (pretty common), while Eli did the electrifying work (come on, you knew there was going to be a pun in here somewhere – just too easy when talking about this topic) of figuring out how to attach all those wires – safely, of course – no lighting ourselves up!
Outlet/fixture box placement and wire running first:
Next, attaching the wires to the outlets, light switches, and smoke alarms. We had multiple three way switches, a ceiling fan, a double outlet box where one outlet was wired to two three-way light switches, dimmer switches, and one 20-amp outlet on it’s own circuit (for a window or portable air conditioning unit), so kept ourselves on our toes with more than just the basic electrical set-up (which kept me with my nose in the books or the internet).
I did try to help with the physical, instead of just the mental, work of wiring our house. But, it quickly ended in a meltdown… Don’t worry! Just an emotional meltdown, not a physical one! ( 😉 Hehe!) Trying to push all those thick stiff wires into that tiny little outlet box was maddening to me. I couldn’t figure out how to get those buggers in there! We were careful that we weren’t overfilling the boxes, but it still drove me crazy how hard it was to get the wires in. Particularly the 12 gauge wires for the 20 amp circuits — ARGH!! So, I quickly got relegated back to flipping pages – both real and virtual. Eli, really, was the DIY electrician, doing most of the wiring of the outlet and fixture boxes and all of the wiring in the breaker box. Apparently, he’s the one with electrician genes.
We decided to wire the power input for 50-amps in case we could get that, but most likely we won’t need that much power at once. So, the main power input is a 50-amp outlet. In the photo above, you can see the adapter to attach to an extension cord. This limits us to the amperage of the extension cord and the hook-up from which we’re drawing power.
And then we there we were. All the wiring and connections were completed. This may all be condensed into one blog post, but I assure you it was no quick endeavor. It took quite a bit of time to figure everything out and get it all in place. After all that work, the moment of truth… will it work??? Will something crazy happen??? …… We plugged her in (using an extension cord running from our rental house out to the tiny house), flipped the breakers, and flipped a light switch….
YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had to make sure all the outlets worked, too, and were wired correctly. Eli had a little device for testing this that you plugged into the outlet. We wired our outlets with the ground slot up, which we learned is much safer than the other way around should something metal happen to fall on a plug inserted into the outlet – the falling object would hit the ground pin first without incident. So, on the testing device, this meant we were looking for the two lights on the left side to light up…
Success on all the outlets, too!!!! Double YES!!!
With all our electrical work finished and in place, we had a professional electrician come out and give everything the once over. He had a few suggestions for improvement and to bring a couple things up to code, but overall he said we did a really thorough and well-done job. He even said Eli should consider doing electrical work professionally – literally, he offered Eli a job! He was also excited to get to look over a tiny house!
Whew! I am super excited to have surmounted this challenge! Hygge Hale is looking even better with its brightening lights!! [...]