Despite my three month hiatus on posting (I’m looking into starting a breeding program to see about getting days to produce more hours 😉 ), work on the tiny house has continued in force, so I must catch this blog up to the current state of the house!

Now that we completed the exterior of the house, we move to the inside to tackle the interior.  On to the next half. (Half?? Are we really halfway there??)

Our wooden windows needed to have all their three coats of polyurethane applied.  Late spring, my mom had been a superhero and applied the first two coats to all the lower windows, but I had to suck it up and finish applying all the coats to the upper windows and the final coat to the lower windows.  By the end, I was done with the tedium of sealing all those little pieces of wood around windows.

Tracy finishing applying polyurethane to windows

Window wood soon to be sealed

Installing the lofts was the next major task on the house interior docket.  The lofts will provide additional support to the structure of the house, tying the walls more tightly together.  But, of course, they also provide additional space!  The main loft will be our bedroom “nest”, and the smaller loft over the bay window will add lots of storage.

The first step was to install the ledgers that will support the 4×4 beams, which in turn will support the weight on the loft.  The ledgers are tied directly to the wall studs, connected with structural screws.  Although we decided to recess the screws and cover them with wooden plugs, keeping the plugs consistently placed would make them look better, so jig-loving Eli whipped up yet another one.

Jig for drilling holes for ledger screws

Installing loft ledgers

Screwing on loft ledgers

On the “front” of the house, we wanted to tie the bay window framing, wall framing, and ledger all together to really secure those elements, so we used some extra long 8-inch structural screws for installing the ledger along this wall.  Those crazy long screws required an insane drill bit.

It’s all in the size of your drill bit

Serious drilling for 8-inch screws

Screwing together the ledger, wall framing, and bay window framing

Once the ledgers were up, we attached the hangers that would hold the 4×4 beams to the ledgers.  We couldn’t find any simple, inexpensive beam hangers that were black, which we wanted because they would be exposed as part of the “ceiling” under the loft once the loft was completed, so we just bought the standard silver metal hangers you can get at home improvement stores and spray painted them black.  That spray painting was actually done by Eli’s mom a year ago!  For installing the hangers, Eli got to make another jig!  Keeping it clean.

Installing 4×4 hanger with jig

Hanger and pretty detail on wood

Hanger installation

Hangers installed for bedroom loft

While Eli was leading the charge on the ledgers and hangers, I kept on with the window work.  The gap between the windows and the rough opening for the windows in the wall framing needed to be filled in with insulation.  So, the “Great Stuff” spray foam insulation and I got friendly.  Okay, that stuff really might be great.  Expanding foam is pretty much a miracle for easy application and great gap filling.  I was pretty impressed.

Spray foam insulation around windows

Great Stuff living up to its name

Great Stuff expanded

Keeping it well insulated

Alright, I’ll leave it there – that’s enough for one post.  Next up, loft beams…