Back in the Siding Again

Island house living room, nearly complete!

To say that we got a lot done this week feels like an understatement. The weather is warm and we are busy as bees!  Here’s what we did this week…

Odds & ends

We started out by putting up all the face frames around the built in bookcases and got them trimmed and painted. What an improvement!  We also did a lot of odds and ends jobs (they are never big things, but getting them off the list feels huge!) including spackling some areas where the drywall was cut a little large around outlets and the recessed lighting, installing base trim moulding around the french doors and fireplace, and installing door handles. The rest of the siding was delivered early on Friday morning and the weather was cloudy but dry - allowing me to start in on priming right away. I broke out the paint sprayer again and remembered as soon as I started using it why it’s such a joy to use - what speed it provides!  We also installed the louvered vents in the garage attic and hung our medicine cabinet in the master bathroom.

More Painting

Me and my old friend, Mr. Paint Sprayer! 

I spent Friday and Saturday priming and got the painting done Sunday - we have a small amount of siding with its first coat of paint on but I’ll have to pick up another gallon of paint to finish the job. Still and all, we now have a huge pile of ready to go siding and quite a lot of good weather in the forecast. We also installed the handrails along the stair sand got them varnished and sparkling.

Kitchen Cabinet Face Frames

Shawn got started on all the face frames in the kitchen, installing the last of them before dinner this evening. Even seeing the cabinets with minimal framing on them makes such a difference!  All of a sudden, things are moving right along. We’ll hold off on providing any kitchen photos till next week, but we are well underway with the kitchen work now.

While there’s still a lot to do on our list - these moves forward really propel us in the right direction. 

Preparing for the final inspection

Blower door test results: ACH50 1.13

Last but not least, we accomplished a few of the requirements for our final occupancy permit - the inspection for which we’ll be calling for very shortly. We had the fire marshal out to examine the driveway and he okay’ed us on that. We also had our blower door test done - scored very high points on that one thanks to painstaking caulking and foam air sealing of joints and seams all along the construction path and our use of spray foam insulation. Average scores are 4 in our area and we scored a 1.13. To give you an idea of what that means, if you’re an energy geek (like us), Passivhaus standards are at .6 typically. We might have scored even higher - two of our outgoing vents (kitchen and HRV outtake) weren’t even sealed off. We were quite pleased. Lastly, we corrected a mix up with our septic inspection - we had it inspected and the report sent in back in November, but lines got crossed and the ok was never actually filed, unbeknownst to us. After a couple of phone calls, we got that straightened out as well. 

(A little) rest & relaxation

More exciting photos to come next week as we look forward to siding, kitchen work, and a weekend visit from friends coming all the way from Vermont!

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No. 30 - The Bohemian (Tiny House on Wheels)

Designer: Rebecca Jones

Drafted by S. Dehner for THE small HOUSE CATALOG

The Bohemian plan was completed in 2014 for a client in Canada. The design is both cozy and spacious for a tiny house on wheels and maintains an organic flair with cedar shingle siding and curved roof. It calls out for a set of retractable steps, a specific request made by my client for the dog who would be living with her! 

The designer also had a collection of salvaged windows and doors she wanted to incorporate into the house although the plan could be easily modified to utilize other windows and doors, new or used.

Details of this house include a bathtub, composting toilet & waste hatch, sleeping loft, separate storage loft, kitchenette, laundry closet, fireplace, and more. Plan includes trailer specifications, dimensioned framing plans, three-dimensional cross sections, and other helpful sheets, including DIY electrical and plumbing sheets for customizing systems to suit.

The tiny house plan is available as a free download. 

 

Download Get the SKetchup Model

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Siding in the sun!

3/4" x 8" cedar bevel siding, an easy & rewarding two person task.

Surprise - we had another week of warm weather and many sunny days! Trees are in bloom everywhere, a real brightener to the mental and the physical landscape. We’ve been working like the dickens to meet our self imposed goal of finishing the house by the end of May and we had good progress this week. Here's what we did:

Painting & siding, cont.

Siding goes up fast!

We started hanging our remaining primed and painted siding on Sunday and I finished painting up our last six 20 foot lengths of cedar siding the other day. We've now installed all that we had on the ground. The rest is on order, some of which will arrive on Monday. It’s time to get out the paint sprayer! Wow, suddenly we've got garage space and can now think about hanging the garage doors at last. 

Crowning achievements

Crown moulding on the first floor is installed in all rooms but the kitchen and the dining room lights are finally hanging! We also installed all of the upstairs bedroom and bathroom doors and have given them their painting. Today Shawn installed the moulding around the doors and I’ll be priming and painting them this week.

It’s a treat to see the siding going up and something to look forward to seeing when we come home from town!  The sunny yellow of the siding is especially cheerful when complemented by clear blue skies. Ahhh…perhaps there will be more in the week to come. More news next week!

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Preparing for Siding

This week the state of Washington rejoiced as sunny skies and temperatures in the 60’s made a long awaited appearance.

We took the week of sun and got outside…not only did we get to bask in the rays and savor several days in a row of perfect blue skies and afternoons warm enough for tank tops, but we made some wonderful progress preparing the house for the siding job…we may even start it next week.

For some reason I had it in my mind that we would just go out on the first sunny day and begin nailing up the primed and painted siding I have had waiting in the garage since my painting bonanza last fall. I had forgotten how much prep work is required before that can begin. So this week we got all of our prep work done.

Window & door casings

We started out by measuring all the doors and windows for trim/casing material and then beginning to prep the cedar and fir for the job. We ripped down rough cut island grown cedar to length and then pieced together all of the window frames. These we used pocket hole joinery to build the frames, tested for fit, and primed and painted. Friday we nailed the assembled window frames into place and today we worked on casing all the french doors. We finished the day up with installing the cor-a-vent bug screening at the base of the house and installing all the flashing over windows, doors and the pergola. 

The season of painting has begun!

While I was on painting duty this week, Shawn finished the outdoor wiring, including the flood lights, our entry lamps and the outdoor electrical boxes. We are now officially done with wiring, inside and out!

And we are ready to start siding! More photos soon...
 

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No. 29 - The Hazel Accessory Dwelling Unit

I drafted this client-based 576 square foot (24' x 24') one bedroom, single floor accessory dwelling unit plan in 2015 for a client in Portland, Oregon. My client eventually decided to go with a different plan that better suited the building site but decided to share the original plan.

The new plan, a creative client-modification of the No. 3 - The Ash plan, will be released as a *bonus* in the coming weeks - so stay tuned!

No. 29 - The Hazel is available now as a free download.

For accurate cost estimating try BUILDING-COST.NET, a *FREE* online tool. Quality building supply centers offer free "take off" estimates for building projects. 

Download

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Look, a miniature version of plan No. 6 - The Poplar!

J and Calvin are a father and son team who've decided to build a miniature model of free plan No. 6 - Poplar Bungalow!

You can visit their visual website, The Building Hands, to see a variety of progress photos.  Together they're doing a great job, the photos are really fun. 

By the way, Calvin wants to be an architect someday and is already learning to craft at a young age.

Please send him some encouragement! We can always use more people interested in small houses.

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Island House: Ceiling the Deal

It’s been too long between progress reports. We’ve made gratifying progress every day and have finally gotten our camera battery charger replaced so we have photos to share with you.

Here’s what we’ve worked on…

We finished all the casings around the windows and doors and got them primed, caulked and painted. Shawn also built up the pass through between the dining room and living room in a way that reflects the sturdy pergola 8 x 8’s outside. We like seeing the outdoor posts while looking at the indoor ones, a reflection where one is wearing fancy clothes and the other is au natural - our own take on town mouse and country mouse.

Front Entry
Upstairs Bathroom
Upstairs Guest Bedroom
Passthroughs
Ceiling Panels

We cased all the transitions between rooms (those without doors) and got those primed, caulked and painted. We received four of our seven doors on order (the others are dimensionally unusual and are still a couple of weeks from delivery) and got those doors hung, cased, primed, caulked and painted (are you seeing a pattern here?). Then doorknobs arrived via mail and now we have truly opening and closing doors.

The Pacific Pine tongue and groove that we are using for ceiling was delivered.

Yesterday we had our first sunny day in what seems a century but has really “only” been 5 or 6 weeks (a definite pattern there, more’s the pity) and took the opportunity to throw open the doors and let in the fresh air while we cut and fit the living room ceiling. We are insulating for sound, which turned out to be quite easy. We’ve also installed and finished the surfaces on the majority of the moulding throughout the house. We seem to be at the end of seeing raw drywall edges peeking out at us, a nice thing indeed!

And that’s about all for now.

Tonight we’re going to bring in the rest of the Pacific Pine to acclimate and getting ready for a weekend visit to friends on the mainland. Next week we’ll be back at work installing the rest of the ceilings and working toward finishing all the trim work. It’s nearly time for Shawn to transition into cabinetry work. With the warming weather it's also time to think about ordering the remaining cedar siding and getting ready for exterior finishing. Seems that we’re on track for a late May completion to the house, which is what we hoped to accomplish. Time will tell!

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