Thursday, September 29, 2011

Day 27 9/29/2011

Today was a big crawl on the ground day.  I spent a lot of time cutting and measuring and putting together the drains under the trailer.  I did a dry run with everything to make sure that it all fit and took it apart and put it all back together with glue of course. 


Once I finished the drains under the cabin, I went topside to make sure the drain vents were all going to tie in together and vent out the side and under the eve.  I tied them all together over the wall that divides the bathroom from the rest of the cabin.


The drains and vent pipe under the counter did not go inside the wall until it tied into the vent going up the wall.  The reasoning for this is that I was running out of room in the wall and it will be hidden under the counter top.  The hot water tank is going to go in the corner. The hot water tank dimensions are 26 inches tall (including the 2 inch Styrofoam base) with a 22 inch diameter.  The kitchen sink vent will clear the top of the hot water tank by 4 inches.
The kitchen sink and shower vent go up through the wall and tie into the the toilet vent that comes up the other side of the door in the same wall.  All three vent exit out the same port on the side under the eve as said before.  At 9 pm tonight I realized that I am short one 1 1/2 inch coupling from being completely finished and I just don't have it in me to go to Lowes and get one until tomorrow!

I put in 9 hours today  (190 total hours to date.)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Video tour including the electrical panel and loft

Ok, so this video should have been posted a few posts ago, but now that I know how to do it.  I will do them more.    I do hope all the viewers enjoy!!!

Day 26 9/17/2011

Today was a great day for plumbing.  The rain decided to show itself and so it was good to be inside.  I admit that I spent a lot of the time standing and thinking versus actually installing the plumbing today.  Just like my electrical work, I am not a plumber either.  I used pex plumbing with gator grip fittings on this project for several reasons and cost was not one of them.  It is very easy to use and required the purchase of very few tools.  The pex is suppose to perform very well in sub freezing conditions even though I plan to winterize most of the system during the winter.  The gator grip fittings are nice and easy to use and require no copper or soldering.  The are made of a lot of brass and I am sure that is why they are so expensive.

I am trying to make this system easy to winterize so I made the point of enter (outside spicket with a shut off valve) the lowest point of the system.  The cold water coming in slopes up toward the kitchen  where the water heater will also sit and the upward to the shower and toilet as well.
I went ahead and installed the under-the-counter valves for the sink and toilet so that I could seal the system and check for leaks.  There were no leaks on any of the gator grip fittings, but I did have to tight one of the under-the-counter valves for the sink.


Because the shower is not perfectly square, I was able to bend the pex around the back corner.  I am sure that is normal.



The toilet valve will pop out from the side of the toilet and underneath the tank. 



Before I actually put the shower into place, I did have to wrap up a few loose ends.  The Bathroom fan needed to be finished and the vent had to exit out the side wall and then the insulation needed to be installed.  Once the shower is in place, you won't be able to get back behind it.  Also wanted to make sure the pipes were well covered. 



And the last thing to do before putting the shower in place is drill for the shower valve and handle assembly.  I think I measured atleast 3 times as I didn't want to mess it up.



I still need to fishing the plumbing drain system, but the shower is installed in place and I did drill a large hole underneath for working on the drain.  Now that the shower is installed, I can built the pocket door and finish the remainder of the wall.  The only two remaining electrical switched (bathroom light and ceiling exhaust fan) are on the wall.   Unfortunately it will have to wait as I have a really busy work schedule this next week.

On my next post, I will try to get some better interior pics as the layout will start to show itself.  I worked a solid 8 today.  Of course the two trips to lowes didn't help with that.  (181 total hours worked to date.)

Day 24 and 25 9/14/2011-9/15/2011

Now that we are all dried in on the outside, it is time to re-focus on the electrical.  I should start with the fact that I am not and have never been a licensed electrician and do not claim to be.  I do have a licenced electrical contractor that will oversee and assist where needed on the entire electrical portion of the cabin. 

After a spending a lot of time on paper trying to organize the what goes where and how am I going to get there, it was time to start on the power.  My electician took care getting electical to the outside of the building with a 50 amp box to receive power from the 50 amp RV cord that I purchased via Poulsbo RV. The RV cord came with a male end on one end and open wires on the other so that a male end could go on that end as well.  I wanted a cord that plugs in on both ends so that it could be remove and stored as necessary.

I should have installed this box before the siding went on, but it will be on the back side of the building and out of sight.  I did use a polyurathane sealer to seal the unit from moisture and then bolted it through the siding and plywood with carriage bolts.  The box, when closed, has a place for a lock to secure the cord while it is plugged in.

On the inside, the electrian ran the wire to the panel so that I could tap into it with the four circuits that I planned on using.



From there, I was able to tap into the four cuircits that are all protected with 20 amp breakers.  I plugged into the house with an addapter so that the entire system can be tested and I could turn on some lights and work a little later on the inside.

and with the cover on...

I will build a cover for this out of pine after the walls get covered.

I did try several times to upload a video tour and I not sure why it is not working.  I will keep trying.
I put in 15 hours in the last two days.  (173 total man hours to date.)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Day 23 9/11/2011

It is official.  The siding is all on, though I have found that I still have a ways to go before the siding is done.

My Dad came over today and we finished getting up all the siding, but we found that a lot of the cedar is wanting to curl up.  I decided to remedy this by pre-drilling for a galvanized size 6 siding nail through the cedar only and about a half inch from the bottom and over 1.2 inches.  The pre-drilling is to keep the cedar from splitting.  I did a few and it seems to be sucking them down quite nicely.

This all has to be done before I caulk the corners and windows.  We also found today that a permanent brown marker colors the galvanized nail heads and blends very well with the brick red semi-gloss stain.



So I officially plan on being done with the extra nails and caulking tomorrow.  Then I will push hard to finish the plumbing this weekend and most of the electical this weekend.  I will try to load some interior pics and maybe try to load a video as well.  Between my Dad and I, we put in 10 hours today.

(Total man hours to date 158 hours.)

Day 22 9/10/2011

I knew today was going to be a good day.  I got an Early start and did some prep work before my Dad showed up to give me a hand.  It only took a few boards before I could see how much I was going to like it.  Putting up the siding was straight forward and the only minor challenges were doing the angles on the gable ends and the dormers where the windows were involved.


The Cedar was OK to work with.  We decided to go with Cedar because it gave us the cabin look that we wanted as well as it was much light than Hardy Board.  I did find that I will have to go back and put in some smaller siding nails (size 6 galvanized) near the bottom corners.  There were a few reasons for this.  First, the cedar tends to curve up after I installed it.  I am not sure if it was caused by the combination of the sun while we stained it or because once it was nailed in place, the is a natural tendency to curve.  The other reason is that this unit is made to have travel potential.  I will have to drive it 90 mile to put in its place and I don't want to take a chance on anything working itself loose or worse, ripping off while driving.


I do know that without the extra help from my Dad that I would not have made nearly as much progress.


He is coming back tomorrow to help finish the other two sides.  We did the two side we considered to be more work first, so day two on the siding should go much better.  Once again, I am so pleased with the fact that we stained the cedar before we installed it.  There will be some touch up of course, especially where the siding meets the corner trim.  I will do that after I nail up all four corners with the extra nails that I already mentioned.


It is looking like a cabin now, even though the other two sides are not yet done.  I will be building a 5' wide porch roof to go over the door that I will install once the cabin is in place.  I will be made so that it can be removed easily if necessary to travel.  I will add just a little more dimension to the side.

With my Dads help, we worked a total of 11 hours.  I had a family obligation or we would have worked more.  I am sure that is exactly how my Dad wanted to spend his 63rd birthday.  Thanks again Dad!!!
(148 man hours worked to date)

Friday, September 9, 2011

Day 21 9-9-2011

Well, I finally found more time including the up and coming weekend to work on the tiny house.  Expect an huge face lift after the weekend as I plan on completing the siding.  I picked up the last major load of lumber material today and then jumped right on the project.  Thanks to Tyee lumber and the great prices on on Cedar (over 40 cents per foot less than lowes).

We decided to stain  all the trim and siding before we installed today which definetly change my schedule today.  I think when it is said and done, it will have taken less time to stain the siding and trim on the ground.
The real challenge to staining all the siding is finding a place to stain all the material. 
There was so much to do today with the staining that I decided to enlist some extra help.  They might look small and you might think they just make a mess and get in the way and It is all correct.  I guess they just like to play with paint brushes!
I did manage to hang the trim on all four corners and stick up a few pieces of siding. 



My Dad is coming over tomorrow to lend a hand so I needed to get set up.  I cut two jigs to set the 8" bevelled cedar to have a 6 " reveal.  I am looking forward to a great day tomorrow.  I worked a solid 9 hours today and feel like I could have used about 5 more.  ( 137 total hours worked  to date.)