If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*
Yesterday was Day 2 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. We started the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep on Friday and Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 1 included more prep for our wall raising, which we began yesterday. We had two more people come to join us for the work party: Kurt’s brother Chris and a friend of mine from college, Katie, who both came down from Phoenix.
After check ins and a review of Courtney and Kurt’s goals for the day, we split into work crews got started on the day’s project list which included the following:
- Installing corner framing
- Removing trailer light temporarily to provide access for bolts on tail end of trailer
- Drilling 5/8” holes through the trailer flange
- Bolting the sill plates to the trailer with ½” bolts, nuts, and a bevy of washers
- Erecting scaffolding
- Prepping and positioning the first wall
- Spray foaming and masticing the first wall
- Tipping up the first wall, plumbing it, bracing it, and tacking it to the bottom plate
By then it was lunch time. It was awesome to have that first wall up by lunch and so fun to see everyone working together at a team. In the afternoon we started in on our next list of tasks:
- Tipping up the second and third wall sections and attaching the first two corner sections in place with SIP screws
- Installing SIP splines
- Installing the fourth panel
- For panels with wheelwells: tracing the wheelwell pattern on the SIP (making sure it’s the right direction and measured properly from the end!), cutting the bottom of SIP, scooping out foam with the foam cutter, and installing blocking in the bottom of the SIP.
We found that when the back wall was completely plumb there was a gap at the top of both corners where the SIPs came together, but the SIP screws managed to cinch everything together nicely.
We ended up working an extra hour to take advantage of all the help we had and it was great getting the trickiest panels up. We have five of the nine wall panels up and all the ones with wheel wells are done now. Tomorrow should be smooth sailing as we get the last four panels up and then we’ll be able to start prepping for the roof!
*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!