Refinishing My Arched Door

A few weeks ago my friend Matthew helped me begin the process of refinishing My Beautiful Arched Door. This weekend we finished it up. I’m so pleased with the results! It’s beautiful!

Since it’s an old door I found at the ReBuilding Center, I started out by testing the paint for lead, using a lead test kit. I discovered that the door itself didn’t have any lead paint. However, the doorjamb did test positive for lead paint. So last week I took the doorjamb to Timby’s to have it “dip stripped.”

Meanwhile, I decided to work on the door with Matthew. We started out by removing all the old hardware. Next we used paint stripper to remove several layers of old paint from the interior of the door. The paint stripper contains toxic and potent chemicals so we wore masks, gloves, and eye protection. We used scrapers to remove the paint and dispose of it. (Note Bene: we discovered that the spray paint stripper was much more effective than the paint-on version, so next time I have to use paint stripper I’ll plan to use the spray version.)

Once the paint was stripped off the interior we discovered that the door has lots of character in the form of nicks, holes, and scratches. I think these indicators of my door’s history make it even more beautiful, so I decided to finish the interior with a clear stain. We tackled it with 80-grit sandpaper and moved through 100 and then 150, finally finishing up with 220-grit. My ¼ sheet palm sander and Matthew’s mouse sander seemed to be the perfect duo of tools for the project. Then I applied 3 layers of clear stain to the inside of the door. It was so neat seeing it take on the richness of the stain!

Unfortunately, when we removed the veneer on the outside of the door (and all the teeny finish nails that held it in place), we found that the exterior of the door is really rough. I knew it wouldn’t be worth sanding down and staining the exterior, so I considered covering it with a veneer again. However, I’ve been on a copper kick and I’ve always loved copper doors. Besides, my house is the Lucky Penny so I like the idea of a copper door greeting me and my guests. Of course, I can’t afford to purchase sheet copper to cover it, so I ultimately decided to spray paint it with a hammered copper spray paint. I picked up a can of Rustoleum universal hammered copper spray paint. Today we sanded the door enough to remove the obvious textural issues and then applied a couple layers of spray paint. It took a little finesse to get the look right, so I’m glad I got some practice in spraypainting the frames of my skylights this morning.

I think the new look for my old arched door is lovely! I can’t wait to install my door in my SIPs walls in just a few weeks! Check out the photo gallery for more photos of each step.

Rafter Tales

Earlier this week I was Planing My Curved Rafters. Today I cut the rafter tales and sealed them.

I deliberated again this morning before I committed to my rafter width. My tiny house on wheels is only 8 feet wide (which works nicely for dimensional sheet goods!) So if I’d made the rafters overhang just 3” the house would have been within the road legal limit of 8’6” and I wouldn’t need any sort of permit to haul it. There is something alluring about being able to hitch up and go whenever I want.

However, I don’t figure I’ll move too often. Probably not more than a couple times each year. I don’t have any intention of hauling my house across the country. I’m impressed that Dee Williams will be road-tripping with her vardo in a couple weeks as part of her book tour for The Big Tiny, but I can’t see myself doing that. If I were going to hit the road and be really mobile I’d probably want to do it in an actual vehicle, like a Volkswagon or Sprinter van.

So I decided to give my vardo some decent eaves. Eaves will help protect my little house, they’ll provide some shade, and they’ll give it a more settled look. The maximum width a tiny house on wheels can be without a trip permit is 8’6.” If you get a trip permit (often about $30) you can go up to 10 feet wide. (If your house is bigger than 10 feet wide you need to go with a commercial hauler and have a lead car and a follow car and it gets a lot more complicated – not to say it can’t be done, but it’s more than I wanted to deal with!)

So I decided to make my rafters 9’10.” But it turns out, it’s tricky finding the 9’10” mark when your rafters are curved! So I made another little jig for myself with a board cut to 9’10,” which I could butt up against the bottom curve of my rafter so that I could mark the edges of the board.

I'd been scouting the neighborhood looking for rafter tails I liked and I ultimately decided I just wanted them to be curved (surprise, surprise, right?!) So I used the bottom of my food processor as a stencil and I picked a curve I like. I made yet another little jig so they'd all be the same and then set to work cutting my rafter tails. Jigsaws are my favorite power tool, but I hadn’t used one is so darn long I’d forgotten how helpful it is to have a little momentum going into a curve. Just don’t look too closely for the wonky rafter! I didn’t feel like building a new one!

Once I’d made my cuts I sealed the rafters up with an oil-based clear coat. (I haven’t cut the birdsmouths yet, by the way, because I want to see exactly where they’ll land when I have the walls up.) I picked a stain recommended by someone in the paint store as one of the greenest options. But I wish I’d done a little more research because it stinks like crazy! I may need to let my rafters sit out a while so that this smell doesn’t get captured inside my house. Fortunately I still have a little time before the rafters will go up so hopefully they'll air out completely!

Planing My Curved Rafters

Waaay back in March, I began Building My Arched Rafters for my gypsy wagon, The Lucky Penny. I was able to borrow a jig from the uber talented Katy Anderson. Katy is a woodcrafter extraordinaire (who is currently building a vardo for Dee Williams which she’ll be taking on her book tour for The Big Tiny!) Laminating the ¼” strips of mixed grain fir on the jig was a neat process. (If you’d like to learn how you can do it yourself, check out the Vardo Plan Set from Portland Alternative Dwellings!)

I’d never done any lamination before so I learned a lot through trial-and-error. I found there were two particularly important things to remember:

First, it’s important to prep your workspace because once you start gluing up the rafters you have to keep moving. Even the Titebond III glue has a fairly short open time. (That means it starts sticking quickly so you have to get things positioned just how you want them before it’s too late!)

Second, if you aren’t really good about pressing the fir strips down (in addition to clamping them against the jig), you end up with quite a bit of variation along the edges of the rafters. I didn't consider this at all on the first rafter I built and it was all kinds of cattywampus! On the second one I remembered to press down at the middle but didn't realize it was important to do this all the way to the edges. With two trial rafters under my belt I caught on and made the rest of them much better. However, even on the best ones, when my rafters were all glued up there was probably about a ¼” worth of variation from the low point to the high point on each side.

Fortunately, the Breathe Building, the Living Building Challenge project I'm working on, had just purchased a planer. We’ve salvaged the wood that was removed from the North Building and we’ll be milling it down to use as interior finishes throughout the new facility. When I told Mike about my project he suggested we use my rafters to test out the new planer.

So yesterday afternoon my coworkers Mike, Gabriel, and Evan spent a couple hours helping me plane my rafters down so that they’re smooth on both sides. We all oohed and ahhed when the first one came through the planer. They are bee-a-you-tee-full! It was fun getting into a rhythm with the team and making the magic happen thanks to a really great tool. Both the machine and its operators get two thumbs up from yours truly! I can’t wait to see what all the wood in the Breathe Building looks like when it’s done...

Painting My Skylight Frames

A couple weeks ago I purchased two Skylights for My Vardo from Mark at Natural Light Skylight Co. They are double-paned acrylic dome skylights with a plain black metal frame, which was all well and good except that my house is The Lucky Penny. It is not going to be plain. It is going to be a beautiful little house with copper accents.

So I decided to spray paint the frames with one of my new favorite art supplies: Rustoleum's hammered copper spray paint. I picked up a can at my local hardware store, Division's Do It Best Hardware (which, by the way, is the only place in town where I could find it!)

I started my skylight painting project by giving the windows a good cleaning and then covering the acrylic with newspaper, being careful to tape the edges thoroughly with masking tape. Then I set the skylight up on sawhorses, gave the can about 3,000 good shakes, and proceeded to spray the skylight frame down with a layer of spray paint. Once it was dry I re-taped the edges (because the tape pulls back from the edge when it dries after being painted) and then gave it another layer of paint. Voila! Drab skylight frames become beautiful!

Yes, I recognize that this spray paint is not the most eco-friendly product on the planet. I know, I know. But it is really beautiful. And I recognize that building a tiny house on wheels all about the trade-offs. There are a few places where I have to compromise one thing for another. I'm using styrofoam in the SIPS for my Tiny House - even though stryofoam is a material I detest in general - because I believe it's an appropriate application. It's lightweight, insulative, and doesn't break down. This is a problem for one-time food containers, but great for keeping my house warm! The spray paint uses aerosols and it's high in VOCs, but I'm not using much of it, and it's a quick and easy way to bring a little bling to The Lucky Penny.

Cooking Good Food in a Tiny Kitchen

These days when I arrive at People’s Food Co-op on Wednesday afternoons I make a beeline for the Gee Creek Farm stand where I announce my arrival with an enthusiastic squeal of “Food Box!” which makes the women who work there grin. They help me hunt for my box among the stack of boxes, hand-labeled with our names. Portland is a paradise for foodies, so I’m sure other people are excited about their Food Box, too, but I can almost guarantee they’re not as excited as I am!

I loooove my Food Box! For lots of good reasons:

• Like the fact that I get to visit with the farmers while I Tetris my cucumber into the nook left between my butternut squash and my bok choi.
• Or the fact that I then get to wander the rest of the market deciding what else to buy to turn my produce into a meal (often it’s Gee Creek’s beans, wild mushrooms from The Mushroomery, a slice of almond cake, and/or Pedro’s Three Sister’s Nixtamal tortillas – especially the Guajillo chile flavor!)
• Or the fact that I get grins from all the people who see me biking home with my bags bursting at the seams with carrot tops and kale, beets dangling from the pockets.
• Or the fact that I’m only paying $27 a week for this much good food!
• Or the fact that the food box contents rotate so I get something different each week of the month.
• Or the fact that I’ve resumed creative meal planning and begun to really enjoy cooking again. (Yes, sometimes I dirty nearly every dish in the house, but it makes the tiny kitchen feel like a mad science lab, which is rather thrilling, thank you! My crock pot and my pressure cooker are both working at full tilt again and my tiny house smells great.)
• Or the fact that everything I’m eating is delicious and intentional (rather than an afterthought – this is mindful eating, not maintenance eating).
• Or the fact that I’m eating sooo much healthier than those two years of wimpy nutrition during grad school.
• Or the fact that I’ve enjoyed challenging myself each week to eat everything up before the next Wednesday food box pick up.
• Or the fact that my grocery bill has been cut in half.
• Or the fact that since I never open the fridge and think “there’s nothing to eat” I don’t end up eating out nearly as much.
• Or the fact that I feel compelled to host dinner parties again because I have more food than I can possibly eat all by my lonesome.

Did I mention that I'm only paying $108 a month for more delicious, organic produce than I can eat by myself? I just think that's worth repeating... (If you'd like to sign up for a Buying Club Food Box of your own, you can register on the Our Farm Community registration page.)

I think my Food Box may be the single best health decision I've ever made (and that's coming from someone who is thoroughly enjoying Yoga Union's April Yoga Challenge!)

I first learned about Gee Creek’s organic winter buying club nearly two months ago, just before I left to teach Less Is More at Yestermorrow. I decided I’d better wait till I was home again to get started with food boxes. And it’s a good thing I did because eating this much good food is a commitment! (Fortunately, when I headed out of town recently for the Tiny House Conference, fellow tiny house builder Laura Klement helped me out by eating up a food box for me!)

When time is squishy I turn my produce into quick fixes (grab an apple or an orange, dip some broccoli into hummus, smear some peanut butter on celery, dump dressing on mixed greens). But when I make time for cooking, like I did this evening while my friend Ricardo kept me company on a rainy spring day, I turn my produce into tasty meals for the rest of the week.

I’ve already eaten some of the stuff from this week’s food box. Here’s the menu for the rest of this week:

• borscht with beets, cabbage, and apples (in the crockpot),
• butternut squash and sage soup with caramelized onions and garlic,
• salads with mixed greens, spinach, beets, pecans, and feta,
• bruised kale salad with dried cherries and sesame seeds,
• a broccoli and bok choi sauté with onions and garlic that will be turned into three meals (a curry, a stirfry, and a rice noodle dish with green onions)
• beet greens with sesame oil and soy sauce,
• celery with peanut butter or hummus,
• apples, oranges, grapefruit

As the farmers at Gee Creek Farm say, “Enjoy your food in health!”

Yes. Yes, I will, thanks to you, Gee Creek Farmers!

Breathe Building Groundbreaking Celebration

Since January I’ve been working half-time as the Living Building Challenge Assistant for the Breathe Building. My role is to ensure that the project complies with the Living Building Challenge, which is the world’s most rigorous green building standard. We are going for Petal Certification for Equity, Beauty, and Materials, so most of my time is dedicated to researching and tracking every product considered for inclusion in the project. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to apply everything I’ve learned through my Sustainable Design-Build Certification, my Sustainable Building Adviser Certification, my Masters of Urban and Regional Planning, my Urban Design Certificate, and the work I did in the Ford District last spring. Since most of my construction experience has been in the residential sector (including Habitat for Humanity, St. Bernard Project, and a collection of tiny houses on wheels) I’ve really enjoyed the chance to learn more about commercial building. I’ve especially enjoyed being part of this project because there’s a wonderful team of people working on it and the Breathe Building will have great impact in my very own neighborhood.

The Breathe Building, located on SE 50th Avenue just north of Division Street in Portland, OR, is Portland's first commercial Living Building Challenge project. The facility is the future home of Yoga Union Community Wellness Center and Fern Kitchen. It will be a center for mindful movement, wellness, sustainability education, social gathering, and community-wide conversation. The facility includes two yoga, movement, and event spaces, as well as a wellness center, café, kids gym, sauna, gathering space, courtyard, and rooftop garden. The Breathe Building is dedicated to creating a unique community center where the health of the building mirrors the health of its occupants.

Yesterday we celebrated Earth Day with a groundbreaking celebration for the Breathe Building, which drew a crowd of more than 100 people. Although the project officially began excavation in March, Earth Day was an auspicious day to recognize the start of construction on this exciting project because the Breathe Building is committed to environmental sustainability. We celebrated with lunch from Thrive, tasty cupcakes and cake, and lots of mixing, mingling, high-fives, and hugs. There were brief remarks from the Chris Calarco (the building owner), Todd Vogt (co-owner of Yoga Union),  Jay Kosa (the Communication and Community Coordinator for the Living Future Institute), and Alex Boetzel (the Breathe Building Project Manager from Green Hammer) before Annie Adamson (co-owner of Yoga Union) lead us in a dedication and intention-setting for the Breathe Building.

It was great to see so many different people here to root for this project. The Yoga Union community was present en masse because we are excited about our new facility. The Green Hammer team was there to celebrate the groundbreaking for one of their largest projects to date. Subcontractors, suppliers, and manufacturers also showed their support for this pioneering green building project. Follow along as we build the world’s healthiest wellness center!

Ordering My Tiny House SIPs

Today I placed the order for my SIPs (structural insulated panels) with Patrick Sughrue of Structures Northwest. This means it’s time to schedule the wall-raising for my gypsy wagon. At this point it looks like it will be about three weeks out. Eeep! My tiny house build just got real!

Ordering My Custom Vardo Trailer from Iron Eagle Trailers was a big step, but ordering my SIPs feels much more momentous to me. Patrick and I have been talking ever since we met at an open house at Caravan – The Tiny House Hotel last fall. At the time I was thinking about building my own SIPs, but Patrick convinced me it would be easier and more cost-effective to have them factory-built instead. So I spent the past few months noodling over them and it was pretty exciting to finally sign on the dotted line and write the check!

Patrick will be sending shop drawings for my review in the next couple days. Then my order will go to the factory where my panels will be manufactured to my exact specifications. When my wall panels arrive flat-packed they’ll already have the holes cut and the framing in place for my arched end walls, my wheelwells, My Arched Window, My Kitchen Windows, and My Beautiful Arched Door. In order to have them just right I double-checked all the measurements for my door and windows. I also had to have precise measurements from my trailer, so Laura and I paid an extra visit to Iron Eagle Trailers to take down measurements and check in with Rob. (By the way, if you let Rob know I sent you, he’ll give you $50 off your trailer order!)

Since it’s more difficult to modify SIPs in the field than it is to modify stick-built walls, I’ve made my final decisions about my window and door placement. It’s amazing to me how much I can dither over these choices, but I’m feeling pretty good about my decisions right now. My walls will be 8 feet tall instead of the 6 feet that is more common in vardos. I love the coziness of a short-walled vardo, but living in Sweet Pea, I’ve come to really appreciate the spaciousness of higher walls. Since the sheet goods come in 8-foot lengths it would create more waste if I chose shorter walls – and it wouldn’t cost any less. Going with 8-foot walls instead of 6-foot walls, I’m able to contain more space with less waste at the same cost. Seems like a good choice to me. I’ve centered the door and windows in their panels so my house will be symmetrical. I’ve enjoyed the process of designing my house both from the inside-out and the outside-in. I can’t wait to see how it feels to be inside the space!

SIPs are composed of two pieces of OSB (oriented strand board) glued to a piece of Styrofoam. Typically, I’m anti-Styrofoam. However, I believe that this is an appropriate use of the material. The very same things that make Styrofoam a lousy option for disposable packaging and single-use dishware make it great for a wall system – it takes approximately forever to biodegrade – which means it’s very durable. Additionally, it’s super lightweight (which is great for a mobile structure) and it has great insulation properties (which will reduce the long-term heating and cooling costs for my gypsy wagon). Yes, it has very high-embodied energy, and no, I probably wouldn’t use it for a ground-bound house (so many wonderful natural building options – like strawbale, which is like a natural version of a SIP!) However, I believe SIPs are an appropriate technology for tiny houses on wheels. The idea of using SIPs for a tiny house on wheels initially occurred to me four years ago, before I’d heard of anyone actually trying it. Now dozens of people have done it and I get to benefit from their pioneering efforts. (To read up on it, check out Jenna and Sean’s website Vagabode or their most recent post on TinyHomes.com To SIP or Not to SIP?)

I’m so excited about my tiny house I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight! But I better because tomorrow is Earth Day and it’s going to be a big day. Dee’s book The Big Tiny comes out tomorrow and she’s in Washington, D.C. for the book release. There’s also a groundbreaking for the Breathe Building, a Living Building Challenge project I’ve been working on. So many great things to celebrate!

Besides, I need to get my rest because I have a lot of prep work to do in the next few weeks! Here are a few things on that list: Planing My Arched Rafters, Refinishing My Arched Door, Cleaning Up My Kitchen Windows, and Prepping My Skylights. Ready and go!

P.S. The other quote I got for SIPs was from Allen at Pacific Builders and I'm sure he would have done a great job, too. If I were building closer to their manufacturing facility in Montana, I probably would have picked them.

Skylights for My Vardo

Many of my favorite spaces have skylights, so they’ve been an integral part of my tiny house designs from the beginning. Many people decide to forgo skylights in their wee homes because of the cost or the complexity of flashing them properly. So I’m thankful that Tandem and both of the tiny houses on wheels I’ve lived in have skylights over the loft. They open up the space exponentially!

I wasn’t quite sure how skylights would work in my vardo, but living with an oculous in My Home Sweet Yurt convinced me that there’s something magical about the quality of light from directly above. I have loved being able to fall asleep with the stars hanging overhead and to wake up with a view of a squirrel tiptoeing onto the end of a branch to nibble on a fig. Once I had my heart set on having skylights overhead, I decided it would be worth the effort of figuring out how to install them on a curved roof!

My friend John Labovitz, who built a tiny house truck called Polymecca, introduced me to the term mollycroft to describe the shape of a streetcar’s roof. A mollycroft roof is curved – both down to the sides and to the front and back – with a monitor that pops out of the center. Traditionally streetcars and showman’s wagons had little panes of glass in the clerestory, bringing light into the space. My roof design is a modified mollycroft; it won’t slope down to the front and back and the light will come from skylights at the top, rather than from the sides. However, I think (I hope!) it will look enough like a mollycroft roof to honor the gypsy wagons of yore.

Yesterday I purchased two skylights for my gypsy wagon from Mark at Natural Light Skylight Co who has been selling skylights for over 30 years. Mark primarily sells new Velux skylights because he believes they’re the best ones on the market. But, on the side, he also sells used skylights he’s removed from projects when he installs the latest and greatest. I’d love to have new Velux skylights, but it’s not in my budget, so I was pleased that Mark had these two 2x4 acrylic dome skylights.

When I first called Mark up to ask about the availability of his used skylights he helped me find the vocabulary to describe what I was looking for. And when he asked me what my project was and I told him I am building a gypsy wagon he said, “No kidding?! I made myself a gypsy wagon years ago and traveled the country in it.” When I met him to look at what he had in stock, he told me about his gypsy wagon adventures and asked about mine. He also helped me noodle through design questions to come up with a plan for installing shades. (Battening Down the Hatches in the yurt helped me figure out that shades make a big difference!)

Over the next couple weeks, before I begin construction of my roof system, I’ll be working on getting my skylights ready for installation. I anticipate this will involve finally using the can of hammered copper spray paint that I picked up at the hardware store a month ago...

Naming My Tiny House: The Lucky Penny

Check out Lina's Tiny House: The Lucky Penny for a profile of my completed gypsy wagon!

I believe there is great power in naming and it's recently occurred to me that I haven't introduced my tiny house to you yet by name. Now, I recognize that sometimes it's best to wait until after a baby is born, a house is built, etc. to determine whether the name fits before announcing it, but in this case, it seems so right I'll take the chance. After all, I was telling everyone at the Tiny House Conference this past weekend! So I won't keep you wondering any longer. My tiny house is The Lucky Penny!

Here's why: My Tiny House Started with a Window I found for free four years ago, which inspired me to make the house a gypsy wagon with a curved vardo roof. A couple years later I picked up My Beautiful Arched Door at the ReBuilding Center. Then, since I'm a little superstitious, I quickly acquired A Sink for Good Measure. From there on out, it's been a Tiny House Treasure Hunt.

My tiny house's name came to me, as so many of my good ideas do, at three in the morning. As I thought about the curvy shape of the roof and the delightful coppery goodness of the sink, I realized that these character pieces were giving me a theme. My house is all about round and copper, so it seemed fitting to name it The Lucky Penny. (Anita wrote about my tiny house's naming earlier this week on TinyHomes.com in her post What's in a Tiny House Name?)

I've found all sorts of confirmation that The Lucky Penny is the right name for my tiny house. Such as the fact that I've been the lucky recipient of several deals, donations, and discounts. And finding these charming copper canisters at an antique store after years of not finding any countertop containers that seemed just right. And a friend randomly sending me 25 DIY design ideas that use pennies. And then finding pennies all over the place since learning about penny tiling. (When I was a kid my little sister was forever finding pennies and I wasn't nearly as good at spotting them, so now every time I do I get a little thrill. And I stop to pick them up. I don't believe in unlucky pennies. I just believe the heads-up pennies are twice as lucky! Did I mention I'm strangely superstitious?!)

As I've been Budgeting for My Tiny House, I've realized that, like so many other wee abodes, my house will be quite expensive per square foot. I may well end up nicknaming my tiny house The Pretty Penny because chances are it will cost one! But for now I'll remain optimistic that my community will around my little house and the serendipity will continue so that The Lucky Penny continues to be the best name for my gypsy wagon.

Tiny House Conference 2014 Kick Off

Tiny house lovers from across the country have descended upon Charlotte, NC this weekend for the Tiny House Conference. I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity to geek out about one of my favorite things! We will spend the next two days watching presentations (I'll be speaking on Tiny House Building Basics later today), touring tiny houses, and mixing and mingling.

Speakers were invited to arrive yesterday evening so we could get acquainted with each other and the facility. It was great to finally meet some of the folks I've been following: Macy Miller of minimotives, Hari and Karl of Tiny House Family, Andrew Odom of Tiny (R)evolution, and, of course Ryan Mitchell of The Tiny Life. It was also great to meet some new-to-me-but-probably-not-you-if-you've-been-watching-the-tiny-house-scene tiny house builders: Kelly and Chris, Frank, and Teal and Gerry of Wishbone Tiny Homes. Their tiny homes are be-a-u-ti-ful and I'm eager for everyone to see them, especially if they've never been inside a tiny home before!

The conference is sold out and I'm guessing many of you didn't manage to get tickets and make the trek to North Carolina, so if you'd like to live vicariously, follow along this weekend. Internet access and cell service are limited on the site, but we'll do our best to facebook and tweet the event with the hashtag #thc14.