Ceiling Up My Vardo

The past two weeks I was only able to work on The Lucky Penny one day, so I was excited to have three whole days of building this weekend. I've had some help Making Ends Meet, so I was eager to jump into roofing yesterday and get my house buttoned up. Unfortunately, yesterday was so rainy I spent the day doing other errands. Rain is predicted again for tomorrow. This is, after all, spring in Portland! Nevertheless, today was sunny and we made some good progress. This morning Matthew continued working on the door. He installed the new hinges and the new lockset, which look great! He also helped me pick out a beautiful cranberry color for the my trim that contrasts nicely with the copper. I keep finding myself wandering over to admire it again. While Matthew put the first layer of paint on the door jamb, Love and Kellyn prepped the arched window for its first coat of paint.

Meanwhile, Kenny, Natalie, Alex, and I installed the bead board ceiling over the rafters. (BTW, Kenny has done roofing professionally so I should probably add a "don't try this at home" to the photos below!) We finally had a decent stapler this time, thanks to Eric for letting me borrow his pneumatic. Having the right tool for the job makes all the difference in the world! On each side of the skylight box we stapled two full sheets of pre-finished birch paneling detailed to look like bead board. Then we cut a fifth sheet of bead board panel into two smaller pieces to fill in the gap on either end of the skylight box. Kenny and Alex notched away the bottom corners so that it could rest on the rafter along with the skylight box. Along the way we employed most of my clamps. You really never can have too many clamps!

You might wonder why my roof is taking so long when my build buddy Laura Klement had her roof done weeks ago. Basically, because of my exposed rafters I wasn't able to sheathe the vardo to get it dried in and then insulate and install the ceiling from the inside. So it's taking longer to get the roof up than it would on a standard roof. I'm so sick of tarpping, I wish I were actually sealing up my vardo, but at least now the ceiling's up on my vardo! It took most of the day, because of the curves and the little variations here and there. But it sure looks beautiful! It's starting to come together like I envisioned, thanks to my Tiny House Helpers!

We also picked up EPS foam board for the roof insulation (it seems the 1" is bendable enough to really make that curve well so we'll stack it up). I have 5 1/2 inches of insulation in my floors and 3 1/2" in my walls, so I'm hoping to have 3" in my roof. That's all sort of backwards as really it would be best to have the most in the roof, but my roof is mostly skylights, so I'm not sure it will make an enormous difference putting more insulation in there. Instead I'm focusing on air sealing and making plans for shading as well as I can.

As the ceiling went up I noodled over a new plan for the edge of the roof since my initial plan of putting up 2x4s on end was clearly not going to work once I looked at it in the field. When I'd done my sketches I hadn't accounted for the curve of the rafter tails which reduces the amount of rafter we had to bite into with the Timber Tite screws. I'll need to keep working on a plan for that. So we decided to tarp it up and pack it in around 5pm. We headed to Occidental Brewing Co to talk tiny. Cheers to a good day's work! Hopefully we'll have a productive day again tomorrow...

Making Ends Meet

Memorial Day Weekend was momentous for me. On Friday we had My SIPs Wall Raising. On Saturday we applied My Tiny House Air Barrier. On Sunday and Monday we had my Vardo Rafter Raising. Fortunately, I had lots of Tiny House Helpers. Then I (mostly) took a break from building for a couple of weeks. I spent the last couple days of May in Walla Walla, Revisiting Homeownership, and then lead a guided bike tour for Portland’s ADU Tour.

The first Monday of June, I snuck in a build day with my friend Chris who helped me install blocking between my rafters. This involved nipping off a corner at 26 degrees. Fortunately, Chris got really good at doing this with my circular saw.

Then we worked on figuring out a plan to close up the end walls. While I was finishing up Building My Arched Rafters, I Ordered My Tiny House SIPs. I figured it might be tricky to match the curve of the rafters, so my plan was to build rafters that would fit into the end wall. But then I learned that the SIPs company could cut the panels to a radius and put blocking in for me. So Patrick Sughrue of Structures Northwest and I figured out what the radius must be based on the rise of 15” at the 8’ mark. It turns out that, even though the rafter jig was based on a radius, the rafters have a more oblong curve because of the spring back that happens when they’re released from the form.

So when we put the rafter up against the end wall to test it, we discovered the curves didn’t match up properly. Once I had the birdsmouths in the rafters there was only ¼” difference between the curves at the top but 2 ½” difference at the ends.

So Chris and I explored a lot of different options last week and Tony chimed in, too, when he swung by. “Why don’t you just build more rafters?” he asked. “I can’t do that,” I said. “I already returned the jig. I’d have to source the strips and I wouldn’t be able to get the fir strips milled down in time so I’d have to use hemlock lathe. I’d have to build the rafters and plane them and sand them and birdsmouth them and seal them and install them.”

Eventually we decided to cut a curved piece of plywood to seal up the exterior and on the interior install the barge rafters I’d built. We got the rafters in place, tarpped everything up again, and called it a day.

The trouble was, it just looked off to me. As Jacob Deva Racusin, one of my natural building instructors, taught me, there are two rules to hack:

1. Is it safe?
2. Can you live with it?

Using the rafters this way was safe, but I couldn’t live with it. I couldn’t sleep that night. At 3 AM I found myself devising a new plan. And I’ve learned about myself that when I come up with a plan at in the middle of the night I’d better at least give it some good thought in the morning.

The next morning I decided it was going to be a pain, but it was still a good plan. So a couple days later my friend Willie helped me pick up the rafter jig again from Katy and I ordered 52 strips of 12' long hemlock lathe and built myself four new rafters – one for each side of each end wall.

Then I spent the weekend out of state at a family reunion where I got to show off baby pictures of my tiny house (which were, of course, completely upstaged by my nephew who is admittedly way cuter!) Yesterday Eric helped me plane the rafters and Jack arrived just in time to help us sand them. We took a lunch break while waiting for the sealer to dry and then installed the rafters and fixed the blocking.

I filled the gap between the new end wall rafters with spray foam and got myself good and sticky as I always seem to do when attempting to make Great Stuff go where I want it to. The trick here is to just let the foam do its thing and then shave away the excess with an old saw once it’s hardened.

We wanted to get the bead board up, too, but the staples I’d picked up weren’t long enough to hold the bead board into the rafters on that curve. So we set the bead board aside (again!) and tarpped the roof up.

I plan to have work parties again this weekend with the assistance of more Tiny House Helpers. Hopefully we’ll be Building My Roofbox on Saturday and Sunday. Stay tuned!

Vardo Rafter Raising

I am grateful to all the Tiny House Helpers who spent their Memorial Day weekend giving shape to the Lucky Penny. Special thanks to Angela Ramseyer of Mighty Micro Built who made the trip down from Whidbey Island to be my right-hand-woman for the weekend, Chris Robison who spent three whole days helping, and to Randy, Tony, Audrey and Tomas who committed two days of their holiday weekend. My tiny house on wheels is well on its way!

My SIPs Wall Raising was on Friday. On Saturday we applied My Tiny House Air Barrier and put up one of the walls of my build buddy Laura’s tiny house. Yesterday we raised the rafters for the Lucky Penny and raised another of Laura’s walls. Today we put the skylight box into place and prepped the beadboard sheets for installation.

I knew that Sunday would require some noodling as we figured out the spot for the birdsmouths, the scribing for the skylight box, and the spacing of the rafters (since they couldn’t be quite even). My roof is fairly complex because I have both curved rafters and skylights. Fortunately, I had lots of help and plenty of sounding boards. Everyone played a role in getting my roof overhead.

On Sunday Aline finished up the spot sanding on the rafters to remove scuffmarks and Randy and Anita sealed the rafters with a clear sealer. (I’d already sanded and sealed the rafters, but they were jostled around enough between then and now that they needed a little more TLC.) Angela scribed the rafter curve onto the skylight box and made the cuts with a jigsaw. Tony and I worked together to figure out the placement of the birdsmouths and to map out the rafter layout on the top plate. Tony and Angela, who have both built themselves tiny houses on wheels, were a great help as I figured out how to take the ideas that were in my head and my sketch book and manifest them in three dimensions in the real world.

We had just put the rafters up when the wind and rain kicked up and we realized we would be rained out. So we threw the tarp over the top of the Lucky Penny and secured it down all around. Aline and Tony buzzed up to the Ace Hardware in St. John’s to pick up four more tarps to cover my door and windows. Once we’d battened down the hatches we headed to Proper Eats where a few other tiny housers joined us for dinner. It was a very celebratory atmosphere, especially because amongst us there are three tiny houses in the works and several of the other tiny houses have recently found great parking spots!

Today Tony, Chris, and I secured My Arched Rafters into place with Timbertite screws. This involved drilling a pilot hole followed by a larger hole to countersink the screw head. Supposedly we didn't need to predrill but enough of us had put time into the rafters by this point we wanted to be careful with them! We ratcheted the Timbertite into place with an impact driver fitted with a 5/16" hex head. Once the rafters were secure, Miles, Matthew, and Rebecca helped hoist the skylight box into place. Fortunately, Angela did a great job with her scribing and cutting so the skylight box lined up nicely with the rafters that were placed to support it. We secured the skylight box into the rafters with more Timbertites.

Meanwhile, Matthew and Rebecca worked on reversing the swing of My Arched Door and Audrey and Tomas put a layer of sealer on the beadboard sheets. I’d considered using true beadboard the way Katy Anderson does for her vardos, but the sheet good seemed like it would be quick and lightweight. We had started to put the beadboard in place when I realized that the staples weren’t holding well enough. I wanted to keep working, but I decided it would be best to tarp everything up well and call it a day. Or rather, call it a couple weeks. I’m going to have to let the Lucky Penny sit for a couple weekends because I’ll be out of town and leading a Guided Tour for Portland’s ADU Tour.

Fortunately, I already have some Tiny House Helpers lined up for the weekend of June 14-15 and a couple more for the weekend of June 20-21. If you’d like to join in on the fun, please contact me. If you can’t make it out to help, but you’d like to Support the Lucky Penny, you can contribute via The Lucky Penny Wish List or send me notes of encouragement on Facebook. Thanks everyone!

P.S. Lots more photos to come!

My Tiny House Air Barrier

On Friday we had My SIPs Wall Raising under the expert leadership of Patrick Sughrue of Structures NW. Yesterday we applied the R-Guard air barrier system by Prosoco with the help of Tom Schneider. What a fun day and what a neat transformation for my little house!

I first learned about the R-Guard air barrier system through my work as the Living Building Challenge Coordinator for the Breathe Building. Cody Hakala at Atlas Supply told me I had to learn about Prosoco's liquid-applied air barrier, which had been used on another Living Building Challenge project, the Bullitt Center in Seattle. I invited Tom Schneider, the chemist who invented R-Guard, to come talk to Mike Vogt and me at the Breathe Building. He told us about the benefits of liquid-applied systems, the ease of using the product, and the story of how the Bullitt Center inspired him to reformulate the entire product line so that it would be Red List Free. Needless to say, we hadn't talked very long before Mike and I were convinced. Not only was this an amazing product, but it was invented by an amazing person! We're thrilled to be working with companies like this for the Breathe Building.

At the Breathe Building's Groundbreaking Celebration I mentioned my gypsy wagon to Tom and he said he wanted to hear more about it. It seemed to both of us that a liquid-applied, color-coded waterproofing system was the best bet for do-it-yourself tiny home builders like me. I asked Tom dozens of questions about the product line so I could learn how to apply it properly and Tom offered to provide the waterproofing for my wee house AND show me how to use it!

So yesterday my Tiny House Helpers and I prepped the surfaces by furring out the corners where the SIPs come together with strips of 3/4" subflooring left over from my floors. Then Tom introduced us to the R-Guard line and taught us how to apply it. We spackled all the joints with pink Joint & Seam and Tom coached me through applying the Fast Flash to my kitchen window rough opening. He was able to do the other two windows in the time it took me to do one, but I managed to get the same effect, just not with the same finesse. As Tom told us, "the slower you go, the quicker you'll finish." He says once someone has flashed 10 openings they've usually got the hang of it. I picked up on a couple tricks that helped so I believe him. Still, it reminded me of the summer I finished out Tandem and I was A Jill of All Trades - just as I was getting good at something it was time to move on to the next thing!

Once we had our seams and openings complete we rolled on the orange Cat 5 with 3/8" nap roller brushes. We had to make sure we were applying the right amount to provide a complete air seal. Fortunately, Tom made it easy. When you can't see through the R-Guard you have applied enough of it! We worked in a team with me, Audrey and Tomas working low, Chris on the ladder getting the high parts, and Randy doing detail and quality control. Meanwhile, Angela spot sanded My Curved Rafters so that they can be installed tomorrow.

By late afternoon my house was wrapped in an orange rain coat with pink and red accents and it was time for a beer at Occidental Brewing Company. I'm grateful to all my Tiny House Helpers for helping me make these transformations for my little house so quickly. A special thanks go to Tom for sharing his product, his time, and his expertise. You can Support The Lucky Penny, too, by offering physical, emotional, or financial support.

Tomorrow we will attempt to install my curved rafters and the skylight box. Wish us luck!

My SIPs Wall Raising

Yesterday we put the SIPs walls up for my gypsy wagon! My Tiny House Build Began last Friday when we picked up My Custom Vardo Trailer and started on Floorbox Lessons Learned. Then the Floorbox Continued because I was thwarted by supply issues and rain on Sunday. I also changed my mind (again) about my wall and floor attachment systems, eventually going back to Iteration #37 with Patrick’s help.

So yesterday morning I figured it would be a piece of cake to put the sill plates down in their proper place, stand the walls up, and get them secured. And it would have been – if the sill plates were in their proper place. It took us nearly 3 hours yesterday (in the drizzle) to get the sill plates just where they needed to go. Fortunately, I had a great crew of Tiny House Helpers: Patrick Sughrue of Structures NW, John Labovitz of Polymecca, Laura Klement, Deirdre, and Eric.

The trailer was square but the flanges were not, so when we measured off of them we came up with ¾” variation from front to back. I had already ordered my trailer when I decided to have SIPs made for me instead of trying to make them myself. If I had it to do over, I absolutely would have taken Patrick’s advice to do a SIP floor, too! That way we would have a perfectly square and 8-foot-wide starting point. The trick was Patrick’s idea of marking the centerline and working off of it – no matter what. Once we did, things came together really quickly. Patrick was an excellent crew leader, showing us how to install his panels properly.

We put sill seal down underneath the bottom bottom plate (a 2 x 6) and then sealed the top bottom plate (a 2 x 4) on top of it with Prosoco’s Joint & Seam, nailing the plates together as necessary to make them easier to work with. We secured the bottom plates to the trailer flanges with 4” long ¾” bolts and added self-tapping metal screws along the front and back of the trailer since there were only two bolt holes in each of the flanges which we could screw into for these sills. We did have to drill a couple more holes in the flanges and with a good bit this wasn’t horrible to do, so in the future I’d probably not have them pre-drilled by Iron Eagle Trailers.

Once the sill plates were down it only took us an hour and a half to get the walls up! We lifted the panels, rotated them as necessary, and set the edge down on the trailer floor. Once we were lined up, we applied spray foam to the bottom plate and scooted the panel off the edge of the floor and into its proper place. Laura held the first wall in place while we got the second and third panels up, securing them together with long screws. We connected the two panels on the long walls with a spline, which we spray foamed on both sides and the bottom. The front panel was the only one that caused us any trouble and that was because we hadn’t quite gotten the two back end panels all the way to the back panel. That 1/8” matters! We used ratchet straps to pull them as tight as we could and chipped away a little bit of the sill plate at the front and then realized we were being held up by the bolts. So cut away a bit of the stud on each side of the SIP so that the front panel could nestle into its spot.

Hooray for four walls! We celebrated with a picnic lunch in the future kitchen of my tiny house!

Support The Lucky Penny

Tonight I’m so excited I’m afraid I won’t be able to sleep. My Tiny House Build Began last Friday and tomorrow is My SIPs Wall Raising! Eep! By this time tomorrow I should have four walls up!

I am already thoroughly impressed by the way my community has rallied around me and my little house, The Lucky Penny. You have been cheering me on, sending me encouraging notes, making trips to the ReBuilding Center to boneyard materials, assisting with tiny house prep, listening while I noodle through design conundrums, oohing and ahhing over pictures of my door and sink, and offering to pitch in when the time comes to make it happen.

The time has come.

I’m ready to ask for your support. That may be moral support or financial support or it may be literally holding up my rafters while we get them in place. Any which way, I’ll take it!

It’s Memorial Day weekend and my build buddy Laura and I will be hosting work parties all four days. I’ve got a great line-up of Tiny House Helpers for this weekend. Here’s my grand plan:

• Friday: My SIPS Wall Raising
• Saturday: My Tiny House Air Barrier
• Sunday: Vardo Rafter Raising

Next weekend I’ll be leading a guided tour for Portland’s ADU Tour (and the following weekend I’ll be at a family reunion), but I plan to host tiny house work parties the weekends of June 14-15, June 21-22, and June 28-29. If you’re in Portland and would like to help, please contact me so we can arrange a time for you to come on out and pitch in!

If you’d like to contribute but you can’t make it out here to assist in person, please consider supporting The Lucky Penny in one of these ways:

• Make a financial contribution by purchasing one of the items on the The Lucky Penny Wishlist
• Subscribe to my blog This Is The Little Life (in the top right corner under follow) and post encouraging notes in the comments section
• Follow along on Facebook and/or Twitter and like or retweet

Thank you, everyone! I am grateful for your support!

My Floorbox Continued

My Tiny House Build Began on Friday last week when friends helped me pick up My Custom Vardo Trailer and work on my floorbox. I wasn’t able to finish the floorbox that day because I couldn’t source the ½” rigid foam I needed, but I managed to have plenty of Floorbox Lessons Learned anyhow.

Over the weekend I helped my build buddy Laura with her floorbox and wall framing. Sunday was a crazy-rainy day so Laura, Jeff, Logan, and I snuck in moments of foam layering for my floorbox during the collective 30 minutes or so when it was dry enough. We worked on Laura’s framing during the mist, the drizzles, and the showers. We hunkered down in her car during the pure downpours.

On Monday my friend Christian helped me finish up the floorbox. We layered in the rest of the foam, lapping the seams so that none of them were directly above the ones in the previous layer. Between each course and around all the edges we sealed up the gaps with a low-expansion spray foam. The top layer of foam is 2” that spans the trailer frame and is sealed to the trailer with silicone caulk.

We then cut the ¾” Edge Gold to fit, starting with the piece we had to notch out for the wheelwells. We nestled the sheets on either end into that first sheet and cut off the excess. We didn’t have to cut the sides because the sheets of Edge Gold were 8 feet long, exactly the same length as the SIPs.

I’d originally planned to isolate my floor system from my wall system because it would provide a thermal break between them, my walls would be directly connected to my trailer frame, and it would be a better use of materials since my house was going to be 8’-6” wide. However, once my house was only 8’ wide I decided to just line them up and put my walls right on top of my subfloor. So we cut the sill plates and bolted them down through the trailer frame, securing them with carriage bolts. Ta da! Floorbox complete!

But I couldn’t sleep that night. I didn’t like the way the bolts were angled. And I didn’t like the fact that I’d put all that insulation into my floorbox only to run the subfloor out to the edge where it would get cold and make my feet cold. And I didn’t like that I didn’t have a solid nailer all the way around. And I didn’t like that the foam wasn’t well protected. I just didn’t sit right. I wished I’d used my original design of having the floor system inside the wall system rather than on top of it. I decided I’d better fix it while I still had the chance.

So this evening Patrick Sughrue of Structures NW, the supplier for my SIPS (structural insulated panels), helped me with my first remodeling project. We ripped a set of 2 x 6s to 4 ½ inches. Then we cut the foam back all the way around, put down a layer of sill seal then the 2 x 6s, followed by a layer of liquid nails and then the sill plate. We bolted these down to the trailer with the carriage bolts (which involved boring a couple new holes because some of the ones I’d requested were too close to the edge once I factored in the necessary spacing for my SIPs). We worked until dark and then called it quits. I’ll finish bolting down the rest of the bottom plates on Friday morning.

I feel so much better about this system that I’m annoyed with myself for not just doing this in the first place. My floorbox took much longer than it would have if I’d known then what I know now. However, I learned a lot in the process and I really enjoyed working with Alex, Christian, Laura, Jeff, Logan, and Patrick. I built my floor box in a way I’ve never seen done before and experiments sometimes require additional tweeking.

Most importantly, thanks to Patrick, I am now ready for My SIPs Wall Raising on Friday morning! Follow along!

Floorbox Lessons Learned

Yesterday was my first official day of work on my tiny house! I Kicked Off Spring with Tiny House Prep with my build buddy Laura Klement. My prep work has included Building My Arched Rafters, Painting My Skylight Frames, Planing My Curved Rafters, and Refinishing My Arched Door. Starting in on the floor yesterday was a milestone (though the really exciting day will be next Friday when I have My SIPs Wall Raising). Stay tuned for more on that!

First thing in the morning, my friend Christian helped me pick up My Custom Vardo Trailer from Iron Eagle Trailers and haul it to my build site at Green Anchors. Then my friend Alex helped me move my tools and supplies to site and pick up the Alupanel for my floorbox undercarriage.

Alupanel is a product Derin Williams of Shelter Wise suggested last week when I asked him if he had any recommendations for a material that was lightweight, rigid, thin, and durable. Robert at Denco Sales was great to work with as I explained my project and he helped me figure out what my options were. Alupanel is quite pricy, so I went with 3 mm, the thinnest material that would do the job. (It cost $85 per sheet, about what it would have cost to have a steel pan fabricated for my trailer. It also cost about twice what it would have cost to do a wooden floor box a la Dee Williams, but I’m doing a few experimental things with my tiny house – like constructing my floor box sans wood so that I can save weight and increase the amount of insulation in my floors.)

Patrick Sughre of Structures Northwest (the supplier for my Structural Insulated Panels – SIPs) dropped by a couple minutes after we got back and he rolled up his sleeves and pitched in, helping us with the undercarriage. We cut the Alupanels to size, caulked the panels into place around the perimeter and along each seam with silicone caulk, and then started filling the cavity with rigid foam. We didn’t manage to finish it (see #5 below), but hopefully I can get finished up on Sunday. I’ve got to get my floor ready because the SIPs walls will be ready for pick up soon!

Here’s what I learned today:

1. The Alupanel is truly an easy material to work with. A few cuts with a circular saw fitted with a 40-tooth carbonite blade and we were good to go!
2. Figuring out that the first sheet was cut a bit shorter than I would have liked is a good reminder that it’s always a good idea to calibrate tape measures and to cut long at first. It’s much easier to take off another blade’s width (especially when working with an expensive-but-critical material!)
3. It would have been really great to have the ribs of my trailer welded at 24” (OC) rather than twenty-four-inches-on-center-ish. Last summer, when I ordered My Custom Vardo Trailer, I was planning to do a version of the Dee Williams floorbox so the rib spacing didn’t matter much, but with my new system it would have been really nice to have support exactly where I wanted it!
4. Sometimes my first instinct is right on. I’d originally planned for 3 ½” worth of insulation inside my trailer (one set of 2” XPS topped with another set of 1 ½”). However, I decided that since I was going with a thinner undercarriage material I’d better plan on the full 4” of foam. Turns out, once the Alupanel was in place 3 ½” worth of insulation fit much better. So I needed to trade my 4 sheets of 1” XPS for 4 sheets of ½” XPS (expanded polystyrene).
5. No hardware store in Portland seems to carry ½” XPS foamboard. (Though if you call ahead, one of the big box stores will assure you they DO have it and they’ll even set it aside for you so that when you arrive you have the opportunity to explain them the difference between ½” and 2.”)

So My Floorbox Continues. Here’s to getting the floorbox finished on Sunday. Meanwhile, today is Laura’s wall raising work party. Wish us luck!

My Tiny House Build Begins!

Dee Williams likes to say that when building a tiny house (and most other important things in life, for that matter) "It's 1 part how to, 2 parts why not." I tend to be more of a 2-parts-how-to sort of person myself.

But one way or the other, if you've spent the past few months (or, in my case, years) contemplating your tiny dream house - designing, refining, experimenting, budgeting, and prepping - eventually it's time to start!

I start today.

Christian, one of my childhood friends, is going to help me pick up My Custom Vardo Trailer from Iron Eagle Trailers. Then Alex, a friend from Yestermorrow Design-Build School, will help me do a few more schlepping errands and get started on my floorbox.

My goal is to get my floorbox finished today so that I can focus my attention this weekend on my build buddy Laura's wall raising. My SIPs are supposed to be complete sometime mid-week so my wall raising will be next weekend. After years of eagerly anticipating this day, I'm thrilled it's finally here!

If the past couple weeks are any indication, I can't promise I'll be as good about posting for my own build as I have been for other blitz builds like the Tiny Barn Build and Yestermorrow's Tiny House Design-Build. But I assure you, dear readers, I will do my best to bring you along on this journey. I am considering a more photographic format, so stay tuned to see if that works out for us. Thank you for all your encouragement and support!

I am so delighted the moment has arrived! Here's to one part why not!

Almost Ready to Build

You know you're almost ready to begin building your tiny house when...

• You're making lists titled "Tiny House Helpers," "Truck Errands," and "Wall Raising Day."

  

• All the nooks and crannies of your current tiny home are filled with components for your future tiny home. (Examples may include: the sink stored in your window seat, the curved rafters on your front porch, or the power tools in your sleeping loft.)
• Your tool belt is hanging on a hook inside the door - right next to your little black dress, of course!
• Half the photos in your phone are either price tags or products you're considering.
• The other half are funny pictures of you and your build buddy attempting to chronicle the experience. (You can read about our adventures Getting Ready to Build over on Laura's blog or in my post Kicking Off Spring with Tiny House Prep.)
• You change your mind all day long, every day, about nearly everything.
• You've been to the hardware store three times this week and anticipate at least one more trip.
• You wake up at 3 in the morning wondering if you should reverse the swing of your door.
• You've been writing blog posts but you've neglected get them actually posted because it's now 7AM and you can start calling the hardware stores again to see who has the materials you're looking for.

And then eventually the big day arrives and Your Tiny House Build Begins.