Tiny House Window Installation

On Monday we finished Sheathing My Vardo Roof with a great crew of Tiny House Helpers. Yesterday we turned to window installation and I had the two perfect helpers: my build buddy Laura Klement who has installed dozens of windows through her role with Habitat for Humanity and Eric who is a cabinet maker with an eye for detail and great problem-solving skills.

I had picked up the supplies I’d need from Atlas Supply the day before: backer rod, AirDam from Prosoco’s R-Guard System, and a spatula for tooling. Cody Hakala at Atlas is very knowledgeable and familiar with the R-Guard system as well as other liquid-applied air barrier systems.

The next step was removing the shims and inserting backer rod into the space between the window and the frame. We put the join at the top because it’s the weakest point in the system and water will collect at the bottom instead of the top. We used the fat side of a shim to push the backer rod ½” back from the interior wall surface.

Next we applied a continuous bead of AirDam around the window and tooled it to create an hourglass shape. Voila! A window installed.

(By the way, each of the R-Guard products has a distinct viscosity appropriate to it’s intended use. The Fast Flash reminds me of frosting. The AirDam is just like marshmallow cream!)

Once we’d done one of My Kitchen Windows the other one went in quickly. Then we turned our attention to My Arched Window. This one took a little more finessing. Luckily, My Arched Window Jamb was built by Dan, a talented finish carpenter. (More about that in a forthcoming blog post!) We started out by inserting the arched jamb in the opening and securing it in place with five screws: one in each of the legs, one at the top, and one on each side where the window starts to curve. Then we hoisted the window sashes into place and screwed them onto their hinges.

Next we fine-tuned the window by tightening and loosening screws just a smidgeon until the window was trued in its jamb. The process reminded me of tuning an instrument and it reminded Laura of truing a bike wheel. Once the window was swinging nicely and the reveals were satisfactory, we installed backer rod around it. The gap was larger here (better too big than too small though!) By now Julie had arrived and Laura switched back to working on her siding. While Eric was installing My Beautiful Arched Door, Julie helped me braid three strands of backer rod together and insert it into the gap. I ran a bead of Air Dam along each edge and let it skin over since this is a larger gap to fill and I decided it would be best to do it in two phases.

I glanced up at the window at one point and realized that I had my own red, white, and blue. My window is painted burgundy but the jamb hasn’t been painted on the interior yet, so it’s still white. And, of course, the painters tape is blue. This little house will give me freedom and independence, so it seemed fitting to celebrate the installation of My Arched Window, since my tiny house started with this window!

Installing the windows is always one of my favorite parts of a build, but getting the windows in was especially exciting for me because the roof had taken so long to get dried in. (See Plan F: Take 2 for more on that!) I hadn’t installed the windows because it was nice to have the openings while working on the roof. So putting the windows in felt like a reward. Besides, they’re just plain beautiful!

After Eric headed out Julie and I helped Laura with her siding for a couple hours and then headed to a great Fourth of July cook out. I couldn’t be happier with my own version of red, white, and blue!

Sheathing My Vardo Roof

Yesterday the carpenters came out of the woodwork! (This is a good thing, by the way. Wouldn't be so good if it were carpenter ants, but carpenters coming out of the woodwork is magically good!)

I had just pulled out all the tools we’d need to sheath my roof and I was untarpping the house (for the last time!) and waiting for Kenny to show up when Tony and Aline arrived. They’ve stopped by a few times now to check on my progress and they’ve helped with My Vardo Rafter Raising and Making Ends Meet, too. I hadn’t heard anything from them about helping yesterday. So I hollered out “Hey, did you guys come by for a status update?”

“Nope, we’re here to help!” Tony said.

“And we brought snacks!” said Aline.

Now THAT, my friends, was music to my ears. I was thrilled!

(And what’s better? These people. These people are going to be my neighbors! More on that to come…)

So we got to work. We pulled out the sheets of ½” plywood and checked them to determine right side up (the side with fewer holes to fill!) We’d already put the first sheet up during the Tiny House Mixer, which you can read about in Sidestepping with Siding. So we measured for the second sheet and cut it with a circular saw. We were just about to put it up when Kenny arrived. Together we hefted the plywood onto the roof and marked our rafter lines with a chalk line. Then we fastened the sheathing to the rafters with 4” GRK fasteners (one of my new favorite tools!) When my co-workers Evan and Jesse showed up, we really hit our stride. Kenny has worked in commercial roofing, Jesse is a carpenter, Evan does rigging on the side, and Tony and Aline built a tiny house. This was the perfect crew to have helping me sheathe my vardo roof!

We took a break for fish tacos and horcata at Super Burrito Express, one of my favorite St. John’s lunch spots. And then we went back to work, finishing the insulation at the ends of the skylight box and getting the last of the sheathing up. In the evening Kenny and Tony put the first coat of Cat 5 from the Prosoco R-Guard system on the roof. I’ll do another layer first thing Friday morning.

After a quiet weekend Sidestepping with Siding, it was such a productive day! Tony and Aline even managed to do the touch ups with Fast Flash in my window openings and get My Kitchen Windows cleaned up. Now that my windows and ROs are prepped and my roof is weatherized, I’m ready for Tiny House Window Installation on Friday!

I haven’t been sleeping well because I’ve been anxious about not being dried in. But last night, I slept like a rock all night long.

Hip, hip, hooray! Three cheers for my amazing Tiny House Helpers! I have a roof!

Sidestepping with Siding

Where did the weekend go?!

Last weekend I got in three good building days. On Saturday we worked on Plan F. Sunday was Plan F: Take 2. And on Monday we were Insulating My Vardo Roof. I was looking forward to another four-day weekend of building so I could get my house dried in (finally!) I haven't been sleeping well because I'm anxious about the rain.

Last Monday we tarpped my house after we'd finished Insulating My Vardo Roof. When I arrived at Green Anchors on Thursday evening for PAD's Tiny House Mixer I was loving the chance to mix and mingle and show off my house. And then I noticed that the rain that had fallen mid-week was pooling in my roof. So I spent the last bit of the event up on my roof - in my dress, mind you - hacking a temporary fix. Fortunately Kol Peterson of Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel, Ben Campbell of Ben Builds a Tiny House, and Benn Kovko who built the Kangablue were all there. In about 10 minutes they helped me get one of the pieces of sheathing up in a critical location so that the tarp can't sag and leak a pool of water into my roof there. That one piece of sheathing went up really quickly. Now if we could just do that six times over...

On Friday it rained buckets. (I'm starting to notice a trend here: it's rained the past three Fridays!) And the roof is definitely the next step. But I just couldn't work on it because of the rain. On the other hand, I didn't want to stall out. So instead I worked in the morning and then decided to sidestep my unfinished roofing project by sourcing my siding. I spent my afternoon at Building Material Resources to hunt for cedar siding and trim for my exterior. I rented a truck through Getaround, one of Portland's wonderful car sharing programs. (Stay tuned for my forthcoming flow chart about how to decide which car access system to use if you're not a car owner!)

I may have had a little too much fun at Building Material Resources. I'd been fantasizing about tongue and groove (T & G) cedar siding for the lower portion of my exterior walls, but didn't think I'd find it at a price I could afford. I'd found a good price on pre-primed T & G somewhere else, but that would mean I'd have to paint it and I really wanted stain-grade. So I was on the look out for cedar fence boards, figuring I could replace the siding in a couple years to what I really want. And then I had a stroke of good luck, just as I did the day I found My Kitchen Windows. I found a pallet of the T & G cedar in varied lengths. Most of it was too short and some of it was too beat up to use. So I sorted out the pieces that would be long enough and ended up taking everything that was salvagable. Building Material Resources also had 5/4 cedar boards which I snagged for my trim. And, as I was checking out, I also discovered that they sell round-tipped cedar shingles at half the retail price of other suppliers, so I bought a box of those, too. On my way out of Sherwood, I stopped at Lakeside Lumber on a tip from tiny house builder extraordinare Katy Anderson to pick up Deco Corner - curved corner trim boards. My house is going to come together even more beautifully than I'd hoped!

Saturday the weather was iffy again so my friend Chris helped me paint the trim and prep the sill plates for My Kitchen Windows. We painted the backs of all the boards with white paint because it's cheap and easy. Then we painted the visible sides with the same beautiful burgundy I'd picked for my door jamb. I'm in love with this paint color!

I also sorted out my tool cabinet, which had become fairly disorganized after a month of weekend work parties. I hauled out everything I no longer needed and made a trip to the hardware store to return it. I hate being one of those people returning a cart full of stuff, but really I'd rather have more than enough and return it than have to make a fourth trip to the hardware store to pick up more. Besides, I had a truck and it was a great time to return the insulation sheets I wasn't going to be able to use after Insulating My Vardo Roof. I ended up returning over $400 worth of materials. Yay! More money for the next steps!

Today was lovely, but my Tiny House Helpers were all otherwise occupied. Sheathing My Curved Roof is definitely not a one-woman-show for me (though if you want to be really impressed with a do-it-herselfer, check out this post from NajHaus where Kate describes doing most of her sheathing solo!) So I decided to switch gears and help my build buddy Laura with her siding. Afterwards she treated me and her other helper Nicole to a Maibock at Occidental.

Tomorrow my friend Kenny of TinyHomes.com will be coming out to help and a couple of my co-workers might be able to join me, too, so we're going to get this roof sheathed, darn it!

I've been doing a rain dance backward all weekend for good weather tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Portland Tribune Article: How Hard is it to Live with Less?

A couple weeks ago I was interviewed by Peter Korn of the Portland Tribune. (My first feature in the Trib in April 2012 was called Home Tiny Home by Jason Vondersmith.)

I met Peter while tabling for the Breathe Building at Portland's Earth Day Festival and we got to talking about micro housing and downsizing. He told me he's been doing articles that address these topics and wanted to pick my brain. (You can also check out his recent article about whether people living small give up their cars.)

So we met up in a coffee shop for a chat. Peter also talked to my friends and fellow tiny house dwellers Tammy Strobel of Rowdy Kittens and Dee Williams of Portland Alternative Dwellings. Today the article we were interviewed for came out in the Portland Tribune. It's called How Hard is it to Live with Less? Here's an excerpt:

Two hundred things seems about right for Lina Menard. The Northeast Portland tiny house resident has tried for a few years to live with less stuff. She teaches workshops in downsizing. She thinks living with fewer material possessions is not only responsible from an ecological point of view, but frees her to live a happier, more meaningful life.

And yes, her “200 things” has a little bit of cheat in it. She counts her jewelry box as one item, even though there are about 30 pieces of jewelry inside. Her bike counts as one, though it has paniers, a water bottle and lights that could be considered separate items. A truer count of her possessions, Menard says, would be more like 577. But that’s not the point.

Menard used to live in a nice, two-bedroom house before she took the 200 Things Challenge, her version of the “100 Thing Challenge,” inspired by Dave Bruno’s 2010 book about living a simple life with only 100 possessions. So she had stuff she had to lose. And getting rid of stuff, she says, is hard.

For example, there was her grandmother’s fur coat. Menard had worn it to high school dances and the coat was associated with all sorts of pleasant memories. Still, it had to go. So Menard discarded the coat in a way that would attach a new meaning to it. Research revealed that the Humane Society of the United States accepts fur coats to help in its wildlife rescue program, the fur comforting cubs of the same species.

“It seemed like an appropriate choice because it kind of sent the fur back where it should have been,” Menard says.

Most of us are surrounded by thousands of material possessions, only a few of which deliver pleasure, say academic researchers and downsizing experts such as Menard. In her Less is More workshop, Menard has encountered young couples intrigued by tiny house living as well as baby boomers transitioning from houses to apartments and lives with more travel.

So why is it so hard to downsize?

Portland is part of the problem. Yes, the city is a national center for the tiny house movement and as an adjunct, the

living-with-less ethic. But that means there’s also a lot of free stuff here.

“Especially in Portland, you don’t have to buy things to acquire a lot,” Menard says. “Learning to say no to free things is actually a challenge.”

On the other hand, the popularity of tiny houses and micro-apartments here, and the many communal efforts such as the city’s tool libraries, make Portland a leader in living with less. One lesson Menard says she’s learned is that an Oregon-style conscience can get in the way of downsizing.

“The process wasn’t so much about tearing myself away from possessions as it was trying to figure out a way for them to be somewhere else,” she says. “I was responsible for these things, and because of my environmental ethic, I didn’t want to throw things away unless they were truly garbage.”

Downsizing became an emotional process for Menard, and an analytical one. Throughout each day, before moving into her 121-square-foot tiny house, she was mentally prioritizing every object she owned. She was just 27, not old enough, she thought, to have accumulated much.

“But it was still amazing to me how many things I had that I had never intended to own and how few of them had meaning and how few of them had a story,” she says. She took photographs of objects that did have meaning but were still destined for a new location. Among the items that made her 200 things cut: the blanket she had as a child, a hammock from Costa Rica, her laptop and cell phone, one mattress, one pressure cooker, and a favorite teacup she had brought back from Prague.

Insulating My Vardo Roof

Friday I picked up Eave Caps for My Vardo Roof and Saturday we worked on Plan F. Yesterday we worked on Plan F: Take 2. And today we (finally!) insulated my roof box!

In the morning Matthew helped me air seal the ceiling. This involved running Fast Flash from the R-Guard system by Prosoco over all of the seams where we’d nailed the ceiling bead board. (You can read about my bead board ceiling in Ceiling Up My Vardo.) Matthew also helped me find the weak points in the ceiling panels by standing inside the house and looking for the spots where the ceiling was translucent. I was on the roof so I tested to see if I had the right spot by covering up the area with my hand. If I blocked the light I knew I’d found my target. (Though I had to remember to not block the area with my shadow since it was so sunny!) I covered these areas with Fast Flash, too. Once the roof was no longer see-through we were ready for the insulation.

This afternoon Tony and Grae helped me install the insulation in my vardo roofbox. We cut 4’ x 8’ sheets of 1” expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam board to fit between the 2x6 at the eves and the outriggers surrounding the skylight box. We decided to leave the spots on either end of the skylight box at the front and back of the house till last because it’s such a nice place to sit and store tools without them slipping off the roof!

Once we’d dry-fitted the foam we removed it and spray foamed the edges. Then slipped the sheets of insulation into place. Once the first piece was in place we put in another 1” sheet of EPS on top of it. Fortunately, these sheets didn’t need to be cut, just tacked down onto the nailers and spray foamed at the edges. As we installed the insulation we discovered we’d installed the skylight box slightly askew, so we cut a couple long strips to fill in the gap. We’ll need to do the same for the sheathing.

My walls have 3 ½ of EPS insulation in the SIPS and my floors have 5 ½” of XPS (extruded polystyrene) insulation because I hate having cold feet. Ideally I would have had at least as much insulation in my roof as in my walls. So I ordered the Eve Caps for My Vardo Roof to be 3 ½” tall – 3” for foam and ½” for the sheathing. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for the losses created by the angles. So once we got the second piece of 1” foam into the roof we realized we wouldn’t be able to get more than 2” of foam inside the eve caps with the sheathing in there, too. (The fellow at Vinje’s mentioned when I picked up the Eave Caps for My Vardo Roof that he’d read my blog and he wasn’t sure I’d be able to get 3” of insulation in there. Glad he thought of it, but I wish I’d talked it through with him sooner!)

I am bummed that my roof isn’t better insulated, but as my fellow tiny house builders/energy auditors remind me, my decision to put skylights right in the top of my house pretty much negates the insulation I put in the roof. So I don’t have the best insulation to prevent conductive heat transfer. I’m going to count on that air sealing to help with convective heat transfer. My New Custom Skylight (which will replace the one I broke on my day of Hail and High Water) will help with radiant heat transfer.

I was hoping to get the sheathing up today, too, but the breeze tends to pick up in the evenings on our site and it seemed precarious for Grae and I to be lugging sheets of plywood up ladders, only to have the caught by the wind. Besides, I, for one, was getting pretty tired by this point. It was hot today! But it's expected to rain over the next couple days, so we decided to tarp the house up (again! But hopefully for the last time!)

As evening approached I took a break to get milkshakes for me and my build buddy Laura and then helped her with her siding a little bit before calling it a day. You can read more about Laura’s siding on and A Little Bit of Everything else on her blog.

Plan F: Take 2

Yesterday evening were working on Plan F and just placing everything together so we could decide whether to assemble the system on the ground or in the sky when I discovered that 2 x 6s are sold in "dead-on" pre-cut stud length.

Now it makes perfect sense, really. If your sill plate is 1 1/2" and you have a double top plate that's 3" and you're doing a drywalled ceiling and a finished floor you would, of course, want to just use stud length 2 x 6s that are already cut to 92 5/8."

I just had no idea they existed. So I didn't think to make sure I was buying anything other than 96" studs. In fact, I remember looking at the label for the 96" studs. It just happened to be the label for the studs above it, not the ones I bought.

So as we discovered this, I began giggling. Then I began laughing maniacally. Then I fell on the ground laughing and crying. Then I just cried for a couple minutes. I was so exhausted. And so frustrated I hadn't thought to measure. And so annoyed with myself for wasting the time of the people who came to help.

This was my first melt down of the build. I was warned it would happen and yesterday was the day. I was embarrassed my Tiny House Helpers saw me in such a state.

But Karin was right. It was bound to happen. No one was hurt. No permanent damage was done. It wasn't even a very big cost. And my friends seem to still love me anyway.

I was feeling tempted to abandon the plan entirely when Angela and Randy convinced me there was no need for a plan G. Plan F was a good one. I just grabbed the wrong materials. Christian and Angela agreed to come back in the morning and help get the eve caps installed.

Angela coaxed me back into the car and we went to the hardware store to pick up 4 brand new 96" 2x6s. We got them back to site and decided it was time to call it quits for the day. We tidied up the site and headed to Signal Station Pizza for dinner and unwinding.

This morning Christian and Angela helped me get the eve caps up. It took longer than we anticipated since we had to pry the bead board up to slip the eve caps in place, but it worked. Plan F was ultimately successful. As Angela and Christian ducked out, Amy, Melissa, and Love arrived.

Today we cranked out great work all day since the prep was done already yesterday. In addition to getting the Eave Caps for My Vardo Roof installed, we installed the outriggers on either side of the skylight box. We also planed and installed the curved ends of the roof box and installed the barge rafters at the front and back of the house sandwiching them around the ceiling panel, which had been running wild. (This is the first tiny part of my house that looks finished and it's so rewarding!) We even got the front of the arched window painted!

I'm so grateful for all My Tiny House Helpers! My roof box is now ready for insulation!

Plan F

I'm on Plan F.

Over the past three years I've considered dozens of different ways to build my vardo roof, with its exposed rafters and skylight box. This weekend I found myself working on Plan F. Fortunately, I had some great people by my side.

Because My Curved Rafters are exposed to the interior my roof system needed to be constructed on top of the rafters. This has left my roof vulnerable during several Portland rain showers, so I've been eager to get it closed up.

I was already on Plan D when I had Eave Caps for My Vardo Roof fabricated by Vinje & Son Custom Sheet Metal earlier this week. But yesterday morning when Christian, Angela, Karin and I went to install the eve caps, we realized that the top part of the skewed U-shaped metal completely interfered with our ability to anchor it to the rafters. (I have since learned about right angle drill attachments, but did not know about them yesterday morning!)

I was pretty frustrated that Plan D hadn't worked. So we took a little break and muddled through Plan E. Fortunately, I had a great group of Tiny House Helpers by my side, including my oldest friend Christian, Randy (who had braved Hail & High Water with me last weekend and was back to sort my trim (again!) and pick the best pieces to stain), and two women who have built their own tiny homes: Angela of Mighty Micro Builder and Karin who built Serenity.

Angela suggested that we install a 2x4 flat against the rafters as a nailer so that we could attach the 2 x 4 to the rafters and the eve cap to the 2 x 4. Furthermore, it would create an outrigger to which I could attach my barge rafter, which was something I'd lost when I ditched Plan A. The trouble we found was that if we slipped a 2 x 4 into the bottom of the bent eve cap it would be at a completely different angle. If the wood wasn't in contact with the vertical metal surface of my eve caps we wouldn't have very good attachment. So we decided to rip off the corner at 26 degrees so that our nailer would slip into the eve cap and give us a proper attachment surface.

I cut a sample piece to try it out and we realized that by the time we ripped off the corner at 26 degrees the board wouldn't be much longer than the flashing and it would once again be tricky to attach it. So Karin suggested we head to the hardware store and pick up some 2 x 6s. Voila, Plan F.

Karin did a great job of cheering me up, telling me about some of the frustrating moments of her build and assuring me that it's okay to be upset and that My Tiny House Helpers will still love me even if I fall apart. She pointed out, that in fact it's a good experience for others to see what sort of challenges I encounter and to learn about the problem-solving process. She reminded me that those who have been there before can relate. I know all this, but let me assure you after several weeks of working 10 hour days either at the Breathe Building or on my build site, I was having a hard time with logic. When I thanked Karin for her patience and kindness she assured me that I'll be returning the favor someday. I have no doubt. No doubt at all.

We swooped into the hardware store, picked the four straightest 2x6s in the pile, and headed back to site where Christian ripped the corners off of the boards and nipped an inch and a half off the end of each one.

And then I made an unfortunate discovery. Read on to learn all about Plan F: Take 2.

Eave Caps for My Vardo Roof

Last weekend my Tiny House Helpers and I installed the bead board ceiling over My Arched Rafters, which I wrote about in Ceiling Up My Vardo. Then I realized that I'd need to come up with a new plan for the edge of the roof box. (Because my rafters are exposed, I'm having to build my ceiling, insulation, and sheathing from the bottom up!)

My plan for the roof box as I went into the build was to attach 2x4s on end at the edges of the eaves with 6" timber lock screws. I planned to rip the top and bottom at the correct angle (64 degrees) so that they'd sit on the Rafter Tails properly. The trouble was that I'd done my sketches before I cut my rafter tails. (The biggest trick to design I've learned is the ability to think 28 steps ahead! I'm working on it!) Once we'd finished Ceiling Up My Vardo, I realized that it wasn't going to work to put 2x4s on end at the tips of the rafters.

By the way, in these little thumbnail sketches, brown is the rafter, yellow is rigid foam insulation, purple is plywood sheathing, blue is flashing, and green is roofing. The orange on the first one is the 2 x 4 on edge.

So Plan B was to install a piece of normal L shaped flashing at the eaves to catch the insulation. I figured with enough finagling, the flashing could be bent up to the proper angle so that it would be vertical. When the metal roofing goes on another piece of flashing would cover up the top of the L-shaped piece before the roof panels went on.

But then it occurred to me that if I had an eave cap shaped like a U the sheathing could be tucked underneath as well. That seam could be flashed with the Fast Flash from the Prosoco R-Guard system. (Read My Tiny House Air Barrier for more on that!) So that was Plan C. However, It wouldn't work for these U-shaped eve caps to stick out without being bent up to vertical because I'm building my eves to 10' so I can still move my house with a trip permit. I don't have enough wiggle room to have the roof box extend out any further. And I knew it would be tricker to bend a U than an L.

So I decided it would be nice to have an eve cap that was already bent to my specifications. It would look much tidier but it would also be easier. So Plan D emerged. Laura and I noodled through the 7th grade geometry and determined that I needed a 64 degree angle at the bottom and a 116 degree angle at the top. The pieces needed to be 2 1/2" long on the bottom to catch the beadboard and 3 1/2" tall to accommodate 3" of insulation and the 1/2" plywood.

I asked around and everyone told me the place to go is Vinje & Son's Custom Sheet Metal. Vinje's is a great local family-owned sheet metal company that works with lots of do-it-yourselfers on jobs both big and small. I called them up and they said it wouldn't be a problem at all to create just what I envisioned. So I enlisted them to help with Plan D. When I got there we sketched out what I needed and they put my order into the manufacturing queue. They fabricated four 10' long eve caps that I could piece together to make a 16 foot length. I placed my order on Wednesday morning and the pieces were ready for pick up on Thursday. Their staff was friendly and knowledgeable and I'm sure I'll be back again soon whether it's for the Lucky Penny or another project.

I was planning to pick up the eave caps in the morning and get to work, but it was raining (again!), so I spent my morning working at the Breathe Building and doing errands. This evening it had cleared up so my friend Amy helped me pick up the flashing pieces and spray paint the bottoms copper. The other portions won't be seen, but the copper colored eave cap will be visible between the rafters. (By the way, I'd asked the fellow at Vinje's about copper while I was placing my order, but it would have been a couple hundred dollars instead of $60! So I'm fine with faux copper.)

Amy and I also sealed up the joints around the rafters with Joint & Seam and the blocking with Fast Flash from the R-Guard system by Prosoco. (You can read all about that in My Tiny House Air Barrier.)

Tomorrow the plan is to install the eave caps at the ends of the wall and slip the insulation inside. Hopefully we can sheathe the roof on Sunday and I'll add the air barrier on Monday. Then I won't have to tarp anymore. Hip, hip, hooray!

Congress for New Urbanism Salon

A couple months ago I was invited by Martin Glastra Van Loon (a Dutch native who now lives and works in Portland as an urban planner) to speak at the Cascadia chapter of Congress for the New Urbanism Salon. This was an exciting prospect for me, not only because I'm interested in smart growth and I admire Martin's work, but also because it sounded a lot like the Design Colloquiums I'd run in Walla Walla. Since graduating from PSU's urban planning program I've missed the chance to sit around with other urban design geeks talking about the influence of our built environment on our environment and social interactions. On Wednesday evening I had the opportunity to meet this fine group of designers and do an hour-long presentation about the ways building small is smart. The conversation continued for another three hours, eventually migrating to Bunk Bar. It was a great discussion and I look forward to continuing the conversation about policy, form, and the marketplace. Here's to many more hours of discussing the way building small is smart!

I'm grateful to Martin for the introduction to this group and to Laurence Qamar for his kind words in a follow up email to the group:

It was a fun and spirited discussion with you, Lina, the other night for our monthly CNU-Cascadia Salon discussing the broad ramifications of the resurgence of the ongoing Tiny House movement.

For those who could not attend, Lina Menard of Niche Design Build presented her work in promoting and building tiny, and often mobile, little homes.

But more than just the average 200 sq ft cottages themselves, Lina spoke of the implications that small homes are having on providing affordable housing options for young and old, or a supplement to an existing home in the form of an accessory dwelling unit (ADU).

Lina is a wealth of knowledge on the current state of financing, permitting, designing and constructing ADUs in Portland, which she describes as one of the more progressive jurisdictions for this new/old form of housing in the nation.

We considered the potential of increasing overall density throughout the city, which is an ongoing goal of the City of Portland, and Metro regional government.  ADUs have the potential of having much greater benefit to accommodating future growth not only within our growing "Centers and Corridors” but more softly throughout the very “Fabric” of our neighborhoods.

Most important as a link to the broader CNU’s goals, Lina and the group considered numerous models of how tiny houses can be an important element in further building sustainable communities and that “sense of place” that is at the heart of all our work.

Come Hail & High Water

Yesterday we worked on Ceiling Up My Vardo and today the plan was to continue work on both the roof and the windows. But today was one of those gray days that makes you suspicious from the start. According to the weather forecast there was only a 20% chance of rain, but it started raining while I drove my rental car to the build site in the morning. And actual rain, not just typical Portland spring showers. I hoped maybe that meant we were done with rain for the day. But I decided it wasn't worthwhile for us to attempt to work on the roof again, just in case.

Instead Randy, Eleanor, Shelley, Matthew, and I worked on windows and door. Shelley and Eleanor did the most meticulous taping job I've ever seen in my life and then put the first layer of paint on the exterior of the arched window. Meanwhile Randy and Matthew worked on the door and I put a second coat of paint on the door jamb. It was almost lunchtime and Randy and I were sorting out pieces of varied trim I'd picked up from Green Star International when his rain-o-meter warned us that rain was imminent.

We had a lot of different materials out and realized we'd better get them put away. Eleanor and Shelley created a little tarp tent to protect the window they'd been painting and Randy and I threw tarps over the trim. We were hustling to put our tools away when that 20% chance of rain decided to arrive all at once.

Randy asked me if I wanted to tuck the Skylights for My Vardo inside, too.  "No, they should be fine in the rain," I told him as we hurried under cover.

And they were fine with rain. But no so much with the wind. A gust of wind came up and caught one of the skylights and smashed it into the concrete, cracking the acrylic dome in several places.

I was crestfallen. Not only because I'd gotten a great deal on these skylights from Mark at Natural Light Skylight Co. And not only because I was pleased to have diverted them from the waste stream since they're salvaged. And not only because I'd already Painted My Skylight Frames. Actually, I was most upset that this was the second skylight I'd broken!

In January when my build buddy Laura Klement and I had been scouting materials for our tiny house builds, I'd come across a dome skylight at Building Material Resources. I checked it over and it was in great shape so I brought it home, only to discover the next morning that it was cracked. I must have cracked it somehow while moving it from the store to Laura's car to its temporary storage spot. In any case, it wasn't useable anymore so I took it to the landfill the next day since I was helping a friend with a dump run.

I hated thinking that I was contributing another skylight to the landfill that was in perfectly good condition before it came into my possession! I began wondering if it was a sign from the universe that my mollycroft roof was doomed. I'd already considered removing the skylights from my vardo twice, but couldn't bring myself to do it because I was so looking forward to the feeling they'd create inside. Fellow tiny house builders had encouraged me to stick to my dream. Now I was wondering if I should just give it up.

While I was wrestling with all of this frustration I was also attempting to appreciate that I had three really excellent people who had come to help me. We'd made good progress on the door and window. And here we were, all huddled in my house eating our picnic lunch while the rain - and hail! - battered my tarp. It was an adventure! And it was pretty cool being inside in the deluge! It will be really cool once I have skylights on the roof!

Nevertheless, we decided we were done for the day. So when Randy's rain-o-meter notified us of a relative dry spell from 1:12-1:23 pm we packed the trim away again (in no particular order - just like it had been before we sorted it!) I was afraid it would be floating in standing water since there were puddles everywhere, but it was actually relatively dry so we were able to get it put back just fine.

I was feeling grumpy and not quite sure how to rally. Fortunately, my build buddy Laura cheered me up by suggesting a trip to Sauvie Island. The rain had stopped by now (of course!) so we went to a u-pick strawberry farm. The berries were tiny and super sweet and the farm was beautiful so we had a great time picking pints.

Determined to make the most of the car rental, I ended my day by exploring several hardware stores and making a trip to Ikea. I enjoyed picking up a few supplies I needed and taking the time to wander the aisles to see if there were any new innovations I should be aware of.

Next weekend I'll be able to work on the tiny house all four days! So we should get the roof buttoned up and we may even get to start installing windows. I can't wait!