Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 4

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 4 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. Day 1 was a prep day, Day 2 we began the wall raising, and Day 3 we got all but the last panel up, so we were eager to get that last wall up yesterday.

We worked in pairs to accomplish the day’s tasks, including:

• Bolting down the last sill plate
• Erecting another set of scaffolding
• Beveling & installing top plates
• Creating a plan for beveling roof perimeter framing and testing a piece with an 8” board
• Installing framing in door & remaining windows
• Applying liquid flashing to rough openings (ROs)

Once we got our final sill plate bolted down that final panel slipped right into its spot so nicely it felt like it was magnetized! It was awesome to have the house finally be a box!

We were on a roll when quitting time came along so we continued working for another hour in the cooler evening air. We have two more rough openings to flash with the liquid flashing and some beveling to do for the roof perimeter framing, so that we can get our first roof panel up. I found myself dreaming about that first roof panel going up last night. It will be fun to make that dream come true!

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 3

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 3 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. We got rained on most of the night so we did a 1-hour delayed start to give things time to dry out enough that the mastic would set up. Courtney arrived with a well-organized task list for the day which we checked in on first thing. The day before we raised most of the walls during Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 2. Additionally, two of the remaining sections were small, so we figured it would be easy-peasy getting the rest of the walls up in the morning.

However, yesterday ended up being a head-scratching day and we all learned a bunch. As we got one full long wall up we discovered that when we lined up the tops of the panels we had to shim the bottoms a fair bit in the middle. The ideas were flying as we brainstormed possible solutions.

We were trying to make sense of it and we came back to the notion that the trailer was bowed. We were all pretty perplexed, so we gave Damon at Trailer Made a ring to learn more. Damon assured us that the bow (which they call a “camber”) is not only totally normal but also totally on purpose.

“You know how when you see a semi flatbed it is usually bowed the other way, like a rainbow?” he asked. “That’s because when it’s fully loaded it flattens out under the load. With a tiny house trailer we do the opposite because all the weight is around the perimeter. We give it a little camber so that as the walls are positioned the trailer flattens out.”

Damon confirmed that we were better off not adding permanent shims at the bottom because as the top plates go in and the roof goes on the house should settle into position. We’ll be able to remove the shims as the trailer flattens out. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

I felt silly for not calling Damon up and asking the question earlier. I’d heard of trailers with a bow built into them but I’d never worked with one before. However, I realized that I should have checked in about this on Friday when we first suspected it might be the case with this trailer. That day Courtney, Kurt and I had leveled the trailer as well as we could, which involved taking some weight off the axels as we raised the jacks, and we found that the trailer seemed to tip in both ways. It was slight so I didn’t think much of it. Turns out, when you have a few thousand pounds of SIPs on the trailer, it starts to matter – a lot!

Now that we had a better sense of how to work with the trailer, we employed Andrea’s suggestion to let the trailer down onto its axels so that the ends could tip back down. That helped quite a bit, but the mastic had set up on that second panel we’d installed the day before, so it wasn’t budging, even after we removed the fasteners. We realized we’d have to live with it. Fortunately, we were able to get the rest of the long wall panels up and lined up. When we did our final measurements we found we were only off by about a ¼”. Since we know just where that came from, we’re pretty pleased.

I’m thoroughly impressed with how high morale remained throughout this process. I’m grateful to the Meyerhofers for their graciousness and to Mark, Andrea, Chris, and Richard for their patience, their creativity, and their willingness to try new things. It was great having so many math lovers amongst the group because it enabled us to make great use of materials and do some clever problem solving.

I’m going to stop making predictions about how long things should take now, but I’m glad that we’re finally in good shape to get that last wall up tomorrow! We’re half way through our six-day build blitz and I’m eager to see what more we can accomplish for Courtney, Kurt, and the Cilantro Poncho! If you'd like to come visit, please join us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House.

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 2

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 2 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. We started the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep on Friday and Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 1 included more prep for our wall raising, which we began yesterday. We had two more people come to join us for the work party: Kurt’s brother Chris and a friend of mine from college, Katie, who both came down from Phoenix.

After check ins and a review of Courtney and Kurt’s goals for the day, we split into work crews got started on the day’s project list which included the following:

• Installing corner framing
• Removing trailer light temporarily to provide access for bolts on tail end of trailer
• Drilling 5/8” holes through the trailer flange
• Bolting the sill plates to the trailer with ½” bolts, nuts, and a bevy of washers
• Erecting scaffolding
• Prepping and positioning the first wall
• Spray foaming and masticing the first wall
• Tipping up the first wall, plumbing it, bracing it, and tacking it to the bottom plate

By then it was lunch time. It was awesome to have that first wall up by lunch and so fun to see everyone working together at a team. In the afternoon we started in on our next list of tasks:

• Tipping up the second and third wall sections and attaching the first two corner sections in place with SIP screws
• Installing SIP splines
• Installing the fourth panel
• For panels with wheelwells: tracing the wheelwell pattern on the SIP (making sure it’s the right direction and measured properly from the end!), cutting the bottom of SIP, scooping out foam with the foam cutter, and installing blocking in the bottom of the SIP.

We found that when the back wall was completely plumb there was a gap at the top of both corners where the SIPs came together, but the SIP screws managed to cinch everything together nicely.

We ended up working an extra hour to take advantage of all the help we had and it was great getting the trickiest panels up. We have five of the nine wall panels up and all the ones with wheel wells are done now. Tomorrow should be smooth sailing as we get the last four panels up and then we’ll be able to start prepping for the roof!

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 1

 

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday we kicked off a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. I joined Courtney and Kurt on Friday afternoon to begin Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep and yesterday we were joined by an awesome crew of folks who came to help them get this little house started. Kurt’s parents, Andrea and Mark, drove over from LA with their SUV full of tools, Richard came down from Mesa, and Cammie and Andy drove from Phoenix to be here.

We started out with introductions, goals, tool safety, and “walking tour” of the tiny house. Then we split into work crews got started on the day’s project list which included the following:

• "Painting" the SIPs exterior with a third layer of liquid-applied water resistant barrier
• Cutting window framing and installing it in the window openings
• Measuring and cutting sill plates
• Determining the center of the trailer and snapping a center line
• Measuring from the center line to clamp the sill plates into place
• Tacking the sill plates in place with 2” star drive screws

Along the way we had a few moments of head scratching, a bunch of laughs, and gave each other lots of kudos. It was an awesome day and we’re nearly ready to get first wall up!

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho's First Open House

This week I’m in Tucson helping Courtney and Kurt Meyerhofer’s dream come true through a Build Blitz for their tiny house, affectionately dubbed the Cilantro Poncho. Yesterday and the day before we worked on Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep and today is Day 1 of the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz. We’re expecting five more people to come help out as we get everything ready for the wall raising on Day 2.

At the end of the week Kurt and Courtney are hosting their very first Open House so that you can check out their little house. If you’d like to come admire our week’s work during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for the Cilantro Poncho Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

This will be a chance for you to learn more about their house, their construction methods, and their upcoming plans. If you’ve never set foot inside a tiny house, this is a great chance to do it! If you’d like to follow along with their time-lapse of the build via their YouTube channel, they’ll be sharing the link. And if you’d like to help out in exchange for some hands-on experience building a tiny house, you’ll be able to sign up for that, too.

*If you’re reading this after the Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep

We’ve had a lovely spring in Portland (read: plenty of rain!) so I felt parched the moment I stepped out of the Tucson airport. I immediately wheeled my tool-laden suitcase over to the nearest drinking fountain and began the hydration process that will ensure survival during our week-long build blitz in the desert.

Kurt and Courtney are the homeowners for this tiny house (tentatively named the Cilantro Poncho) and I’ve been working with them since they signed up for The Package Deal in the fall of 2015. They took my Tiny House Considerations E-Course, my Downsizing E-Course, and we worked through a custom tiny house design together. (Their design is based on the Skyline tiny house built by Eric Bohne, which they stayed in at Caravan – The Tiny House Hotel last fall – and we tailored it to suit their needs. Thanks, Eric!) For the past 6 weeks we’ve been working through project management together: getting quotes for trailers, SIPs, windows, water resistant barriers, and roofing so that we can get their little house dried in.

As they wrapping up Friday afternoons at work, I hit the ground running with a list of errands. My first stop was reserving scaffolding at Sunbelt Rentals so that we can get the SIPs roof installed on this tiny house safely. Then I headed to the build site to receive deliveries and finalize the tool, material, and supply lists.

Once Kurt arrived we walked through what materials and supplies we have on hand, which are arriving with Kurt’s dad, and which we need to pick up. We were just wrapping up when the trailer arrived. Damon and Natalie of Trailer Made went the extra mile (literally!) to ensure an on-time delivery for the trailer, driving it themselves from Denver to Tucson. I met them at Tiny House Jamboree last summer so it was a delight to see them here in a different context. Kurt was as swoony about his new trailer as Natalie and Damon’s dog Ruby was about Kurt! We admired it for a while, Kurt walking around “in” his new house to get a feel for how it will be in now that he has a life-size foundation. I told him that the house will go from seeming really big to really small to really big again as we add the layers. The window delivery from Window Depot arrived shortly after Courtney did and it was especially exciting to see the tiny windows that will go in Kurt and Courtney’s “away room.”

By evening we had all the major components we’ll need for the Build Blitz: trailer, SIPs kit, windows, and water resistant barrier. So we headed out, list in hand, to the hardware store so that Courtney and Kurt could select and stock their tool belts and a few basic jobsite tools. The part I’m most excited about for their sake is the impact driver and drill set they picked out. My Makita impact driver and drill set was one of the best presents I bought myself for my build and I’m sure they’ll appreciate having this great tool set for their own build and beyond.

By the time we wrapped up at the hardware store it was late, but I still stayed up talking with my host for the week, a friend from college whom I haven’t caught up with in way too long. She has a sweet little house not far from the built site and it feels splendidly serendipitous that she also has a guest room at the moment. Hooray for the week ahead! We can’t wait for everyone else to arrive! (And we still have a couple A Day at the Tucson Build Blitz spots available later in the week if you're in the area and want to join us!)

Living on the Green Side

It was a pleasure to have a chat a couple months ago with Sierra Dickey '15, a fellow graduate of Whitman College who wanted to write a story about me and my little house, The Lucky Penny, for an upcoming edition of the Whitman Magazine. Even more exciting, my old friend Matt Zimmerman Banderas '04 who is a very talented photographer, was assigned the job of coming to my tiny house community, Simply Home Community to take photos for the story. The story, called Living on the Green Side, just went live and I'd love to share it with you. Thank you, Sierra and Matt, for helping me share my story and thank you Whitman for the people and experiences you provided that have helped me live this happy little life!

Read Living on the Green Side by clicking this link!

Tiny House 101 Workshop in Washington, D.C. in March

I'm thrilled to be teaching a Tiny House Workshop (TH 101) in Washington, D.C. this March through the Tiny House Collaborative. This workshop is geared towards the tiny house curious crowd. (We'll be teaching an intermediate tiny house course (TH 201) in Denver, CO following the Tiny House Jamboree in August, so if you're tiny house serious, just hang tight for more info on that!)

If you'd like to join us for TH 101 in D.C. in March, please register today!

Tiny House 101 includes 2 full days of instruction, interactive activities, and networking covering all the tiny house basics. Learn the basics of how to build a tiny house and decide whether tiny house living is for you.  In this workshop by members of the Tiny House Collaborative, you will have the opportunity to learn from experienced tiny house builders, designers and advocates.

Topics include:

• Intro to tiny houses & the tiny house movement
• Planning your build – budget, construction, DIY
• Tiny House Lifestyle
• Major Decisions
• Trailer or foundation built
• Framing & basic building techniques
• Plumbing, electrical & propane systems
• Toilet & gray water options – composting and more!
• Thermal envelope – insulation and ventilation
• Appliance considerations – recommendations for the best, no-hassle products
• Zoning issues, regulations – how and where to park or build
• Interior design for small spaces

Pricing:

• Standard Price = $399 per person or $700 for two people
• Early Bird Discount = $349 for Single Person or Two People for $600

If you'd like to join us for TH 101 in D.C. in March, please register today!

Tiny House Build Blitz in Tucson

Are you considering building a tiny house of your own? Do you want to learn how to build with SIPs (structural insulated panels?) If you are getting serious about building your tiny house this year, one of the very best things you can do is get some hands-on building experience.

I'm going to be leading a week-long Tiny House Build Blitz in Tucson, AZ at the beginning of March to help a fabulous couple build their tiny dream home and we're excited to share this learning opportunity with you, too! If you're ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work, this workshop is for you! 

Sign up with a buddy and you both get $100 off when you sign up! Space is limited, so please register for the Build Blitz in Tucson to claim your spot today! 

I built my tiny house with SIPs in 2014 and I've been helping other people do the same ever since. In a week-long build blitz using SIPs we can typically get the floor done, the walls up, the roof on, and the waterproofing on. We'll work together each step of the way! And the best part is you'll get to do this with the encouragement of other people who are embarking on a similar journey. (Hint: the people in the workshop may help you build YOUR house someday!)

The $395 workshop cost includes:

• Hands-on experience building the shell of a tiny house on wheels using high-quality, energy-efficient building materials including SIPs and a liquid-applied water resistant barrier!
• Personalized instruction to use basic hand and power tools!
• Your very own tool belt with basic hand tools to take home with you!
• The satisfaction of helping an awesome couple start their tiny dream home!
• Lots of laughs, high fives, and an awesome sense of empowerment!

This six-day workshop will run from 9AM to 5PM each day from Sunday, March 6 through Friday, March 11 in Tucson, AZ. 

Register for the Build Blitz in Tucson to claim your spot today!

Tiny House Collaborative

I was on Hawaiian Time when the Tiny House Collaborative launched, so I haven't yet taken the time to tell you how very excited I am about being part of this group of fabulous people. The short answer is pretty freakin' excited!

The Tiny House Collaborative is a team of 7 individuals, each passionate about providing the resources to design, build and dwell efficiently. We are combining our energy, time, and expertise so that we can more effectively share our love of tiny homes and our collective knowledge of living well in small spaces. It's a synergistic relationship because we can do more together than any one of us could do alone.

You have four opportunities to take advantage of this synergy right away:

• Sign up for our Tiny House 101 Workshop in Washington DC March 26-27
• Sign up for a Phone/Skype Consultation to address your specific questions
• Sign up for an On-Site Consultation so we can give you the skinny on your property's suitability for a tiny home
• Sign up for a Tiny House Tour so you can explore one of our tiny homes

So how did this group of people all join up? We think it was a little bit luck/fate/coincidence and a little bit being brave enough to act on our mutual friend crushes. When we all arrived in Colorado for the 2015 Tiny House Jamboree, we decided to kick off the weekend with a hike. We got to talking about what each of us were doing in the Tiny House Movement and how it was hard to do it alone. By the end of the hike, the seven of us had decided we had to find a way to combine efforts. And just like that, the Tiny House Collaborative became a twinkle in our eyes.

In December we gathered up to Visit Orlando Lakefront RV & Tiny House Park to explore the city where James and Kai live. We turned the trip into a retreat to figure out the details and prepare to share the Tiny House Collaborative with everyone else. That means YOU! We have created a website where you can learn more about the Collaborative and sign up for the services we currently offer. Please know there are many more good things to come!