Interior Siding: The Beginning

Last week was quite the week.  Tiny Refuge went from bare studs with electrical, to purple with some studs coming through to beautiful knotty pine siding.  Part of me had forgotten what  a difference siding made to the exterior of the house. It is certainly making a wonderful difference to the interior.

The interior siding arrived just under four months ago when the ridge beam was delivered.  It was stacked beside the big house, protected under tarps, until December when it was brought inside before the snow fell.  Although it might have been fine to stay outside, the thought of snow sneaking its way inside the tarp and then melting, was enough to move the whole lot into the tiny house.  That pile of siding, much of which is 16′ in length was really interesting to get inside the house and then even more interesting to cut and install.

We set up the mitre saw next to the large window on the short wall of the house.  Then we set up a ladder outside, lined up with the window.  Whenever a 16′ board was cut, we had to open the window and slide the board outside, where  it would rest on the ladder and stay level to be cut.  If the board was the wrong way around, it was fed outside through the window, turned and then sent back in through the window.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold on Saturday and though colder on Sunday, it wasn’t too bad.  The insulation got it’s first real test and I have to say, it did a great job.  I had read a post by Laura Moreland of Tiny House Ontario on Tiny House Listings that described the effect opening a door had on the heat in her tiny house.  It had me rather nervous, and I am happy to say that Tiny Refuge held its heat fairly well.  Granted it was a balmy -12C (10F) and not -31C (-23).  Nonetheless, it was reassuring that with the small electrical heater going, the house remained comfortable while the window was completely open for minutes at a time.

We started by installing the 2×3 stud that is the beginning of the bathroom wall, with cutouts in it for the wires to be able to reach the breaker panel that will be in the wall.  Then the siding started going up.  It was a little bit of slow going with all of the cutouts needed for the electrical outlets and switches and for the wheel wells and windows.  Stefan used the table saw for the long straight cuts and we used two different tools for the smaller cutouts.  The first was a jigsaw and the second  was an oscillating multi-tool.  We used the multi-tool a little with the exterior siding, but it really got good use with the interior siding.  It was nice tool to use.  The jigsaw was also fun, I even got to cut circles with it and they were pretty fantastic for my first shot of cutting circles with a jigsaw.

We had wonderful help on Saturday from René.  He manned the mitre saw and juggled 16′ boards.

The first wall of siding almost complete. Because most of the siding is in 16′ lengths, there are no joints along this wall.

Stefan working marking a cutout for an outlet.

Measuring.

The back wall at the end of day 1.

Sage and Clover playing.

Stefan getting the top piece of siding in on the dormer.

Back wall done!

Close up of the window.

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Two Days, Three Walls and a Big Blue Box

This past Saturday and Sunday so very much was accomplished.  I am  really happy.   Stefan, the carpenter who has been hired to help with the build, was here bright and early to start building Saturday morning.  The goal for Saturday was to complete the two long walls of the house and we did.  The pace was quick and steady throughout the day.  We built the first wall on the trailer bed, placed the fancy Simpson strong ties to attach the house to the trailer, squared the wall,  tacked it down to the bed of the trailer so that it wouldn’t move, nailed in the strapping, and sheathed it.  The second wall was built on top of the first wall.  We trimmed off about  1 1/2 inches off the top of each of the bolts that are welded to the frame so that we didn’t have to lift the walls any higher than necessary.

It was a huge relief to be working with someone who builds and renovates homes for a living.  I am more than happy to learn from someone else’s mistakes and not worry about making mistakes that could affect the stability of my home.  Stefan spent some time researching and learning about tiny houses.  I really appreciated that while he was looking over the plans for the house he found out why they are built differently than a traditional home.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures of what we did on that first day, I don’t usually take pictures or think to take pictures.    Here is a picture of the start of the day:

Laying out the framing for the wall.

This is what we had at the end of the day:

Two walls on the trailer. The end sections of the walls weren’t sheathed so that the sheathing could go over the end walls as well. The blue sill gasket was put on Saturday morning.  It prevents air from coming in under the wall framing.

Sunday morning, helpers came to help us raise the walls.  Once again, I was very happy to have Stefan there to lead the wall raising.  Negotiating raising the walls, getting them placed on the bolts and then braced went relatively smoothly and was done in under an hour.   One of our helpers, a good friend who came with his children, stuck around for the rest of the day to help.  Yay!

The front wall (by the trailer hitch) was built,  squared, raised and secured into place.  We sheathed that wall once it was in place we sheathed it and the ends of the long walls closest to it.  With rain in the forecast put the tarp in place and worked with it draped over the top of the house as we finished up the afternoon starting on the back wall of the house.  The day ended a little early and I am very happy with what we got done.

It’s a wall!

Two walls up and braced.

Securing the walls in place.

The other construction site of the day. Scrap pieces of wood and bungees are the best!

Working on the front wall.

Third wall up and strapped.

With the tarp half up.