Roofing, Windows and Walls

Updates have been slow coming as life does change your course of action. Warmer weather leaves, storms roll in and work gets really busy. I have been trying to make this our of as much recycled material as possible. The roof is part bought and some recycle. Part of me has comfort knowing it will not leak having new material above my head while sleeping on a rainy evening and it was rather hard locating metal roofing no one wanted or that was laying around. Roof is pretty much done and now I can move on to walls and closing the 10x10 in. With snow on the way in the next few months getting the exterior walls done is my main focus, that will just leave the interior work to be done. If I can seal this up before snow fall that would be great! 

Breaks in the weather

Finding breaks in the weather and using what free time I can find with the short daylight hours I have managed to get the sheathing up on the roof, tar paper down, another couple windows in and a partial wall going. I need to start ripping pallets apart so I can get going on siding and drying the really nice ones for the floor. I am still not sure if I want more windows in the right wall or just make it uniform with the left wall. The right side gets the most sun and thinking that might be good for more windows, and well I do love windows! I need to figure out how much metal roofing I need and hope that Hurricane Sandy does not hit us hard in this area as I would really hate to see any damage on my 10x10. I would prefer to get it built first to see what types of weather it can handle. I am making use of the scrap wood that has been hanging around for some time here, along with other construction materials from other projects. Feels good to put them to use instead of seeing them sit in a corner, or head to a landfill. I really want to get the roof done so I can mount my solar panels!

Starting to grow

I am moving along, some days you feel like you are going no where as you are taking care of the small things. I have been dragging on getting the trusses done for the roof, sometimes I get tired of working on the same thing over and over again. I like to see progress. I pressed on and progress was made. Today I purchased sheathing for the roof and that is almost done. Two more pieces to go and I can then paper it and put the metal roof on. I have 2 pieces already from when our roof was done so I need to purchase more to finish the 10x10 roof (the roof of course is large due to the eves). I am trying my best not to buy anything, but somethings I  feel I should buy to help ease my mind. I want the roof to not leak so I am opting to purchase materials to make sure it is done right. I should have enough pallets to do the floor and will figure out the walls once the roof is done. Today I felt like progress was made, 6 pieces of sheathing can really show you that.

When production slows down

I do have my days where I can not work on the 10x10 due to other responsibilities. Today was suppose to be a day of working on it but the outdoor wood stove needed to get ready for winter, then I found out it need a valve replaced. My day took a turn and was spent more on the stove and no work was done on the 10 x 10. I took what free time I had left and made some glasses and a vase.

Puzzle pieces

Did I ever mention I like working with bottles? Thought so :) I was happy to find two bottles to form a glass block that fit perfectly in a spot that otherwise would have been filled by concrete. I would like to thank whom ever drank the Evan Williams whiskey in three small bottles, they were the missing puzzle pieces I needed.

Playing with Bottles

I think it was Memorial Day weekend of 2004, I took a camping road trip with some friends to Eastern Washington (I was living in Everett, Wa. at the time). During our adventure we stopped by a cabin where a little get together was happening and that is when I saw this room, I did not notice until I walked in the cool circular shapes and light coming in. That is when it dawned on me that they put bottles in the walls, I stepped out sided and saw the other ends of the bottles. I was amazed at how cool looking this was and what a great idea. Flash forward to 2011 I find the movie "Garbage Warrior" and I start learning of Earthship's. I see more bottles being used and even more items the fill our dumps daily now being used to build with. This inspired me to do something myself. So I started small of course by making regular drinking glasses and vases. Now I have started making the glass bottle blocks for the Tiny I am building. Here are some pictures of the latest ones I am working on. This unconventional way of building is fun and challenging, I am learning new things while getting to use what I know at the same time. I like how bottles bring something unique to the project, each one is different...from the numbers to the little designs on the bottom of the bottle.

 

Footprints

When ever I am building or tearing something apart I always try to have as little waste as possible. I like the challenge when taking something apart to see how much of it I can reuse for something else. Same when building I try to hold onto everything until I am done using as much of everything as possible. So here is a picture of my current waste, I do however rummage through this pile looking for stuff every now and then, sometimes you need that tiny piece of wood and you find it right in that pile!

Creative with what you have laying around

I have been pondering over the past few days about how the front of my "Tiny Home" was looking. I did not like how the windows were laid out nor the bottle window's placement by the door. So after some debate with myself I took the middle window and lower bottle window out and will re work that. I also took a beam I had in place out, which is fine as it was serving no purpose other than aesthetics. Once I did that seeing it opened up made me feel better. I did some more work on the garage door aka the back wall. The supports in place for that are out of an 60+ year old farmhouse that is no longer standing, I wanted to keep them looking rough and uneven so I used my planner and sanded them down so they were smooth and cleaned up. I managed to fined enough chip board around here to do the sub floor, that took a bit longer as I had to cut and fit pieces in place...I must admit again I missed the luxury of having nice large sheets to drop in place. Once I was done however I smiled knowing I cleaned up a bunch of loose wood here that could have ended up rotting away.
Plans for the front are more glass bottle blocks, a small window to the left of the door and up top another window. If you look close at the picture on the right you can see a fish tank, that has plans on being turned into a bay window! I need to find more wood to finish my trusses and then start getting some roofing materials together. Oh did I mention the pile of palettes I have to rip apart? Those will be turned into flooring if all goes well.
For those keeping track of canines helping today Jack, Lennon, Brody, Maggie, Chloe and Bernard were all out with me at different times of the day.

Set backs tools and help

I guess not everyday is a good day when you are building. Sometimes things do not work out right. So I revamped a couple things and moved forward. It gets hard sometimes as I really just want to run to the home store and get what I need so I can finish the project, but then that defeats the whole idea behind it. The only plans for this are in my head, sometimes I just sit in a chair and stare at it waiting and thinking. Progress is being made and some days more than others. Most of the time while working I have sunflower seeds stuck in my mouth and I always have a trusty dog by my side ( pictured is Bernard).

Switching Gears

The little cabin is on hold at the moment as that tends to happen when things lay dormant for too long and life has you change gears. Now I have switched things up a tad and started a new project. Right now it shall be called "The Getaway" this all started from looking at Earthships, then seeing all these recycled projects being made and then I saw "Tiny Homes". So here is the start of this project and hopefully it will be completed be fore to long. Currently I have $100.00 into it, that is for some lumber, screws, nails and sandpaper. I have been working to get free windows, doors and even scored a garage door which I used for the back wall. Some of the frame is made out of our old play set, pallets and a 60+ year old farm house that is no longer on our property. That property was sold and the farm house was so bad off it was torn down.

My goal is to try and spend as little money on it as possible, I think this adds to getting more creative with what I can find and what I have laying around here.

Enjoy!

Patrick