chain saw accident

So, I apologize for the delay in posting. I have been moving slow due to a chain saw accident. A good friend of mine and two of his Children drowned in a canoe accident a few weeks ago and following the funeral I decided to get my mind off things by clearing a little near the house. Emotional and tired is no way to start a chain saw project. About ten minutes into the trimming, that could have been done with my machete, I caught a thread of my britches with the fresh blade. The saw was hot from the cutting and cauterized the cut. As such, I did not bleed a drop until my friend Linda started stitching. A few stitched in the muscle and a few more in a couple layers of skin and I was back together. The stitches have just come out and thought it is still tender I am back in action. Praise the Lord I did not hit any arteries etc. . .

No pictures with this one. My wife took one but I do not have it to post.

tiny house: water

The water line is dug. It snowed, we froze. My brother destroyed two hickory handles on a a pickax and a 20 pound sledge. Ultimately, we may have lost some tools but we got through the rock shelve and the dirt. We will now have water for the house and for the fields. in total it took three days with 2-3 people working but we made it over 500 feet from the road to the house. 

The water line is dug. It snowed, we froze. My brother destroyed two hickory handles on a a pickax and a 20 pound sledge. Ultimately, we may have lost some tools but we got through the rock shelve and the dirt. We will now have water for the house and for the fields. in total it took three days with 2-3 people working but we made it over 500 feet from the road to the house.

retro posting: raising the first rib

     I have been asked countless times, " how id you get the big beams up." Here is is the how we did the first one. I climbed a tree, Hung a climbing harness in the tree, and ran a rope through a pulley on the harness. We took said rope and connected it to a truck a few hundred feet away via several redirecting pulleys. We connected the other end to the first timber rib.
     We lifted the rib to an angle so it would not just pull flat along the ground. Once we tipped the rib we placed blocks behind it so it would not slide.
All set. Rope attached to truck, Truck in gear, pulling forward. As we moved the truck forward the pine bent lower and lower. I thought the plan had failed. I parked the truck where it was and when I went to examine the situation I discovered that the rib now felt like a 2x4. It was essentially spring loaded by the bent tree. Allowing the spring of the tree to do the work we simply positioned the rib where we wanted it and lifted the holding blocks out of the way. We nailed some angled boards to the rib to keep it from tipping and the first rib was in place.

   The other ribs actually had to be lifted eight inches at a time due to the angle being incompatible with our new found spring loaded tree. This slow raising of the other ribs was definitely an exercise in trust and cooperation. Building this house has been one of the best forms of marriage counseling. It has taken communication to a whole new level.

Walls and windows upstairs

 Here is a little look at the framing of the upstairs area. This first photo is looking North toward what will be the closet and washer/ dryer stack. The second photo shows the South wall with windows prepped to go in place. The third photo allows a little different view of the South vantage. We are excited about the beautiful views and also how cozy the house is tucked into the edge of the woods.
     Noticeably, there are no windows in the North wall and the South wall has a window set high on the wall. The lack of windows on the North wall will limit our loss of heat in the Winter. North facing windows are essentially holes in a house and provide little light and plenty of reduced efficiency. I should note, a friend was recently visiting from Australia. In The Southern hemisphere the dynamic is reversed. The North wall is where you have solar gain and the South wall is the efficiency suck.
     Our North wall will also house our closet. The normal insulation will be in place in the walls but the addition of a closet along the North wall will provide additional buffeting. Hopefully we will see some degree of benefit from this layout choice.
     A high window on the Southern wall is placed in order to maximize Winter Sun and reduce Summer Sun. Allowing adequate sun to fill the house in the Winter will not only lift spirits and moods but also help to radiantly warm the house. Conversely, in the Summer the radiant sun would be a negative as we try to keep the house cooler. The placement of the window high on the wall will allow the overhang of the roof to shade the window for a large portion of the day. In the Summer the suns declination is higher in the sky and this higher track is what allows for the eave shading.
   We purposefully place large windows on the East and West sides of the house to increase filtered light in the mid day while increasing morning sun and sunset rays. The large window to the East will crank open, three separate cranks stacked. The "triple crank" opens out in such a manner as to shield the interior of the house from any rain and as to scoop air coming up the hill. The scooped air can then enter the house and create flow through ventilation.

another duck design

In the interest of planning, I have sketched my thoughts on our future duck habitat. We are planning to enclose the ducks in a mesh fence with a picket fence facing the road and drive. The picket fence will act as an attractive screen as well as a light shading for the ducks. We will also have a large oak tree in the enclosure. I plan to make a small pond for them to primp and swim in as well. The pond will be about a foot and a half deep with a large three to four inch drain. As the ducks dirty the water i will be able to drain the pond, collect the "pond tea" for fertilizer, and refill the pond with clear and clean water. This drain system is possible considering that the duck area is slightly raised above our drive and I will be able to run the drain pipe to the drive. A small duck house will allow for night cloistering and secure egg laying.

Inside

Here is a photo of the house in a stage of partial completion as seen from up the hill. It really is tucked into the wood nicely. We cleared the understory and fire ladder to allow for good air flow through the forest as well as excellent forest floor walking area. 

 And now for the first photos of the inside of the house. This photo to the left is taken from the corner of the living area where the wood stove will sit. The photo is looking into the kitchen area, South, The french doors will be just to the left of this photo and the stairs will ascend in the right of the photo frame, where the boards are leaning.

This photo looks out at the kitchen and living area as well. The window on the West wall denotes the location where the stairs will start. The wood stove will be placed just to the right of the red broom handle. The 4x4 beam in the foreground of this shot is a door post into the bathroom, which I am standing in. 

This photo is looking North. The air compressor ( which we have used for exactly 12  finish nails into the windows, all other nails where hand driven) is about there the wood stove will sit. The opening on the right of the shot is for the french doors. The 4x4 post denotes the entry into the bathroom. The bathroom will have a small step up which will help delineate the space. We used poplar for the subfloor and all of the sheeting on the outside of the house has been free oak and pine from the sawmill. The blue tarp hanging down from the second floor is hanging through the hole where the chimney pipe will go. I have left an area open in the floor for easy access as I am yet to get under the house and do plumbing. electrical, etc. . . 

second floor update

 The second floor is almost done. We have to a few windows to install and the stud work to support said windows. The roof is coming along nicely. We have all of the roof trusses up as of this past weekend. The pictures hearer show all but two trusses up. The photos also show the house before the North wall was built. More photos are to come. I often get distracted with building and forget to stop and take photos of the progress. We are using metal roofing and a radiant barrier on the roof. We nailed wide purlins in place to stabilize the trusses before placing the radiant barrier down. Once the radiant insulation was in place we nailed purlins on top of our wide purlins. These top purlins will allow us to screw the metal down while still maintaining an air space between the radiant insulation and the metal roof. This air gap is important in order for the radiant barrier to work properly, according to my reading.
The main floor is wrapped in tyvek. The windows are in and it is starting to feel like a real house. My next post will have the first photos of inside.

foundation

      I thought I would take a moment and write a little about our foundation. Many tiny houses are built on trailers thus reducing the foundation issue and in most cases eliminating the need to have the structure inspected by a local code enforcer. In our location there are no building codes. We have a health inspector that would come out to inspect a septic or field lines. We also have an electrical inspector that would come out if we were connecting to the grid.
     Our little house is built on one course of cinder block sitting upon two slabs of four inch cement that is laid over gravel filled mountain stone. Half of the foundation is laid over undisturbed sandy loam and sandstone. The other half was about a foot lower and so we compacted soil and small rocks to bring it up level. All of the rock and mountain stone was pulled out of a low exposed area about fifty feet from the house. Inside the foundation we poured a thin coat of concrete in most of the area to act as a barrier. We will still lay a vapor barrier but felt the extra thermal mass of cement would be nice under the house. All of the block is cement filled and we placed threaded rods into some so as to connect to the wood of the house. Inside the block we placed ridged foam in a hope of insulating the foundation and holding temperature inside better.
     As you can see in the photos we had to shim the bottom boards of our house to make it all level. This is mostly due to my lack of experience with pouring a foundation and making it level. We will  have piers about eight feet out from the house on the East to allow for the deck beams to rest level.

square thoughtage

The average American household is now over 2000 square feet. The average American individual has around 1000 square feet of personal living space. These statistics vary slightly depending on the source but hold reasonably close regardless. As the modern family has morphed and shrunk the homes in which we sleep, spend weekends, holidays, and special events has expanded. The expansion is something to the tune of doubling within one lifetime. This is an extreme reality of modern American life, we own larger homes have smaller families. Paradoxical? I think yes. 

There is a movement, a currently chic and trendy movement, toward small homes. Homes that are minimalistic in size. Homes that are even tiny. This movement is rooted in diverse beginnings, as diverse as the owners of such homes. Some build a tiny home because they want to create something unique. They want something that they themselves crafted and a tiny home is no so daunting as a two story colonial. Others buy tiny homes as a way to avoid debt. The smaller home carries a smaller price tag and allows the owner a freedom from debt. A smaller home with the smaller price tag afford these individuals the ability to fill their small space with quality over quantity. Still others, own tiny homes because the life they live are conducive to a small home. We sleep at home but we live in our cars. We cook breakfast at home but we eat lunch and diner in town. We work all day and spend the evening in the shops. Despite the regional and cultural differences across the county we spend less time at home today than ever before. It is time our house design reflect our culture and not that of our parents, or the aristocracy of past centuries. 

We are building a tiny home for all of these reasons. A tiny home is not limited by size. It is designed to evolve. It should be fluid as our lives are fluid. Our house will be 400 square feet. We will have outdoor living areas; covered porch areas, garden paths, rows of fruit trees. The design accounts for future additions. We may enclose a section of porch, converting a screened room to an extra bedroom if the need arises. If the need moves out it can always be converted back to a screen roof. It is fluid. We are accounting for desires such as creative work space. This may enlarge our house but not without reason, for thought and consideration for design. A tiny house is about creative use of space, multi purposing, quality over quantity. A tiny house is about purpose and freedom. It is not limited by size but empowered by it. We have chosen to build a tiny house.

Second floor

       This past week has proved to be productive. Partly due to the threat of impending rain and partly because we made a conscious effort to build on multiple days. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera for a daily snap shot. The photo to the left is our progress as of the end of the week.  The sub floor is done, save a small strip that will allow access to the crawl space. The second floor has half of the studs done. Yes, we are building the second floor with traditional framing as opposed to timber framing. Building the timber ribs was fun and interesting but there is no way we can safely raise ribs on a second floor. Not to mention we ran out of cured oak for the process. So, standard stud walls it is. We are using saw mill cut pine from the mill five miles away. 2x4x8s are 2.40 a board and that beats Lowes by a mile, not to mention it is locally sourced, cut and milled. Additionally, the wood from the mill is true cut as opposed to the "standard" lumber from the store that is labeled 2x4 but is really smaller.
      We were able to build a jig and finish half of our roof trusses this week. We lifted them into place with a reasonable amount of grunting and ladder climbing. The metal roofing and reflective bubble insulation was picked up this week and we will hopefully install it in the next couple days.
     Yesterday, amidst the rain, we burned four large piles of brush. Most of the brush was from clearing the site for the house. We also burned a large amount of brush from our recent clearing in the forest surrounding the house. The burning really helped to clean up the surrounding area and removing the downed brush from the forest will make room for our hazelnut planting this Fall.
    Below are several more pictures of the house in its current state, taken from different angles. The second to bottom photo is taken from the lower field and gives good perspective on how the house sits up on the hill.

site prep

       This is a retrospective photo. Here I am laying out the house site. We drover rebar into the ground at key points so as to allow us to visualize the size and shape of the house. This picture was taken mid July. We began foundation work shortly after this picture was taken.
      The house foundation now sits to about where I am kneeling. You can see the thick forrest in the background and the field to the South. We have since thinned the forest and trimmed the undergrowth to about seven foot. This Winter we will plant hazelnuts in the protection of that pine forest.
To the left you can see some of the foundation work in progress. We gathered mountain stone from near the house site and placed large rocks in a trench. Some of the rocks were excessively large , we laid these in the corners. in addition to the mountain rock we also took gravel from the old logging trail and filled the foundation with crushed stone in fill.
Following the rock and gravel we poured 4 inches of concrete base layer all around the perimeter. once this was set and cured we poured an additional cap of concrete over and around the first layer. The layering created a wide, firm and well established foundation on which we laid mortar and one corse of eight inch block.

Here is another shot of me working on the forms for the base layer of concrete. The photo shows the East side and the North side of the surrounding area. The East side drops off into the lower meadow and wetland and the North gives way to more dense woods. We cleared 3/4 of the East trees in order to create a healthy managed forest enviroment. We kept the maples, sassafras, a few interesting pine trees and sweet gums. The thinned forest will allow these trees to thrive and become stronger well established specimens. It also allows for more light in the house and a better view.

Final rib

The final rib is upright and secured to the others with 4x4 beams. The 4x4 beams will serve as floor supports. They are lag screwed into the main 6x6 beams and extend out of the house. The extension of these beams will allow for connection the ceiling rafters to the front porch. The interconnection of all beams in the house help with stability and structure of the design. 

Stepping back to look at the structure. It is so rewarding to see the house with the actual end walls in place. It gives a real sense of the size and shape of the house. Standing up on the second floor joices gives an idea of the view and how the house is built into the edge of the forest. 

beginning: tiny timber house

Construction has begun on the timber framed tiny house. We have tucked the house onto a terrace in the woods and most all the supplies have been hand carried to the spot due to limited access via vehicles. We are using 6x6 oak beams. The photos to the left show the bathroom area up and framed. The footprint is 200 square foot. The total will be a 400 square foot house with kitchen and bathroom on the main level and laundry, bedroom, closet and sitting are upstairs.