Tiny House Progress: Exterior Siding is Finished!

We finally finished the exterior siding.  So nice to be done with that.  The galvanized metal z-bar really added a lot of time to the installation, but we like how it’s all flush, whereas lap siding would project out.

Here’s a picture of me installing the LAST piece of siding:

Shane also got the last window installed and trimmed out.

And we’ve installed about half of the metal roofing.

So now we’re onto the task of installing the insulation, which is not easy!  We’re using hard foam panels, and it really makes you realize why most buildings utilize soft, flexible fiberglass batt insulation!  But the foam will give us a much higher R-value and won’t settle with any movement from traveling down the road.  And it was about a third the cost of paying someone to spray foam the house.  As we’re cutting the foam to fit tight into each and every wall and ceiling cavity we’re both wondering if it would have been worth the $1,200 extra to pay someone to do it for us…

After the insulation is in we’ll start on the interior drywall and interior casework and built-ins.  Then it will start feeling like a real house!

Hope all is well with everyone!  We’ll keep you posted as we continue working.

– Carrie

Tiny House Progress: More Exterior Siding

Progress progress.  I wanted to update you on Shane’s hand injury and our progress on the exterior siding and a current time-lapse photo of the Tiny House construction progress.

We worked on installing siding all day yesterday and it is looking really great.  We like the galvanized z-bar flashing between sheets – a flat siding “rainscreen” type application that works really well on our tiny house.  Like we mentioned before, we decided to use a readily available compressed cedar chip siding – TruWood I think it’s called.  It’s light, easy to cut, easy to install, and thinner than real wood planks.

Here’s an overall photo of the siding installation process:

We also took the masking tape off of one window and our glossy white trim is looking very nice!  (photo above.)  We installed the front door, deciding to just use galvanized j-mold flashing around that in lieu of more bulky white trim.  Here are a few close-ups of the siding:

the nail heads will be painted over, giving it a smooth, clean plank finish.  The black painted piping visible in the photo above is our propane headed to the propane space heater and propane cooktop in the kitchen.

Here is a short video of construction progress so far:

Okay, so now if you get queasy easily you might not want to scroll down to the next images.  As you may have heard already, Shane cut his knuckle on his right hand on some z-bar flashing Tuesday and we went to the ER to get it stitched up.  the ER doc said the extensor tendon was lacerated and we needed to go to a hand surgeon.  So, we went to the hand doc on Friday morning and the doctor saw how Shane could still lift his finger and said the tendon was fine, slapped a band-aid on it and told him to keep it straight for a month.  Okaaaay….  but the ER doctor said the tendon was lacerated.  Oh.  The hand doc called the ER doc to get the story straight from him.  It is lacerated, almost completely.  So then the hand doc said he needed to operate on it.  After a discussion about malpractice and liability it was agreed that the tendon couldn’t be lacerated completely through or the finger would be hanging limp, and not able to lift up, like it is.  Remembering the ER doc could only see the laceration the flexed position we all agreed that the top of the tendon was cut, but not the bottom, and if kept in a splint, it would heal on it’s own, without surgery.  (which just involves cutting the knuckle open and doing a fancy figure eight stitch through the two ends of the tendon).  So, we paid $30 for a $2 splint and $165 for 20 minutes of the doctor’s time, and we were on our way!

Here’s the cut (and the bandaid the hand doc was going to send us away with first!)

Here’s the splint Shane is using now to keep the finger from flexing:

We had a good laugh with the hand doc about the first splint Shane was given at the ER.  I am trying to think of the right metaphor for the ER compared to the rest of the medical field….  maybe the ER’s splint was like this guy’s toaster:

http://www.thetoasterproject.org/  Which is as awesome story about the cost and difficulty of making a toaster from scratch and how we take technological advances for granted.

Okay, happy Sunday everyone!  Tomorrow we’re headed to buy some surplus insulation and go to IKEA to look for a sink, lighting, etc?, and eat some ebelskivers!  After that we’ll finish the exterior siding, insulate the house, install the roofing, and start on the interior finishes.  Stay posted… we need to finish this month to meet our construction goal of two months total.  We’ll see how badly Shane’s hand injury affects progress.  Maybe I can step it up, get up earlier, and help out more??  While working and bringing home… some bacon.  🙂

take care,

– Carrie

Tiny House: Exterior Siding

Hello everyone!

We started installing our exterior siding…

If you read our last post you are aware that galvanized metal flashing is extremely sharp…  Shane cut his knuckle and what appeared to be a [deep] 3/4″ long cut turned out to be a  “lacerated extensor tendon”.  Dangit.  So, we’ll have to slow it down a bit.  Which will be a huge challenge.  For Shane.  haha!  It really makes all the health insurance talks going on right now in Congress very pertinent, as we don’t have health insurance, and who knows the cost of hand surgery!  I tried to get the ER doc to just sew up the tendon last night, but he really wanted to defer to a specialist.  Pshaw.  Could I borrow your needle and thread and some more lidocaine??  Maybe some of those gloves…

Anyway, exterior siding.  We were going to use plywood, stained a natural finish, with galvanized trim between, but after more research of the [very few] projects that have used plywood for exterior siding, it sounded like it could be a nightmare, with the plys delaminating, etc.  Exterior grade plywood has some nasty glues in it too.  So, we went with an off-the-shelf composite compressed cedar chip siding.  We went out on a limb and chose a ballsy orangish color – sort of terracotta – in lieu of the standard fall-back conservative gray.  I was having major painter’s remorse at first, but now I feel like it will be quite beautiful.

Here’s one more photo of the start of the siding install:

Our roofing has arrived so we have that to install – “burnished slate” color pro-panel metal roofing.  And we got a quote on spray foam insulation which was way too high – $2.30 / SF so we’re looking at hard foamboard options now.

Okay, hope all is well in everyone’s world…  take care.

– Carrie