Offgrid tiny house build, Days 25-28 (part I) Liz: 28 hours, Brian: 4 hours . We’ve reached the part of the process where we can both work simultaneously on discrete tasks - me roughing in electrical while Brian tackles the bathroom build - but a tiny house by nature means much less space to work and all...
"Timelapse: Electrical rough-in"Continue readingMonth: May 2019
Electrical rough-in
Got the electrical rough-in mostly complete today. This tiny house build has been an exercise in learning to stop and refocus. I had roughed in the boxes on the north and east walls of the trailer a few days ago, then paused electrical work to help Brian prep for the shower install. After many...
"Electrical rough-in"Continue reading
Distressing galvanized hardware for architectural details
We finally installed the suspended pipe beneath our main support beam. This distressed half-inch galvanized pipe supported by half-inch galvanized eyebolts is a feature that has been continuously evolving ever since we first imagined hanging a suspended chair right in front of the fireplace. At first we were just thinking a couple of fixed...
"Distressing galvanized hardware for architectural details"Continue reading
Plumbing FAIL!
We started the day with Liz tackling the electrical rough-in and me trying to get the bathroom wall framed, but as is so often the case there’s always one more thing that needs to happen before the next thing can happen. I can’t frame the wall without putting the shower stall in and I...
"Plumbing FAIL!"Continue reading
Timelapse: Insulating the roof
Offgrid tiny house build, Day 23 & 24 Liz: 8 hours, Brian: 4 hours . Got our first layer of our roof insulation sandwich in place. See Brian’s earlier posts for more on our insulation strategy: this polyisocyanurate foam (R Max) will be combined with rock wool to give us a total of R-28 in our 2x6...
"Timelapse: Insulating the roof"Continue reading
Insulating the roof, part 2
Today we finished the foam layer of roof insulation and struggled a bit with the stove pipe placement. Putting the foam up was fairly straightforward. We cut the foam a quarter inch narrower than the joist bays and were glad of it. The little plywood squares we glued onto the top of the form...
"Insulating the roof, part 2"Continue reading
Insulating the roof
With the underfloor insulation finished we turned our attention to the ceiling. To get a reasonable amount of R-value AND a vent space into the 2×6 rafter bays, we are taking a layered approach of polyiso foam and rockwool. This roof detail devised by Derin Williams of Shelterwise, starts with 2 inch R max...
"Insulating the roof"Continue reading
Timelapse: installing the water lines
Off-grid tiny house build Day 22. Brian 7hrs, Liz 4hrs. . I always feel like I should be faster at plumbing than I am. In theory it’s simple: For the drain side of things all you need to know is that water flows downhill, the pipes need to be big enough for what they’re transporting, and things...
"Timelapse: installing the water lines"Continue reading
Installing the water pipes
Roughed in the pex water pipes today. Our general strategy for water piping is to keep everything simple, clean, and versatile. We chose pex because it’s easy to work with and while copper is certainly more romantic, I doubt it’s any more “sustainable” and pex has added freeze protection. We actually built some freeze...
"Installing the water pipes"Continue reading
Timelapse: Plumbing the drain lines
Offgrid tiny house build, Day 21. Liz 4hrs, Brian 7hrs. . Plumbing a floor cavity you can’t access later is challenging! The shower and toilet stub outs need to line up perfectly. The toilet is pretty easy but we must have test fit the shower 10 times to get the alignment perfect! . We are both really curious how...
"Timelapse: Plumbing the drain lines"Continue reading