We finished the tiny house porch yesterday, raising the translucent roof over the deck with the help of some climbing gear, the 100 year old horse chestnut tree behind us, and some extra hands from our neighbor Justin for the final lift.
The deck is a freestanding platform built conventionally with PT and outdoor wood, while the posts and frame for the roof are old growth fir milled from beams salvaged out of Portland warehouses by the Rebuilding Center. We treated all the salvaged wood with Timber Pro UV, the slight tone of which helped match the fir to our cedar siding. The roof cover itself is a heavy duty white tarp secured with battens to protect it from the wind. See Brian’s last few posts for more construction details.
The entire structure is designed to move with the house. We’ll probably leave the deck behind and customize that element to any new location, but the support beams are designed to be disassembled and moved, and the roof itself attaches to the house with hinges and can be folded down to do double duty protecting the front doors and windows on the road.
As Brian mentioned in his posts, the only downside of this design is that the tarps don’t last forever- they battens have to be pulled and the tarp replaced every few years. That said, we have similar shades over our workshop on the porch of the main house, and they’re still looking good on year 3. To me, the brightness of the light that filters through is well worth the added maintenance.
Having this done is definitely helping to lift the mid-build stress. We now have a great spot sheltered from sun and rain to work and stage materials as we finish the interior, and a blissful place to relax at the end of a long day building!
– Liz
