Where There's a Will, There's a Way!

Besides this step in the process being tedious I would say that it went without anything major happening like last time. Basically, the house wrap was easy but it would have gone a lot faster with two people or in hindsight I should have built something to attach the roller to so I could roll it from one side to the other without having to go up and down the ladder a million times. The first three rows were very easy but the top row basically sucked because of the angle of the roof and having to hold the house wrap and staple it all at the same time.

First row of house wrap on!

Second row on both sides.

Third row on both sides.

Fourth row. Man that sucked with one person!

Found this bathtub in someones trash in front of their house. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I was originally planning on doing a shower with a wood floor and tile walls. But if I can make this work I will probably use it instead but I will still most likely use tile up the walls. The tub is just plastic and is very light so it wouldn't add that much weight. But I would have to paint it a different color. I dislike very much when I see pictures of a tiny house and their bathroom is draped in those ugly white plastic shower stalls. I know they are lightweight and waterproof and all but please paint them people! I have painted a plastic tub before and it worked pretty good and was easy to do.

Found this bathtub on the side of the road! Think I might use it in the bathroom. I measured it. It will fit!! But if I decide against doing that it will become my outdoor solar shower!

 Random pics: I realized I didn't take a picture of the roof yet and some other small sheathing steps.

Roof front to back.

Finished up sheathing with some pallet planks.

The house wrap on the back was easy. And by the way the Lowes house wrap is 3'x100' and costs $30 per roll(the cheapest anywhere). Unless you can find some at Habitat Restore(which I did only to find it after buying everything from Lowes). It took three rolls of house wrap and one and half rolls of house wrap tape.

Now to finish the house wrap on the back.

Done!

 I got a truck load of sheets of plywood, lots of boxes of screws and nails, a nice long level, and a cordless drill from one of my lovely guitar students! For Free!!

Thank you Liz!!!

The sliding glass doors I got for free on craigslist did not have a frame. I thought it would be easy to find a frame and install it but boy was I wrong. It was nearly impossible to get the right threshold frame for the exact sliding glass doors that I had. Plus they were old and I couldn't find any manufacturing information on them. So I checked all the second hand places and all around town and craigslist but had no luck. So I broke down and bought this door from Lowes. This was a necessity not to wait on if I could find something for free. This was the last piece of the puzzle to get this house sealed up to protect it from the rain. And because I will be moving this month from the house I am living in now, I will be taking a break on the house to get the move underway. In fact, I gave my thirty day notice to my landlord just yesterday (5/1).

Sliding glass patio door from Lowes. $300

Framing up the front!

Adding sheathing.

View from afar.

They say putting in a sliding glass door is a two man job in the instructions that come with the door. HA! Where there's a will, there's a way!

Put house wrap on the front and caulked around everything and screwed that puppy in!

I have a front door!

 Some of you readers out there might be wondering why I chose the sliding glass door and whether or not there will be any windows on the side. Well, there will not be any windows on the sides of the house only on the back and the front of the house. So obviously the sliding glass door is a dual purpose door and window and there will be windows in the back, two coming from the loft and one small glass block window in the bathroom. The reason for not having any windows on the sides is to provide maximum insulation from the heat. Remember I live in south Louisiana, it gets hot!!! In fact, this winter was so mild that we only had two or three nights with a slight freeze. I'm talking maybe 16-20 hours of slight freezing the whole winter! So the summer is like 100+ degrees everyday for 3-4 months of the year. That gets the house I live in now crazy hot. I have tripled the curtains on my back windows so the heat will be kept out so the A/C can keep up. The walls and ceiling are going to be filled with foam insulation by a diy company called Tigerfoam($1/ sq ft), and the exterior side walls and roof will be covered with galvanized steel panels as a radiant barrier. The roof will also be coated with a ceramic paint called Thermoshield (developed by NASA) that adds the equivalent of R-19 insulation to the roof just by painting it! So all of that should keep me nice and cool in the summer!

View from the inside.

Door is now framed, level, caulked, foamed in, foil tape around the exterior of the frame, screwed in all around the flange, and the hinge for the lock installed. I now can not worry about water getting in when it rains! It is all sealed up!

 The next step this month will be to move. I am getting a storage building for all of my stuff and moving the rabbits and chickens out to the property. Towards the end of this month I will be staying with a friend while I complete the house. However, I will be doing some small projects on the house like adding some more bolts and frame supports before the insulation goes in. And adding diagonals of cable wire to really secure the house to the frame and also provide extra wind protection. Also I will hopefully be investing in some scissor stabilizer jacks to attach near the trailer tongue. That's right...this whole time the house has been stabilized by a piece of wood a three old tires! lol!  I will also have a blog update soon about the process of moving and pictures for you to see all of the stuff I have and the process of moving it, selling it or throwing it away. A practical guide on what we 'really need' in our lives and what we can do without.

Until next time! Wish me luck!