Being Flexible

Sarah was great and surprised us with a bottle of local wine to celebrate our first night in the tiny house. In style we climbed the ladder to the loft, put the heater on and cuddled under our goose down comforter. The great thing I found was everything was within arms reach from my side of the futon. Our first challenge was how do you change your clothes in a space big enough for a five year old? No chance in standing up in the loft area and our downstairs is still under construction. We compromised. We discovered if we let our legs dangle through the loft access hatch and slip our pants on up to our knees and then lay back on the bed (brings back memories of junior high trying to get on my Jordache jeans) we could finish putting them on. After two weeks of practice we have gotten so good that we can time it perfectly and both get dressed at the same time! Another one of our discoveries was how easy it was going to be to clean the loft. All we had to do was sweep everything through the hole - at least as long as the downstairs is a construction zone

Although we had moved in we could not let the construction momentum slow down. We still had plenty of work to do. Things were going to move a bit quicker now that our interns had arrived and a new volunteer Phil who has experience in kitchen and bathrooms. Amazing how much we accomplished in the first week of their arrival. Instead of Roby and I having to sand the redwood paneling then bring it into the house to measure it and then take it to the chop saw and cut it to proportion and then bring it back and nail it into the wall, we had helpers. Cuatro sanded, Chris cut and Roby and I nailed. With our new system we were able to complete the great room in two days. When it was just Roby and me having to do it all it took us two days to complete just one section. I felt like we were on Extreme Home Makeover. The boys on my crew however are much better looking.

Phil concentrated on the kitchen. The framing had been completed by Travis so he worked on getting the sink and cook top laid in to the plywood. Originally we were going to use a stainless steel sign from the Real Goods store for the counter top but it was about one foot short. Scrambling to find an alternative building material we started digging through the scrap pile in the bone yard and found some great tile. Thankfully we had enough pieces in the same color. All it took was a good washing and it was like new. Initially we were going to do it all in the white square tile, but with a little more scrounging I found a multi-colored tile and we decided to use it for a border to add some color. Then we got fancy and decided to put up a back splash with these 4x4 decorated tiles we found. The kitchen was going to be high-end!!

While Chris, Roby and I continued with the redwood siding, Cuatro started on the ceiling in the great room. He is 6'5" so no need for a ladder. He just took the boards and lifted them over his head and nailed them into the 2X4 framing. We had five people working in a space of 96 sq feet, two of who are over 6'3". With such a small area it made it easy to share the same nail gun. Luckily we did not trip over one another or mistakenly shoot someone with the nail gun. Roby and I were working on one side of the house while Chris put up the other side, both of us hoping when we reached the top rung above the door we would line up even. Those damn framers; we were off by a smidgen! No worries, our motto-we can cover it up with trim.

With all the walls completed, Roby and I started covering up our mistakes and trimmed the windows and baseboard area around the wheel hubs. During our day off Chris and Cuatro started on the window seat and closet. They were able to get it all framed in and sided with the same redwood planks. Thank God for the lumber yard donation. Over the weekend Roby and I worked on the final shelf for our upstairs closet and the panels for the kitchen. What a hassle it is to have to work around electrical outlets especially when the studs are not lined properly or the outlets are located on the wrong side of the wall preventing us from being able to connect the paneling. We rigged it up with some strategically placed wood scraps and gave the paneling a backboard. Let's hope they don't fall through the cracks.

After two weeks inventory of work completed:

Great Room paneled-check
Ceiling paneled-check
Windows trimmed-check
Kitchen counter tiled-check
Sink and Stove-check
Refrigerator-check
Bedroom shelving-check

As the closet and shelving appeared we got a better idea of how small our house was really going to be. With the new walls we literally had an 18 inch wide "hallway" between the great room and the kitchen. With my "wide swimmer shoulders" I barely fit through the passageway. The maneuver has to be done delicately because the 10 foot ladder takes up the entire kitchen and you don't want to run into it. The ladder is a story within itself. In the first week of living in the tiny house we have had a few accidents. During one of my middle of the night bathroom runs, I tried to climb down the ladder in the dark so as not to disturb Roby but in doing so I was not able to keep my alignment on the ladder. This is very important because the ladder is tightly fit into the space. Due to my lack of positioning while reaching the last rung I caught my long underwear on the light switch casing and tore a huge hole in them. Roby's encounter came several nights later after a few glasses of wine when he miscounted the steps, missed the last rung and found himself in a unique yoga position. His left shoe was wedged in the third rung and his right leg was on the ground. He was basically suspended in laughter and mid-air. I think the thing is possessed!