Sliding glass door

I sprung for my siding and a sliding glass door this week. Very painful on the wallet but it makes the exterior that much more close to being done. The siding I chose looks awesome though and brings in the colours of the roof and the polyroche.

I have the polyroche faux stone siding for the bottom course and might have started on it, but the corners are really wiggity and I wanted to look up the installation methods to make sure I was doing things right. As it, I know how to do it now, but I need to cut stuff on the corners since I am not going to do the installation over the lathes. If I cut back my tyvek for that spot, I can do the alternate installation method of directly over the plywood.

It was bloody cold up at the cabin, in fact record cold for the region on that day. So while I got the door in, I did not do much else on the day. And then the cold had the truck not starting, so I was a little panicked that I might be stuck up at the cabin for longer then I'd like.

The door looks great though, and I sprung for the blinds between the glass, double sided opening doors that Home Depot had. I installed a five footer, but I would have gladly pirated their display model which was all of 3 feet perhaps? A perfect size for a tiny home I thought.

I still think I will need to install one more tiny window on the blank side of the house. If I stick it above the level of the large landing steps I am planning for my stairs it will add light to a semi-dark corner. Tiny to pick through the boneyard (or new and used) again.

Once I get all of this exterior work done, I can always do interior work over the winter when there is snow on the ground.

Minor things

I wish I had this place a little more accessible so that I could do work on it after work hours. But I went up and got the ridge cap on plus did my caulking around seams that might / and did leak. Started to fiddle with the front porch but as yet I need to pick up the sliding glass door so I don't want to get too far ahead with it making it a bitch to get the door in place.

At least I used up the majority of the crappy 2x4's in that porch.

Oh and I got my bird blocks in place. Happy time.

Roofing and stuff

God, I am so my father's child.  Went up over the Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and tried to get my roofing material of choice on.  I am going worth a slate blue metal roof and with the days of time and the end of summer,  needed to get it on before all my hard work was ruined.

But of course I am fully able to screw things up. Something like lapping my tar paper/roofing underlay the wrong way around. Or little things like trying to get flashing sucked in just right.

At the very least I managed to get 90% of the  roofing on before I ran out of screws. I need to go back up, put the last sheet on and then get my ridge cap on. Then I can think of other things like siding and fun topics like that.

Looming little more house like?

On the whole it doesn't feel like I got a whole ton of work done this past weekend. More plywood went up, covering the dormer/loft area and a little more was added to the roof. The biggest addition was getting the skylight in place on the roof area, something that needed more then one person to do. Those things are heavy, all that glass and wood.

Overall I know where I sit in the whole getting the structure enclosed thing. I need to scab on a few boards in the loft area so I can enclose the area where the roof transistions from one pitch to the other. Right now I have nothing to hammer onto on the lower portion, but a 2x4 should easily fix that.

Another area that needs a 2x4 is the skylight. I made the opening that little bit too big that you do for windows, forgetting that of course, the skylight sits on top of the roof. This is actually also an easy fix. My spacing as it stands means that one more 2x4 on the inside of the current framing all the way around will make it fit nice and snug.

Then there are the two sections of the roof as it stands that are not covered. One is a small strip, easily cut  and set in place. The other side needs more plywood then that, but it is still fairly easy to do.

The biggest thing is my front area, where I plan to have storage and maybe another small window. This is the roof for my front porch, and would be important when it comes to locking down this porch against wind resistance when towing this beast. I plan on a small enclosed front deck with screens, but I am not too sure if I want posts or just some slanted beams that connect to the house proper. In any case, I need to rough in that front area before I can do anything further with the roof in that space. Maybe a little pressure treated lumber is in my future, just for wet resistance.


I need another roll of tyvek regardless.

Roof time

Well I just accidently deleted my last roofing post, so here it goes again.

I spent the last two weekends cutting, fiddling,  re cutting and getting my rafters up on the structure. When it came down to it I had given myself a little less headroom in the loft, and a bit more of an overhang to my main beam then I had thought I might do. Given that I made it with three 2x4x8's, doubled up, I suppose this was to be expected. The entire frame is 24' 4" after all. So I will need to scab another section on in order to make it that extra little bit I need.

Then again right now I am not building that area, the little front space extension that will serve as a roof over my porch and storage space, so I can get away with it for now. Other then that, a few sheets of plywood were stuck onto the roof, but I still need to add more, and close in my loft area up top with plywood. I was running short of the small screws I was using for this purpose, so I decided to come down at my usual god awfully early on Sunday. Really a waste to come down that early.

Scabbed in my skylight opening, but I need to cut the little rafter segments that will help support that area. Overall, it is starting to look like a house.

Two weekends of work

After two weekends of work, running out of 2x4s and a need for a lumber run, I actually have some walls up.

I banged together my ridge board, but I needed to remind myself on just how to get my angles and birdsmouth cuts correct. So I decided not to do any more work on the Monday and came home to bone up on just how to do this. Ah for those times I wish i could tap dad's knowledge.

I think i can cut them all and haul them up in my car. That will save some gas. That truck is a monster for has usage.

I think I will also relocate a Window from the peak in the dormer/loft to a wall by the bathroom. The bathroom does have a window in it but I have not cut it out from the plywood as yet. Changing some framing will not be easy but not impossible either.

Oh I forget. I need to look up how to frame in a skylight. There is one sitting around that is not in use, and it would look great on the house.

Walls going up

Now that I have managed to get the floor down and the trailer fixed, I could actually start framing. Which is something that I know I can do. I still need to get some epoxy to fiberglass the inside of my new wheel wells before I secure them down so I could not work on that portion of the wall framing,  but the rear of the trailer is up at least.

I also have built two of the other wall sections  not to mention cutting the wood gor another two aread. I can erect them once I have that fiberglassing done. (The benefit of doing the wells this way is that I get lots of practice for my ofuro making later.)

Time to decide if i want a sliding glass door on the front or french doors. (Space vs looks, really).

More work done

Well despite my best efforts to mess things up, the axles are on the trailer. I seriously need to get new bolts though for some of the springs. Little did I know that most of the existing bolts had this issue with a score down the threading.  This means that while I have them on, the one axle has not been tightened at all.

Then there is the issue of the grinding off of the bad mounts. I managed to get it done, and the one axle mounted quite well. The other is just the slightest bit off, so when I put it on the spring the u bolt would not fit. I will need to take a hammer to it when I pull the springs off, in order to percussion fit the whole thing together.

Framing wise, I fixed my issue I made from miss cutting my centre section when putting it together. Rather then having my beams run the length of the trailer,  I cut them by accident to run width wise, meaning my plywood seams did not have any support. I wound up pulling off the plywood and slipping some blocking in between,  giving the plywood that much needed help.

The other bit of work that was preformed was some of the framing around my wheel wells. That was a last minute thing before I left for home, but it looks like it ought to work. I shall need to get a roll of fiberglass or metal in order to protect the word from spray since I do not have fenders any more.

The Dance Floor

When we were building the cabin where the majority of this construction is taking place, the floor we had just put in was called the dance floor. Mostly because it was a big surface with not much else going on.

Now that I was the floor in on my tiny house, I have my own tiny dance floor. A good chunk of 2x4's will fix that next weekend, but until then I am sure the mice, birds and other critters are having dance parties while I am here at work.

I also scavenged a door from the basement storage of the cabin. We had brought it up to do a better cut down job to replace the one that is there already. (The basement is really an oversized crawl space. I have to keep my head ducked or a -lot- of swearing is in my future). I am not happy with it as a final solution, but it will suit for getting spacing, and even getting me through the lock up stage of the tiny house. (I really want more light in that side of the house and a window is the door is more optimal).

If I get really enthusiastic I can always try cutting it in half and making a dutch door.

The Boneyard

This city is quite lucky to have a couple of window manufactures in it. As such, if you go around and ask about their 'Boneyard', you can usually get a good deal on a new window that is either miss-cut, or returned from a job as unneeded. When my parents built the cabin they had a number of nice wood casement windows from someone who worked at one of these places. I decided to hit up another and see what I could get.

My first trip was a wash, since they closed before I got there. With a 4:30 closing time, and a 4:00 quitting time for me, I have to rush in order to make it there. My second trip was a bit more eventful, and I managed to pick up a pair or 16" x 32" casement windows for 100 dollars each. However I did not have cash on hand at the time, and well... taxes are a thing they need to worry about when they draw up paperwork for a debit transaction. If I pay in cash.... I am sure they report the transaction. Surely they do. ;)

This needed a third trip where I picked up five more windows, and this time I had cash in my wallet. These ones were non opening for the most part, which took the price down a ton. I picked up a pair of windows, 46" x 22" for fifty each, and paid another fifty for a window that did open and was frosted. 22" x 22". This should work for the washroom. Rounding it all out was a pair of 19" x 22" windows that I think I will stick in the roof peaks. At thirty dollars each, these five cost less then the others did with tax. Not a bad little haul.

Now that I have seven windows, I can start to work out the wall framing.

I just wish someone would get back to me about those springs.

Axles!

I managed to but my new axles the other day and ran them up this weekend. Of course I did not order springs at the same time. Silly me, but I did not have my spring length at the time. 26". So now I need to get springs and mount them. I might be able to get away with the old tires for the purpose of leveling for the purpose of building.

In the end though i will need to replace those wheels since not only are the rims the old split style which are not allowed any more, but those tires are not good. Aged and cracking.

Alas no photos taken, but over the past two weekends I got the sheet on the frame and started the framing for the back of the structure. I might have done more framing but not only is the version of sketch up on the cabin computer old, but when I take up the new version it wants a file from the net which I do not have.

Productivity is what you make it

I had the trailer at a 45 degree angle and then accidently dropped it down. :(

So I sacrificed some of my 2x4's and built some cribbing.  That gave me enough room to pop the axles off the frame. Damn those things are heavy.

I will have to try and turn it over again now, since that took a ton of weight off. Maybe next time I can also haul up my flashing to do the underside as well.

Not overly productive

A very quiet weekend for actually getting anything done on the roost. Went up after work on Friday with my mom and a load of wood. She was going to rebuild the steps on the deck at the cabin since the stringers and everything were getting awfully rotten. Since she was hauling up some wood anyways, I went and grabbed a small load of 2x4's as well. Not enough to really get anywhere special, but when I have a chance I ought to be able to get the flatdeck framed up.

I did manage to cut off a bit of the front flange on the trailer, but damn it took a long while. Angle grinders, metal cutting wheels, and some good old elbow grease. There is still a lot left to get off however. As for the back flange, I might wind up leaving it, giving me a bit more protection of the entire frame sliding off the rear of the trailer. I still think I ought to remove the old sewage hose holding assembly though. More grinding in my future.

I did try to turn the entire frame onto it's side, but it is one hefty chunk of metal. Jacking and the like only got it up so far. I really need to build some cribbing and jam it under there during jacks. Maybe then I will actually be able to get it up enough to do the needful. Between trying to get flashing welded to the underside and replacing the axles I need access to the underside of the frame and that seems to be the best way to get at it.

Yes I am going to replace the axles. I need to get the proper measurements in order to order them, but I was not sure what I needed. However looking at them when I was up, I did verify that I only have five bolts on it, which make them likely somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3500# each. That does not  really leave enough to play with for building a house, so I will likely update them to 5200 each at the very least. New brakes and hubs might as well be achieved at the same time.

I will still be out a lot less then if I had bought even a used trailer, so I am not overly concerned. (shipping costs are going to be a bitch though!)

Down to the basics

Well the Aero is no more, long live the Aero. The frame is stripped down to just the basics, and during the long weekend, I went up to do some further cleaning of it. I still need to do a bunch of cutting to a few bits of metal. At the back there is a flange that the old sani-house housing is attached to. This needs to be cut and ground off. At the front, there is the flange that forms the curve that was the bottom of the front of the trailer. I think I will cut off the top bit of this, though I might not need to. I could get away with building around it potentially.

As for the rest of the frame, the rust was bad in a few spots, where the floor had been rotten right through as water was getting in to the old trailer. I did a little bit of deep grinding in those spots, but most of the grinding was actually not needed. I cut off and ground down the old bolts, and cut off the tips of the old aluminum rivets holding the metal of the shell to the frame. When that was all done, out came the steel brush attachment for the drill. A lot of work later I had the loose rust and dirt off the metal.

A coat of rust paint later and the trailer is actually looking pretty darn good. There is a bit of work needed on the the axles such as a bit of cleaning and a coat of rust paint. ( I also need to go up and count the bolts on them. Didn't know they had a set number of bolts per axle weight. Go figure).

So progress was made, but mostly in the painting and cleaning parts. I also now have good measurements in order to try and figure out just how I want to lay the structure out. I had a thought that I might do a deck at the back and a enclosed porch at the front, but I need to decide how that puts the weight balance for the structure, and whether or not roll shutters would be sufficient to allow me to tow it without causing problems with a front deck.

Stripping the Aero : Part Two

Well it has been quite a while since I posted the first bit. Since then the Aero has totally been stripped down and the frame is awaiting this weekend when I shall tackle some of the rust on it. Two days after my last post, I lost my dad. So I was a bit less then eager to do things creative.  However I have delayed too long on this.

Emptying it

The start of the trash

The first problem with stripping the Aero was where to start. It was rotten, pretty much to the core, and very very dated. I could have lived and updated the dated side, but since I kept falling through the floor, it pretty much all had to go. Ripping the guts out took time, but thankfully the vast majority of it was thin wood. It was easy to get outside the unit and burned well once it was out. Only things that were actual garbage were hauled to the dump. 

I lost track of the number of bags of insulation that I hauled out. Thinking back, I pray none of it was asbestos as I was in pretty closed quarters there and it was an old trailer. The stove went to neighbors who might use it, and the fridge I took away to the dump.  I didn't trust it with the amount of rust on the coils. The furnace and hot water tank I left for the guy since he tends to be a hoarder and I had other plans.

The biggest pain was the tub. Clearly it was put in place before everything got sealed up as I had to cut it in two to get it out the door! All the while trying to not hit the water damaged sections of floor that were there. Eventually I took a saws-all to the door and cut it out along with some of the metal there. It made a large enough hole.

Then I had to tackle the metal of the frame. Everything here was riveted together, right through the metal of these framing members and to the metal on the outside. Not a bad way to build a structure I suppose, but no doubt a few of these had started to leak over the years. In the end I wound up taking a prybar to them and popping the frame members away from the side with brute force.

But in the end I decided to stop doing this and instead tackle the roof. I think I was interested in getting the last of the burnables out of the structure before we had another fire to get rid of the wood. They would pry away okay, and I was left with the bare metal sheathing, which I took a saws-all to and peeled back like opening a can. I only gave myself a light cut when I slipped in holding a piece. Silly me wearing a t-shirt for that part.

Then it was a matter of cutting the thicker metal of the frame. A pain on the blades, and I wound uup removing the windows first, but I had to cut them out. Which led to shattered glass on several of them. Dump material for sure. Eventually I got it down to the deck. That is when I wound up finally moving it to our cabin for the last bit of stripping. 

Windows cut out. More trash to the dump.

Some frame members did not want to come off so easily. Had to cut them.

As you can see in the bottom image above, the decking was layers of plywood, over some wooden frames. These had insulation in between it and a sheet of metal. This wood was rotten, wet and gross in parts. I stuck my foot through the entire deck in more then one part. It was still a pain to remove it all, and I had even more insulation to run to the dump. 

I got it down to the core though in the end. There is some surface rust from being out of doors for all these years, but I think I can salvage it. I just wish I knew what the axles are rated at! That I need to check this weekend if I can find the info on them. The entire chassis has a plaque on it, but this is not at all helpful, being a common manufacturer still and it does not have the weight range on it.