Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Keith the Builder

While I slave away at the newspaper (hardly), Keith's starting the Tiny House. I'm really looking forward to my days off so I can help him.

Tonight after he picked me up from work I took photos while he put 3 more boards in.

that bottom board is not really curved
the panorama distorted it

"This thing's going to be so sturdy
you could drive the 5th wheel on it."

6 comments:

kntgrl said...

this looks awesome!
DIY madness. we have a tiny house too.....maybe keith could come up here and work his magic too?!?

: D

April said...

steph-yep,it's only 12'x'20. we arrived at that size because it was easy to get lumber for and it's just about the minimum amount of space we were comfortable with. we started out thinking about a space with a smaller footprint (8'x12' or something), but it was two-storey. we decided to make it all one level and increase the sq.ft. a little. we'll have a green roof with a ladder going up there (next spring/summer), so it will be outdoor living space up there.

Mockum said...

Nice start, April!

I assume you will insulate that floor. I assume you will use some type of screening to prevent varmints from using the floor insulation as home. I haven't thought much about the floor insulation but I assume you have. Would you post pictures of the floor in various stages?

What do you estimate the cost of the house will be?

A green roof is very nice. When the sun is baking my asphalt shingle roof and I can feel the heat coming down from the attic, I wish I had a green roof. Maybe you could write up sometime your thoughts on the details of the roof. Like how much bedding material, the type of plant(s), design changes to accommodate the greater weight, etc.

April said...

mockum--i will be writing about the green roof plans, but probably not until much later. we have that penciled in for spring/early summer. over the winter we're putting tin on it. we've discussed growing wheat, grass, flowers, or strawberries on the roof---i don't think we will decide that until we have to.

the floor will be insulated with R-19 formaldehyde-free fiberglass insulation, so we don't anticipate any vermin problems. we'll be working on the floor and walls this week and i will be sure to document thoroughly.

we don't have a cost estimate, but we are keeping ALL the receipts and we'll post the final cost at some point. we'll have a good idea of the basic costs once we get it winterized. then we'll just be adding cosmetic things after that.

Mockum said...

Rob Roy has had success with sedum in only a couple of inches of soil. See his latest Underground House book.

What about mice? I can imagine mice making beds in your unprotected insulation. I think there was some discussion about this in the countryplans.com forums quite a while ago. I don't remember that an exact solution was outlined, though somebody did mention that basic countryplans plans did cover the topic. If you don't skim these forums, I highly recommend it. There are a lot of very knowledgable and friendly people on their forums.

April said...

i'll check it out---we're amateurs who appreciate all the help we can get!