Project: Leftover Wood

We saved the leftover wood from the shed build and Mum suggested I make something out of it. It’d be good for me to practice not just using tools, but planning something and having it all fit together in the end.

I think I’ll build a prototype of either the shoe storage table I plan to have in my entrance, or a storage seat like I’ll have underneath my window seat. We do need to do something about our mess of shoes:

And this isn’t even counting all my sister’s shoes on the other side!

But our entrance is really small and my table on wheels won’t work in the space. Mum pointed out that maybe we could put mine in the closet and take out the smaller shoe rack we have in there to use in the entrance. No matter what we do though, something’s going to be in the way of the closet door.

The other thing I could make is a storage seat. It won’t be pretty because it’ll be made of OSB (though I suppose I could cover it). I plan on having two boxes underneath my window seat that will have cushions on top. That way, they can be used as extra seating. I’ll store my favourite books, movies, and TV shows in them because the window seat is most likely where I’ll use those. And I could use storage for my favourites now and see how much will fit in the box – I’ll make it the right size. And it’d be easy to stick a box somewhere in this whole house.

I’ll have to do some measuring and take a look at how much wood there is. I’m leaning towards building the storage box. It’s smaller and simpler. The shoe storage table would be the wrong size for our entrance, plus I only plan on making it big enough to fit my shoes, not my whole family’s. Storage box it is!

Roofing Options

I wasn’t really interested in learning about shingling when we were building the shed, because there’s no way shingles would be able to withstand highway winds. Being on wheels limits options that are common in normal houses. Drywall or plaster will crack in transit; brick, concrete, and other heavy building materials are out too because of weight restrictions. It makes you think.

A lot of tiny houses have metal roofs. I like the idea of a metal roof, and that’s what I figured I’d have until I read this post about Onduvilla roofing. I love it! It’s so pretty! And it comes in orange (as well as red, green, brown, and black). I’d love to have an orange roof, especially with the style of the shingles. The look just makes me think of warm weather and the bright blue sea of postcards. It’s made of recycled materials and resists high winds. It’s practically perfect! Except for the fact that I can’t find it anywhere. When I first read about it, I searched for a place to buy it and did some math. The cost was way higher than for a metal roof, so I was discouraged (though I might’ve done the math wrong), and then yesterday when I searched for it at the same store as before, nothing came up. The official site shows no dealers anywhere near me. I’ll have to email them for more info.

I have to decide between metal and Onduvilla. Metal can be difficult and dangerous (sharp edges!) for a do-it-yourselfer, and with some products you have to worry about rust. Also, metal roofs can be dangerous in the winter when whole sheets of snow and ice slide off at once. But metal seems to be the cheapest and most common roof material for tiny houses.

Our neighbour just redid the roof of his garage with metal. It cost $1000, took one day to put up (over the existing roof), and the seller cut the sheets to length for him.

Onduvilla, on the other hand, is recycled (yay) and gorgeous (not to mention very effective).

I think in the end it will come down to what I can afford. Hopefully the prices won’t be too different and I’ll be able to buy the one I really want: Onduvilla.

Side note: on the roofing site that describes Onduvilla, they also have a section for Tuftex, which Deek Diedrickson mentioned at the Tumbleweed workshop. Tuftex is a really strong plastic that he likes to use in his builds. Even though it’s a roofing material, it can be used for walls or showers. So, if I build my own shower instead of getting a fiberglass stall, I think I’ll use Tuftex or something similar. Sealing and adding a shelf might be difficult because the plastic is wavy, but if I want to save myself the $300+… We’ll see.

A Roof Overhead

More sheathing went up the other day.

And I’ll be honest, I haven’t been helping as much. Dad took to working after dark, which was just annoying and shadowy. Then we had issues with the drill and it’s just way too easy to get frustrated in the dark.

Sheathing surprised me by being complicated. I know I’ll have to plan my seams and cut out windows, but Dad carefully planned each piece. For example, the front is 8 feet, so two sheets of OSB, right? But then the door would be in the middle of a seam and you’d have two unusable pieces of wood. Dad and I cut one sheet in half and put it on the edges, and then kept a whole sheet for the middle, which left us with a perfect piece to use for the door. I wouldn’t have thought of that.

We kind of planned one step at a time, and when it came time for the roof we were running out of time, so somehow we didn’t plan it right for easy sheathing. Overhang and such things confused us and it wasn’t as simple as it could’ve been, but oh well. The roof is sheathed and the things from the old shed have been moved to their new home. There’s even a built-in shelf in there.

My dad’s been posted to Ottawa, so he’s going to be living separate from us because we’re not ready to move. That’s why we were low on time for this project – not because we were running out of summer, but because he had to leave.

He left this morning, but my parents finished a great door last night:

Look at that! Shingles! I’ll let you in on a secret: only one side of the roof is shingled. Oops. It’s sealed up with plastic for now and Dad will be back in October for some finishing touches. We just had better things to do before he left.

Oh, and about the fence – our property fits like a puzzle piece with our neighbour’s. Their garage juts into our property, and then we own this around-the-corner bit of land between two fences.

I’m lucky that I’ll be building at my parents’ house because there’s a lot of stuff I can use, like extension cords and the wheelbarrow, that as a young adult I won’t be owning anytime soon. Then again, I’ll be a homeowner soon enough, so who knows?

Rafters Are Up

I think it looks friggen good, don’t you? I didn’t help too much with the roof because I was working. Dad spent all the time measuring and figuring out awkward angles. He made a master and I cut a few from that, but the rest of the rafters were cut and put up by Dad. There is a gap where the rafters meet the walls, but we don’t know what happened there. Mum just said to not make the rafters for my house the same way Dad did 😛

Next up: sheathing, then shingles, and then the hardest part: the door. We’re not going to put siding up; stain will work well enough.

 

Shed: Day 4

So this is where we’re at right now:

Four walls and a partial roof.

Unfortunately, I work a split today, so I don’t have time to help. Dad’s leaving on Wednesday for Ontario, so he’s gonna continue without me today so we can get the shed done.