Living It up!

Tiny house love!

Progress, one 2x4 at a time.

So a lot has happened since the last update, we finally have the first floor walls up and framed. We've had to move a bit slowly due to a few factors. First, I only have about 4 hours a day to work on the house plus weekends.

Second, we are working with mostly reclaimed lumber, which differs from the new lumber we are using for the top and bottom of the walls. This means that the middle of the wall is a bit wider than the top and the bottom. So off to lowes for an electric hand planer to get all the studs to the same size.
Now that we have the walls up, you can start to get an idea for interior volume. I think our 8x24 size is really just perfect. It does create a bit more work and cost when moving the house. But it wont be moved too often so it shouldn't prove to be too much of a problem.

The next step after getting the walls sorted out is building the two lofts, both fore and aft. We have really put a lot of consideration into the two lofts. The idea is to have one large enough for a queen size matress and one that can double as a second bedroom and an office. So that being said they are both 7'6" by 8'5". Plenty of room for a bed or an office.

For the floor of the loft, something sturdy and nice to interact with was necessary. We went and saw Peter Sage at Southern Millwork and Supply. He found some overflow white oak planks that would be perfect for the task. They were ripped to 2x4 dimesnions on the table saw and then they were planed down with the hand planer we used for the walls. The edges of the loft joists were routed with a plunge router and sanded smooth with 120 grit to give them a really soft feel and look. The rounded edges will help with any head contact that might happen. (probably will happen)

The next step is framing in the lofts now that we have the pieces to build it nicely. Blog post will follow their construction.

Wall Frames!

Hello Friends,

The holidays and holiday move from foreclosed house to sweet new house put a damper on the building enthusiasm, but we are back in the warehouse with renewed vigor. Framing walls is so exciting, it makes the project that much more real.

We've almost got all four downstairs walls framed. I'd say it's about 95% reclaimed wood for the downstairs walls. You can see in the photos, all of the darker wood is reclaimed. Hooray us, right? Maybe. Come to realize, most of the old lumber is actually 2"x4", as opposed to our modern "2x4," which is actually 1.5"x3.5". Follow? Good. This means that we're likely going to be spending some quality time with the hand-planer to get our members to be flush with one another. All in the name of conservation.

Ani supervises most days.

One wall temporarily up! Just to see how it looks (awesome). You can see the two short walls already framed and stored underneath the trailer. Cedric is not the best scale figure, as he is 6'3", and the rafters in that part of the house are 6'5". Pretty low, but it opens up into the lofted living room, so hopefully that makes up for it. It's also open between the joists, so when he or anyone else exceptionally tall comes over, maybe they can just stand between the joists, where it's 6'7". Reasonable!

Check it out!

Tiny House Blog covered La Casita! Check it out here if you haven't already!

http://tinyhouseblog.com/timber-frame/charleston-tiny-house/

La Casita nearly complete!

As Cedric and I near the completion of La Casita we are realizing the exhausting work that detailing entails! It's all turning out so beautifully and we plan on being done with the house in only 2 more weeks! We will post some pictures this weekend of our bangin' kitchen as well as the lovely loft space! Our windows for the dormers should be here next week (we broke down and bought them new seeing how we've bought out every decent used window in Charleston that would fit in a tiny house!). The project has garnered so much support from friends, family, neighbors and visitors alike! We toured the house to several visitors from out of state who came by the warehouse this past weekend and received a lot of positive feedback! It doesn't seem to matter where people are from, their social status or economic background-a tiny house just makes sense!

Cedric's birthday is this weekend and we plan to work hard on the house but also take some down time (which there has been none of since coming back from the holidays) to celebrate! Come out to Hampton Park this Sunday at 1pm for a bike ride to Sullivan's Island and a beach picnic including hot chocolate, beer and pancakes! Look out for pictures Sunday evening of our fun as well as updated fotos of the house!

Tiny House In Situ

Quick update: this is what our tiny house would look like if we had $800k to spend on land for it:
The lot is a dreamy two-parter/dog park at the end of our old street, with a view of the Ashley river. Swoon!