The first corner of the O'Keefe tiny house went up on Wednesday. The house is starting to take shape! Many more photos to come, so stay tuned!
Yesterday morning I didn't manage to get a blog post out because we got up and out of the house early so we could get to the build site. We needed do a little figuring about panel modification first thing while our minds were fresh. So now I get to update you about TWO days of Build Blitzing for the O'Keefe Tiny House.
On Wednesday, which was Day 3 of the Build Blitz, we moved the tiny house trailer to a new spot at Green Mountain Panel, right next to the Pre-Cut Building where the panels were prepared. Once the trailer was level again we finished bolting down the bottom plates on the ends of the trailer, which was an interesting adventure since the end walls tip out. We ripped the angle off the bottom of 4x6 lumber, cut them to length, and figured out how to get our vertical bolts to go through the tipped bottom plates as well as the skirt trimmers below. We ended up grind off the edge of the carriage bolt lock washers so they wouldn't interfere with the SIPs sliding over the bottom plates, but by mid-morning we had our bottom plates nicely secured and we were ready to raise walls.
The Green Mountain Panel crew came out en masse to help us get the first wall panel up. We tipped up one of our slanted end walls and then its adjoining panel on the corner. Once we had a corner in place we were able to work our way around the building in both directions. With a crew that big it went pretty quickly. Our biggest hang up was that on both sides of the trailer we had one more inch of panel than we had trailer to put it on, so we had to figure out where to cut the panels back, accounting for the complexity of the roof system and the size and location of window rough openings. For the rest of the day we clambered around the house, putting up panels, inserting splines, and nailing everything into place.
Yesterday was Thursday and Day 4 of the Build Blitz. We managed to get the rest of the wall panels in place and it was awesome have the tall end wall go up, not only because that was the last wall but also because the house really started taking shape at that point! It's going to be sooo cool to see this house built out on the interior! It was also fabulous to have the forklift to get those big top of the wall panels at the back of the side walls.
Yesterday afternoon we started installing roof panels, again taking advantage of the forklift to hoist the panels into place. There was a little fine tuning necessary as we got the first roof panel situated. Luckily, thanks to John, we had a Fein multi-tool handy, so the fine tuning was easy-peasy! (And now a multi-tool is on my tool wishlist!) The second and third roof panel went up before the Green Mountain Panel team called it quits for the day. Without the forklift we decided not to do more panel lifting, so we wrapped up our tools and recapped the build blitz thus far.
Today we'll be finishing installation of the roof panels, laying down our subfloor, and constructing our interior sheer wall. We'll have some quality control to do, too. Then we'll pack up our tools and make sure the house is ready for her public debut at Tiny House Fest Vermont on Sunday. If you'd like to come explore this little house, swing on by the Fest! You don't need a ticket to see the house or any of the others, but if you want to get in the tiny house viewing express line (and get entrance to all the presentations!), please claim your Tiny House Fest Vermont ticket. We look forward to seeing you there!