Meyerhofer Tiny House

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Day 6

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Cilantro Poncho Day 6 Team Photo Yesterday was Day 6 (our final day!) of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. Day 1 was a prep day, Day 2 and Day 3 we worked on wall raising, Day 4 and Day 5 we prepped for the roof, and yesterday we finished the roof and touched up our water resistant barrier!

The day’s tasks included:

  • Finishing liquid flashing around the away room windows
  • Applying sealant to seams and troweling smooth
  • Cut out the sill plate at door
  • Finish liquid flashing at door sill
  • Touching up the water resistant barrier with one more coat
  • Installing roof splines
  • Installing remaining roof sections
  • Installing perimeter framing

At lunchtime we had a picnic inside the new house and Courtney and Kurt gave those of us who helped all week very thoughtful gifts. During the afternoon we finished up the framing around the roof perimeter and did the final touch ups on the water resistant barrier.

In the evening Kurt and Courtney hosted Cilantro Poncho’s First Open House. This was a chance for people who were curious about the tiny house to come take a peek and see the progress we made in a week. Andy, who had helped the first two days of the build blitz came back down from Tempe to see how much more we got done in 4 more days and Walt and Bernice Venable (who I did some concept design work with) came to take a look so I got to meet them in real life.

As the evening sky broke into a magnificent sunset I gave them my parting gift, which seemed quite appropriate for the adventure they’re embarking upon. Fortunately, it wasn’t quite goodbye. We’re meeting up this morning for breakfast to talk about next steps and to sort out tools so I can pack for my journey home. What an incredible honor to help make this tiny house dream come true for the Meyerhofers!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 5

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Cilantro Poncho Day 5 Team Photo If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 5 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. Day 1 was a prep day, Day 2 and Day 3 we worked on wall raising, and Day 4 we got our final wall panel up and prepped for the roof. Yesterday we finished up roof prep, applied liquid flashing for the windows, and got the first two roof panels up.

Richard blowing out the candles on his bday cake!

We also had a special lunch and dessert for Richard, who was celebrating his birthday. It’s so cool that he chose to spend his birthday week helping Courtney and Kurt to get their little house started! His help has been invaluable this week and we’re so grateful for him! Richard’s birthday presents from me were enrollment in my upcoming Tiny House Considerations Course and a design consultation, so I’m glad that I’ll get to help him move his tiny house dream forward, too.

 

The day’s tasks included:

  • Beveling perimeter framing for roof panels
  • Leveling the trailer
  • Applying liquid flashing around the exterior of the windows
  • Cutting and attaching “outriggers” to the end roof panels
  • Hoisting the first panel into place
  • Squaring up the panel
  • Attaching the first roof panel to the top plate with SIP screws
  • Installing the first spline into the second panel
  • Installing the second panel

It was hot yesterday so we were mindful of staying hydrated and sunscreened. We also took breaks in the shade whenever we needed them, but we still made good progress. After all the head scratching related to the trailer camber on Day 3, it was exciting to see how nicely the house settled onto the trailer and leveled out once we removed the shims and lowered the stabilizing jacks. Having the top plates attached at the top of the walls really helped and we expect the additional weight of the roof panels will make the house level out completely.

Mark, Richard, and Kurt worked on ripping, beveling, and mitering the remaining framing for the perimeter of the roof panels while Courtney prepped the roof panels for the framing by removing a little excess foam with the 6” foam cutter. Meanwhile, Andrea worked on liquid flashing on the windows. All those years of cake decorating have made her our go-to liquid flasher! She’s good! Courtney and I joined Andrea for window flashing a while later and I enjoyed visiting with Courtney while we passed the sausage gun back and forth. With so many power tools going all week long, it was nice to have a little quiet time to visit!

Getting those first two roof panels up was really exciting and we were tempted to do more, but it had been a long, hot day and Andrea and Mark had a special invitation to have supper with some friends of theirs, so we decided to end on a high note. And by a high note, I mean that Kurt and Courtney climbed up onto their roof to admire the view of the Santa Catalina Mountains!

Tomorrow we’re eager to get the last of the roof panels on, do some touch ups on the water resistant barrier, and install a window so Courtney and Kurt know how that’s done.

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 4

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Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Day 4 Team Photo

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 4 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. Day 1 was a prep day, Day 2 we began the wall raising, and Day 3 we got all but the last panel up, so we were eager to get that last wall up yesterday.

We worked in pairs to accomplish the day’s tasks, including:

  • Bolting down the last sill plate
  • Erecting another set of scaffolding
  • Beveling & installing top plates
  • Creating a plan for beveling roof perimeter framing and testing a piece with an 8” board
  • Installing framing in door & remaining windows
  • Applying liquid flashing to rough openings (ROs)

Once we got our final sill plate bolted down that final panel slipped right into its spot so nicely it felt like it was magnetized! It was awesome to have the house finally be a box!

We were on a roll when quitting time came along so we continued working for another hour in the cooler evening air. We have two more rough openings to flash with the liquid flashing and some beveling to do for the roof perimeter framing, so that we can get our first roof panel up. I found myself dreaming about that first roof panel going up last night. It will be fun to make that dream come true!

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 3

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Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Day 3 Team Photo

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 3 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. We got rained on most of the night so we did a 1-hour delayed start to give things time to dry out enough that the mastic would set up. Courtney arrived with a well-organized task list for the day which we checked in on first thing. The day before we raised most of the walls during Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 2. Additionally, two of the remaining sections were small, so we figured it would be easy-peasy getting the rest of the walls up in the morning.

However, yesterday ended up being a head-scratching day and we all learned a bunch. As we got one full long wall up we discovered that when we lined up the tops of the panels we had to shim the bottoms a fair bit in the middle. The ideas were flying as we brainstormed possible solutions.

We were trying to make sense of it and we came back to the notion that the trailer was bowed. We were all pretty perplexed, so we gave Damon at Trailer Made a ring to learn more. Damon assured us that the bow (which they call a “camber”) is not only totally normal but also totally on purpose.

“You know how when you see a semi flatbed it is usually bowed the other way, like a rainbow?” he asked. “That’s because when it’s fully loaded it flattens out under the load. With a tiny house trailer we do the opposite because all the weight is around the perimeter. We give it a little camber so that as the walls are positioned the trailer flattens out.”

Damon confirmed that we were better off not adding permanent shims at the bottom because as the top plates go in and the roof goes on the house should settle into position. We’ll be able to remove the shims as the trailer flattens out. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

I felt silly for not calling Damon up and asking the question earlier. I’d heard of trailers with a bow built into them but I’d never worked with one before. However, I realized that I should have checked in about this on Friday when we first suspected it might be the case with this trailer. That day Courtney, Kurt and I had leveled the trailer as well as we could, which involved taking some weight off the axels as we raised the jacks, and we found that the trailer seemed to tip in both ways. It was slight so I didn’t think much of it. Turns out, when you have a few thousand pounds of SIPs on the trailer, it starts to matter – a lot!

Now that we had a better sense of how to work with the trailer, we employed Andrea’s suggestion to let the trailer down onto its axels so that the ends could tip back down. That helped quite a bit, but the mastic had set up on that second panel we’d installed the day before, so it wasn’t budging, even after we removed the fasteners. We realized we’d have to live with it. Fortunately, we were able to get the rest of the long wall panels up and lined up. When we did our final measurements we found we were only off by about a ¼”. Since we know just where that came from, we’re pretty pleased.

I’m thoroughly impressed with how high morale remained throughout this process. I’m grateful to the Meyerhofers for their graciousness and to Mark, Andrea, Chris, and Richard for their patience, their creativity, and their willingness to try new things. It was great having so many math lovers amongst the group because it enabled us to make great use of materials and do some clever problem solving.

I’m going to stop making predictions about how long things should take now, but I’m glad that we’re finally in good shape to get that last wall up tomorrow! We’re half way through our six-day build blitz and I’m eager to see what more we can accomplish for Courtney, Kurt, and the Cilantro Poncho! If you'd like to come visit, please join us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House.

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 2

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Day 2 Team Photo

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday was Day 2 of a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. We started the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep on Friday and Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 1 included more prep for our wall raising, which we began yesterday. We had two more people come to join us for the work party: Kurt’s brother Chris and a friend of mine from college, Katie, who both came down from Phoenix.

After check ins and a review of Courtney and Kurt’s goals for the day, we split into work crews got started on the day’s project list which included the following:

  • Installing corner framing
  • Removing trailer light temporarily to provide access for bolts on tail end of trailer
  • Drilling 5/8” holes through the trailer flange
  • Bolting the sill plates to the trailer with ½” bolts, nuts, and a bevy of washers
  • Erecting scaffolding
  • Prepping and positioning the first wall
  • Spray foaming and masticing the first wall
  • Tipping up the first wall, plumbing it, bracing it, and tacking it to the bottom plate

By then it was lunch time. It was awesome to have that first wall up by lunch and so fun to see everyone working together at a team. In the afternoon we started in on our next list of tasks:

  • Tipping up the second and third wall sections and attaching the first two corner sections in place with SIP screws
  • Installing SIP splines
  • Installing the fourth panel
  • For panels with wheelwells: tracing the wheelwell pattern on the SIP (making sure it’s the right direction and measured properly from the end!), cutting the bottom of SIP, scooping out foam with the foam cutter, and installing blocking in the bottom of the SIP.

We found that when the back wall was completely plumb there was a gap at the top of both corners where the SIPs came together, but the SIP screws managed to cinch everything together nicely.

We ended up working an extra hour to take advantage of all the help we had and it was great getting the trickiest panels up. We have five of the nine wall panels up and all the ones with wheel wells are done now. Tomorrow should be smooth sailing as we get the last four panels up and then we’ll be able to start prepping for the roof!

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 1

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Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz: Day 1 Team Photo  

If you’d like to come see what we accomplished during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for Cilantro Poncho's First Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

Yesterday we kicked off a week-long build blitz for the Meyerhofer’s tiny house, Cilantro Poncho. I joined Courtney and Kurt on Friday afternoon to begin Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep and yesterday we were joined by an awesome crew of folks who came to help them get this little house started. Kurt’s parents, Andrea and Mark, drove over from LA with their SUV full of tools, Richard came down from Mesa, and Cammie and Andy drove from Phoenix to be here.

We started out with introductions, goals, tool safety, and “walking tour” of the tiny house. Then we split into work crews got started on the day’s project list which included the following:

  • "Painting" the SIPs exterior with a third layer of liquid-applied water resistant barrier
  • Cutting window framing and installing it in the window openings
  • Measuring and cutting sill plates
  • Determining the center of the trailer and snapping a center line
  • Measuring from the center line to clamp the sill plates into place
  • Tacking the sill plates in place with 2” star drive screws

Along the way we had a few moments of head scratching, a bunch of laughs, and gave each other lots of kudos. It was an awesome day and we’re nearly ready to get first wall up!

*If you’re reading this after Cilantro Poncho's First Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!

Cilantro Poncho's First Open House

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this week we're turning this stack of SIPs into the Meyerhofer Tiny House, Cilantro Poncho - come check it out on Friday evening at their first Open House! This week I’m in Tucson helping Courtney and Kurt Meyerhofer’s dream come true through a Build Blitz for their tiny house, affectionately dubbed the Cilantro Poncho. Yesterday and the day before we worked on Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz Prep and today is Day 1 of the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz. We’re expecting five more people to come help out as we get everything ready for the wall raising on Day 2.

At the end of the week Kurt and Courtney are hosting their very first Open House so that you can check out their little house. If you’d like to come admire our week’s work during the Cilantro Poncho Build Blitz, please come visit us for the Cilantro Poncho Open House at 5:30 pm on Friday, March 11 at 4674 N Kain Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705.*

This will be a chance for you to learn more about their house, their construction methods, and their upcoming plans. If you’ve never set foot inside a tiny house, this is a great chance to do it! If you’d like to follow along with their time-lapse of the build via their YouTube channel, they’ll be sharing the link. And if you’d like to help out in exchange for some hands-on experience building a tiny house, you’ll be able to sign up for that, too.

*If you’re reading this after the Open House and you’d like to visit, please be sure to contact Courtney and Kurt to arrange a day and time. They can’t accept unannounced visitors because they’ve got work to do finishing their little house and they need to make sure everyone who visits can do so during a time that’s safe. Thanks!