6:31 AM on November 1st. I am in my car about to drive over to Big D's house to meet up with Kyle and B, who will again be towing my tiny house. It is pitch dark -- the light that can be seen is only the glow of downtown Cincinnati shining up onto the low cloud cover. It is windy -- about 9 mph -- and snow flurries, the first of the season, are playing in front of the headlights and melting on the windshield. Also I think it is about 28 degrees Fahrenheit.
Between the previous view and this one (taken at 7:17 AM), a lot happened, some of which I have recorded on video. I will post the videos singly at another time. At this point the house was just out onto the main road, having made it under all the low-hanging trees which had had all summer to grow and hang further over the road...
We took a circuitous route to the metal recycling depot from Big D's, in order to avoid an underpass about 5 yards before the entrance. Still snowing.
In this satellite view, the underpass may be seen, and just past it on the left is the entrance to the business. The clearance was marked as 13' 4". And the house is approximately 13' 3" from the ground to the roof peak. So I had no intention of going that way!
Then we went a bit farther out of the way to avoid another underpass, which I believe was marked as having 12' and some inches of clearance, instead going through a new shopping center and down a cross street in the city.
And here we are at the recycled metal weigh station -- the house is finally on a scale! After worrying for over a year about how heavy it was (if the weight of the empty house was too great, really the whole project might have failed -- how can I be a traveling artist/peddler without carrying a bunch of stuff with me?) we found that it was just under 5,000 lbs. Hurrah! The axles can support 10,500 lbs maximum, and I plan not to go over 9,000 - 9,500 lbs, so it looks like I can breathe deeply again, for the first time since I found out the trailer by itself weighed 2,300 lbs (up from the specs I first saw, which said 1,600 lbs...)! Whew!
I guess Kyle and B were a little giddy too, because mere minutes after weighing the tiny house, they (I later found out) decided they thought the house might just make it under the underpass (which coming the other direction was marked 13' 4") and decided to try it. Yikes!! As they turned right towards the underpass, instead of left to retrace our initial route, my mind froze up for a second, and all I could imagine was the roof peak trim (so recently completed) rumpling up as it was accordioned off the house and left behind lying in the road! Aarrgh! Help!
One thing I am thankful for is that I was not actually taking video at the time, or I would have an embarrassing record of me spluttering and shrieking at the guys, who naturally couldn't hear me. I was trying to make a sharp turn, enter the stream of traffic (luckily none), call Kyle on the cell, and hold onto my camera and at the same time shriek. Needless to say, the truck towing the house moved VERY slowly under the underpass, and I realized that, of anyone in the world, I would prefer to have the combination of Kyle and B be the ones to be inching under there. However, I swear there was only an inch of clearance! Anyhow I had thought the weighing was going to be the most exciting part of the trip, but that was nothing compared to the momentary vision of my tiny house getting beheaded...
After that, there was nothing to it! Entering the interstate for the first time, seeing tractor trailers whooshing past us, looking at my speedometer and watching our speed hit 50mph, then 55mph (first time for both), no problem. I include this photo in memory of my father, who used to sing a song about the tattooed lady -- "On her back there was a road map of Kentucky, and the Dixie Highway ran along her spine..."
The sky had lightened, and now we were out in the country, off the interstate, but still safely on a main road that was used by truckers (not a criteria I had thought to be basing my travels on).
Our trip took place just a few days before the mid-term elections, and I was tickled to see a campaign sign for the current county clerk, to whom I had made out my utility trailer-registering check earlier in the year. As my house (with its license plate permanently secured to the aft wall) sailed by the sign, I remembered joking with the assistants, saying that it was really more of a mobile interactive sculptural piece, bolted to a utility trailer, not a house. Needless to say, she had my vote the next Tuesday.
Like a real pro (which he is!) B casually backed the trailer perfectly into the position Kyle and I had chosen for the house. (Note the snow on the roof of my friend C's house.) A few minutes later, the leveling jacks were down, the tongue was stabilized, and that rubber chock was in place on the cement pad. Almost simultaneously, an unknown neighbor drove by and called out to us to see if the house was "one of those tiny houses". I was proud to say that Kyle had built it, and that it was in fact my house. She was thrilled and said she'd come back and see it sometime. So all was well -- move number two a success.
In this view, taken a few days later, I thought the roof lines of my house and C's went very well together, no? All in all, in addition to the landmarks already noted, the route of my tiny house this time went past:
- A and N's grade school
- The supplier of a special order screen for my ground floor starboard window
- The pizza place where H works
- The garage whose owner received and assembled the trailer off the truck and delivered it to Kyle in October 2013
- The turn-off for the home of CB, dessert maker extraordinaire
- The facility where my storage unit is, "howalel fatah" in Arabic, where Minnie found me
- The turn-off for an educational farm, still my all-time favorite job
- The turn-off for my most recent alma mater
- The office of my financial adviser (thank you JL!)
I am not sure if I mentioned anything last spring about the exasperating wiring issue with regard to the trailer electrical hook-up. But, suffice it to say, Kyle got to spend some quality time re-re-wiring the connector that receives the plug from the towing vehicle's electrical system, in preparation for the second move. Big D needed his driveway back, to work toward paving it, after doing some sewer pipe repair. So the tiny house is going a bit further south into Kentucky, to the driveway of the home of my dear friend C (one of the award-winning staining crew).
This is the 7-pin connector, looking outwardly just the same as before Kyle fussed over it for the third time, thanks to the trailer instruction manual's mistaken wiring diagram. All's well that ends well, however, in the words of the Bard.
During a day-long reconnaissance trip, Kyle and I traveled the possible routes from Big D's to C's, visited weigh scales at both a truck stop and a recycled metal company, and scouted C's driveway for the perfect spot for the tiny house. At first it seemed great to locate the house here on the pad to the side of the garage, but a bit of fooling around with a tape measure showed that the sweet "little" Bradford pear tree would have to be pruned more or less in half vertically to squeeze the house in there. Not good. So the decision was eventually made to set the house right in front of the left garage door, about 3 feet away from it. This way C can still get from the house to the garbage cans directly, and her husband's car can fit between the trailer hitch and the sidewalk portion of the driveway pad. In an interesting side note, we discovered that his car, a Highlander, is a foot longer than my house (not including the tongue).
Before leaving Big D's driveway, the wiring for a couple of the electrical receptacles was completed, looking very exciting! Even if the power won't be turned on for quite some time, since by moving the house further south gives P, my electrician, an even longer drive to work on it.
I ran around to KOI auto parts three times before the move, twice to get the trailer running lights we needed, and the last time for a big rubber chock. C's driveway slopes down to the street, and we didn't want the house to roll out into the neighborhood sometime when nobody was looking!
Here in a corner of Big D's studio is my stockpile of salvaged items and furniture to be up-cycled into interior cupboards and shelves for the house. After bringing it to Big D's, and moving it again to C's, I will be psyched to actually start installing things. Hopefully we can start with this fairly soon in the new location.
However, there is also a lot of clearing out to be done in my generously-sized apartment and storage units (after 21 years, and the inheriting of treasures from a grandparent and both parents). These bags include only some of my art and ceramics books!
I think this was the morning of the Sunday party; the floor was swept, and most of the wainscoting boards had been installed the night before. It was a sunny morning, and these views give an impression of the feel of the interior. This one is looking toward the stern; the wainscoting stops just where the window seat nook will begin.
Here is a view of the starboard wall. The (substantial) chair rail will be installed over the seam between luan and wainscoting. Forward of the window will be the desk area, and aft of it will be the propane fireplace, leaving enough room for the window seat to fold out into a single bed, from port to starboard across the stern.
And here is a view of the port wall, showing wainscoting installed forward to the edge of the shower pan. The kitchen window is pictured here, and below the dormer loft floor on the port side will be the kitchen, what there will be of one! Probably a 30" high fridge, overhung by a microwave, and a propane stove on the countertop forward of them. That's all for now, folks! Next will be preparation for the second towing of the tiny house...
Sunday was as beautiful a day as Saturday had been, a lovely day of Indian summer, and everything fell into place well for the celebration party. Folks showed up with their potluck salad bar ingredients and various toppings, soups and extra goodies. Fantastic barbequed chicken was had by all. I had a nice time all day myself -- it was just the right sized group as it turned out, and everyone mingled happily. Three toddlers enjoyed all the people, the wonderful dog Bear, and several older kids, who ranged all over the neighborhood and climbed into Big D's treehouse as well as my tiny house loft before disappearing into the woods to collect 10,000 stick-tights all over their clothes before their return.
The loft bedroom was a popular photo opportunity location for all who dared to climb the ladder and smile. Kyle had just put the new floorboards up to check their fit, so it looked like a separate space for the first time.
Friends brought friends who brought more goodies; here J, S, and A are cracking up at something the former pirate princess skeleton butterfly was saying.
Said princess and I did a hard sell job to S with the kid snack containers in the back garden.
The day was perfect for wandering around and sitting in the grass and relaxing. All was mellow and quiet; people were relaxing and waiting for the Belgian waffle food truck to arrive.
J helps an enthralled B ride on Bear's broad back. Bear was happy as a clam to be in the middle of all the kids and attention, and suffered all indignities amiably.
Then the magic moment arrived and caused a ripple of excitement to pass through the crowd. Marty's Waffles Food Truck arrived, and started cooking waffles, right next to my tiny house! Marty's truck was longer than my house, but my tiny house was taller than the food truck. What fun!
B and Kyle order their waffles from D, Marty's son, who was the consummate professional as he helped his father out. There were several special waffles of the day, and folks were able to sample more than one if they had saved room!
With more waffles available than party guests, we sent the kids to fan out and invite the neighborhood to share the wealth, which they happily did. Here one of the neighbors has a good grip on both her caramel apple waffle and a copy of Marty's Waffles business card. It was fun to say a little thank-you to all who had knowingly or unknowingly been tolerant of some extra comings and goings all summer in Big D's driveway.
A nice shadow view of the line at the service window. I got a chance to chat with a few of the neighbors, who enjoyed getting to ask some questions finally about this unusual project taking place practically under their noses!
B and her daughter, and J, waffling in the studio. Many of the guests were artists, and meeting each other for the first time, enjoyed art-making talk.
The awesome and much-coveted outfit of one guest, with her waffle on her lap.
Here are the four girls who had such fun together, D, A, N, and R, three 8-year-olds and a 6-year-old, eating their (first) waffles in the treehouse and making funny faces at the camera.
And later three of the four managed to climb the ladder to the loft, which I thought looked perfectly spacious enough for the group. Think of the possible slumber parties! I am pretty sure that's what they were thinking of. It really couldn't have been a nicer day, and I loved having dear friends, new and old, celebrate the completion of this phase of tiny house construction with me. Thank you all for being there!
On the first day of the tiny house party weekend, the work day, not only did Kyle finish the exterior bow wall siding (pictured in a previous post), but finished up some of the last dribs and drabs of the luan paneling inside, shown here. The uncovered lower wall on the left is marked with measurements to receive tongue-and-groove pine wainscoting, and several people did a great job getting that up, especially considering the fussiness of cutting pieces to fit around quite a number of outlets, both 12V and 120V. In this photo may also be seen the faux stained glass window embellished with t-shirt paints by me and my mother several years ago. It turned out to fit the lower sash of the starboard window very well, so it got hung as a bit of a party decoration, and may just remain there!
Z probably put up the most wainscoting, in several bursts of energy over the course of the day. The nail gun that was used, courtesy of Big D, did a great job of quick installation, with one exception. Its powerful compression recharge was hampered by the distance from the electrical outlet, because the necessary extension cords were too lightweight to keep the power from being lowered over that distance. So each time the compressor needed to be recharged (every 5-10 boards or so), the compressor had to be wheeled over to the studio door to get closer to the electrical outlet, then wheeled back to the tiny house. This was a potential problem I had had absolutely no notion of! Still, it was much faster and cleaner than doing the job with a hammer, especially when one was sitting on the floor.
The trusty scaffolding, loaned to Kyle by a (fantastic banjo-playing) friend of his, after seeing much use the whole spring and summer, was ready to be dismantled (thank you S!). Since it was a job for more than one person, we decided to try to get it done on Saturday, the workday part of the weekend. H, the husband of my good friend CB, gave Kyle a hand, and they got it down and neatly stacked in Kyle's truck in no time.
Just moments later, H was indoors, taping balloons on the studio walls, and twisting streamers, preparing the space for the next day's celebration party.
Two beautiful floral bouquets arrived with C, who also managed to help in several places at once, helping with the streamers, cleaning the studio bathroom and putting up wainscoting out in the tiny house. This bright dash of color adorned the buffet table where the potluck salad bar was to be set up, and the other bouquet, a cheerful yellow one, added a needed spot of life to the bathroom, which was outfitted with new soap, towels, flower wall stickers, and two new shower curtains for the occasion.
Our inside decoration consisted mostly of sweeping and dusting off surfaces, and arranging tables for all the party things. Three sculpture stands made the salad bar buffet, Bid D's new table saw was the hot food table, his two kids' tables held the give-aways and the baked goods, and a folding table held the screenprinting equipment. With my own bursts of energy I went to the dollar store and felt like I bought the place out of disposable party supplies and favors. Knowing there were going to be at least two toddlers at the celebration the next day, we made sure we had little plastic animal containers to fill with goldfish, raisins and crackers. It was fun to prepare for a party with the friends who were for the most part going to be at the party. And in a space where I had prepared for many holiday parties with my teacher's family and the other students during my years of fine art studies.
These photos don't do the atmosphere justice, I must say. There was a very festive feeling to the whole room, and part of the fun was having my teacher's daughter and granddaughters helping set up. A and A enjoyed helping with twisting streamers and all that, and added their taste to the decorations.
CB (whose husband provided yeoman service with the scaffolding) had spent the previous week baking up a storm of goodies for the crowd, including pumpkin cake balls, chocolate bottom bars, chocolate macaroon bars, apple orange muffins, and, my favorite, brownie bites with brown butter icing. These delectable delights certainly did their part in keeping the workers moving on Saturday -- creating sugar and chocolate achievers! Yum! What a way to go...
As the day waned, everybody came to rest in the studio, sitting on the same folding chairs that had seen years of use by students listening to my teacher's morning lectures. Clockwise from left, J, who had come the farthest, P, who plugged away at the electrical wiring, C, a new friend, CB and C, old friends, and Z of the boundless energy. I loved having this companionable time at the end of the day, telling stories and laughing with each other (and eating brownies).
Z's daughter A returned from an early Halloween party just as the evening drew to a close. Her mother laughingly mentioned that A had gone to her party as "a pirate princess dead butterfly," but was corrected: A had gone as a pirate princess skeleton butterfly (hence the white face and bloodied stitches).
A's earlier handiwork: she took a chalkboard that had seen use as her and her cousin Nico's garden sale sign earlier in the season, and set it up against the guitarist sculpture. Note the wheels on the tiny house.
Many areas were labeled by A for the party, including the dessert table, kids table, give-away table, and the route to the rest room, but since all of those areas were hives of activity on Saturday, most of A's signage was rubbed out and had to be redrawn the next day. This one held up, an example of A's wit and sense of humor.
What a relief it is to see that fascia board over the dormer windows stained! Its significance is added to by the knowledge that all of the eaves and their pesky little cubbies between rafters were stained in the same afternoon. Egad! Three cheers for the staining crew, of which C and I provided the grand finale (we thought -- more about that in a minute). To the left in this photograph may be seen the still as yet unsided bow wall, prepped (with shims over the studs) in order to receive the cedar siding boards, which were planned to run the full width and height of the wall. However, after much (much!) discussion, it was decided to put up a sort of pentagon of cedar 1x3s, about a foot in from the outside edges of the wall and eaves, and side around that, leaving the inside of the pentagon to be paneled with stained luan. This would finish the bow wall more quickly, and leave it weatherproof (enough) to survive until the shed, which could be constructed separately and installed finished (like a kitchen cabinet -- thanks Big D!) would be installed.
To that end, Kyle removed all the carefully attached shims. As the bow wall now needed a new pattern of them, he made several more, and attached them in their new pattern.
Around this time, we had a day or two of chilly windy weather, reminding us that the idyllic days of Indian summer were not going to last forever. In the studio it was more protected from the breeze, but not too much warmer than outside.
Mid-shim-making, with luan and other bits of lumber leaning against the port wall. The wheels are covered here with an old vinyl tablecloth, a test of something I had been meaning to do ever since I noticed that the afternoon sun had been beating down unmercifully on those rubber tires all summer long. The wind blew it half off in a day or two. Clearly I need to do more than tuck it snugly around the tires.
Two sheets of 5/16" luan plywood, stained face and edges, waiting to dry and be cut to go up on the bow wall. This was the extra staining that came up suddenly. Kyle got the luan, and needed to cut it (stained) the same day in an effort to get the bow wall done before the party. I gave the two sheets and their edges a good thick coat, along with the hopes the luan would survive winter exposure.
Stage one of the bow wall siding turned out to be attaching the pentagon of luan, including a drip edge along the horizontal seam, and flashing along the top diagonal edges of the paneling. Next, stained cedar 1x3s would be screwed on top of the paneling, to secure the luan (which doesn't line up perfectly with the studs inside) as best we could. In part, the paneling will be attached only to the 3/8" plywood sheathing.
This was the moment when the saving of all those short pieces of cedar siding came in handy. It was very satisfying to be able to get all the bow wall siding done using the "leftover" pieces, and Kyle said it was almost uncanny how perfectly it worked out. We had realized several weeks before that if we were going to completely cover the bow wall with cedar siding boards, we would have to order more. And shell out more money. And stain more. Hence this change of design was helpful on many fronts, and resulted in the bow wall looking gorgeous in time for the long-awaited tiny house-warming party!
Voila!
This close-up photograph shows both drip edge and flashing, making the wall complete and weatherproof for the time being, and still ready to have a shed slipped in and hung like a cabinet later.
And, after many weeks of dry weather, a full day of rain came along, and thankfully the drops beaded up beautifully on the siding, trim boards and stained luan. Yay!
