A Nifty Design Idea: Lexan Skylights in the Loft Floor

After I saw the sunlight pouring in the loft windows, months and months ago, I realized that the downstairs kitchen and bathroom areas were going to get pretty dim once the loft floorboards were installed.  I began brainstorming about piercing the loft floor in some way so as to take advantage, passively, of the loft daylight, or even lamplight.  I thought it would be nice to have some light filtering down, if for no other reason than to avoid the necessity of turning on a light to go down to the loo at bedtime. Various ideas came to me, including one I really liked -- putting little diamond-shaped stained glass windows in rabbeted notches cut in the edges of the floorboards. However, stained (or fused) glass squares, I finally decided, would not actually let as much light through as would some totally transparent clear material.  Then I found an inexpensive leftover piece of Lexan about 12" x 6' at the Covington Re-use Center.  Eventually the current design was arrived at, and Kyle cut the slots and rabbets.

There won't be huge oceans of light pouring down, but I like the look of these rays of daylight, and it will definitely make a difference.

Here Kyle is measuring the slots after he screwed down the floorboards, checking to be sure of a little wiggle room in the slot-width, so the Lexan strips will drop in easily.  Beneath him may be seen the folding screens I have brought over to up-cycle into partitions for the kitchen and bathroom areas.

Testing the fit of Lexan strips, and marking just one short portion where the strip was too wide for the slot.  Note the pencil in Kyle's hand, yes!

 

This view shows the beautiful job of cabinetry-quality work that Kyle did on the skylights.  We plan to leave the protective paper on the Lexan for some time, and I may decide to glue the strips down later.  First I would like to see how it is to have them there and live with them.

One evening, as we were preparing to leave for the day, the only light was from a solar lantern I had brought in previously, and it was shining up through the Lexan strips, protective paper and all, as I looked down at the loft floor from atop the step ladder. Looks cool!

Good Friends' Extended Family Visit Comfortably Fills Tiny House

The whole extended B Family came by on Thanksgiving weekend to experience my tiny house.  Here are the first five: son, nanny, granddaughter, son, and daughter-in-law. Son and daughter-in-law are both very TALL, and they did not do any bumping of heads -- yay!

Add two more, daughter on left, my friend C on right.  Then Poppy came in too and, with me, that made  nine!

I can't think why Kyle decided to stay outside....

Here is a view looking down on the crowd, especially granddaughter A, from my seat on the loft joist.  I do like the way the wainscoting looks with the floor.  Although I must admit this angle makes the house look about three feet wide (not almost seven)!!!

 Here is a special photo of A and her Nanny from my perch on the scaffold platform on the loft joists.

And an even cuter one.  A is wearing the cute purple kitty hat I gave her.

A's Nanny was persuaded to take off her shoes and "get in the shower".  A has discovered a chair that fits her just right.

I can't help including this view from outside the house, looking at A peering out the starboard window.  The weather was unseasonably warm and she loved opening that window.

And here is one of A and her auntie mugging for the camera together.

A's Uncle H is leaning into the doorway, and her Poppy is chatting with someone who is out of the picture.  H works at the big box building supply store where much of the hardware and most of the interior lumber was purchased.  What a fun and flying visit as the Chicago contingent made ready to head back north.

Interior Primer and Paint -- Covering up that Luan

Here is the first view of primer on the walls. I like the color of the 3/16" luan plywood, but it started to seem a little like the color of bologna, and it was time to cover it up.  Looking up at the port loft windows through the sleeping loft joists, it may be seen that Kyle has been busy. There are battens installed on the ceiling, tacked up onto the rafters, to help keep the luan from sagging, and to cover up the seams between pieces.  Additional battens have been placed along many of the other seams between luan pieces, although some have been left uncovered, where cupboards are likely to be installed flush against the walls. Once Kyle got the battens under control, KW the painter primed/sealed the raw luan plywood.

In a view of the port side cathedral ceiling, more battens may be seen under the coat of primer. Also Kyle's nice 1" x 3" peak trim is visible covering the electrical conduit pipe that runs down the inside peak of the house. The goal, as far as battens on the luan are concerned, is to cover seams, but also to give some definition to areas of the house.  On the outside corner of the cathedral-ceiling-to-loft-cheek-wall meeting point, battens provide a clean line. Just next to that outside corner there is an inside corner at the meeting of the loft cheek wall and the loft window wall.  This inside corner will be trimmed with battens too.  Installing interior sheathing, whether it be drywall or sheets of paneling or plywood, cannot be a perfectly exact science. With dry wall, unevenly matched seams may be mudded and sanded into unnoticability. But in this situation, I we decided to employ battens to cover the rough edges.

This view was taken near the end of November, between the primer/sealer coat and the finish coat of paint; I was standing with my back against the bow wall.  Looking aft, the storage loft may be seen, as well as the plethora of openings for outlets, switches and junction boxes. However it is quite clear that the deliciously warm radiator is not being powered from the tiny house itself, but is plugged in, in this case with a 50 foot heavy duty O/S cable extension cord, at the innermost wall outlet of C's garage. 

I spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to guess the color of paint I would be inspired by having in the tiny house.  As an artist people often expect me to be really good at this chore, but it is essentially impossible for me to picture the difference between colors on the walls.  So I was considering any of the lightest two chips on all of these pages of KW's paint book.  Whew!  I held the teensy little things up to all different things all over the tiny house and all over my apartment (framed art and fabric colors, rugs, everything!).  Each chip color is influenced by anything it is abutting, every other nearby color in the paint book, and even by the white of the little strip between the chips! Impossible!  Add in the knowledge that warm creamy colors can look wildly different in different lights -- morning, afternoon, cloudy, sunny -- and the thought of trying to use LED lights without REALLY knowing what the light temperatures will be like, and all I felt I was doing was taking a casual potshot at the idea of paint color (Sherwin-Williams Jersey Cream). Interestingly, I ended up pretty closely matching my apartment bedroom, not particularly consciously.  At least I like the color !  I knew I would be happy with it in the loft bedroom space, and I am.  However it won't be optimal on the downstairs gallery wall, or probably in the kitchen and bathroom areas.  Sigh. I am very happy with the choice of Porter Paint Silken Touch Flat paint so far; it has extra ingredients in the paint to make it easy to scrub and wipe off, and to repel stains.  In such a small space, I was told, it will be more likely than usual that people will be bumping into the walls.  True.  Hopefully it will be as rugged as I need in a studio-cum-workshop-cum-reception space.  Anyway, below are two photos, taken with the same camera, I think on the same day -- I think the late afternoon sun suddenly came out for the second one.  You get the idea. 

Often the color looks like it does in this photo of the starboard wall, a neutral off-white tan....

But equally as often it looks like this -- sunshine, butter, lemon yellow.  I knew all this, but I still had to be the one to choose the color.... It may be obvious that poor KW will be putting another, lighter coat (Crisp Linen) on several areas of the interior, when he returns to apply two coats of spar varnish to all the raw wood inside the house.  By the way, it may be noticed here that Kyle has installed mitered corner loft window trim, which he ripped from boards I salvaged years ago from art student CG's shelves upstairs from me. Gorgeous.  

"Proceed as the way opens."                --  Shaker saying

"Moving House" Video: The Last Few Feet -- 7:14am

Okay, the tiny house is soon to be secure in its third location.  This tow was more complex and much longer than the first, but actually the trees and low-hanging wires at Kyle's and at Big D's caused more concern than anything on this trip except for the underpasses.  The entire route, as soon as we turned out of Big D's residential street, could have been (and is) traveled with ease by any tractor trailer truck.  Gives another nuance to the meaning of the phrase "the open road". 

"Moving House" Video: Backing into the Driveway at C's House -- 7:13am

Again the house seemed to have no problem going up over the lip of the driveway here.  It's still awful cute, huh?

"Moving House" Video: First Time on the Interstate -- and Accelerating! 6:40am

Yes, it was still pretty much dark as we got on the interstate to go a couple of exits and then head south to our destination at my friend C's house.  Our speed reached a little better than 55mph, and the house did not seem to notice the (I think) 9 mph breeze.  No bouncing or jolting over rough spots, no swaying in the wind.  Kyle later told me B (who has hauled a lot of cattle) said the house was nothing!  And it certainly seemed to behave beautifully.

"Moving House" Video: Approaching and Entering the Weighing Location at 6:27am -- Note Underpass Clearance Height on Sign!

It goes by fast on the right here, but you can see the sign for the upcoming 13' 4" underpass that we avoided on the way TO the weigh station; and you can see us being waved through to where the scales are.  The entrance we went in here is just before the low underpass, and the post-weighing excitement of going under that underpass is detailed in a previous post.

"Moving House" Video: Early Morning Start in the Dark and Snow -- It's 5:49am

Here is the first bit of video "footage" I took on Saturday morning, November 1st, in the driveway of Big D's house/studio.  I thought it would give a bit of a feeling of the chilly darkness, the snow flurries, and the excitement.