Fun with Pickup Sticks

Our first delivery of framing lumber arrived yesterday. Dumping the wood off of the truck reminded me a bit of a horse trying to shrug away a fly... just twitch a bit, then twitch some more. I somehow thought it would be a more high-tech operation, but I guess all the bits and pieces withstood the impact of the drop so why change the tried and true.


Johnny spent today prepping - building headers and laying out the puzzle. He developed a patented technique that he told me all about, but is too shy to re-state it for a video. I think if you heard it you would agree with me that it's pretty snazzy.

 And tomorrow we pound the golden stake!!!!!

Home Sweet Home... Now with Trailer Flavoring!

After a four-day marathon we have managed to (mostly) squeeze ourselves into our 300 square-foot travel trailer and have spent the last two night on our land! A gorgeous pink sundown christened our fist night and the crickets lulled us to sleep. New address: 123 Heaven.

Actually, we'll send our new contact info out shortly via email. Ping us if you don't get it in the next few days.

Big kudos to our friend Dan Riha who spent his day off helping us with all the heavy and awkward stuff (note to everyone else: don't ever say "I'm happy to help..." because Dan's aching muscles indicate that we WILL take you up on it... ;)

Being on the cutting edge of the Tiny House movement is going to be a challenge, especially since I work from home and we have an 80 pound dog. We're still dragging stuff out of our Santa Rosa apartment, and the trailer looks like the Clampetts have moved in with our detritus flowing out of the trailer and into the yard. Time will tell if the neighbors who have been so kind to us are still feeling friendly after they get an eyeful of our treasures.

Johnny's second building project... our sturdy new deck. The first project was a "supervisor shack" for Andy. I guess we know who rates around here.

Last Week on the "Lone Oak Project"...

Ok, so it was actually two weeks ago that we poured the concrete, but at least it hasn't been six months between blog posts. Small victory!

Here's a short video in which you can see them pouring the concrete, which requires at least one giant man to lug that hose around. For the concrete pour novice, you'll also notice a guy tapping the sides of the forms to reduce air pockets and holes, another guy using a stick to lift the metal frame/radiant tubing to place it in the middle of the slab, and yet another guy beginning to "screed" -- using a 2x4 to flatten the surface -- and smooth it out with a trowel.


We designed the house to make use of passive solar gain -- using the warmth of the sun to heat the house -- and the concrete is part of that plan. Not only is it the foundation, but it will also be the actual floor of the house, and the dark color will help to soak up that sun during the day and then release the heat into the house at night. I think in the end it will be worth the extra cost to have the integrated color added, though I have to say it looked much better wet than it does dry. We'll polish it up a bit and let you know what the final verdict is.


In addition to the heat of the sun, we are using in-floor radiant heat. And yes, the pex tubing survived the pour! Did you ever wonder what a radiant heat manifold looks like? No? Me either. But here is ours. It's pretty simple since the space we are heating is so small (840 sf), so it has only three segments. Hot water goes out through one port, flows through the tubing in the  floor and warming the concrete, and then the cold water returns back to the manifold to go back to the hot water tank and be warmed again.





Here's a video of the finished slab, which also shows the garage which is standard concrete color, so you can really see the difference. Since I was alone there is no family interpretive dance to christen the slab. Yes, I know how disappointed you are.