Memorial Day Weekend: A Massive Success!

Finishing up framing on the last wall- Sunday.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SERIOUS AMOUNTS OF PROGRESS. MAY CAUSE BOUTS OF SHEER JOY.
Awesome video at the end of the post so stick it out!


First off, I would like to say a belated, but still genuinely heart-felt thank you to all of our veterans. I hold one especially dear, my brother, Adam. Thank you for putting your life on the line several times to protect us. Thank you to everyone of you!

Getting excited for Monday!

So much happened on this long weekend that I'm going to break it down by the day. First, I'll give a small intro. SO, at the beginning of this past weekend, things were looking grim. We had originally planned to have the wall raising "party" on Saturday- weather pending. We still had a few bits to finish on the final wall, but we planned to do that on Friday. WELL. It did not happen that way. 

FRIDAY

A serious incident happened at Dan's work (at another office location than his). They had to call in the best to clean up the situation- so, of course, Dan got called in to handle things. ;) He had to stay late Friday night, and then also work half of Saturday!

SATURDAY

Dan had to work half the day and it rained, so we re-scheduled the wall raise to Monday- hoping people would still be willing to help. We did go get the last materials we would need for the wall raise: 1/2 inch plywood, slap stapler and staples, and house wrap.

SUNDAY

Also a dreary sprinkly day, but we were determined to keep the pace going. We worked despite the intermittent sprinkles. We finished the remaining framing on the final wall (lower small window and cripple studs throughout) and prepped what we could for the big day! We were happy to hear that many of the people we asked would be able to come- even though we changed things last minute!

MONDAY

End walls are ready.

Dan and I grabbed food and booze as a gesture of gratitude to everyone that was going to help that day. Dad (Mr B) absolutely loves having cookouts, so he invited family and neighbors to watch it all happening too! We ran around getting things set up and ready for the big group. People filtered in at different times- almost everyone came early! There were also about 4 extra people that decided to come last minute. More the merrier!! There was a steadily growing buzz of excitement among all of us. I'll admit, I was nervous- imagining one horror scenario after another in the days that led up to it- you know, real useful exercise.

Dan and I worked to apply plywood  sheathing to the two end walls. We weren't worried so much about weight with these ones, and putting the sheathing on before the wall is up is WAY EASIER. We were super happy we did that once the walls were up, because they are TALL. We kind of wished we had done it to the long walls too (haha), but it was a good decision to leave the plywood off. The long walls were already very heavy, and having more places to grab onto was necessary. 

Putting the stud lines on the sheathing.

THINGS WENT GREAT! We set up the flipcam to video the whole wall raising process...when I walked up to turn if off- it read 39 minutes! In just 39 minutes, where there once was a flat trailer, now stands a tiny house. AAGGH! I'll say it again- NOW STANDS A TINY HOUSE!!!

Most everyone gravitated towards the food and beverages once the walls were up and secured. Long after most people had gone home, Dan, his mom, his Dad, and I continued working. We applied ALL of the remaining plywood- and thanks to Mr S's thrifty-ness we used up just about every scrap and have many extra sheets of plywood left over! Mrs S and I applied the house wrap and Dan helped with the third layer.  We need taller ladders to finish the very top. We placed the 2x6 rafters across the top of the tiny house and tossed a tarp over it to serve as a make-shift roof. The loft and roof are next on the agenda.

We made another time-altered video to show the walls being raised and to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU once again to everyone who came to help. We couldn't have done it without you! (See link at the end)

Oh! Another exciting bit of news! We now have a facebook page! So stop by- LIKE IT - and follow along for additional photos not posted here and all manner of other tiny house wonderment. :)

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For some reason the video
won't load to my post!
 Watch it on youtube here!