Work....After Work!

Gettin' things DONE. 

Look! Look! Look!

While Dan attended class last night, I decided to go put some time in on the house. I'm not sure if it's the sleep I've finally caught up on, or the impending due date, but the fire under my ass has gone from standard yellow flames to blue/white in a hurry. It's crunch time people. We need to be out of the apartment by the last week of September, and we REALLY don't want to move somewhere temporarily for 2 to 3 weeks and then move in to the tiny house. It's going to be close! 

After snarfing down some dinner while bunbuns got some run around time in, I changed and headed out to the store for some supplies. I used to own a Chevy Cavalier- teeny little thing in comparison to most standard vehicles. You would be amazed at the things I managed to fit in there while working on the house I used to own in Southern Maine. My Focus is definitely bigger, so I surmised that some 8 foot boards would have no trouble fitting. 

We decided to go with shiplap white pine for the interior walls. After researching all of the "local" places that provided the same or similar materials, we realized that the prices were pretty much the same across the board. Only, with most businesses, we had to order, wait, and then arrange delivery times.  That whole process could easily take 3 weeks or more, and we don't have that kind of time. We opted to pay a few cents more and get it from the place with it already on the shelf. That's kind of what happened.... there were only 8 foot boards in stock, which work perfectly for the end walls, but I was hoping to find 16 footers available too. No such luck. So I spoke with someone and learned I could certainly order that size, and at a discount based on the amount I needed. Woohoo! The materials would be ready in 5 business days. That is something we can deal with...not to mention I bought the 8 foot boards off the shelf, so we can begin working on the end walls while we wait for the longer boards. Pretty crafty right? ;) 

I only bought a few pieces, just to see what it would look like that very night. The boards fit in the car without any trouble. I dropped the backseat and the front passenger seat to make room. I even closed my trunk no problem! The only battle scars my car obtained were some nasty splinters on the back of the upholstery. I cringe when I imagine that being someone's flesh instead. 

After bringing the boards into the house, I couldn't help myself- I immediately moved a bunch of junk around so that I could prop the boards up against the wall to get that first glorious glance at the near future. My heart soared as I stared at that small area of wall, bright and lovely, with the kitchen window's sun splashing across it. It's quite a shift since all of the insulation is black. Color has a very profound affect on perception of space. White and light colors make the space seem bigger- so white pine was a great choice!


Once I was finished doing a little happy dance about how great the wood looks, I decided to get back to work. Now that I had the proper grit of sandpaper for the sander, I was eager to work on the door again.

I spent over an hour working away at the door. By the end, I had cleaned the top half of the door. I'm not sure what we are going to do about the tricky small surfaces, like the edges around the windows and the panel grooves in the bottom of the door. 

I'm thinking I may just leave them...as accent colors. I think leaving some of the original would be neat.....annnnnd I'm lazy and don't have time to deal with that level of detail right now. haha I've got two other doors to tackle as well!

I headed home, tired, happy, and feeling accomplished. Every last minute we can squeeze in here or there counts. We're nearing the home stretch!!

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Holy Crap! It's time for FINISH work?!

Sometimes a realization will settle upon you and warm you through gently, like rays of the sun. Other times, it will slap you right across the face.

So as mentioned, Saturday was the company picnic. If you could have seen this thing, you would have wanted to attend too. I'm fortunate to work for a company that is family oriented. Each year, the annual picnic, which I liken more to a carnival, is held at my office location--due to the huge outdoor grounds.

Massive tents pop up a week in advance and various rides are constructed including: ferris wheels, bungee jump swings, tea cups, bumper cars, super slides, all kinds of games, a petting zoo, arts and crafts booths, face painting, a lumber jack show, pirate ship rides around the pond, and more. Then of course there is the beer tent and the gigantic food tent. Did I mention that every last thing is free? Even the two lobsters per person?
So HECK YES we went! I even got my face painted! Because...why not?

After saying hello to friends and eating our fill, we headed back to our place. We wasted no time changing before heading out again. Run, run, run! As we arrived at my Dad's, my cousin- Jesse- and his girlfriend- Jen- pulled in too! They said they would come up and check it out some time...and here they were! I was very excited to see them and eagerly showed them around the build. My brother also had the day off from work so he came to help out as well. Although we like the idea of doing most of the work ourselves, and we have, it's nice to have a day here and there where plenty of family members are around to lend a hand.

On Saturday, since we got there around 330ish, we didn't have high hopes, but we worked continuously. I started to sand the first door while Dan and Adam worked more on the insulation. I quickly gave up on the sander because we had a detail sander with a fine grit, it just wasn't going to work...at least not in the next 3 years. I opted to go help Dan and Adam. As I began helping them, Jesse sauntered over to the door and began working away at it with the sander. My heart bloomed and I smiled broadly as I watched him pitch in. He's such a great guy. Thank you guys so much for coming! 

By the end of Saturday, we had finished just about all of the insulation. THANKFULLY. We were sick of being all itchy after every work day.  There were many odd cuts needed to fill in the remaining walls, so it took time. We then used some of the bagged insulation we got back in February to fill in all the tiny gaps. It wasn't great stuff...but we needed to rip it up anyway. I'm glad we weren't depending on using all of what we purchased, I'd say about half is useless. :/ Oh well, it was a fun road trip! 

By the end of the day, I think I was the most covered in gunk out of any of the days we worked with insulation, but, more importantly, it was also the LAST day.

Jesse was even able to work his way down through about FOUR layers of paint and reveal a BEAUTIFUL wood grain for us!!! I was about ready to just paint them again, but after seeing the bare wood, I MUST HAVE IT. Thanks again, Jesse. :) 

Insulation complete!

On Sunday, we headed to the store first to make a couple major purchases. We picked up an orbital sander and a planer. The sander for the doors we plan to use inside, and the planer for the old barn wood boards. Well, again with the damn doors, the sander only came with one piece of paper at the grit I needed. I quickly went through that and was at a stand still again. So I joined Dan in completing the finishing touches of the insulation.

Foaming all the cracks.

 We did one final pass with the pink stuff and then set about filling in every last nook and cranny with spray foam. Insulation is most effective when there is no airflow. That baby is sealed!







After that, we set off to install the door. That's right, the door! The last piece to officially seal the house! After a couple minutes of gaping shock, we adjusted to the idea that the next thing would be pine paneling inside. That meant we needed to seal the place in.


The door was a bit of a challenge, but Adam was there to help us again. That thing is huge and heavy! We now have the door in place, but it still requires a little tweaking, it catches on the top right corner.

 After about an hour of tweaking here and tweaking there, we decided to just put it away for the day. We'd been out there long enough, and our patience with the door was running thin. 

So we aren't perfect....good thing it's
a Rough opening! 

All in all- still a very productive weekend! Next up, the interior paneling! Wooohooooo!
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All sealed in!

The Stuff Saga Continues...

"I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust." -HDT

See ya later tables!

Long time no read! I know, I know! Once again, life has whisked me away on other currents for a time, and it looks like things won't be drifting back into place for another couple weeks. Work has become incredibly demanding right now (just put in 11.5 hours yesterday) as we strive to meet a deadline. Plus- over the past three weeks I have covered a substantial amount of ground- literally. I made two separate trips up home to the County (a 9-10 hour drive each way) and after arriving home at 9am Sunday morning. I shuffled around the apartment all bleary eyed, and.......began packing my suitcase. Monday I was set to fly out to Florida.

I had a nice second visit back home and got to spend some time with family that I rarely see. I was also thrilled and genuinely touched to speak with a few different family members that have become loyal readers. I was delightfully surprised to hear how one member of the family had forwarded the blog along to many others saying, "Look what someone in the family is doing!" I feel so blessed to have such wonderful family. :)

Just a few of my awesome family!

On Sunday, after arriving home, I had that familiar nagging feeling start at me again- saying that the window of time is closing in and we need to stay on the ball. I was so damn tired though, that I just couldn't muster the energy to get over there. It's probably a good thing too, I can't imagine I would have been turning out quality work that day. Picture this if you will: My face was mashed into Dan's chest, as I pawed arbitrarily at his arms and legs and groaned in utter exhaustion, "I feel like we should be working on the house, but ...but I just.....Don't....Want..TOooooooOooo! I'm sooo tiiiirrrredd!" I then crumpled down onto the couch and awaited his response.

He took one look at me and said, "Nope. We aren't going. YOU need rest. YOU need something light and fun."  So that's just what we did. We had ourselves a gift card outing. We had free movie passes and some gift certificates to PF Chang's. So we had a nice afternoon together, nearly free of charge....and then I crashed around 7pm. hahaha It was just what I needed before getting on a plane at 630am Monday.

While I was gone, Dan put in a little bit of time after work, and finished the last of the insulation on the back wall and began working on the front wall. That's all we've done from a building stand point for a bout a week. :/ Tomorrow is my annual company picnic, so hopefully on Sunday we can push hard and get most of the insulation complete- if not all. Then we are on to applying the interior walls! We are thinking T&G pine.

Although there isn't much to report on the build- there is still plenty to say about the long journey towards weaning ourselves from stuff. Dan- the simple guy that he is, didn't have much crap to begin with- ooh how I envy him these days. He just needs to narrow down his wardrobe a bit, and then he's ready to roll. I, on the other hand, still have quite a bit to sort through. Even when we aren't physically working on the house, we are always doing something to be more prepared for the change.

I am proud to report that the regular Stuff Screenings are still happening every two weeks. I look through all my things and I pare them down more and more. As I have gone along, it has been easier each time to get rid of something. I'm beginning to see the stuff for what it really is...just a bunch of things. I used to feel, in a way, that certain things I owned were important to have as part of my identity. "Hogwash!" I say! That's how I feel now!

My perspective has shifted, and I now look at certain things (okay most everything) as just one more item I have to track and manage and organize....and depending on the cost of the item, I sort of view it as "adding time to my sentence"...meaning it will take that much more time to be deft free because I've added one more thing to pay off. I look at every purchase these days and ask myself, "Is this something I need? Is it something I really want? Is it worth it?"  No matter the dollar amount, we place the value on an item. These days, I'm finding I place a whole lot more value in my life than my things. 

I've also come up with another equation that allows me to update my wardrobe a bit, but still work towards the goal of less stuff. Any time I get a new item of clothing (only from the thrift store!) I force myself to get rid of at least three other pieces. It's been going quite well!

Just as a progress report:

I began with 4 dressers of clothes and a full closet. If you were to squish together all of my clothes on hangers- I would say it spanned about 5 feet.

I now have 1.5 dressers of clothes and my closet has slimmed down considerably. If you were to squish them all together now, they span about 1.5-2 feet.

I began with approximately 45 pairs of shoes. (Lifelong problem...might be genetic, you should see my aunt's collection)

I now have about 15 pairs and still working on that. I'm quite proud of this one!

I began with about 2 bookcases worth of books.

 I now have just one bookcase, and one full shelf on that is empty too.

I've also started trying to sell random things on Craigslist. I began with a handful of items

Couldn't believe I got rid of it and got $$! Felt great!

in June. I got a few bites on different things, but the one thing I didn't think would sell, was the one thing that did go! I put together a "girly kit" and got rid of all my hair styling accessories, extra makeup, a serious amount of nail polish and a few other odds and ends beauty products. It was essentially just a grouping of my junk, but I dressed it up, made it look like a nice kit of things for a little girl to play with- and instead of throwing it out or donating it- I got $30!  Hey- if we can somehow turn all this extra stuff into money for the build- HECK YES!

So this Wednesday, I went through another serious Stuff Screening. I donated our two end tables and some junk that was in or on them. I began tackling the back room which holds ALLL of my artsy fartsy stuff, along with anything else we can't find a place for at the moment.  I sifted through all of my art supplies and am selling a full tupperware dresser of random goodies. I've decided that going forward, all of my art will come from re-purposing items, so I don't need all these supplies sitting around. 

I also need to start thinking about selling my babies.....which are plants of course. You know how there are "cat ladies"? ...Well I'm plant lady. I've had many of them for a long time, but there simply will not be space for all of them...and some a just too damn big!

If you live around me and are interested in any of the things I'm putting up, contact me! Consider what you are doing as a donation toward our build! Helping us in many different ways! Below are the links if you want to check out the items- I won't shove it down your throat. ;)

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I'm going to miss him...but he's too big :/

Craigslist Links:

Lg Indoor Tree 

Lg Spider Plant

Lg Aloe Plant

Collection of indoor planters

Arts/Crafts + Dresser  

Just Call Us Itchy & Scratchy

Woohoo! Music INSIDE for the first time! 

Insulation is underway!

On Sunday, we started the full fledge tackle of the insulation. Since we had completed and tested the electrical on Saturday, we knew we were good to go on the insulation.

For anyone new, our insulation is reclaimed from a warehouse with industrial coolers, so it's pretty intense stuff. Gotta love Craigslist! We saved a substantial amount of money going this route, but as we quickly learned on Sunday, there are "trade-ins". Since we purchased this reclaimed stuff that comes in 4x8 foot sheets, we have to do all the cutting ourselves. We learned, THANKFULLY, that using the skill saw made our job much easier....sort of.

This type of insulation is not the "closed cell" so that means when you cut, you get crumbles, powder, and dust. We wore masks last time to avoid breathing in the stuff. Dan wore one again this time, but I was the measure and mark person, and only occasionally  the cutter, applicator so I didn't wear one. There were a couple of times that I wished I had. That powder clings to sweaty skin like nothing else. I made the mistake of licking my lips at one point and spent the next 15 minutes spitting the awful taste and texture from my mouth!

Kitchen light...yay! :D

We forged onward however, because time is closing in. We only have the apartment until the end of September and we certainly don't plan on renewing the lease!

We decided to begin with the back wall since it is the simpler of the two long walls. This wall is pretty much all 16s on center, so the measuring and cutting would be pretty standard. Or so we thought....see the thing with this hard, unforgiving insulation board is that you have to cut it EXACTLY right. Being off by just an 1/8th of an inch can be a real pain, and often leads to a lot of grunting and griping, punching and kicking, sometimes even throwing a shoulder into it to get the damn thing in the wall. There was more than once that we had to give up and take the piece back outside to shave off just a hair.  Each time we did that, I think we shaved off a little of our patience too. haha

All the while we were both slowly changing color. The fine yellow powder collected EVERYWHERE on us...our skin, clothes, hair...and it ITCHES. After four hours of continuous work, and near completion of the back long wall, we cried Uncle. Neither of us could take the powdery itchiness, the nit-picky measurements, and the special circumstances that electrical wire introduced. With this hard board stuff, the wires don't play nicely. The foam board is almost exactly 3.5 inches, so that leaves zero room for anything else. We decided going forward that we will just cut the insulation to give the wires space and then fill in the larger gaps with foam as needed.

This coming weekend, I return to Maine yet again for a family wedding event. So much driving! Dan couldn't get the time off, so he's staying home and then heading to the Cape to visit his family since they are all gathered there for vacation.  We both return on Sunday, he much sooner than I, and he plans to work on the insulation some more while I'm gone. What a guy! :) A friend offered to help him out on Sunday too! But we've had those offers before, we shall see if he is good to his word.

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Before......................................................................................After

Let There Be LIIIIIIGHT!!

We have power!!!
....when we hook up to my Dad's house....haha.


I am one fizzled out little gal tonight. So I'll lay it out skirt style: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting. ;) [Yep, I'm a bit cheeky when over-tired.] This week we returned home on Tuesday morning from a short vacation up North. This was after pulling an all-nighter- we set off at 6pm the evening before. As a result we spent Tuesday in recovery. 

Wednesday
We got a late start. But our goal was to fix the second window and then finally complete the last two. We had been dealing with how to install a replacement window into new construction. Ideally, you would use new construction windows, but hey, we wanted deals from Craigslist so we could save $$. It is by no means impossible, it just requires a little ingenuity and stick-to-it-iveness  and the job can be done. The main difference between new construction and replacement windows is that the new windows come with a nailing flange with significantly helps with the install process and also provides a water diversion. What did we do? We used a combination of techniques.

We first installed the window in a replacement style- using the screw holes within the window frame and screwing it into the studs. We positioned it just right, so that the window is flush with the wall. We then applied the tape, covering about a half inch all around the perimeter of the window and also covering a couple inches of the wall, this provides a water tight seal- thereby mimicking the nailing flange. 

The the second window fix went rather quickly. After the big window it was easy. This window was also a replacement window, so we used the same method. The last two windows, that we hadn't officially done any permanent work to, were very different sizes. They both are on opposite ends of the house.

One is about 2.5 feet by 5 feet, and the other is 21 inches by 33 inches. So yeah, a little different. We decided to tackle the larger window first- and it turned out to be a pain to get it just right. It ended up taking the rest of the day, but it looked great when we were done. We felt really good about how things were looking- and confident that we had the windows right this time.

Thursday
The next day, we finished the small window first thing. It was starting to sprinkle and we knew it would get worse throughout the day. The remainder of the day we worked inside as it poured all around us. It was nice to listen to the rain patter on the roof while we worked.

It wasn't so nice, however, that it was 60 freakin' degrees out!! I was NOT dressed for that, the weather forecast said we would see high 60s low 70s. LIAR! But I grabbed a sweater from my sisters old room and kept on. We spent the whole day- 8am to 5pm- working steadily. We began wiring the electrical. We were able to get about 90% done.

Friday
We took the day off. We had errands to address and a family get together in the afternoon.

Saturday
After a late night, we got sort of a late start. We headed to the store to get the last few supplies we needed and then to the site. We got there at about 1030, and we had a family cookout to attend at 1pm. Summers are definitely not a slow time when you have big social families! :) We managed to complete the last of the electrical, and test the power. We giggled with glee as we watched the lights go on and off, and each outlet passed the test. I'll dedicate a separate post to our electrical set up.

Conclusion: We managed to keep a good mix of work and play throughout our vacation. We finished the windows at long last, and we completed the electrical. Now, we can finish the insulation and begin the interior! Or complete the outside. We'll see. Tomorrow, we are visiting and having breakfast with Dan's sister and hubster. They are down from New York. After breakfast, we plan to head back over and continue the insulation work.

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We're BaaaAAAAaack!

My favorite place with my favorite person. :)

Vacation was fun, but we've been itchin' to get back to work!

On Monday, Dan and I were floating lazily about in the pristine waters of Little Madawaska Lake. The sun was shining, not a breeze to be found, and a lovely humidity free 72 degrees was the day's number. We had been enjoying the whirlwind time of meeting all of the family and also my high school classmates. It didn't make for much down time. Monday was the first sign of that....and that's when the thoughts crept in. As we floated comfortably on tubes and drank ciders, thoughts of the house kept jumping to the forefront of my mind. Here was this WHOLE week of nothing but time! I couldn't help myself- I wanted to be working on the house!

Tiny house that I drove by every day on the school bus!

A peak inside.

I introduced the subject lightly, because I imagine most sane people are not dwelling on projects when they are off on vacation. Come to find out, Dan was feeling the same way too. We decided to be spontaneous. We packed up our things, cleaned up the camp, and jumped on the road for an all-nighter. Why spend all Tuesday driving with traffic when we could just drive all through Monday night? It sounded great at the time, haha...but what that does is make you completely useless the next day. 

So, yes, we got home early Tuesday instead of Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning...but we spent the whole day recouping sleep and working out the kinks of 12 hours on the road.

Anywho, while we were up there, it was as if I saw things in a whole new light. I was astonished at the number of homes we saw on the drive up- especially as we got into the County- that were between 200 to 800 square feet. Much innovation is born out of necessity. The winters up there are no picnic! We even visited a small hunting shack that my family lived in for about 8 months while we waited for our final home to be delivered.  It made me realize that I've lived in a lot of interesting situations, and never once do I remember complaining about it, or letting it affect my outlook-- at least not from a negative standpoint.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why I look forward to living the tiny lifestyle; flexing your adaptability muscles is a healthy practice, and often gives you a new perspective to add to your collection. I'm always looking for those. ;)

Today, we plan to fix the second messed up window and then finally (and properly) install the last two windows. Considering it's 10am now and we have a 6pm dinner date with Mama Bear (Mrs S)- that's all we are putting on the list for today.


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