Month: May 2015

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The Porch

The Tiny Home has a little 4’x4′ porch which is little more than a square hole right now.

I’ve been kicking around ideas for what to do. Here are some ideas:

Wooden Slats

I saw a nice wall hanging at Target that would look really cool as a porch.

The hanging’s slats are too thin to support a person’s weight, so I’d have to either reinforce it or build my own.

Tile

If I go with tile, I would need something to support it. I could make some supports out of steel and then powder-coat them to prevent rust.

Steel

Speaking of seel, I could make supports out of steel and weld expanded metal to the top as the deck/porch. I’d leave it to rust because that would look cool.

Deutsch: Streckmetallzaun Verwendet an der Inn...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What do you think?

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First Walls Going Up

I powered through and got the first two walls raised! There’s no going back now.

To start, I needed to trim part of the wall that hung over the wheel well. I’d measured it a little long and it needed to be flush. The Japanese saw worked nicely here.

Trimming wood with a Japanese saw
Trimming wood with a Japanese saw

For the first (long) wall, I attached a couple of 2x4s, one at each end, with a single screw so it would hinge and prop up the wall when I raised it. This allowed me to raise the wall by myself.

Ready to raise the first wall
Ready to raise the first wall

After I got the wall up and reasonably plumb, I clamped the bottom.

The wall upright and clamped
The wall upright and clamped

Next I worked on the adjacent wall, so as to provide stability. I needed to cover everything with a tarp (the next week is predicted rain every day), and I was concerned that a single wall would be easily knocked down by wind or the weight of the water on the tarp.

I quickly assembled the second wall, starting with the footplate. I went to look for a 4x4x8 in my wood pile for the header and realized I hadn’t bought any in that size. GRR!!! No problem. I used a 2×4 temporarily to anchor the top of the studs. I screwed in just 1 or 2 screws in each stud and didn’t use glue.

With that, I threw the tarp over everything and tied it down as best I could. By this time it was 1:30 am; I went late because I didn’t feel like I could leave it with only one wall.

The two walls tarped up
The two walls tarped up. Phone ran low on power so flash didn’t work 🙁

Whew! The next wall is the longest one in the build. It should go faster because I’m more confident and know what to expect.