One of the largest headaches was dealing with inclement weather without a roof. There is no way to really keep the water out with a tarp, without a beam and rafters!

So here I’m getting the beam put up. This is a nice large 18′ (5.5m) 2×6 beam. It was heavy, but I was able to lift it up into the loft.

I then had to build a support post to hold it level. A few scrap 2x4s worked nicely.

Nailed everything down on the front.

Finally added the rafters and the beam was secure! To test it, I hung from the beam and it didn’t move a bit.

The post Racing the rain: Main Beam & Rafters appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

[I did this work the weekend before Thanksgiving]

I did the lofts over a weekend. This was scary because I had to work around any bad weather. Until I get the rafters up, a tarp will not protect the lofts. The reason is the same as to why the bottom floor got ruined. The middle will fill up with water. With nowhere to go, it will get heavier and heavier until it shreds the tarp and soaks everything.

Things went VERY quickly. I was amazed at how much progress I made in just a few days. No rain yet.

The post Lofts appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.

Time to work on the loft’s walls. I’m deviating from the original plans in order to provide more room in the loft. Originally, the roof was going to slope down to meet the loft floor, creating a tight space along the sides.

To fix this, I’m installing dormers—short walls to open up the loft and make it more roomy. The added benefit is the loft will have 5 windows instead of 1!

You can see an example of a dormer on the second floor here:

The post Loft walls appeared first on Big Man Tiny House.