Construction Progress Report – Framed Eaves

It was a bit hot this past weekend but I got to spend a couple days working on the house. I had planned to put more boards on the roof but realized that I needed to first finish the eaves. They took a bit of time to build but I think they look pretty good, so even though I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped I’m still happy with my progress. I came up with the 16×16 diamond window in both eaves on-the-fly and plan to make little opening windows for ventilation.

IMG_5441

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Construction Update and How-To Videos

Posted July 22nd, 2009 by Michael Janzen and filed in How To

I took the day off from work we took a half-day trip up the the farm today. I spent a few hours working on the Tiny Free House, shooting some photos and video. I hope this is the beginning of a series of trips that will get me a lot closer to completing the Tiny Free House. Here are a few of the videos I shot.

How to take apart pallets

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More Delays and the Irony of it

Posted June 8th, 2009 by Michael Janzen and filed in Construction

I was almost dead certain I was going to go to the farm this past weekend for two days of building bliss but my plans fell through last minute and instead I spent it working on my big house. The irony is that the free house project was born from my frustration with how trapped I feel in my big house, and now it’s the big house keeping me from the tiny house.

At first it was the resale value plummeting which is now down about 40%; yep I’ve  lost almost half the value from the peak market price. But the other trapping quality is the time my house takes to maintain. This one, being about 35 years old, has had some deferred maintenance and it seems like every time I turn around I have to fix, prune, mow, or clean something else.

I’m still planning on taking time off from work but June is looking really packed with previous obligations. I think I may take advantage of the good weather and run some garage sales so I can sell the odds and ends I’ve collected. I may also try to tackle some woodworking projects around here like build the tiny house’s front door. Maybe that will help me eliviate some of the frustration I’m feeling and make some real progress too.