BA flew in for a workshop! And a party! And a mixer! And building!

BA flew in a couple of days before the weekend workshop. My boyfriend was out of town so having BA fly in was super fun! She and I would stay with our friend Sara for a couple of nights for some fun nights before (and during) the build.

kind of excited to see BA!

The workshop was August 29 & 30 (Build Days 15 & 16). BD 15 would be WINDOWS and BD 16 would be SIDING.  When she put it out on meetup.com one evening, she noted that 6 people had signed up in only a few hours.  When I woke up the next day she had sent a text that it was sold out! Surprised us both. We were only charging $20 and limited the attendance to 14 because we wanted everyone to be able to have hands-on...we even allowed for more people than we thought we'd need because of the heat, figuring we'd need to work-in breaks.  We had people on the waiting list and several e-mails for requests to pay to observe but...we've learned that build days are about side-by-side building of a tiny house and building community as we go so it's either all-in or just wait for the next opportunity. 

I was having her practice her bossyness (hat by SamMoon)

Bryan helped us shop. (Obviously a thrilling experience for him). He was called away on Saturday but joined us on Sunday.

Workshop Day 1/Build Day 15 Crew: WINDOW INSTALLATION
BA, Dale and Susan introduced the steps to install a window, and since my house had several where the sheathing wasn't cut, other sheathing was already cut, most were awning, a casement, a slider, etc. there was a lot of variety to be had. Teams were split up and given a window and off they went!  I was quickly dispatched to the nearby home improvement stores for more supplies. This house has 7 windows and they all went in on Saturday. It was awesome!

(zigzagging from left: BA, Tom, Jake, Robert, Me, Susan, Demere, Jet, Margaret, Dale, S. (Mark, not pictured, drove from Houston and had truck trouble, but he joined us a little later)

After the demo, Robert's ready to install a window!

Susan & Demere #womenwhobuild

I was thinking we'd need lots of folks to install this heavy one...nope! Tom and Dale had it just fine

Jet hands S a window while BA... supervises.

Workshop Day 2/Build Day 16 crew: SIDING INSTALLATION

zigzagging from left: Lewis, Robert, BA, Jet, Susan, Margaret, S, Bryan on ladder, Demere, me, Jake, Dale, Tom (Not pictured, Mark, again.. I SWEAR he exists)

Admittedly, I thought siding would go a lot faster but it was TRICKY. All the steps and cuts and window and house trim and caulking and glue and screw guns and nail guns and ...  wow.  BUT, it was all about the learning about the steps about installation ...and that happened!  Here's something that helps A LOT:

Helping hands for installing lap siding. They space and hold FOR you!

The lovely Hillary stopped in to see hubby (BuilderDale) and assisted for a little while :)

Demere and Jet working on the siding

Tom at the table saw

MARK!  See? he does exist!!

Margaret and Susan measuring the bottom trim, Dale and Bryan at window trim and S at the chop saw cutting siding while Lewis holds it and then takes it over to Demere and Jet to place it and then Robert comes in and nails it in place. 

On Day 1 they gave me the list of sandwiches on a HUGE piece of Tyvek paper. The next day they cut rigid insulation and cut them in shapes so I looked like Moses coming into Subway with The Ten Commandments (of Sandwiches)

Tom and Jake finished the birdsblocking, something necessary and we kept forgetting to do it!

Margaret was great at making sure all cut edges were primed and that the screws were covered with DAP

This was the end of day. Trim on windows and house done and learning of lap siding tricks and tips happened. I thought we'd get further but this was a thing of beauty to end up with! So happy!

The funny thing? We ended the day mid-afternoon and people were winding down but still hanging around. I didn't know that the errand for BA and I to go get some cold adult beverages was just a way to get me out of the picture for a bit. They'd planned a surprise party for me (My first in my tiny house!!) and I WAS surprised. I cried like a baby. And then we went in and tried to get in the cool breeze of Susan's homemade air conditioners and shared more laughs. It was a great way to end the workshop.

#YMA #NEXTWEEK!

MONDAY NIGHT MIXER
OK, so now the workshop was over but since BA would be here for a few more days, she asked me if I wanted to hold an open house.  We asked Dr. Harkness, who is very generously letting us build on her property.  She gave the ok and so BA capped it at 60 participants. It filled up and we think everyone (and maybe more) showed up.

Twinkle lights inside, first time lights were on inside, in the dark. This makes me want electrical really bad!

It was soooo great to meet so many new folks! (We even had a guy from Seattle who was in town and stopped by!). BA introduced herself to the group and then handed it over to me. We gave a little intro into the basics of the build and answered a few questions.   I pointed out that others were building, about to build and/or had built (Demere, Susan, Craig, etc.).  After that, it was just a gab fest and I was asked a lot of questions...it was awesome. Every time I looked around I saw that our usual crew were getting chatted up by interested folks in all sorts of aspects of tiny house builds; the actual build, where to park, city ordinances, etc.  I loved seeing everyone getting to share their experiences and make contacts to go forward. I mean, we know they're out there (the meetup group is over 700 now) but it was great to see their faces.  We need to schedule meetups around the whole metroplex to be able to see more folks show up, not everyone wants to drive 2 hours in traffic to get to a mixer...(but some did!)  I'm glad BA had the idea! Thanks for coming out!!

Check out Demere's blog for updates on her "Little Fish House"

check out Craig's blog to see great pictures of how he built this "tiny cob cottage"

BUILD DAYS 17, 18 & 19
Build Day 17 was the day the french doors would be installed (too bad they weren't on for the mixer but nobody seemed to mind the Tyvek door).   Susan, BA and I were back out there as well, continuing the siding.
Build Day 18 & 19 were same, siding continued for us, Vic finished the french door install.

Build Day 17 crew

Vic is his own team, had to build the frame for my french doors and install ...all of it.

#womenwhobuild

that window is tricky for all it's measurement and cut details.

Now, @BuilderDale had mentioned that a great visual motivator is to paint the first side of the house that has siding on it as soon as you can.  And so I did (which was driving Susan crazy but she's used to me and very patient).  My tiny house friends know that I had a plethora of color chips I was carrying around with me. I had been thinking I just wanted white but #BuilderDaniel had said, "you SURE you don't want color?" in a way that made me think... "yeah, I want color".  He suggested I talk to Vina Lustado, because DUH, she knows enough about me and it's HER house design that I'm working off of and so we had a little exchange and POOF!  I decided on a blue-grey.  However, there are so many shades of it and ... how would they look on a house?

this is a terrible picture, but you get the idea. I had extreme likes when it came to first picks of a blue-grey

I carried around my paint chips and would, sort of on a whim, chuck a couple out of the running.  I ended up with about 6 in my car with me.  I drove to McKinney to visit with (and give homemade cookies to) my former co-workers. After the library I drove through my old  neighborhood to see if my former landlord was home, nope :(    ...but around the corner was where I saw a gorgeous blue on a house. I don't know if anyone was home but I went up to it and put my paint chips on it and there were three that were close but one was a match.  I loved the way it looked on the house! (I was surprised it was so dark and that i loved it).  I had my color choice!
On the drive into McKinney I had seen a billboard for the ReStore so I decided to stop in and see if I could find any goodies. As I walked up to the doors I see a sea of 5 gallon paint buckets...and it's a really gorgeous blue!  I run back to my car (Ok, wait, that's a lie, I did NOT run...it's Texas and it's freakin' hot).  I WENT back to my car and grabbed the paint chip.. YES!  a perfect match!! And if you've been reading this blog, you know the irony of the name of the paint color:

"Rainstorm"

I had only decided the color choice about 15 minutes before stumbling upon it at the ReStore in McKinney. $40 for Valspar FireSafe Exterior

one side: DONE!  the putty color is the primer on the siding & trim but the BLUE is the color for my tiny house! YAY!

Thanks for hanging on to the end of this post, it was a long one but... lots of pretty pictures!  SO so SOOOOO grateful for this awesome community of tiny housers.