I don't know where I would be without the assistance of Nate's Pa's help. Ken has been very generously sharing his time and expertise in helping me place a bonafide roof on La Cabanita. He's been showing me various methods of ironing out and/or cleverly concealing my mistakes. For example, my roof framing wasn't quite plumb, so Ken showed me how to create a "kicker." Essentially we attached one end of a long 2x4 to the ridge beam and braced the other end against the floor. Ken pulled down on the center of the 2x4 to create a bow in the board while I screwed the floor end to the deck. When Ken released the bow, the board attempted to straighten and pushed all the rafters into a more plumb alignment in the process. You would have had to have been there...exciting stuff! Afterward we had an easier time breaking the plywood seams on the rafters. Throughout the process of finishing the roof, Ken was integral in breaking the material efficiently on the rafters and optimizing structural integrity.
We tackled the roof in this order: soffit, fascia, sheeting, drip flashing, vapor barrier, metal roofing, ridge cap. I hope my vapor barrier will stand the test of time. My architect friend suggested I use Tyvek on the walls and a product called Shark Skin on the roof. In the end I went "old school" and rolled out some 15 Lb tar paper that I'd already stockpiled. Tar paper was standard construction at some point, but now some of these breathable vapor barriers are the norm. I'll have to monitor the build up of moisture in my tiny house and make adjustments as needed. One of the advantages of the micro house is that repairs/upgrades should be relatively cheap due to the small amount of materials required.
I'm repurposing this old barn siding that I purchased on craigslist to clad La Cabanita. It was in pretty good condition until I left it sitting in the yard for a couple months. Ken called my attention to some badly rusted areas and we determined that the rust spots were due to a "galvanic corrosion." Turns out that when two dissimilar metals touch, one metal begins eating away at the other. In my case, the metal washers from the old fasteners adhered to the sheets after they were removed from the barn. When the sheets were stacked in my yard for a couple months, the dissimilar metal of the washer began corroding my metal roofing, a serious bummer indeed. It may take many years for these areas to rust through and create leaks however.
If you look closely at the picture to the left, you'll see the better side of my friend Laurel. At this point Laurel has spent more nights in La Cabanita than I! When she visited me in Portland she insisted on camping out in the cabin. In the photo she was helping me drill holes for the earthquake ties. More on that later. Thanks Laurel!
Unfortunately, I've got to keep this update short. There's a new sense of urgency in working on La Cabanita. Summer is here and it's hay-making season. It's true, I recently helped my Ma and Pa put some hay into their barn, but that's not what I'm talking
about. Summer is a busy time for work and food production. I will be moving to the San Juan Islands within the week to work on a farm. I plan to come down to Portland during my time off to continue progress on La Cabanita, but for now, the unfinished walls of the micro house must be somewhat protected from the elements in my absence. This will probably mean temporarily placing my siding. I'll use the metal barn siding because I already have it and because it will be relatively convenient to install and uninstall. With the roof being clad with the same material, I'm hoping this won't make for an offensive aesthetic. With any luck my house will be in transportable condition sometime mid-summer and I can begin living in it in the San Juan Islands.
Below is an example of a micro house clad from head to toe in metal siding. This design, dubbed the "XS House" by Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., is no longer in production. Thankfully, my siding isn't as reflective.
