When I lived in San Francisco, I did a short turn as a real estate agent. Part of the time was spent partnered with a developer who was kind enough to let me follow him around peppering him with questions while I tried to soak up everything there was to know about remodel projects.
One of the first things he taught me is this: “Construction always cost more and takes longer than you think.”
With certainty, I can say the latter is true. I’m not yet ready to concede the costing more….not if I can help it!
So “my plan” once again was to have this tiny house of awesomeness completely done on the outside by today. That didn’t happen….
I showed up to the house bright and early Thanksgiving day ready to start siding and I found this….
Frost so thick you could write in it…and I did.
Come to find out, it had only warmed up to 34 degrees by 8am. I had to wait until 9:30 when the wood was thawed enough to see what color I was picking up.
On a side note, it hasn’t been this cold here since I don’t remember when…and I’ve lived here coming up on 8 years. The trees are SO vibrant and I love that so I suppose I can tolerate frozen-ness for the pretty colors…
Then it was time to get to work…
Duane helped nail up siding…
My cousin Nate is a master with power tools which was awesome when it came to cutting the pieces to fit around windows…
And Jake finished out the window foam on the inside…
Aaron and Nate installed the door.
Then Friday I showed up to more frost, although it was only 38 degrees…
I managed to get quite a bit done but it took a long time to get the pieces under the windows to fit right. At one point I worked for an hour cutting all the notches and making sure the board had all the right measurements….only to go put it in and watch it break in two places. At that point I’m sorry to say I reverted to my 5 year old self and threw the broken pieces across the yard. With my left hand. From on top of a ladder.
Clearly, it was time to go get food and try again later….
In all, I got 8 rows done….not too shabby.
Then yesterday this happened! Aaron and Duane helped me set the difficult angled pieces on the ends of the short wall.
And it turned out PERFECTLY!
We got both upper ends done as well as the door trim and in about 4 hours. All the hard work and freezing temperatures called for celebratory drinks and fries 🙂
So the first thing I ever learned about construction, so far, is half true. I didn’t get ALL the siding done this week. But I got to hang out with good friends, spend time outside in beautiful weather (made much more enjoyable when I remembered my hot coffee, gloves, and down vest), and the house is turning out exactly like I pictured it. I have a lot to be thankful for!
atinyhouseadventure 