Collar ties and almost done the roof sheating

With a help from my friend I had productive Saturday.  We had a beautiful, warm sunny day so we decided to tackle the rest of the roof.  The first then I did was cut the notches out for the last two outriggers for where the loft roof hangs out over the main roof.  I should have done it before putting them up.  It is no fun trying to hold a circular saw sideways in a tight area.

Moving on to the sheathing.  It took a while to figure out the layout so I could cover it with the four sheets that I had left. Well it turns out that I didn't do the math right and I'm just a 2'x3' shy of finishing it.

The last thing we finished up was putting the collar ties up for the main roof.  We put up the first and last one and then used a string between the two so the rest lined up even if the height/level was wrong.

Cramming it all in

First a little catching up on the blog.

I finished one of the wheel well boxes!  I just have to lift the floor sheathing to drill a couple of holes but more on that later

Last Friday and Saturday I gave a friend a hand with her project, she needed a hand putting the roof on a large chicken coop that she what putting under her deck.  By then end I was temped to get a couple of chickens when I'm done.  On Sunday she returned the favor by giving me a hand.  The first two rafters where only 8" apart and it was going to cause me problem with putting up some of the strong ties and blocking.  I finally clued in that I could just move in another 8" in and it would solve the problems.  After taking care of that we put the sheathing on the steep part of the roof.  We just managed to get it all done just as the sun set!  I now have half a roof and I got to use my climbing gear :).

For the last week I've been taking time in the evenings to do some of the interior planning
ng.  I have to fit the inverter, charge controller, 16 deep cycle batteries, electrical panel, fridge, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, furnace, ducting, wiring and plumbing in a very limited amount of cabinetry.  On top of that the inverter needs less then 10ft of wire between it and each of the battery banks.

 

This give you an idea of how tight the space is.  The hot water tank had to be put in the bathroom

Starting of the left. Shower pan (grey), sink(grey), toilet(purple), hot water tank(blue), furnace and ducting(green), electrical panel(yellow), oven(grey below panel), dishwasher(grey below oven), fridge(grey), washing machine(grey)

Hiding under all that are the two battery banks, one on each side.  The tall yellow box near the round duct is the inverter.

Toilet is so large because I was originally going to with a commercial unit.  The problem is almost all of them get poor reviews with some users having overflowing issues.  On the other hand there seems to be a number of people sticking with their "temporary" 5 gallon pail system.

Once I finished with all that planning done I can now drill the holes I mentioned earlier.  There will be two of them.  One to carry the DC wires from the north battery bank (rear wall in the preview drawing).  The other will carry both the supply wire from the service entrance along the north wall and under the floor plus the wire from the inverter to the electrical panel.  The inverter will be located where the is on the floor and other two holes are near the tape measurer.

To make sure I didn't put a hole in the vapour barrier I lifted the plywood up and slid some 2x4s and plywood under where I was drilling, that is why I have to wait to put the wheel well boxes in place.  With the holes drilled I finished the second one and nailed them in place, now I have more storage for the tools :)

 

Expenses to date: $ 10,550

Loot for the house

Happy New Year!


My brother was in town for the holidays and he was able to lend a hand on the house.  He drilled all the holes for the electrical runs while I worked on the framing around the wheel wells.

I had ordered some thing from American RV and they had arrived at the shipping outlet just across the boarder.  I have to give kudos to them for their pre-sales support. The furnace was not a regularly stocked item and they contacted their supplier to see if they could get it shipped out before the Xmas shutdown.  Things worked out and I had it less then 2 weeks after it was ordered.  There prices where very good too.

The second company that I have to give kudos to is Propane Depot in Vancouver BC.  I forgot to order a second hose and I needed a few more fittings.  The person that helped me was very knowledgeable and even answered my questions about the rest of my propane system.  So if you need anything propane related and you are around Vancouver you should drop in.

A couple of things I learned:
The hoses before the propane regulator should not droop lower then the top 20% of the tank.  If they do propane liquid can form and that may damage the hoses and regulator.
There is no standard for circuit breakers.  Make sure you buy the right ones for your panel.


So here is everything I bought
Square D electrical panel
4 x 20amp breakers
8 x 15amp breakers
20' Copper gas line
CO and propane alarm
Double flare tool
Auto change-over propane regulator, hoses and fittings
Fittings and valves for propane
Atwood 1522 dual stage ducted furnace and door
Suburban 6 gallon gas/electric hot water heater and door

I'll use the electric heater on the hot water heater as a dump load when my batteries are fully charged.  It should save some propane in the summer.


Expenses to date: $10,505

Merry xmas

I hope everyone is having a great xmas!

Ordered the furnace, hot water tank, propane hoses and regulator.  They have been delivered to a shipping outlet just south of the border.  I also ordered and received some LED strip lighting but I was less then impressed so I ordered a different kind.

I bought the inverter that I talked about at the beginning of the month (Magnum MS4448PAE) .  It turns out he ordered it for a project but it fell through.  The seal on the box wasn't even broken.  I saved about $800 plus shipping taxes and duties.  Unfortunately he didn't want the outboard but I did get in running and I'll sell it in the spring.  Now I just need 16 batteries, more solar panels and a better charge controller.  I'll be breaking the cost of the solar system out of the running total due to it heavily skewing the cost of the tiny house.

Now that the sheathing is done I had help from a classmate and a roommate to help put the Typar up.  After about a thousand staples it is securely attached.  I left out a row or two around every opening, this is so i can come back later and flash them.

The threaded rod is installed everywhere. I cleaned out a couple of stores and found out it pays to shop around.  Here is what I paid at each location for 10' lengths (except HD which was 6')

	1/2"	3/8"
Home Depot		6.50
Princess auto	11.19	6.14
OK Building		5.88
BC Fasteners	5.47	2.52

I wish I had known about BC fasteners first, I would have saved about $80.  Granted it would have been a lower quality zinc plating but they will not be exposed to water anyway.

The Strong Ties are installed on almost all the rafters, just the first couple rafters to finish.  I also installed the outriggers for the loft gable end.

The friend that has been lending a hand from time to time was in town so we loaded out her truck with all the scrap wood.  The side and interior are much tidier now.

Expenses to date: $8,924

Odds and ends

I finished exams on Saturday, all in all I did very well.  The plus side is not I have 3 weeks off to work on the house, oh and that whole x-mas thing.

I've been working on a few odds and ends including that last pieces of wall sheathing.  The worst piece was above the bay window, I finally gave up trying to figure it out on the actual sheet of OSB and brought my measurements inside to Sketchup.  10 minutes later I had a print out with all the measurements I needed, and it even fit perfectly!  Computers make some things easier.

I also drilled all the holes to extend the threaded rod from the bottom plate all the way to the top plate.  I just have to pull the tarps off so I can put the rods in.  Unfortunately I only have 8 rods and I need 13.  I added a 1/2" rod in each of the front corners, it needs to be welded at the bottom.

The South side has the Typar on but not completely stapled down, I have to sneak under it to cut out the OSB around the windows and door.

I also cut 1 1/2" off the top of the first rafters to allow venting and to put 2x4s in to allow for the outriggers, I'm hopping to get these done tomorrow and then I can start sheathing the roof!

Wall sheathing

Sorry about the lack of pictures recently but it doesn't look very different.  I'm into exams so I have more time but I'm catching up on some non-house related errands and we are having a "cold snap" (highs around -6C/21F).

I'm still putting up wall sheathing as I have time.  The bathroom wall is completed with the typar stapled down.  The two long walls just have a few small pieces around the wheel wells and typar.  The bay window wall has one large piece that needs to be measured, cut and installed.

Technical difficulties

Sorry no pictures this week, I tried to use my old camera and they all came out blurry.

School has kept me pretty busy so I haven't had much extra time.  The forecast contains another cold snap and snow so I had to rejig the tarps.  I still have a small leak in the loft area but I'll put up some plastic to fix that.

Both side walls are 98% covered with sheathing.  I'm hoping to find time to finish them and get the Typar up before it gets cold on Tuesday.  If I can get that done then I can heat the place and start working on the interior until it warms up again in mid December.

As you know I've been looking at inverter since starting this project.  I picked up that ProSine 2500W for a couple of hundred but because it ran off 12v I knew I would be upgrading down the road.  I've been looking at the Magnum MS4448PAE inverter because it has a very unique and handy feature.  It will accept either 120VAC or 240VAC and output 240VAC.  This is important because I want to use split plugs in the kitchen.  The picture shows how a split plug is wired.  This allows 15A to be draw by both plugs for a total of 30A but it can only be done if 240V is being used.  If a 120V system was wired this way it would overload the white wire possibly causing a fire.  Split plugs can be used on a 120V system but ONLY if both sides are split and it would require 4 wires.

So back to the story, a couple of days ago I found a Magnum MS4448PAE in the local classifieds.  It's barely out of the box and comes with the control model.  It gets better too!

About a month after I picked up the trailer the previous owner called me.  She had a long shaft outboard (like for a sail boat) that she wanted gone.  It wasn't running and the cooling pump wasn't working but I picked up up anyway.  I didn't have time to working on it so I just put it in storage.  What does that have to do with the inverter?  Well the guy is looking to trade for a long shaft outboard.  Guess I have some tinkering to do.