Roof Work

While the weather perked up for us, I took the opportunity to patch some holes in the roof.

Not every roof penetration was leaking, but I'm still going to re-patch every previous hole and seam. 

Hopefully by the end of the day I will be done with the patching and then I'll wait thirty days or so before I coat the entire roof with an aluminum colored fibrous coating. 

Side by side, the same brand of roof coating that is white is almost 25% more efficient. I really want to use the white one, but the aluminum coating just looks so much better. 

Build Momentum

 The last few months have been great. We have visited with much of our family, attended weddings, hosted parties, made changes at work, celebrated holidays, maintained our cars, and even found the time to earn a little extra money. This is daily life. Daily life is good. But it feels like I lost my momentum because of this here Christmas tree.

So I recycled it. 

 

 

 

Like most projects, I am behind schedule and over budget. Now, I have not made poor choices with my purchases. Everything so far has cost what it had to in order to get the level of quality that we desire. So I feel that I can't control the prices that are set by people that could care less about my budget. I will continue to find creative ways to achieve our goals without wasting money, and the rest is what it is. So that's the budget. As for the schedule, that is something I can control. As much as it hurt to re-evaluate my deadlines, I did. And I tried to be both ambitious and realistic.

 

Roughing in drainage plumbing is something that I have never done before. I have done quite a bit of plumbing, but I'd always had something to start with. Whether they were right or wrong, someone else had always made the difficult decisions. So I scratched my head over where to locate this toilet flange for over a week. The structural members running under this trailer did not make that an easy decision.

 

 

Once that decision was made, things began to come together pretty easily. So drainage and ventilation of the drainage plumbing is close to done. Supply plumbing should be relatively easy.

These trailers don't belong to me. That's why I stopped to take the picture. Spartan trailers and mobile homes are just not that common. And if I see them, they are usually dormant. These ones, however, were just moved to this site 8-10 miles from my home along a road that I travel almost every day. I can't wait to see someone out and about. Whoever you are, my name is Nathan and I will be stopping by! Spotting these trailers made me wonder what the owner's intent was. Not that they owe me or anybody an explanation, but I wonder. And it's at this moment that I realize that I have not stated my own intent on this forum . Up next: A Statement of Purpose.

 

Dry (mostly)

My pop came by again and helped me get the last window and the slider door installed. This is the last window that went in, and the first to get trim. Hoisting the 60"x80" slider door up to hip height with limited clearance was the greatest challenge. We definitely used our degrees from the university of redneck engineering that afternoon.

Now that all openings are filled, I am out of the wind and weather for the most part. next on the agenda is sealing the roof leaks!

Drying in

My Dad and I spent the better part of a day installing windows. All but two openings have been filled. One of the remaining is for a slider door, and the other had a broken frame when I received it. Both of those will be installed in the next few weeks. It'll be really nice to be all sealed up for the winter.

It was truly nerve wrecking to cut an opening in the aluminum. It wasn't all that difficult, but there was no turning back once the process was started.

Here's a little contrast. As you can see, the trailer is parked about 2.5 feet from my home. I can stand in the trailer and smell dinner on a good day. On a bad day I can stand in the trailer and hear my kiddos getting out of line.  

The tin can with a wood floor.

 We busted out the making tape for some floor planning. Although this seemed really caveman(ish) , it worked very well for us. It allowed us to feel each space and make minor adjustments prior committing to plumbing and electrical rough in.

In this photo, the chair is where my new toilet will be. We were very happy with how much room there seems to be in our 10x55' space.  

Floored

Fueled by frosty beverages, I have spent free time this month completing the subfloor of the Spartan in 2 hour increments. 30 minutes to set up, 30 minutes to remember how I did this last time, 30 minutes of work, and the last 30 minutes for cleanup. I had a lot of help from my 4 1/2 year old though, so that really kept things on pace.

 I went about it one sheet at a time. I layed the sheet down and snugged it up against the last one, marking the rafters where crossbracing was needed.  I then removed the plywood and cut braces on centers so that everything was very snug. After that, it was just gluein' and screwin'.

 I finally scrounged up the better part of a day and completed the job. I'm glad the task is done, and so is my wife because this means it's time to do some floor planning. We tried using graph paper and then CAD, but neither worked out. Both methods cost a lot of time, and the result was inaccurate. I think we'll try chalk or pencil on the plywood. I know, I know, that's really backwards, but that's just how I'm living!

Weeks just passing by......

 We installed our first window about a week ago. I bought one prior to ordering the rest just to make sure that I didn't make a very expensive mistake. Installation methods for wood frame homes are pretty simple and straightforward, but on a trailer with 2" aluminum studs I spent many late nights researching what others had done.

 In the end, I followed the direction of the manufacturer. The downside to doing things their way is that I have to use exterior trim. Initially I considered sandwiching the windows between the skin and the studs, creating a very clean exterior finish. That would have required removing or at least loosening 2 of the 4 structural elements framing the window. It would have looked good, but made it nearly impossible to deal with any problems that arise in the future.

 So now we are considering trim options. The trim is really only needed to conceal the flashing tape and nailing flange. I ripped some cedar into 3" widths and it looks like it will do the trick. I may buy some paint that matches the window color and try that out as well. We are still considering all options, though, and we don't have to decide any time soon. It's nice to be faced with a decision that doesn't need to be made immediately.

I started framing the floor a few days ago. I'm just using treated 16'  2"x6" lumber for the joists. The scrap 2"x6" that were the old joists are getting diced up to be used as cross bracing at 4' intervals. We've decided that our finish floor will probably be some type of salvaged antique wood. So the plywood sub floor that's going underneath the finish floor is just 1/2" cdx plywood. My daughter and I did a thorough cost benefit analysis of plywood types ranging from 1/2"osb to 5-ply 3/4" tongue and groove A-B plywood. The cheapest option was about $200, and the most expensive was $750. We're somewhere in the middle balancing the necessity of quality and application with our checkbook. She's so damn sensible.