AGNEW TINY HOUSE: 2014

Well well well things are looking good around here! I believe it’s safe to say the outside is done! All the shingles are on and secure, the exterior insulation is in place and tucked in! There may be a few touch up places here and there but the big important stuff is done. What a relief!

Now that the outside is all done we’ve finally made our way and stay inside. Although I have to admit we've been moving a little slower these last couple of weeks. The area we live in was hit with a COLD spell, as a matter of fact we even got snow! A rare thing for this area. Since we didn't have any heat in the trailer it too was COLD and uninviting to work in. On top of that we had family come out to visit for over a week for the Thanksgiving holiday, which was time well spent. So our pace of getting work done was slowed down drastically for about 2 weeks. Although Fionnbharre being the super charger worker that he his was determined to still get work done even it was just a little bit. With his due diligence and focus he was able put all the side and ceiling walls up and finished working on some of the interior design details.

Here are a few photos of the visual work that was done.

Putting Up The Walls

We’ve stepped out of the box a little with our side walls and are using wood floor underlayment instead of drywall or Paneling. Drywall was to heavy and wood paneling was spendy. Its not exactly common to put flooring on your walls but it is sturdy very light weight and should do the trick. Once all the walls and ceilings were on, Fionnbharre, with a little assistance from my dear mother patched up all the nail holes, cracks and seems to make sure we had a super smooth and clean finish.

Floor Underlayment for the walls

Next up PAINT TIME...

come back soon for colorful details.

Installing the insulation was a project in it’s self! We worked almost straight through for 3 days stopping only for brief moments to put food in our stomachs, sleep for a little while and go to our real jobs which we came real close to calling in sick for. This was definitely our hardest and longest working weekend and by far the messiest job EVER! We can finally say we know how to GET DOWN AND GET DIRTY! (pictures to follow). Fortunately all in all we managed to keep ourselves in good spirits most of the time and work together as a strong team.
When buidling a tiny home, or any home for that matter one has to decide what is the best option for insulation. There are several options for insulating a home, including fiberglass, foam and cellulose. After doing quite a bit of research on insulation and ease of installing it was a clear and easy decision to go with blow-in cellulose. There are many reasons why we opted for this. Cellulose insulation is made simply from recycled paper and boric acid. So its earth friendly and non-toxic. A very big plus! It has a very very slow burn rate. When lit with a flame torch a penny will melt faster than the cellulose will burn. It also burns 60% slower then other comparable insulation types. It has an adjustable R value of 13-60 depending on how dense you pack it in and it’s relatively easy to install....that is, once you get the hang of it and don’t mind getting super messy. But that’s all apart of the fun!

We purchased the insulation from our favorite Big Orange Box store and rented their “Green Fiber ” blow-in machine and hose. They offer a pretty reasonable deal where you buy 20 bags of insulation and get the machine for free for as long as you need. One tricky situation we thought we would run into was the purchasing of a whole role of "blow-in-blanket", which is the material that holds the insulation in place when blown into the wall. It comes in a HUGE roll, far more then we would ever need for our tiny home.

Fionnbharre called around to check different local insulation places for prices. Luck was on our side again and the owner of Tracy’s Insulation in Sequim Washington was so kind enough to just GIVE us the entire roll, to take what we needed and then return the rest. He would then charge us according to what we used. It was amazing because he didn’t even bother to get our phone number or address. He just gave us the roll and trusted we would return. Fortunately we are trust worthy people. Although after having the roll out for a week, the business owner and a fellow employee of his started making bets whether or not we would actually bring it back. The owner was happy to see Fionnbharre’s face and his roll of blow-in blanket again!

Once we had all our tools in hand we were hard at work Saturday morning and ready for our unexpected 16 hour day! A consistent phrase around this project is “ Wow, I didn’t think it would take that long!” But its not about how long it takes it just important that it gets done and gets done properly! So we spent all Saturday prepping the walls to be insulated. Every part of the wall that is going to get insulated has to be covered with the Blow-In-Blanket (BIB). The BIB is attached to the wall with staples and then every single 2x4 that comes in contact with the BIB has to be glued with good-old fashion Elmer’s glue that’s been watered down a bit. we almost went through this entire container. THATS A LOT OF GLUE!

The glue was rolled on just like paint and set to dry over night. Had it been warmer outside the glued would have dried in about a half hour. But in 40 degree weather some things just take a little bit longer. It’s really important to make sure all the 2x4s are glued well and there a not any gaps between the glue. If the 2x4s are not glued probably the insulation will make its way around the wood and will create all sorts of bulging problems and will be a major pain later.

We finally finished putting the BIB up and glueing everything at 12:30 in the morning! That was a LONG day and we still had all of Sunday to go! The goal was to get the entire house insulated by the end of the weekend. We didn’t quite reach our goal but we came pretty darn close!
On Sunday we were up at em early again and ready to man our stations. Fionnbharre was in charge of the blowing the the insulation in and I was in charge of the Green Fiber Machine making sure that he always had enough insulation coming and never ran out. There was a bit of learning curve with the insulation. Fionnbharre had to figure out how much to put in each space being careful to pack in full so it doesn’t settle but also being careful not to over-pack so it starts to bulge or over flow all over the place. Fortunately if it does overflow or get all over the place, which really is inevitable you just pick up and put right back in the Green Fiber Machine. At the end of the day we had about 90% of it done. There were 3 ceiling panels left, and the exterior part; the overhang underneath the trailer. The only reason why we stopped that night was because we ran out insulation. We were 3 bags short.
But since we both worked in the morning stopping at 9 pm was the better thing to do and we would just pick up right where we left off on Monday. Monday Evening with shivering legs and finger tips and bodies covered in dust and insulation this phase of our house was complete! Having the part done feels like such a huge accomplishment and the start of new phase of the house. Our house is quickly making its way to home-hood. Just putting the insulation in makes the house feel completely different. It’s sounds different, it looks different, and it’s even a little bit warmer. This makes one more thing to check off our check list, and one step closer to having a home.
It’s getting more and more exciting watching this whole process evolve and watch it get closer every day to being done.

Let us Begin

Rolling out and Stapling the Blow-in-Blanket

Me trying to look cool using an office stapler. NOTE: Don't waste your time with office staplers...They don't work for this job, use a hammer tacker stapler.