Shingles Near Completion

    

 

 It's safe to say now the shingles are almost all on the house. They have been for over a week now. We are still waiting on a piece of end wall flashing that has been delayed another week and half due to an ordering error from the Big Orange Box store....AGAIN. But thank you to their wonderful assistant manager she has help us out...AGAIN! Many many thank you's for her wonderful customer service and patience. Once we get those we will be able to call the exterior FINISHED! That time is just around the corner. I am very happy to say that all the shingles have been treated and sealed and are now just happily waiting to go on our walls. I am so glad that part is done, I don't know how people with larger homes do it.

One of the things that makes this project amazing is all the blessing we have received along the way.

We were putting up the shingles reached the point where we couldn't reach high any more. Ideally in this situation scaffolding works... But we don't have any and didn't want to rent any. We could have used the fork lift but it's not available until later in the day.... So what to do. Fionnbharre put his Thinking Cap on.... That wasn't working so he put his Asking Cap on and thought "I could really use scaffolding right now.....ahh hah!! Perhaps Chris our landlord has some".... So he takes a little walk over to the junk area behind the shed and what's there???? You guessed it, SCAFFOLDING!! Things like this just keep happening and we are SO grateful!

 

  

Thats a Happy Man and his Scalfolding

We are Back in Business

DIP...BRUSH...DRIP...DRY...

Mean while back in the garage, I was diligently working on getting all of these shingles dipped and dried and ready for installment.

 

 Now for the other side of the house...

 One if the tricky things about putting shingles on is getting them straight all the way across so you don't SHWAVES (shingle waves). Shwaves are better then Wingles but they just don't look very good. As you can see if the pictures below, we used twine screwed into one side of the wall wrapped around the corner and pulled as tight as possible across the trailer to the other corner to create a very tight and straight guideline. This way you aren't left with any funky markings from the having drawn on the shingles and you don't end up with shwaves.

 

The days are getting shorter now... It's time to bring out the lights.

There was still one tiny part of the roof to do. This front bump out. We WERE waiting on the flashing we ordered from the Big Orange Box, after having the misorder occurrence Fionnbharre put on his creative hat again, decided we didn't need special flashing and that we had enough scraps that he could piece something together that would work just fine... and it did!

Trim, Shingles, Doors and More...

     Fionnbharre finally gets to move toward his area of expertise ... the beginnings of the finish work. I believe I mentioned it before that Fionnbharre is not a framing carpenter. Although with the work that he does you would might disagree. By trade he is a finish carpenter and that's what he prefers most. He will have much more to do once we start working on the inside but for now he gets to start with the exterior windows, corners and doors.

 

Shingle Time!

Exterior Drying Station

     One of the very first things we purchased for our tiny house, back even before we had the trailer were the shingles. As you might remember they were not kiln dried so we hung them out to dry. Well now it's Round 2 for the shingles to dry. Only this time they have been treated with HEMP SHIELD... and some LOVE of course. This is an arduous task and one I have not been excited about but I do have say despite the fact there are over 2000 shingles to treat by hand it's been going well. Not mention I'm incredible grateful there are ONLY 2000+ shingles for our 200 sq ft. home and not thousands of shingles for a 2000 square ft home. It's all about perspective sometimes.

Interior drying station

     Initially we were planning on spraying the shingles, but after a little education we learned spraying shingles on only one single side, can lead to what I call WINGLES. Those are shingles who have developed curved or winged edges due to improper weather treating. We have opted for the Dip, Brush, Drip method. First you dip the shingles in the treating solution, then brush off the excess, and let any additional excess drip off into another bucket before letting them dry. You will see more pictures for this is a future blog.
Fionnbharre has created some lovely portable 2x4 drying racks so we can still have our shingles drying inside or out depending on the weather. We are facing the most monotonous task yet but hard work and perseverance will soon pay off. 

The Pictures below show only the beginnings of our shingle adventure, but fear not for there is much more to come.......

 

The Treatment Station

Set and ready to  go!

What has Already been treated

 

 What is still to come.... It's only 30 boxes

 

     Before I get too carried away with this shingle talk I should not forget to mention  THE DOORS CAME! and in good condition too! They are officially installed with handles and locks and keys. Our house is feeling more and more like a home everyday.

 

 

 

And the shingle installment begins. 

    We got pretty far for the first weekend. Fionnbharre had to refresh himself a little how this process works. It's only been over 10 years since he installed them last. Fortunately with his sharp memory and keen skills he was off and running in no time. And even gave a little instruction too. Believe it or not I even got to put the first shingle on. But don't have a picture to prove just a video I can't get to work. It was decided since time is of the essence hear, Fionnbharre is the best man with the staple gun. Another Big Thank you goes out to Fionnbharre's dad for letting us use his staple gun and compressor to get the BIG job done.

....Let's see...whats the best way to do this

 

ahh yes, now we are getting it.

We are on a roll! These shingles will done in no time

One must be very very serious when using a table saw.....ABSOLUTELY NO SMILING! ;)

NOTE: When learning to use a table saw BE CAREFUL AND ALWAYS WHERE EYE PROTECTION (unlike what is show in the picture)

This shingle is a result of trying force the shingle through the blade. As a result it got caught on the blade, went flying backwards at full speed towards and gave my hand a really good Wack! Fortunately it left just a bruise. But I have to say, I got lucky. 

Be Careful and Pay Attention....ALWAYS

This Shingle Fun Has Just Begun!... Tune back soon for more details.