Supplies and odds and ends
One aspect of doing work like this is having the correct supplies on hand. When it takes you a half hour drive to the nearest stores, this becomes important for getting the work done. Some of the supplies needed for construction/remodeling (especially when you're off grid) is caulk, staples, nails, screws, insulation, saw blades, cordless tools.
The supplies that I've gathered for the project is as follows:
- 8 tubes of Alex fast dry caulk. This is for the edges of the back wall sheathing for between the seams and where it's mounted to the frame.
- 1 tube of Flex Seal glue in a caulk tube. Flex Seal is great stuff for exterior work. You can get it as a paste, spray, caulk tube and other formats. This is going to be used around the new additon where it mounts to the existing building, put on as a bead around the frame of the addition.
- 8 metal and 4 wood blades for the recip saw. You go through metal blades a lot quicker than wood blades.
Of course there are other supplies I've got on hand at the Shack including Ethanol remover for the gas in the generator, fuel system cleaner for the generator, all sorts of screws and nails for the inside work at the Shack and other little bits and bobs that you need to work on a very rural tiny home.
The excitment is building
If you've been following the events at the Shack you'll note that every visit to northern Michigan has been with two constants. Rain and snow. Snow in mid April isn't that odd but days upon days of it is pretty rare.
So, it's with anticipation that the next round of work which includes the installation of the addition is coming up the week of May 14th when the addition is going to be delivered.
The plan is to have the handyman Dann there to help with some yardwork and with getting the addition set up. I'm thinking the more bodies to throw at it, the better even if it all goes smoothly.
The addition is 18 feet long and 8 feet wide (in the photo below, the area unpainted is where the addition will be attached to the Shack.
Finalizing Prepping for the Addition!
Left: The 4 x 4s are in position. In this photo the first two are attached to the building frame. The reason behind the only half painted wall is that where it isn't painted is where the addition will be.
The additon is scheduled to be delivered in just a few weeks so I've been working my hind end off getting the site ready. The area where the addition is going has the septic access and needs to have a lot of leaves removed and some digging so that once the additon is in place I can get underneath it to do the plumbing work.
The plumbing isn't going to be fancy. A shower and kitchen sink. The toilet will be a composting toilet and the liquid waste will also go into the septic system.
The best good news is that once I started attaching the 4 x 4s to the wall and checking if they're level, all of them are within a half bubble of being square which is some of the best news as far as this project goes.
The new Wagner Flexio 590 paint sprayer works as well as I thought it would. It lays down a nice even coat. Currently, there is one coat on the wall because of the rain that has been falling at the shack for days on end. When it isn't snowing.
Insulation
Left: This is what Reflectix looks like - mylar coating a 2 layer bubble wrap product. It's pretty cool stuff. I imagine that you could use it for a sun powered oven as well.
As I've mentioned, I'm using a product called Reflectix which is a mylar coated two layer bubble wrap product. When you install it by itself, it's only R 2.1 or so. However if you add a second layer with an airgap between the layers, it becomes R 21! That's outstanding. So I ordered 9 100 foot rolls of it and have been busily stapling it up with my new electic staple/nail gun.
This gun was only $30 on Amazon so I figured even if it was so-so in the quality department it would be worth is. Well, it's a solid product and it staples and nails brads like crazy. I put up the paneling in the bedroom this past week as well using brads in this gun. No issues at all.
Below: Intalling the first layer of Reflectix with the new electric stapler
Addition Delivery and New Fridge!
The past few weeks at the Shack have been the most productive and rewarding in the 20 years that I've been going there.
The addition was delivered right on time on May 14th. The way Jim's Amish Structures delivers their buildings is amazing. The trailer they use can extend itself, tilt left and right and drive itself left and right! All using a bluetooth wireless control box. The way it works is the structure sits on the trailer, the part that it sits on extends out nearly 20 feet and it is placed exactly where you want it.
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Left: Delivery day at the Shack! The addtion is here!
On hand for the delivery was our handman Dann who has been a great help over the past few weeks. This guy does everything! We had to do some jacking, twisting and shifting the addition to get it positioned just right but in the end it was perfectly placed.
As soon as the addtion was mounted on the 4x4s and I was able to get inside, I started insulating it right away. The floor and roof were already insulated so all I had to do was the walls. I chose to use fiberglass because I have so darn much of it.
The first week of June is when the next dose of work is due to be done with the delivery of the kitchen cabinets and the paneling for the inside of the addtion.
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