Changin' My Mind (another in the "You Know You're Taking Too Long" series)

You know you're taking too long to build your house... when the multiple years slipping by give you endless opportunities to re-think and alter plans.

Thankfully, even all these years later, I am still very happy with the floor plan I designed for the JayBee. When I designed the house, there were very few tiny-house designs to find. Now... just about every design possible has been done. I think my design holds up. It still feels like the most functional design for me. (Wouldn't it be horrible if I was trying to finish a house I now thought was fatally flawed?!)

This winter, though, I surprised myself by doing a complete about face with my energy plan for the JayBee. Many years ago, I wrote this post about my plan to use propane appliances for cooking, heat, and hot water--primarily because those things would still function just fine when the electric power went out, which it does with some regularity where I live. Last summer, I decided I needed to let go of my plan to bring my beloved range/heater into the JayBee. At 40,000 BTUs, it would have heat-blasted me right out of the house. (The skepticism of several propane installers sunk in at last, I guess.) I still was thinking, though, that I would use a propane range (just smaller) and a propane water heater. I planned to add a propane wall heater with a nice little fireplace-like window.

A few weekends ago, I changed my mind. After years of staying on the same steady track, everything just shifted. I decided I will not use any propane appliances in the JayBee. These things all finally coalesced in my mind:

• I didn't want propane appliances that use electronic ignition since that would render most of them useless when the power went out. But why would I want open pilot lights in my tiny house compromising the air quality?
• Every winter, getting routine propane deliveries is a challenge. While I generally don't have a problem getting my car up and down my icy driveway, the propane delivery trucks have a huge problem with all that ice. Did I really want to spend my future winters worrying about the timing of propane deliveries?
• Even though I have pre-purchased all kinds of fixtures and appliances for the JayBee and have been building with them in mind, I have not been able to commit to any of the propane appliances I have researched endlessly. Hmm... maybe there are good reasons for all that hesitance?
• The only propane wall heater I like is one that does not have a thermostat so really shouldn't be left running if I'm not home. Not reliable heat for the winter.
• The one system I have never started in the JayBee is the propane system. No pipes yet installed. No holes drilled. Why not simplify and save all those additional punctures to the building's envelope?
• The salesperson for the electric-radiant heat system I'm planning for under the floors of the JayBee pointed out that their system uses so little energy, it works well with solar panels.
• I had always planned to add solar panels at a future date. Maybe the future is here?

New plan: Everything in the JayBee that requires energy will be electric. Electric-radiant heat under the floors, supplemented with one or two electric wall heaters. Electric induction cooktop (cooks faster than anything else, and won't add heat to the space). Electric convection oven. Electric on-demand water heater. Simple. No fossil fuels. No open pilot lights.

I don't know that I can afford the solar panels this year, but the plan is to install ground-mounted panels on the south-facing hillside behind the JayBee. When I was at the Maine Flower Show a few days ago, I talked with a solar installer who told me that their grid-connected systems are usually installed with a battery backup system that automatically kicks on when the grid-supplied electric power goes out. Perfect.

Hard Realities

Sorry, folks, for my lack of posts these last several weeks. Sadly, there is little to report.

Tomorrow morning, I should wake up to snow on the ground, and snow falling most of the day. <sigh> Seems a bit early in the season for such shenanigans.

By late summer, I had to face the fact that I was not going to finish building the interior of the JayBee nor have time before the advent of winter to tear down the old house and move the JayBee to its new location. This has meant that time I would have spent working on the JayBee had to be used on various winterizing tasks to ensure the old house survives another winter.

Before I shifted gears, I worked on the boards for the ceiling of the bumpout in the bathroom. After layers of stain and finish...

...the boards were ready for installation.

Installed!

As the fall weather quickly turned from pleasantly cool to crazy cold, I was reminded why it becomes daunting to work on the JayBee during the winter. The painting/staining/finishing stations that worked so well for me all summer long inside the JayBee don't function well in the bitter cold. I've had a few layers bubble up and peel because I didn't wait long enough for the electric heater to warm up the wood and the space before applying them. I've had to move all of the paints and finishes into the main house to keep them at the right temperature, which keeps me running back and forth trying to lay my hands on everything I need to do a project. The extension cords are no longer running across the driveway between houses; they are stored away (so the plow guy doesn't get tangled up in them) and have to be re-run any time I want to work out in the JayBee. Tomorrow, I will have to move the stairs away from the front of the JayBee--so the plow guy can maneuver in the small drive space in front of the JayBee. Everything just becomes more laborious and complicated the colder the weather gets.


Weeks ago, a racket down on the road lured me down my driveway to inspect what was going on. Railroad hobbyists were launching one of their rail cabs down the tracks. Stinky! Definitely no emissions-treatment devices on those things.

Ode to Imperfection (Interior Walls 11)

This phrase has been repeating in my brain for about ten days now. "Ode to Imperfection" ... as in ...
JayBee: Ode to Imperfection

This project has brought me to a place of feeling okay about imperfection. (Okay, okay, calm down, those who know me and know what a perfectionist I can be.) I swear it's true. This project is full of things that have ended up just a little bit off. Working with wood is like that anyway. Wood moves. It can bend, twist, shrink, and expand. When framing would end up a little uneven, I'd tell myself I could adjust for it with the finish materials. This project is now at the point when not much more can be covered over. The finish materials show. I am happy with how things are turning out but, along with that, I have reached the point of just smiling when there's a little wonky bit here or a slightly-off bit there. Most of it no one else will ever notice, but I know it's there.

Here's a small example: Up to this point, I hadn't had to install two boards with their butt ends together. I had installed all boards that were long enough to run corner to corner. Knowing I would have to join two boards end to end at some point, I used some scraps to work up this prototype. First try, and I liked it. Rather than join the butt ends of the boards together, which would never stay tight enough to look good, I decided to do a series of angle cuts. The left board has a continuous 45-degree angle cut that slides under the right board. The right board has an angle cut that matches the left board. Then, the right board has an additional angle cut on the top edge of the board that goes in the opposite direction--which results in this. If the boards shrink or swell a bit, this joint will continue to look good.

Great prototype--but, then, I failed to implement the plan correctly. On my first real use of this join, I made the last cut go halfway down through the top board, instead of only a third of the way through. (Learned my lesson for future cuts!) I could have set this board aside and cut a new one, but I installed it anyway (see below), with the resulting small gap at the bottom of the join, because I think this joint will be covered with the window trim. Others may never see this error, but I will know it's there.

My July 4th week was not as productive as I had thought it would be. For one, it was deadly hot and humid! Once the weather gets that oppressive, my energy just plummets. Next, I had a terrible outbreak of caterpillar rash. Instead of individual rashy bits breaking out a few at a time, as had been the case up until last Monday, all of this (below) broke out at once. My neck and chest were on fire! Ended up seeing a doctor and filling a few prescriptions. Best source of relief: running ice cubes continuously back and forth across my neck.

When the rash calmed down a bit, I resumed work on the JayBee. The heat was still oppressive, so I worked on picky little bits--like custom-cutting pieces to fill in the gaps in the open spaces around some of the ceiling joists. Fussy work.

I also finally moved the steps in front of the JayBee. I had been using the small stepladder to get in and out of the house but, once I started moving that ladder inside to work up high on the walls, it got too frustrating. When we finally had a cool day, I moved the steps.

One more row done high up on the north and east walls.

Two more rows of boards installed in the bathroom.

Here's one for the annals of "You Know You're Taking Too Long..."
You know you're taking too long to build your house when someone who started building her tiny house when I started mine has not only lived in her tiny house for five plus years, but has now moved on to an entirely different living situation--(not because her tiny failed her, but because her life changed). <sigh> And I'm not even done building mine yet. See Ella's story.

Also see:
Interior Walls 1
Interior Walls 2
Interior Walls 3
Interior Walls 4
Interior Walls 5
Interior Walls 6
Interior Walls 7
Interior Walls 8
Interior Walls 9
Interior Walls 10
Interior Walls 12
Interior Walls 13
Interior Walls 14
Interior Walls 15


My son trying out his paddle board on the Kennebec River...

Yup, he's way out there, to the left of the red buoy, paddling back from the far side.

Proudly Non-compliant

A few weeks ago, I had a doctor call me a "non-compliant patient." (He wanted to repeat a diagnostic screening that I've had a gazillion times already and find to be a waste of time and not very helpful, so I declined it.) He was trying to label me non-compliant in a somewhat humorous way, in order to lighten the exchange, but the obvious implication was that to be non-compliant is a "bad" thing. I've thought a lot about this exchange since then...

I would hate to think that anyone would ever say about me--either now or when my life is over: "She was always compliant." Phooey on that! I really can't see the point of mindlessly going along to get along. When it comes to my own life and health, I form my own opinions and I set my own goals. If something does not make sense to me, I really don't care how many other people have done the conventional/common/routine thing. I'll chart my own course, thank you very much. When I conceived of a plan to build a wooden raft and live on it in the Kennebec River with my son as a way of having an adventurous summer vacation, and others expressed all kinds of doubts and concerns, I didn't give up the dream. Instead, I doubled-down on the planning. (We had so much fun, we repeated the adventure four additional summers before he went off to college!) When I excitedly told a man I was dating that I was going to build my own house, and he replied with "You can't do that!," I didn't fold and accept his opinion. (I saw it as a huge red flag that that relationship was not going to last.) When others thought it was foolish of me to walk away from a job that was using me up (and I thought was going to be the end of me) at my advanced age :-) and without another job all lined up, I did what I needed to do anyway. (Best decision! I've been so much healthier in all kinds of ways since.) It's that same part of me that is building the JayBee--even though this is not the conventional way of acquiring a new home, even though it is hard work, even though I have to figure out what I'm doing each step of the way. I wouldn't have it any other way. I am quite proudly non-compliant!

...

For those who are interested in life on the river...

Here is a photo of me on a walk looking back up my driveway. Can't see anything?

Here; I'll zoom in. George may be too lazy to walk with me, but he is still keeping watch from the driveway.

I picked up a stick to help me get safely down the banking to the river's edge. Once I was down the hillside, I realized the stick had been gnawed off by a beaver. A beaver stick!

An early sign of autumn.

Late summer/fall flowers along the river.

Various late summer and early fall river shots...

This may look like a simple river shot...

Zoomed in, though: See the soaring bald eagle I was watching?

Here's another shot.

And zoomed in.

One more.

Zoomed in; two eagles dancing.

Back from my walk that one day...and George is still on lookout duty.

A rare moment of peace between these two.

George--all done in.

New Season, New Plan

It may be quite hot and humid at the moment, but there is no denying that the seasons are shifting. The sun goes down so early now! And those long, distinctive shadows in the afternoon... <sigh> A new school year has started. Summer is on its last gasp.

I think I am coming to grips with the fact that I really am a very slow house builder. I am still very enthused and committed to the project. I also don't seem to have any desire to try to speed up my process. I would rather continue to mosey along, working thoughtfully and methodically, having the time to shift my plans as new, creative ideas come to mind. All this means that I know I have no chance of finishing the JayBee before the next winter season. That means spending another winter in my old wreck of a house. That does not exactly thrill me, but I do think it is the best decision. This will allow me not only to finish building the JayBee but also to finish the monumental job of downsizing myself out of the old house.

I have started to work for pay again--part time. While it is sad not to be working on the JayBee 100% of the time, it does feel good to have some money coming in--to counterbalance some of what goes out. So far, working part time is leaving me plenty of energy to work on the JayBee during my off hours.

My recent progress...

The electrician came back to make adjustments to the wiring. That west-loft window framing is now free of wires, so I will be able to install the awning window there. The extra outlets I needed are installed. For some reason not shared with me, the electrician did everything on the list except attach wiring to the thermostat--so I cannot declare the wiring to be completely done.

Here are only a small portion of the templates I have created to help me cut pieces of metal roofing for the roof. Now that the electrician is basically done with his work, I think I can let roofing pieces proliferate all over the floor of the JayBee.

I have been working on the half of the JayBee's closet that will have permanently-installed walls (as opposed to the half that will swing open on ball bearings). After spending way too much time staring at the space, I had this great brainstorm: I decided to install a ladder on the inside of the closet wall that will be used to access storage high up in the closet and to climb up into the west storage loft. Here is that closet wall in process.

I pegged all the holes where I drove screws to hold the ladder rungs in place.

I would have finished sanding the ladder framing...if my sander had not broken before I was done.

I mentioned those long shadows... See who is sleeping in the irises?

I like going down to the river late in the afternoon because the light can be so spectacular then. Bear often comes with me.

A couple of days ago, George came with us as well!