BIG Art; Tiny House Post No. 11 – Dormer Windows and Outriggers

Working up to this weekend was not the most fun I’ve ever had.  We juggled bad weather possibilities, newly discovered building steps, and the general weight of fatigue.  In an optimistic view, I had been hoping to work on roofing this past weekend and move on to siding by Labor Day.  Turns out, there were a few hidden steps before roofing and as is always the case with hidden steps, they took much longer than the more visually satisfying ones.

On Saturday, we installed the dormer windows and cut out the window space in the storage loft so we could install that as well.  After our first blip with the rough window openings all being too big (see this post) the window installations went quite smoothly.  Apart from the door opening and the 3/4 inch ventilation gap in the roof, the house is now completely enclosed!

The less fun part of Saturday was my godsend of a mother spending four hours taking 18 hurricane clips (each with 10 nails in it) off of the dormer roof.  For future reference, if this is a reference point for any of you, hurricane ties go on the INSIDE of the house so that they won’t interfere with trim, sheathing, etc.  This wasn’t a problem for the more steeply angled gable roof, but the larger angles in the dormer roof exposed the hurricane ties.  So off they came.  Ugh.

But!  My mother finished this tedious task on Saturday and then we both went home to nurse our muscles with some wine and a lovely movie.  (If you haven’t seen The Soloist, check it out.  Especially if you like cellos, and who doesn’t like cellos?)

Sunday dawned grey and dreary. Apart from a few light sprinkles, this was surprisingly decent building weather.  It was a welcome change from the 90 degree heat of the previous weekend, at least.  Again, my mother and I took our time fixing little things and buttoning up the house so that it would be ready to be roofed over Labor Day.  We had to take 3/4 of an inch off of the plywood all along the roof lines so that the trim (that part that I didn’t realize we needed) would be able to sit flat.  After that, I worked on finally installing the outriggers while she did the math to figure out the blocks we’ll need to put in so we can install the trim.  Like I said, lots of little unknowns that take up a lot of time.

Despite the delays, the rain, and the sore muscles, it was a satisfying weekend. Discovering mistakes is never an enjoyable experience, but fixing them (especially before they irrevocably damage your project) does give me a certain steely determination to do it right later.  Also, the outriggers, pieces of wood extending off the roof line to make sure water doesn’t leak down onto the house, make a surprisingly strong aesthetic impact.  So though we’re still looking at plywood and zip board rather than roofing and siding, it was all worth it.

P.S. In order to list spirits, I hastily hung the first piece of handmade art for the tiny house!  More details on this beautiful handmade lantern coming soon.