Friday, July 17, 2015

Step 5f: Staging and Landscaping The Tiny Home Cabin in The Woods

Before we left we decided to begin staging the property.  We wrapped the side of the house with wrap we purchased from Lowe's.  Although we went against our way of thinking (which was only to use recycled material) we felt that it would save on air conditioning and heat retention in the long term

We also reused some old brick to build a fire pit....


And we began landscaping the front of the cabin.....


And then we left.....to be back next year...

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Step 5e: Weather Protecting The Tiny Home Built From Recycled Material

Time was of the essence so I put the camera down and got to work.  First we inserted the windows which were definitely a challenge and then I took a trip to Lowes.  I picked up weather wrap to wrap the side of the house and roofing asphalt.

When I got on the roof the first thing I did was cut off the excess beams which really made the house take shape...

For the roofing I picked up an asphalt based roll which was like a giant sticker.  I simply peeled off the sticker and stuck it to the roof in layers.  It was really easy. 


After the roof I got down and me and my buddy wrapped the house with the weather protector from Lowes. It really made the house take shape. 




We put the final windows in and the cabin, except for the siding, was pretty much done.


I was getting anxious since I had to leave the next day and the sun was just about down.  I took a few pictures of the cabin and we called it a day. The next day I only had a few hours but I still wanted to get some work finished, so I spent the rest of the night deciding what I could get done in 2-3 hours the nest morning so when I got up I could get to work.

Stay tuned...

#TheHomeskapeProject 
479 Mang Road (8.9 Acres) 
Salisbury Center, NY 13365 
Little Falls, Herkimer County


Step 5d: Framing a Cabin With Recycled Barn Wood

This day was full of excitement as we started to board up the cabin.  We had traded some logs and standing trees on the property for old plywood taken down from an old barn.  The day before we simply tacked the plywood to the side of the cabin and this day we began to cut off the excess plywood and the cabin began to take shape. 

As you may or may not notice the beams on the roof are hanging over.  This is because I drove up in a two door sports car and did not have enough room to bring all of my tools.  Luckily my neighbor and new good friends was going to try to find us a saw for tomorrow.  Until then we just let the beams have excess.  We sided as much as we could until we ran out of plywood.  My neighbor also found me a ladder which was a God send.  Without it, I am not sure we would have been able to frame the rest of the tiny home.



We finally got a saw and I began to cut off the beams on the back end of the cabin. The tiny home was finally beginning to take shape.



Stay tuned....


#TheHomeskapeProject 
479 Mang Road (8.9 Acres) 
Salisbury Center, NY 13365 
Little Falls, Herkimer County




Thursday, July 9, 2015

Step 5c: Tarping Up the Cabin & The Clean Up Crew

Well we were far from done on Thursday July 9, 2015 but I needed to get back home.  Me and my buddy Mike put a tarp over the top.  We still had one more piece of plywood to finish the top but it was easier climbing the inside them our other option (we had no other option, we only had a ladder that could reach the roof from the inside).  Picture of the open spot in the roof from the inside:



Tarp it up!!!!!!!  I like to leave the work area clean....


Here is a picture of the back side of the cabin after we had put plywood on it the day before. 


Spent most of the day cleaning and nailing in what we could after tacking the plywood boards up the day before...



It pained me to leave the project midway but I needed to get back home to run my other businesses.  I planned to come back up in a week or so.  Stay tuned.....

#TheHomeskapeProject 
479 Mang Road (8.9 Acres) 
Salisbury Center, NY 13365 
Little Falls, Herkimer County

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Step 5b: Siding the Cabin with Reclaimed Plywood

As night-time came closer me and my friend Mike tried to put up as much reclaimed plywood on the sides of the house as possible. 


For time sake, I left the beems on the room overhang and decided to cut them off later.  Tools were scarce and I only had a week to get done as much as possible before I had to go back to my day-2-day job in Connecticut as a business plans writer. Even though I can pretty much work from anywhere, my fiancé was back home.







Because we did not have access to a saw we overlapped a lot of the plywood over the windows and decided to cut the extra wood out later..

We will be back shortly to keep building....

#TheHomeskapeProject 
479 Mang Road (8.9 Acres) 
Salisbury Center, NY 13365 
Little Falls, Herkimer County



Step 5a: Starting the Siding -- Putting Up the Roof Beams and Installing Windows on the Tiny Cabin

I work, and 3 weeks past until I was able to come back up.  When I got back to the build site I had managed to hire 3 country boys from around town.  Really cool guys and together we got a ton done.  We put in the first window which only took two minutes and then began siding the house with reclaimed plywood.  Since I was only up for 4 days I decided not to cut to roof beams right away.....


Since I only had the guys helping for the one day, we nailed down the plywood on the roof as soon as possible, no one wanted to be up there.  We left an opening in the back so the next morning I could go on the roof and start laying the roofing.  


Its not a good idea to put the roof on before siding the tiny house with plywood.  It shifted the beams a fraction of an inch but enough to start causing some major headaches.  We put up the plywood on the sides of the tiny cabin as fast as possible and kept it moving...


-Stay Tuned....

-Nick

#TheHomeskapeProject 
479 Mang Road (8.9 Acres) 
Salisbury Center, NY 13365 
Little Falls, Herkimer County




Saturday, June 20, 2015

Step 5: Framing The Small Cabin with Recycled & Reclaimed Material (aka Building a Cottage of Dreams)

So here goes nothing, the though was to build a home, structure, cabin, headquarters.....call it what you want.....out of all recycled material.  I recruited my brother to join me again and we picked out a spot and started building the floor....we put it on block that were not permanent because a permanent foundation would have need a permit, anything 12x12 also needed a permit, so we built 11x11....

I hired the neighbor I met, Mike, who ended up being super cool, he helped throughout the weekend....



We failed miserably at the idea of only using recycled material, we went to the local Lowes to get the concrete footings and some fresh lumber, for the most part, we used the old barn we took down, framing the floor/base of the cabin took the whole day....




By the end of the day we managed to get two walls up..... We were siked!!!!


The next morning we had to be gone by noon, it's a 4 hour drive and my brother had to be back at work the next day......but we finished another wall with Mike....



And another.....



We packed up and left..... I hired Mike to finish some of the cabin while I was gone...


He used recycled lumber from the old barn I traded to brace up the walls.....



He also used recycled and reclaimed wood to frame out a window....


We tacked the walls with 2x4 to make sure they didn't move until we got back....





Mike (the neighbor) ended up building some stairs to our surprise....Country folk are super nice, nothing like the suburbs or the city where I like and work....in the country, you actually help your neighbor....



After so much progress, I was determined to get back to build again, but for now, I had to be in CT taking care of my clients from NicholasCoriano.com and my growing Amazon Store.....

PS: Before Mike and my brother Ruben kill me, let me explain why this should go down in the record books... The driveway, about 200 feet long...could not be driven on.  So me, Mike and Ruben carried all the tools, ladders and material up the 200 foot driveway by hand.  It took about 20 or so trips, about half the time we were there we were going up and down a muddy driveway with pounds of material and tools.....get the picture??  Building in the woods can be a challenge if the building site is far away from where you can park a vehicle.  Lesson learned. 

-Stay Tuned....


#TheHomeskapeProject 
479 Mang Road (8.9 Acres) 
Salisbury Center, NY 13365 
Little Falls, Herkimer County