utilities - Electric - Propane - Water

The utilities on my tiny were a decision I struggled with.  I've done every other part of the build on my own but the electrical, plumbing and gas work scared me.  If I didn't get the framing exactly right I would end up with a crooked house, something that no one would be surprised I had.  If I messed up with the electrical the chances of a sleepy immolation was possible, then leaky plumbing would put out the fire and leave me with a soggy corpse, then the gas leak would blow my bloated remains all over the neighborhood.

I decided to subcontract the work to the professionals.  I really wasn't expecting this part to be terribly difficult.  I figured my systems would be so much more simple than a bigger house that the pros would knock it out in an afternoon.  The ignorant are so funny.  When I called the first several plumbers and electricians some were hesitant to work on a non-traditional project that fell in a grey zone as far as inspection and codes.  I can't blame them for wanting to protect themselves from liability.  Some of the ones that said they would give it a go wanted to charge me for the research that they would need to do in order to do the job right.  Now it was my turn to be hesitant.  Also the process can be time consuming.  I would call, explain what I thought I needed done, schedule an appointment for them to come take a look, wait, show the house, wait for bid, balk at the estimate, repeat.












Frustrated I started reading up on how to do it myself.  I watched the same kind of videos that allowed me to build the rest of the house.  I was very close to giving it a try myself again when as a last ditch effort I reached out to my local queen of tiny Hannah Crabtree of Pocket Mansions and she sent me a contact of a plumber she has used on her tiny builds.  The idea of having someone who is familiar with tiny building was enough of a plus to persuade me not to play with fire, water, or gas.  Rob and Sunny are colorful characters but quickly went to work roughing in the propane lines, the grey and fresh water lines, and even installed my shower, water heater and propane boat heater.

It was the first time I was uncomfortable turning over control of my project to someone else.  As proud of my siding as I was it was cringe-worthy to watch someone drill holes in it.  One of the benefits of doing the work yourself is you have to understand what you are doing, even if what you are doing is wrong.  Having someone else do the work meant I didn't always understand how the systems I would rely on work.  This made me nervous but I couldn't argue with the results.  I needed this sense of accomplishment to jump start my somewhat stalled motivation.

I need to insulate, put up the interior wall panels and construct my kitchen counters before the pros come back and finish the fixture install.

Siding

It's been too long for me to even remember what my next step was.  I'm going to guess since I was still worried about the fall weather setting in that I pushed to get the siding up.  I had decided on cedar from the beginning.  I liked that cedar works well in my wet climate, resistant to bugs, and especially that it has the cabin quality that was important to me.  I did some research but pretty early on knew I wanted to buy from a local shop that has been an institution in my town.

Issaquah Cedar http://cedarexperts.com/

I stained the cedar first with a brush, than a sprayer when that took too long, and then back to a brush when I realized how much expensive stain I was wasting with the sprayer. The stainless steel ring shank nails were also crazy expensive but I really wanted the outside to be done correctly as the outside would be my introduction to the world.  That cedar needed to be the face of my project and so the extra expense for the good nails and stain should be worth it.  You better believe that ever screw I dropped I climbed down off that ladder to retrieve it.


Once my good helper Junko showed me that my siding didn't look quite right because I was putting it on upside down and backwards the rest of the install was surprisingly easy and quick, right up to the point where I fell of the ladder and broken two ribs.  I know, I know, I should have learned my lesson after falling off the roof but apparently I'm both not the smartest kid in the class and plagued with enough enthusiasm for this project to repeatedly overlook my own safety in order to not have to move the ladder so I could reach the board I needed to screw down.  I take some satisfaction that the ladder didn't get off unscathed either.  My ribs bent the ladder pretty good and I'm told I needed to be extracted from the ladder but honestly I'm a bit fuzzy on that part.  The notching of the planks to fit around the widows and doors was also tricky but since no angles were involved I managed it eventually.

The cedar siding was definitely one of my more expensive additions to the Manor but I think well worth it.  I'm really pleased with the results.  Those results wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the help of my friends who took one look at my gimpy leg and came over to help.  I'm pretty impressed that it looks just about exactly how I wanted it to look.

The last step is to seal the cracks between the planks and any other piece of wood such as the windows, doors, corner studs, and wheel wells.  Since it hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to do much outside work that project remains on the to do list.