Monday, June 13, 2011

Well It Is About Time

Yes this looks like the Mini Mobile Cottage is moving from where we started in January with a raw trailer and did all the framing. We are out of the pole barn and into the yard. This is the major milestone I have been having my dreams about. No the trailer didn't buckle, the tires didn't pop, the truck didn't get stuck. Everything worked without a flaw and I was pretty dang pleased about that. The first part of the plan was to get it out of the barn, once that was accomplished we needed to get her in to position so that we could level it.

The leveling took a bit as the ground we are working on was not even close to level with about 8 inches of variance. With a little effort, two jacks and several jack stands I was rock solid and good to go. Time to get all those rafters that are sitting on the floor up on the cottage roof. We took some 12 foot 2x4's and nailed them to the end of the trailer as guides and put the first rafter in place and then measured out exactly 2ft on center for each of the others. This would make putting up the plywood with less waste as we could use more full sheets. As you can see we did get the cottage level. So level I had to take a picture of it!


I rented two sections of scaffolding and I will tell you that was a great investment and a huge time saver. We only have two of us working on this and any other strategy would not have allowed us to get done what we accomplished. I will say after three days of moving up and down ladders, climbing on roofs, and just general work I was plum tuckered out. We used Simpson ties to attach the rafters to the trailer and I am highly confident that the roof is not coming off. That is unless I run it under a bridge that is a little to low.


We had no issues getting the rafters up, everything came out reasonably square with no big wavy bumps that would cause me grief. We got the remainder of the plywood screwed and glued in place and covered her with tarps. We have another week of hopefully little to no rain in the Pacific NW to wait through to get the metal roof on. All three days of the roof project so far were dry! While my original plan was a bit ambitious which was to have the roof a 100% complete after a three day weekend (I took Friday off). I was not able to accomplish all that. So for next weekend we are at a point where we will be able to get all the underlayment on, the butel ridge cap and then put all the metal roofing on. I have some eave covers that we will have to see if they make the final version.

While I like the way the metal eaves look in my minds eye, I am not sure what they will look like on the cottage. I am now eager to start thinking about the plan around the insulation stage. Then we will be cooking with gas and can start on the interior. I can't wait.

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