We Have Walls

Well, the wall framing is complete. This first picture is where we started today. I am finishing up my last quarter at Cal State East Bay, so over the last two weeks, Arlene has been building the frames daily after work. (Note: as always, we've posted more pics than we've blogged here.)



We pretty much had all the walls together and ready to go up when our helpers, Rick and Scott, showed up. Arlene had put the walls together on the floor of the house. This made her feel more comfortable about getting the measurements right. It made me less comfortable (than if she'd built them on the build space floor) because I worried about our brand new douglas fir floor. But she was careful and it turned out alright.

Once a wall was up, we'd level, plumb and brace it. We used long screws to attach the base board of the wall frames, through the douglas fir floor, and into the floor joists.

The second wall we put up was the shorter of the two long walls. Our porch will be about a 2.5 x 2.5 foot corner taken out of the front of this wall (In these photos, we're looking at the back of the house, which is the front of the trailer).

The third wall went up fairly easy. Then we lifted the toilet and refrigerator into the house since getting them in later would be - difficult (our door will be custom and narrower than most).

I'll try to get some pictures of the framing in the front of the house later. It is hard to see how it turned out in the these shots.

Basically, we have 3 walls that form the front of our house. One, the lager, will have 2 windows in it. The next will have the door, and the last will have one more window.

When we had the walls in place, we put a few 2X4s on top to keep everything together, plumb, level and tight.



Done!

Thanks to Rick and Scott!

Modified Floor Plan

Our cottage will have inside dimensions of approximately 7’-6”x18’-6”. We started with plans for the fencl because we like the architectural detail above the doorway outside but found that the floor plan just wouldn’t work for our needs. This won’t be a cottage for one person, we both plan on living in it together, so we’ve modified it.

The original bay window was too short to make into a sofa/guest bed and we also need a double desk which wouldn’t fit there either. Sure, the front door is cute to look at from directly out front but function won over form. All available space needs to be usable in a tiny space like this.

What we decided is to swap a window and the front door location so that when you step into the cottage you will be standing in what would have been the bay window. We essentially made a foyer; a place to hang our coats and take our shoes off. We also deleted the far side of the bay window but added a window on either side of the cottage in the living area a little farther back so that we’d still be getting quite a bit of natural light.

With the front door opening to the right instead of straight ahead, we now have the full wall on the left to make into a double long desk with storage below and the fireplace mounted just above it between the two work areas and windows. We’re planning on making a customized sofa/bed to go on the opposite long wall. Both the desk unit and the sofa/bed will cover the wheel wells because they jut into the living area and we don’t want to see them. Between the two desk work areas we’ll have a fold up cabinet door to use as a dining table/additional work space.

We also moved the kitchen and bathroom. Before deciding to build the cottage we laid out string on our (current) living room floor outlining the suggested built ins. We didn’t like the original bathroom location because it was so small that someone sitting on the composting toilet (this one is large) could shower at the same time. While this is probably a time saver to someone, we wanted more space to shower and dress. We also found that two people couldn’t comfortably work in the kitchen at the same time when it was alongside the bathroom. If we enlarged the bathroom using the original floor plan then the kitchen would be further reduced and vise versa.

The bathroom is now about 2’-9”x7’6” and runs along the back wall and we will install the same sized window in there as in the rest of the cottage. From back of the cottage to the front we now have the bathroom, closets/storage, galley kitchen, living area/office, then the foyer.

We thought about enclosing the whole loft area (we wonder about having enough storage space) but would miss daylight upstairs. The loft above the kitchen and bathroom will be the sleeping area and a small loft above the foyer/front door will be for storage.

We have considered adding eyebrow windows or shed dormers on both sides of the roof so that we could park the cottage sideways (the front door could face the front and the cottage would have more character). Right now we've decided against those options but we're not yet up to the roof so we might change our minds. Currently we plan to install a skylight above the sofa so that both upstairs and downstairs gets natural light as well as better ventilation.

We're very happy with our modified floor plan. The cottage will be much more comfortable for two people to live in and the space now better suits our specific needs without sacrificing anything that was important to us.