it hits me that every layer from the ground up to my feet was built by me. And then I wonder how high I could go if I just kept building.
How I build
Winter on a computer, Summer on a ladder.
There it is, the final outline
I mentioned before the 2 things I enjoy most when building are discovering newly framed windows views, and seeing the outline of a building in the land.
I’ve been taking it at a reasonable pace building this sugarhouse, 4 hours here and there. It’s nice to not build until exhaustion. In some ways I’m slowing down from the frenetic pace of the past few years. I can’t keep working with a barbecue going and 2 kids jumping on the trampoline, signs of how nice life is becoming on our land. Let the good times roll.
Sugarhouse Construction Push
All the rafters are done, tomorrow I’ll go after the cupola and do as much blocking as I can.
Vapor hole
Found a Monarch chrysalis, I’ll have to keep an eye on it in the next few days
Without Much Fanfare
A sugarhouse / tool shed / tractor garage / soap making shop, is being born. We’ve had many projects lacking dry space. I’m barely documenting anything, I also have to post some pictures of how incredible the garden is this year. This has all become less than extraordinary: growing awesome gardens, putting together buildings is simply what we do now. A sign of the completeness of the transformation we undertook 8 years ago. In a lot of ways we feel like we don’t need to achieve anything anymore while looking ahead to several large projects for the coming years. Maybe all we had to achieve was making this who we are, everything else follows naturally without fuss.
3 pillars which will be buried to support the lean-to part of the building
Site prep day, truck got stuck
Concrete pouring day, I’ll skip the stresses of dealing with contractors
12′ walls are no joke
He can help more and more but it’s still hard to have him around the site for all the dangers
Not the most conventional framing method but the computer model says it’ll work and I’ve grown accustomed to not questioning what the computer says. I braced the building because there won’t be shearing rated sheathing on the walls and we do get high winds. The roof line will be broken by a sizeable cupola. 20′ rafters also are no joke.
Starting to look good 🙂 
Thermosiphon Butterflies
The thermosiphon has been proving itself this whole Winter. It’s quickly becoming one of the best features of our house design and it’s not hard to imagine why. 100% passive & efficient air circulation taking heat from the stove to every nook and cranny of the house. No power, no fan, no duct.
As a bonus, it animates decorative butterflies. Now I don’t really care about the butterflies; I only like seeing them as an indicator of the free work our house is giving us. They’re a great analog anemometer.
Popped a Couple of Windows in among other things
We went to a window store once and were quoted $2200 for a single window. More than we paid for all our windows combined. I really don’t mind paying for nice things but I never understood how windows were so expensive. Also annoying, why I need to deal with catalogs & resellers. I avoid resellers like the plague in any context. Give me a website, I punch in my measurements, pick a few options and click “Go”.
There’s no way we’d pay this much for a window. Thankfully there’s plenty of second-hand ones out there. From recover stores to word-of-mouth. The ones at the recover store are in high demand and fly off the shelves pretty fast. The word-of-mouth ones don’t show up when you need them so you need to store them until you do.
I found this one next to a “free” sign along with 3 others. I pounced on them and they’ve been sitting in storage for a few years until today. Most second hand windows need a little TLC.
Definitely not $2200
Making a hole for another window 
This one only costs ~$100 new, we’ve got several in the house and I really like them. They’re clearly not the nicest looking windows but they’re good bang for the buck weather shielding wise.
We have daylight 🙂 We’re trying to figure out what to do with this little alcove.
This living room is going to be my master piece. The experience I’ve acquired these past few years is starting to show. Our house is a great timeline of my progress working with wood, it’s crazy to think I even got something together with no experience and lack of proper tools. I now possess so many routines, tools, subconscious movements which all add up to perfect walls with no mistakes or swear words. Now I’m sure this will change when I do the ceiling.
Construction in the Dark
I’m pushing hard for a living room. It’ll be a while longer before it’s ready but I can already tell it will signal once and for all the end of tiny living.
I didn’t open the windows or run lights yet, so I’m working with a flashlight. It’s surprisingly a non-issue.
Construction baby doesn’t let a few nails get in a the way of a good nap.
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Chimney work
I’m pushing my luck a bit here, getting the 2nd chimney ready in November. It’s not quite there yet but I made good progress. We’re at a phase in our adventure where we do not do temporary arrangements anymore. While I’ll have to redo the first chimney, this one is built for a lifetime and so it takes longer to do.
11′ of insulated flue, cement board in the casing
Closing it up foot by foot, siding first, then cement board added with spacing.
From the bottom floor 
I’ll make the top removable to keep an eye on things, it’ll just be open for the first few stove firings. I love the crazy angles in this house.
Thermosiphon a success
I built the house with 2 flights of stairs, pretty overkill for a 1200sqft house and I’ve often gotten this feedback. There’s a couple of reasons I went through the extra trouble and extra wasted space.
- I like 2 ways out the first floor for safety. You never know when the government ninjas will come get you, but more seriously: fire safety. You know, for when the government ninjas set the house on fire.
- It provides the opportunity for a thermosiphon. Hot air from 1 stove rises up 1 side, cools down, and circulates back down the other.
With lower temperatures upon us, we have finally tested it and it works beautifully. I was worried that practice and theory would diverge, such was not the case and so we heated the whole house for the first time with one stove and awesome passive circulation keeping every nook and cranny warm.
Standing at a choking point such as a doorway, you can clearly feel the air moving. I’m super happy this is working.
Candle test
Now the one thing we still need to get used to is how much more wood we’re burning. We more than doubled our living space going from the tiny 450sqft to the more appropriate 1185sqft, circulate all you want it takes a lot more wood to heat it all up :).
I’ll be using thermosiphons to heat water too at some point.
2 Chimney house
Things are getting serious
Over and Under
My brother & I just spent a tough week end tackling 2 projects which are needed to take the house addition through next Winter.
The first project was to cut a hole through the roof for a stove pipe to come out. This will allow us to hook up a second stove: the alpiner. Woodstoves are very low tech and unlikely to break, but I’ll be relieved to have a backup source of heat. At this point we have no idea how much or even if we’ll need to fire both stoves, the addition will be fully insulated for this Winter when it wasn’t for the last one.
High, slippery & dusty, but with a nice view on our energy independence
And our maple syrup independence 🙂 
While I’m up there enjoying the views
When I designed the house addition, I framed a section in an odd way so as to be able to pop out the roof and grow half a floor. I’m not sure if we’ll ever do it but I wanted to have the option. Being up there is a great reminder why.
Ok let’s get to the business at hand, a big hole
I did this one with full climbing gear, I have no idea how I did the previous one without.
I have yet to take a picture of it with the flashing, I’ll be back up in a couple of days to put the cap on.
2nd horribly shitty project, insulating the floors.
from this
to this 
We spend the hole day working in the dirt and against gravity, it sucked just as much as I remember from when we last did it to the original tiny house. Here we’re covering everything with plywood.
Thank you to my brother for suffering through 2 rewarding yet miserable days, to Russ for the climbing equipment, and to Dan for the reciprocating saw.
Room flooring
This is a bedroom a kid will grow up and become a teenager in, I laid tongue and groove pine because I could use the hardest of woods, there will be holes through it. I figured it’ll be easier to be ok with the damage if it’s not super expensive wood. The result looks great but it will wear faster. I love the angles in that room, Robin has not been in it for weeks, we’re keeping it a surprise and will have a ribbon cutting ceremony in a couple of days.
The old crowbar helping straighten up recalcitrant boards
Working in tight spaces
Construction baby managing the crew
A first in 3 years
A nicely finished room, no visible insulation, studs or vapor barrier. It is incredibly satisfying to work on finishing a room. Since we now have enough space in the house, all the others will follow. We are done making temporary arrangements.
A guide for the circular is incredibly useful for making rip cuts.
How trims are born
Finer work is super satisfying
I opened the windows and discovered the view a few weeks ago, giving them a nice frame makes it all the more enjoyable.
Shiplap all over
Shiplap shipment
This little guy is about to get a very nice bedroom
Light construction week end
Finally finished the insulation & vapor barrier upstairs, got started on the staircase.
Mud season has officially started and this little path will make trips to the well a lot easier.
The house addition has a roof
As for the gambrel, we outsourced this work. By the time I get to a roof, I’ve completely had it with ladders and I would never be able to do as good a job as professionals with standing seam tools.
Rafter vents, insulation, vapor barrier, walls
Racing to a livable room.
The light at the end of the tunnel
I have been pushing hard for days to get to a point where we can start using the new space. I can see that the rough construction is almost over and that things get easier from then on. In fact, I can see that I will never push as hard as I did these past couple of years. This Summer has been incredible in that the land and the house are really taking shape into the dream we are pursuing. And also because we know the hardest is behind us after more than 2 years of ruthless efforts. And so, while it’s psychologically very hard to muster the resolve to spend days working to exhaustion on ladders in the Sun, I also know this is the last such sacrifice I’ll be doing. Future projects will have a much saner rhythm to them because our livelihood will not depend on them. It is with the knowledge that it only gets easier from this that I plowed through 5 more days of construction.
To finish the sheathing of the second floor I’ve received help from Chris & Lou. Bringing 4’x8′ half inch sheet of wood up ladders is both tricky & tough. Both Chris & Lou are experienced carpenters, I’ve learned a whole lot from them, including how to make this hard task as easy as possible. They showed me many other tricks.
It kind of looks like a bunker without windows.
Flashing
Insulation & vapor barrier, it’s a very nice feeling to start thinking about the inside.
Time consuming
Throughout building the addition, an inordinate amount of time was spent joining is to the existing structure. This is compounded when reaching the roof. This critical part where to roof lines join was done, redone and re-redone to satisfaction. Here having been demolished for the 2nd time.
