the Anne Marie

  • the Anne Marie
  • Blog
    • Updates
    • Photos
    • Adventures
    • All
  • Gallery
  • Contact

2014/06/17 By John 1 Comment

What’s the hold up?

It’s been a rough spring for the Anne Marie. As the weather warmed up, we started spending more time in there, and began construction of a new unit. It came together quickly, and we set our eyes on installing the woodstove. Taking a closer look at the section set aside for the woodstove, we noticed some water damage on the plywood subfloor and water marks on the insulation on the walls.

DSC01177.jpg

Oh crap. What’s going on?

DSC01179.jpg

Alright – everything out! Yes, that is mold you see growing on our plywood. We yanked out the subfloor and the insulation underneath, then the insulation and spray foam in the walls.

DSC01211.jpg

It turns out we have leaks at most of our windows. It isn’t clear from the photo, but water was getting in from the sides and bottoms of the windows where 25 year old caulk had just given up. We had a taste of this back in the fall, but we were pretty sure the worst was behind us.

The water runs down the ribs to the floor, where it sat underneath the insulation for long after it had rained. At the edges, it would travel up along the sides of the insulation, and reach the plywood subfloor. Bad news.

The good news is that it seems the water is only coming in from the windows and below. We have zero signs of leaks from the roof, and our ceiling still looks great! I’d be lying if I said that this didn’t make us reconsider the whole project. If we had leaks coming in from the roof, I think we’d have thrown in the towel.

As it is, we just have to yank out the windows and put some new caulk in around them.

DSC01297.jpg

The windows come out surprisingly easily, which is a relief. Sealing them up again has been a bit of a challenge. This brings us up to date: we’re still re-sealing the windows, and parts of the walls that are leaking. We’ve had some success caulking windows, and some failures. We’re not really sure what causes the newly caulked windows to leak, and that’s a huge frustration.

I really dislike doing things twice, and this has been a rough few months on us as well, but there’s no way around it if we want this to work. There is an unacceptable amount of water coming into our living area, and we have to stop it.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Anxiety, Construction, Demolition, Insulation, Leaks, Walls

2013/10/30 By John Leave a Comment

Staying Sane

DSC00493.jpg

This project is by far the hardest single thing I’ve ever undertaken. Thankfully, there are lots of guides out there that talk about good ideas for small home design, how to build this and that, and how to make these ideas a reality. There aren’t many that deal with the stresses that come along with it.

There’s a dude in Pennsylvania named Chris, whose writing I’ve admired for a long time, who is also in the process of building a tiny house. His house is on solid ground, and his walls are square (I’m jealous). He’s writing a bit about the frustrations that come from attempting to do something like this without any experience, and it’s been helpful to read. I’m going to try and include a bit more of that as well.

For a long time, whenever people talked to me about how much they would love to take a trip like the one I did in 2009, I told them to do it. It’s easy – stop dreaming, start doing. I don’t think I’ll be saying the same thing about this project.

DSC00503.jpg

Chris wrote a great manifesto for building a tiny house on a shoestring budget. I recognize that he’s right about the personal imperfections of occupant-assembled living quarters, but I’m still trying to make reality reach a vision I have in my head. Sometimes it’s hard when the two don’t mesh.

I’m working on it.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Anxiety

Categories

  • Adventures
  • Photos
  • Updates

Tags

Anxiety Bed Brick Ceiling Chimney Clearance lights Compost Construction Cooktop Counter Demolition Desk Festivals Flooring floorplan Fridge Hearth Inspiration Insulation Kitchen Leaks Lights Performance Port Bench Roof Roof deck Rust Sink Snow Toilet Tour Upholstery Video Walls Water Heater Woodstove

Other Conversions

  • La Casita
  • A Buffalo Bus
  • the Juan Way Tour
  • Suzie Blue Bus
  • Hoop House
  • Our Bus Adventure
  • WPI Creative's Conversion
See The Full List

Resources

  • Tiny House Blog
  • Skoolie.net
  • BusConversions.com
  • Schoolbus Homes
  • Skoolie Converters
  • faircompanies.com
  • Cheap RV Living
  • /r/skoolies

Categories

  • Adventures
  • Photos
  • Updates

Tags

Anxiety Bed Brick Ceiling Chimney Clearance lights Compost Construction Cooktop Counter Demolition Desk Festivals Flooring floorplan Fridge Hearth Inspiration Insulation Kitchen Leaks Lights Performance Port Bench Roof Roof deck Rust Sink Snow Toilet Tour Upholstery Video Walls Water Heater Woodstove
Text and photos of the Anne Marie on bus.life are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Use it.
This is Clear.Design