Small Home Building Made Easy.com: January 2012

The Finishing Process.
Finishing a home is no more difficult than decorating a cake.
We learn by doing.
If you screw it up just scrape it off, lick the spoon and try it again.

Cosmetic beauty really is just skin deep.
And luckily, you dont have to bea cosmetic surgeon to make your
new do-it-yourself home look good for literally pocket change.
These wall tiles cost less than .60 ea

This is the bathroom before glass exterior door or sheetrock
You can see here that I temporarily covered the exterior door opening with plywood.

I think I'll paint the ceiling blue. This is the bathroom.
You can see the backerboard in the unfinished shower to the left.

The bath with newly installed glass exterior door and sheetrock.

At a glance, this looks like a complicated mess.
Well... It's not complicated.

Intentionally designed to look like someone's old family home.
For the record: The paint work in this picture is incomplete.

Tile is complete.

The refrigerator and cook stove will conceal the incomplete parts.

Glass doors just arrived.

Note the plywood decking.

I temporarily covered the porch joists with plain 1/2" plywood

during the construction phase, then later removed

the plywood and installed the finish deck boards.

The first porch steps I've ever built. 2"x10" treads with an easy 5" rise.

I made the steps 6' wide because I felt that would

make this country home appear more welcoming.

Stair step construction is detailed in all my books.

Color mixed with natural wood accents give this small home a rich cottage appeal.
The purple accent in the hall always gets a reaction from first-time visitors.
A home without color is like life without laughter

New railing installed. Will be painted to match the posts.
How to construct this railing is detailed in all my plan books.
See how the front of this small home looks large?

By not building a false, level ceiling into this porch, guests get the
feeling of a much larger home as they approach the front of the home
when they see that high front wall and soaring rafters.This and other
design elements give this small 530 sq.ft. home the curb appeal of a
1,200sq.ft. or larger home.

Installing floor tile in entry, bath and galley.
I set starter tiles as you see here and let them dry overnight.
Now I can stand and kneel on these tiles to
set all the remaining tiles within this small space.

Be careful about nesting before you complete a house.
Work cannot be performed without taking time moving junk out of the way.
And believe me, having to move things, like hunting misplaced tools
will eat up a lot of your work production time.

Standing in the galley kitchen looking out to newly completed living space.
You can see a bit of living, dining and galley in this one picture.

Just paint, trim and faux wood blinds from a complete house.
And just think. A house is nothing more than bones and skin.
Or as we usually refer to as; frame and finish.

Marble countertop just installed.
The sink has been test fitted and will be lifted out to attach the faucet
then returned to the countertop and attached with 100% silicone caulk.
I did not attach the sink by any other means.

Clyde came over to help out with he trim.
I appreciate the help and the company.
I'll buy lunch.

Bathroom. Here you can see the fiberglass shower pan.
See also, the shower backerboard is installed and I am in the process of
figuring out the positioning for the wall tile.

Shower is finished. The tile work is done.
All I have to do now is re-attach the faucet handles.
Note how the wall tiles are centered with the controls.
And the controls are centered with the drain in the shower pan.

I placed the tile centered with the faucet controls on the opposite wall.
Centering and balance is important to good design.
The shower control and shower head are centered with the shower pan drain.

Not bad for an all new construction $16,000 home.
And the entire one bedroom home was completely furnished
including blinds and new appliances for under $2,500.
My thanks to friends, yard sales, flea markets and goodwill
and trash on the curb for most of the furnishings.

See the backerboard on the floor?
It is not a good idea to put tile directly on wood because wood
expands and contracts at a different rate than tile and more dramatically.

I will attempt to get the starter line of floor tile as straight as
possible then with the aid of plastic tile spacers,
use the first row as a guide to get all subsequent tiles square with each other.
This is only the second tile floor I've done in my lifetime.

The starter row is down and I after 24 hours has allowed the starter row of tiles to set,
I will begin to lay the subsequent tile rows on either side.
The cabinet door have been removed for painting.
I also painted the original cabinet hinges.

No need to tile all the way down the wall because
the cook stove will cover the unfinished wall.
This is also true of the countertop ends.

See the toilet flange? The unfinished shower is to the left of the wall.
In this bath arrangement the toilet is just inside the back door.
A toilet flange needs to be at least level or slightly above the finish tile surface.
Never below the finish floor surface. If there is too much space between
the bottom of the toilet and top of the flange, the wax ring seal may
not fit snugly and sewage gasses will creep into the homes air space and
you will never get rid of the bad odor until you correct the poor seal problem.
This is why you see the "S" curve pipes under sinks, otherwise referred to as "P" Traps.
A "P" trap holds water and prevens air movement in the pipes.

Galley Kitchen with a 2' wide refrigerator and glass door to rear deck.
Italian, hand made tiles behind stove bought as discontinued item.
This whole kitchen cost less than $1,500 to furnish and finish which
includes the appliances, cabinets, sink, tiles and glass door.
The refrigerator is only 2' wide and is frost-free and cost new; $375.

This is the bath before glass exterior door or sheetrock
You can see here that I temporarily covered
the exterior door opening with plywood.

This is a crude computer generated view of the living space.
I drew this rendering before buying or building anything.

This is a view from the dining space looking
down the hall to the bedroom.

Main entry door standing wide open.

I like the way recessed lighting highlights a space.
The lighting and the changes in floor types help provide a felling of
division of space without closing rooms off from each other.
These preplanned elements also lend to the feeling of good traffic flow.
In this plan, all doors can be left wide open without obstructing foot traffic.

You see here the change in floor types from entry to living space.
Utility type spaces are durable tile and relaxed living spaces
are finished with warm wood laminate flooring.
I bought the wood flooring at a lumber salvage
retailer for half the normal retail price.

Clyde fashioned this threshold from a oak board.
I mixed stains to arrive at this close match to the factory finished laminate.

This is a standard size round dining table with standard size windsor chairs
and you can see there is reasonable space for traffic flow without wasting space.
An important part of my overall design philosophy is just as I would not throw
food out the window, nor would I want to pay the cost of heating and cooling
excessive air space. Here, I have clearly demonstrated that a tiny 530 sq.ft. home
can be comfortable, attractive, and most importantly...cheap to build and cheap to keep.

The dining furniture is mix and match.
The table is an old outdoor resturant table and very heavy.
This table and chairs cost me less than $200
from two different flea markets.

The table is centered with the beam and the brass chandaliar is mounted under the
center of the beam. The wire is fed through the center of the beam out of sight.
Sitting in this dining space you can see the tv and have a panoramic view to the front porch and yard.

View through a bay window.

See the outlet in the corner of the bay ceiling?
This was placed there for accent lighting such as rope lights
concealed behind furure dropped crown moulding.

The bay is finished with low cost real wood paneling
and a simple trim of 2" rough cedar board.

The 2" faux wood blinds cost me a wopping $50 a window
but that's a necessary finishing touch. I'm not sure I want draperies.

It's funny how the dated colors in the old wool rug I bought
coordinate so well with colors I selected for the house
long before I found the rug. They were meant to be together.