Let there be light!

“You don’t wanna use spray foam. Really.” Those were my cousin’s words about a year ago when I had shared with him the plans for insulating the Tiny House of Steel. His experience of having to remove foam from a boat he was re-wiring was, in his words, pure hell. His advice was, better to have something you can easily remove if and when the time comes. After about three week’s worth of work attaching nailers to the framing ready to finally receive the tongue and groove paneling, I had to pause and think of how much the THoS is starting to look like a giant upside down boat. And so one year later, my cousin’s story about the boat has come back to haunt me.

hull of a boat

hull of a job

hull of a time

When I invited a friend (and probably the most industrious artist I know) Will Lamson, who had been following the progress of the Tiny House of Steel, to come check it out, it must have been 95 degrees outside. Inside, we all instantly broke out into a sweat. When I mentioned that I was thinking about putting in another window on the wall opposite the entrance for some cross breeze, his response was: “Yeah, like a BUNCH of windows.”

Then I found these on eBay:

the inside half of the window

the inside half of the window disassembled

the assembled window

the outside ring on a scrap piece

They’re reclaimed boat windows that just happen to be the perfect width for the SteelMaster end wall’s corrugated panels (7 inches.) I had to build little boxes for them to fit in and to add some material into which I can screw the two sides of the windows. I was very nervous about cutting into the hull of the THoS but after a few practice runs with some leftover pieces, I think I got the hang of it (see video below.) So for now, the pleasure of scraping off the foam to make sure the windows can fit snug against the steel panels is a reminder that I’ll have to tell my cousin, yeah, you were right. Kinda.

 

Now that I have cut the window holes into the steel end wall panels (yikes!) and we have a nice breeze blowing across the width of our THoS, the temps outside have dropped into the sixties. Oh, the irony! But the new source of light makes a huge difference. I can’t wait to see how nice they will light up the loft bed area once that’s done. I’m thinking it’ll make sleeping up there with the windows open really pleasant. Makes me want to add even more windows! More on that in the next post.

Outer half of the window with a nice ring of butyl caulk to seal against the steel wall.

A little extra silicone never hurts…

Hallelujah!

Peekaboo!

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