Casa Nano

The Casa Nano will eventually be housing for a two-year studio assistant, but we decided to move its construction up the list so that until everything else is completed, I too can have in the meantime an upgrade from my current on-site tent. So here you see the beginning. While we have no intention to take this thing on the road, for code/tax reasons, we opted to make it as a tiny house, and you may be able to see that it is on “running gear”, a commonly found chassis in farm country, intended mostly for slow heavy loads.

Joel devised a floor constructed upside-down in the winter shelter of the greenhouse, and then flipped with the tractor till completion. He basically framed all 4 walls as separate units, like puzzle pieces, again in the shelter, pre-fitting the parts that made the outer edge of the roof and having everything all ready to go so that once there was a good window of a dry day, together we got all the parts fitted together in their outdoor temporary location, assembled, roofed, and tar papered all in one day.

Then he got the exterior sheathing on, some temporary windows in place, and set to work on the electrical, insulation, drywall and primer. He works to the highest standards, and in this case, if you are interested, note that he is putting foam in all the tiny gaps amongst the wall cavities. Not captured was an extra step: he made a thin but cheap layer of something that looks like silver-backed bubble wrap over everything before putting on the drywall. This easy step helps against conductive heat loss along the 2x4.

He is integrating a “valence” form of lighting, a long horizontal built-in dimensional strip of lighting that reflects upwards to glow off the ceiling. That light would also strongly highlight the angled false ceiling, so he was finicky about making that long ceiling line perfect. Also note the collection of angle brackets set into the framing of the wall in the kitchen and other places: built-in floating shelving is in the works…

should be sweet!!

I will update as progress continues… :)