Cloth Porch

What a Porch!

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Laura

As you all know, I love my cloth porch.  It is the room that I use the most, but it was built on the fly and it is not exactly a pretty addition.  When I added the boards last winter I purchased them with the intent of actually using them as a roof when I restructure the porch so that it actually looks as nice as it functions.

I am most interested in timber framed logs because I have easy access to this material and I have done a couple of workshops on how to build these things.  The material is of course the maples that fell in last year’s drought.  They will be good and dry by next spring.

While googling today I came across a fantastic looking but huge porch which is attached to a tiny house.  Well… it is actually not a tiny house… but a swimming pool change room at a McMansion, but it could just as easily serve as a tiny house.  I know I could live here easily!

pool house timber frame Do you think it is still a tiny house if you have a HUGE and decadent porch?  I think it would have to count in the square footage.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Ontario, Simple living | 2 Comments

Thanks Sandy

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Laura

My cousin Sandy dropped off a small camping stove for me which he bought years ago when he was in Quebec.  He calls it a Quebec Heater.  They are used to heat tents while winter camping, checking trap lines and so forth.  They weigh very little so they are practical for environments which require them to be removed.   I am going to hook it up in the cloth porch soon and in the spring I can simple remove it and reclaim the space.  It should work awesome for winter porch parties!

Thank you Sandy!

Here is what it looks like before the hook up.

Quebec Heater

Categories: Cloth Porch, Off Grid, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

Fall Tidy

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Laura

When we arrived at Tiny House Ontario yesterday it was grey and cold.  Too with all the leaves now on the ground the trees reach up to the sky silently.  It felt very barren certainly when compared to the fall with all its deep colours and noisy fluttering.  It is the first time back after the very rushed cloth porch roof job so I had worried when Hurricane Sandy came.  I thought that we would find a lot of fallen trees and debris blown away because my building supply pile was not put away very well.

There were no trees uprooted; not even the huge Tim Burton tree, Clyde, was harmed at my place by Sandy.  But, there was a huge mess around the East side of THO.  Today the weather was absolutely gorgeous so Hj and I worked out there getting tidied up.  He brought in a number of wheel barrel loads of gravel and I levelled it out.  Then I moved the barrels, and storage boxes into the corner, together we relocated left over building supplies.  It looks much tidier, but still it looks like like a lot of stuff against THO!

I really dislike the look of the tarp too, on the cloth porch – It is ugly and tacky.  Still, it is entirely practical!  It is open enough to cook with the BBQ there  but dry as a bone!

I would like to be able to tuck things away a lot more unseen at THO but sadly, I don’t think a shed is in the cards for next year either.  Perhaps I will find a use for all of my left over materials next spring so I won’t need a pile?

Categories: Cloth Porch, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

Something Missing

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Laura

Don’t worry!  Like I said before, I don’t worry about security at Tiny House Ontario.

I fixed the screen door and took a couple of photos before I left.  I noticed now, looking at them, how funny, empty and tidy it looks since I moved the thing.

Do you see what is missing?

Categories: Cloth Porch, Off Grid, Ontario, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | 14 Comments

The New Cloth Porch

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Laura

It is not exactly a new room but the same Cloth Porch with a bit of a change up as well as a cold weather transition.  I attached a bunch of 2×8’s to the roof which Hj handed up to me, then tarped some of it, and just as it started to rain we lifted the BBQ inside.  It was totally awesome!  It was pissing rain outside and there I was tucked safely under the newly tarped roof, dry and cozy cooking supper.  We worked on the meal and tidying up the construction mess while things were cooking.  We both felt happy to have the porch at least semi set up so that we could work through the stuff that had to be done, dry and cozy.

We had rice with a few remaining garden veggies in a red pepper and coconut cream sauce.  I had tea and the big German had a beer.  I have to tell you supper was totally yum!  You know what I mean, food is always so good after fresh air and a good day of work.

I decided in the night that I am not going to tarp the rest rather I am actually going to cut down the South facing tarp and I will cover the rest with thick vapour barrier plastic.  Not exactly the prettiest stuff but it will allow light in, so this is a better solution I think.

This morning we fixed up the screen door which after two summers with little dogs pushing on it had let go of the screen.  I just put the screen back in and screwed some 1×2 alone the entire rubber bead.  Works again like a charm!  This winter it too will be plastic coated.  Not today though, we are back on the highway soon, as you see by the photos it is pissing rain here so we will lock the doors again and won’t be back for a couple of weeks in order to finish what we started.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Forest, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario, View | 6 Comments