Hammerstone Newsletter 2/13/2024

I hope everyone is faring well as we move closer to spring! We just finished construction on Venus, the tiny house we based our 2023 homebuilding series around, and now we're busy with designing the 2024 tiny house. Sign-up for this full course series is live!

Tiny House Course Series

This time of year it's late enough in winter that I'm feeling a little antsy, but too early for the calendar to be full of events. Spring cleaning vibes have set in, bringing many ideas for home improvement. One of my goals is to install shelving (maybe a built-in or two?). Taking a look at Venus has inspired me to think about how our home can meet our needs with minimal wasted space. I keep thinking about a statistic I read recently in Pretty Good House, a book on sustainable design:

Between 1975 and 2015 the average new home size in the U.S. increased from 1660 square feet to over 2700 square feet.

One one end of the spectrum we have tiny houses like Venus, and on the other we have 2700 square foot homes with a questionable amount of utilized space. Most of us live somewhere in between these two extremes, but could benefit from a shift towards 'tiny house thinking'. This isn't limited to storage - there are many design principles we use to make tiny houses feel large, all of which can be applied to standard size houses.

Tiny House Details

Storage Stairs

There are a number of options for loft access in tiny houses: ladders, stairs of various dimensions, and hybrids between the two. Most tiny houses stairs are unusually sized, with steep and narrow treads that can feel precarious.

Which stairs would you want to use for a late night bathroom trip?

We chose to build a set of stairs with standard size treads that can be negotiated easily and comfortably. The compromise here is size: these stairs have a large footprint. They take up a significant part of the kitchen square footage.

To make the most of this space, we built storage stairs. These are built as a connected group of individual carcasses (boxes), each of which includes a drawer or large storage cabinet.

The smallest drawers are perfect for organizing office supplies or electronics. The largest cabinet is sized well for a wardrobe, and the second largest could be a nice pantry.

These custom cabinets were designed by Maria and built by the Hammerstone crew. We also got some help from Sami, a Hammerstone student (and now TA!) who took the Intro to Cabinetry class then wanted to further hone her skills.

This year we're offering Intro to Cabinetry in two parts to delve into the full process of building out kitchen cabinets for our 2024 tiny house.

2. Lofts for Sleeping and Storage

Here's the main 'bedroom' loft at the top of the stairs. It has a floor and ceiling of solid pine: the ceiling is shiplap and the floor is tongue and groove. Well-placed windows fill the area with light and make it feel spacious. The loft is tall enough on the right side to comfortably sit up and read in bed or enjoy a cup of coffee.

The second loft is on the other side of the house, above the bathroom. It can be used as a guest bedroom and/or storage area. Because it'll be used less frequently than the bedroom loft, it's accessible via a ladder that can be easily tucked away when not in use.

All of the beautiful window trim you see was built by students in Tiny House Interior Trim. The precise work in this course is extremely satisfying! When I took it last year I enjoyed the combination of working on details AND getting to complete a larger scale project.

Tiny House Interior Trim

Just a note: these photos were taken on an overcast day with the lights off. Even in those conditions plenty of natural light was entering the space, which brings us to...

3. Abundant Light

Venus has 11 windows. That's a lot for a 24x8' structure. It's remarkable how comfortably open Venus feels, and much of that is due to the many windows and their placement.

Here's the living room, located past the stairs and underneath the bedroom loft. The lower ceiling here makes this area cozy, but large windows on three aspects impart a feeling of openness. If Venus was my house I'd install a comfy banquette here and enjoy the sunroom vibes with all three windows open.

Installling allll those windows took some time! Here's just one part of that process: after rough openings were cut in the sheathing, students flashed these openings with two different tapes to prevent drafts and moisture infiltration.

Tiny House Dry-in goes over the full process of proper window installation as well as how to sheathe a framed structure - basically, how to take a house from framing to a fully-enclosed shelter.

Tiny House Dry-In

There are so many more items that could be included on this list, but I'll leave it there for now.

Tiny House Series

Take one or all of these courses for expert instruction and hands-on practice in home construction. There are no prerequisites, but we highly recommend that you attend a 2-Day Basic Carpentry Skills course (offered monthly) prior to your tiny house course.

Rough Framing - Build a Tiny House

Tiny House Dry-In Sheathing and Windows

Tiny House Exterior Trim

Tiny House Siding

Intro to Building Science and Insulation

Tiny House Interior Trim

Intro to Roofing

Cabinetry Basics - Carcasses & Drawers

Cabinetry Basics - Doors & Drawer Fronts

Our Newest Class:
Intro to Parquetry

What is parquetry, anyway?

First, let's talk about veneer. Veneeris thinly sliced wood (1/8" down to 1/64") that's applied on top of a substrate. You've probably seen it on the surface of poorly-made particle board furniture, but it also has a long history of use in fine woodworking.

Using veneer is a very efficient use of natural resources: very little tree material is used in veneer compared to solid wood boards. Rare wood species can be cut into veneers then applied to lumber of common domestic species. Just like lumber, veneer can be milled in different ways (quartersawn, plain sawn, etc.) to produce different grain patterns.

We Are The Silent Survivors, veneer art by Chelsea Van Voorhis. You can find more of her work here. She has also has series of articles on veneer in Fine Woodworking.

Parquetry is the process of cutting veneer into geometric patterns, as opposed to marquetry, which is cutting veneer into organic shapes like the portraits seen above. With attention to grain orientation, veneer is carefully cut into shapes that are then stitched together and applied to a wood substrate.

The cabinet above is a great example of the dazzling effect that parquetry can have. This sunburst pattern is composed of hundreds of thin, carefully arranged veneers.

In our newest class, Intro to Parquetry, students will learn to use simple tools to cut, stitch, apply, and finish veneer. They'll get experience with a vacuum press as well as practice using hide glue, veneer hammers, and cauls and clamps. The take home project is a beautiful 10" checkerboard.

Parquetry is a satisfying technique that can be practiced in a small space with simple tools. We hope you'll join us at our first edition of this course!

When: March 14-15

Intro to Parquetry