STEP 4 – The Door Wall and Door

Catherine again – we have one more wall left! This wall had some additional challenges, and we made a couple small mistakes building it. On the wall with the window, we spaced the two center studs wide enough for a snug fit. The difference with this wall was that the door had to swing out. Because of this, the studs couldn’t go flush against it; otherwise, the door would get stuck. We planned for this and made sure to leave extra space, but accidentally overcompensated. It ended up leaving a larger gap than needed which we addressed later.

Obviously we weren’t going to let our dad have all the fun, so Theresa and I both used all of the tools. We weren’t following all of the safety protocols, so if you see us doing anything wrong or dangerous, please don’t do it!

We worked into the night a lot to try to get things done before rainy days.

We framed up the studs and tested the door in the frame with hinges. This door was an old door that we had had stored in our garage, so it was really cool that we got to repurpose it.

I lined up the hinges and did the installation. The door was installed just temporarily to finish the framing. We removed it again, and I sanded the entire door and repainted it.

With the studs for the last wall in place, it was time to cut the plywood to finish it.

We all took turns installing the walls. Since we ran out of the other ones and the old ones were out of stock, we had to use a new set of screws on this wall. The new ones were awful to work with–they took forever to start and grab onto the wood. Not sure what the issue was, but this wall took so much longer than it needed to be because of that.

We used wood filler in the gaps, sanded, and painted. The door was installed, but wasn’t quite finished. We needed to replace the door handle and we need the latch to keep it closed. But finally, we finished the wall. In the photo below, you can see we stuck a small sliver of plywood under the door to keep pressure on it to keep it from opening.

I decided I was going to work on the door. I sanded and painted it, and did the hardware.

The new hardware required larger openings in the door, so we used our drill and the oscillating tool to open up the space.

I installed the new hardware and tested the new handle.

We finished the hardware, and now, the door was able to stay shut and be locked. The first door handle we bought was actually slightly defective, so we had to return it and get a new one, and it worked great.

Our tiny house was now watertight (mostly) and basically complete. So we have all 4 walls… We’re done now, right? Of course not. The minimum design wasn’t going to be enough for us. We’re only on step 4 of 10, so there was a lot more we had planned…

Two steps in a row was a lot for me. My dad is gonna take step 5.

PREVIOUS STEP 3 – The Window Wall

NEXT STEP: 5 – The Deck

or jump to any step:

1. Base
2. Swing Wall
3. Window Wall
4. Door Wall
5. The Deck
6. The Siding
7. The Interior
8. Electricity
9. The Floor
10. Interior Design

And don’t forget to check out our blog for the latest updates.