Building a cabin in the mountains (Qweaver Memorium)

KiwiCharlie · May 26, 2006, 05:58:56 PM

Its going up fast, this cabin! You dont muck around do you Quinton. You mentioned the weather - are you building this going into the dryer time of year? Or is it just unseasonably wet?
Charlie.

Qweaver · May 29, 2006, 07:58:01 AM

Not much progress on the cabin during the last few days. Our next step is to fill the cement block posts with concrete, set the anchor bolts and attach the sills. I orginally sawed the big timbers 1/4" oversize to allow for shrinkage and I've decided to re-saw the sills, posts and girts to exact sizes now that they are mainly dry. We are setting the saw up on a concrete pad so it will be a few days before we can saw again. We have over 3 yards of concrete to hand mix over the next few day, so no rest for the weary.

What a finish for the Indy 500 yesterday, eh?

Quinton

Qweaver · June 02, 2006, 08:47:22 AM

I had hoped to have pictures of the sills up on the posts by now but cousin Rodney convinced me to wait a few more days to let the concrete in the post get a little stronger.
Since my last post we have filled the posts with concrete and set the sill bolts, cleaned the slab and applied two coats of sealer, and got the sills to size and ready to go up.

Now I have to come up with a rig to lift the sills into place...here is what I'm thinking. With one of these on each pier it should be easy. I may get a couple small chain hoists instead of B&T. Suggestions?

Qweaver · June 02, 2006, 06:49:01 PM

OK, I know this ain't much, but I'm excited. After spending much of the day getting together a lifing device, we finally got three sills up and then the rain started. But we'll have clear skys tomorrow and then the rest of them will go up. Yee-ha! 8)

Quinton

beenthere · June 02, 2006, 08:07:20 PM

Glad to see you are making progress.
Did your design of a lift work?

That front end loader tractor in the background won't lift those sills? Or at least give you a good assist?

Qweaver · June 02, 2006, 08:36:09 PM

Hey Beenthere,
Yeh, the lift worked great. I mounted a clutch type boat wench to a 4x4 with a turning block at the top and horzontal 2x6s top and bottom clamped to the blocks with bar clamps.
The front loader will lift 8 or 10 of those sills at a time but getting them to the blocks is a whole nuther thing. The slope is a whole lot steeper than it looks in the picture. I can place a few of them with the loader but the lift works fine and is quick to move.

Quinton

Qweaver · June 03, 2006, 06:08:53 PM

We would have had the sills done today but my LT15 decided to shed a sprocket. By the time we got it fixed we got two more sills up and it started raining.

Oh well, I don't mind setting under the shed listening to the rain on the metal, sipping a cool one and waiting for the charcoal to get hot. There's always tomorrow.

sandmar · June 04, 2006, 05:53:37 PM

Nice work Qweaver.Really enjoying the pictures keep 'em coming!

Sandmar

Qweaver · June 06, 2006, 10:32:13 PM

Here are the latest pics. We're making progress, thanks in many way to help and advice from members of this forum.

Our threesom

Will it fit?

Ah, finally

Now, just 500 more boards and we'll have a dance floor

Paschale · June 06, 2006, 10:52:23 PM

Looks great, Qweaver! Thanks for taking the time to post the pics! 8)

Don K · June 06, 2006, 10:58:36 PM

Qweaver, I really like your thread. I've always wanted to live in the mountains. Having built most of my log home myself, I know the satisfaction that you must feel when you stand on that hill and see what you have accomplished each day. ;D 8) 8)

How are you attaching your subfloor banding boards to your beams and how are you joining your consecutive runs of floor joists? ???

Thanks for letting us have a glimpse into your jobsite.

Don

Qweaver · June 08, 2006, 06:17:51 PM

The latest,

All the joists are up and all but three pieces of blocking are nailed in. Can you find the missing pieces? :D My knees are a mess from crawling around putting blocking in today.

I guess we'll start on subfloor tomorrow. I'm un-decided about whether to put down temporary flooring or just go ahead and nail it in. It will certainly get wet several times before the roof is on.

Quinton

Norm · June 09, 2006, 07:54:49 AM

Very nice! On our last house I used a floor sheathing called advantech if I remember right. It was supposed to hold up to being wet and really did a much better job at that than any other I'd used before.

Paschale · June 09, 2006, 09:41:20 AM

Looks great! 8)

Qweaver · June 10, 2006, 11:33:09 PM

Today was another milestone as we got enough sub-floor nailed down to give us working room to put up the first post. That's one up, 12 to go.

The posts are 7"x7"x10'6" but they seem smaller than that in the picture.

Quinton

Qweaver · June 15, 2006, 10:22:13 PM

Here are the latest pics. We have fallen into a routine of sawing every morning and working on the house in the afternoons.
We call this room the electric room because we had to build it before the electric company will give us a permanent hook-up. Besides the service center it will ultimately house all of the utilities, pumps, water heater, etc.
I wish there was a way to keep the wood looking this good.
The rest of the downstairs will remain open.
Quinton

Mooseherder · June 15, 2006, 10:43:05 PM

Great Thread Quinton.
I look forward and love your updates.

Jeff · June 15, 2006, 11:41:59 PM

Same here! I'm really enjoying this thread.

mometal77 · June 17, 2006, 08:15:22 PM

Love the pictures. check out the works of ted benson. Looks like all nice no rainy days on the work of the house :D looking forward too more postings.

Qweaver · June 18, 2006, 08:47:14 PM

These pics have nothing to do with the building of the cabin but we screwed up on the under-ground electricity sweeps and have to get more conduit tomorrow, so we built this and an outhouse today.

Rain water makes for a great shower and we've just been taking them out in the open and baring all or going to cousin Cindy's and using her "city" water. Now we have our own. Next comes the black barrel hung up in the tree and heated by the sun.

Out-house pics tomorrow.

Quinton

Stephen1 · June 19, 2006, 08:32:55 AM

Great Pictures project is really moving along nicely!!

Burlkraft · June 19, 2006, 09:21:43 AM

Qweaver......

Nice shower ;D ;D ;D

I can't wait ta see the outhouse.......

I really like this thread ;D ;D ;D

iain · June 19, 2006, 12:43:42 PM

That shower head, is it an auto of a manual one?

Enquiring minds and all that

iain

Kevin_H. · June 19, 2006, 12:47:47 PM

This is fast becomming one of my fav. threads...

Way cool shower, kinda reminds me of our old house in arkansas...

Qweaver · June 26, 2006, 08:00:22 PM

The outhouse is still under construction. We set it aside to concentrate on getting the electricity connected. We sucked the lines thru the conduit yesterday for the power company to use to pull their wire...There were a few anxious moments there as the pig hung up a few times. It's a 300' conduit run from the pole to where the transformer will set and then 50' more to the house. I still wonder how they can put a 7500v conductor and a neutral together in a 3" conduit?

The electrical inspector came today and he was a jewel. He torqued the connectors for me, found a case bonding lug in his bag for the one that we must have lost and installed it for me. Made some good suggestions for when we start wiring and then stamped it "approved" Why can't all inspectors be this way? Go to Texas City, Texas and get an inspection...I guarantee they will stay until they find something. I'm gonna sent this guy a ham for Christmas.

So, Lord willin' and the kricks don't rise, we'll have power in a few days. We have been running off of generators and long extension cords for way to long!

Quinton