12X36 cabin in Jones County Mississippi

[Barry Broome]

We're finally building something! The wife and I decided last week to bite the bullet and move out to our property - even though we don't have the money to build a house at this time. As a compromise we agreed to build a small cabin to live in for a few years. We'll pay cash for the cabin and spend the next 3 years saving money to start building the big house at another location on the property. We plan to avoid a mortgage completely. I did owner-financing on our current dwelling to help free up some cash. We have to be out by the end of this month (June). We plan to stay with our wife's parents until the cabin is finished which I expect will be in July.

The cabin is 12X36 (432 square feet). The front wall is 10 feet high and back wall is 8 feet. The roof is a lean-to/shed style. I figured this would be one of the easiest styles to construct since we are building it ourselves. I used http://www.floorplanner.com to design the layout and figure the minimum square feet I thought we could stomach.





Foundation consists of 2 courses of cement blocks. The blocks are spaced 6 feet apart on center. The 2 courses are about 10 feet apart. I used MountainDon's cabin as a model ---> http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=2335.0

The 2 beams are 2X10's sandwiched together (making a 6X10). The floor joists are 2x10 on 16 inch centers with center blocking. The wall studs are 2x6 on 24 inch centers. The roof rafters are 2X8's on 24 inch centers and the roof laths are 2X4.

Floor is 1/2 plywood, then felt, then osb. Walls are osb covered in felt, then tyvek, then later we will use hardie plank siding. Roof is metal roofing.

Our crew consists of myself, the wifey, her parents, and her brothers. I can't thank them enough.

Here's the pics

At this point we had the foundation, floor joists, and subfloor completed. We are assembling the wall framing. I'm in the carthart overalls. The other guys are my wife's brothers.



Working on the last exterior wall.



First day of framing complete. We got a lot done!



OSB going up.



By day 2 we had the roof laths down and most of the osb.



I had to leave for work yesterday at lunch so my wife and the in-laws continued working. This is my wife and father in-law installing some windows. The windows are big (48 inch X 57 inch). I picked them up at a country auction for $15 each. They were double paned and I wondered why they were so cheap. Yesterday we found out why. They aren't designed to be installed in a wood framed home. They are designed for a metal building. Hence my father in-law had to 'create' a way to make them work. Which he did... he's great  . The metal roofing also got installed today while I was away by my brother in-law.



This is how the place looked when they knocked off today. This is about 5 days of work and everyone is pretty wore out. It started raining today after the roofing was on and most of the felt. I'm glad the floor and frame didn't get wet before it was blacked in.





That's all I have for now. I welcome any comments (positive or negative) and any questions. Thanks for everyone who has shared something on this site! It's helped me tremendously.

P.S. so far we have $3,000 in the structure.

[ColchesterCabin]

First off let me say welcome and congratulations on taking the plunge. I know building has been a great and rewarding experience for me. I am far from done my build but this site has been truly a wealth of experience. So 

[new land owner]

Nice design!

[Adam Roby]

Nice but simple design, and it is going up in record time.  It reminds me of the mobile home layouts, I suppose due to the 12' width you are a bit limited.  Seems to have everything you need in there!

[Barry Broome]

It was another busy day for my family. They started on the interior walls.



My wife found a new door for $125 and installed it.



And they got the felt finished.



Next we plan to wrap the house with tyvek and tape the windows/door frame - and indoors work on the wiring and interior walls.

[hpinson]

Neat, it's a great design -- looks like a very practical living space.

I have one question / criticism.  Are you in Tornado country?  If so, those foundation blocks seem like a really weak. Are they just piled up blocks or am I missing something?  I've seen the damage that tornados do in western Mississippi and eastern Alabama, and it is a very real threat.

The cabin is small and integrated enough that you might be able to retrofit something more sturdy under the existing structure as money allows, and tie the structure into it?  Perhaps you could even build a perimeter foundation alongside, and with jacks/ rigging slide the structure over onto that?

[Barry Broome]

hpinson - that's a great question and I was wondering when someone would ask. Structurally I think the blocks will support the weight of the cabin. The house is not bonded to the ground in any way. Tornadoes are a concern. If a direct hit from a tornado occurs I think the house would either come apart or stay together and simply move off the blocks. I do have tie downs that I may screw into the ground under the house and strap it later. It's something that's been on my mind from the beginning. We have weather radios and a safe place to go in the event of a tornado warning.

For those reading -  I don't recommend this type of foundation for most circumstances. I'm going with it for now to save time and money. I may revisit the foundation later and look at ways to provide more strength.

[hpinson]

I have family south of Tuscaloosa, and their area just got wiped out. That's why I asked.  But truth is, not much survived that was in the path of that storm.  Good that you have a place to go with the weather perks up.

[Barry Broome]

Thanks - I did some work in Tuscaloosa after that tornado. It was a powerful storm. Being in the utility industry I've seen more storm damage than most folks. Solid foundations and strong ties are always good but I've seen plenty of well built homes ripped off their foundations and destroyed. And I've seen some old heavy homes simply moved off their blocks. Either way the only safe place to be during a tornado is underground. We get our fair share of tornado scares each year. Not fun... 

[rick91351]

Barry I really like your build and the idea behind it.   

[Barry Broome]

Thanks for all the positive comments, I appreciate it  . The family is now taking a break... which is good cause there's been some injuries, yelling, back pain, etc.... 

The wife is currently packing up some of our things back home. They are all leaving for Disney World this coming weekend so I've been instructed to seal windows/door, install the house wrap, and complete the facia and soffits. I have a feeling it will take me longer than i think it will. Most things take about twice as long as I think. Hopefully I can get that finished in 2 days. I'll try and get some pics afterwards.

[astidham]

Hey Barry, I'm enjoying watching the build, very nice!
My question for you is, do you have plans for bracing between your support beams?
My cabin has simular beams, and before I braced between them, the cabin had some beam roll movement.
I put some 2x6 bracing from the beam to each side of a floor joist. It is still inadequate, but stopped a lot of the movement.
Todd

[Mike 870]

 Where I am we have a lot of old buildings being converted to loft space and that is what your floor plan reminds me of. I like it.  You have the added bonus of being able to put Windows anywhere, whereas these lofts usually just have one big window on one of the narrow ends.

[Barry Broome]

astidham - at this time I have no plans for bracing the beams. I'm kinda putting that off till later. Meanwhile I'm keeping an eye on them.

This weekend I managed to tape around the windows which was quite a job because these windows weren't designed for a wood frame house. I also learned that spray-can foam insulation grows more than I realized.



When I get back in a couple of weeks we are going to pull the 2 end pieces of tin up and recut the laths so the metal roofing has the right amount of overhang.

When I originally cut my rafters I forgot to deduct about 3 inches to allow for the overhang of the tin. As a result I had a great time this weekend on the ladder with the sawzall. I'm having to trim them back before installing the fascia. Otherwise the water won't clear the fascia when it drops from the tin.

I'm sure that won't be the last mistakes I make on this 

In other news I finally got allergy skin tests today. And I'm pretty much allergic to everything. And since I'm on the road I can't take shots. But it was fun getting to see what I'm allergic to.

[Gary O]

What a great build!

Mistakes? au contraire

Opportunities.

Don't argue with me on this, for I....I... am THEE 'opportunist'

One word; trim.
There's wide trim, thick trim, shim trim, and entire wall covering trim.
But, yeah, you gotta fix that one.

Have fun, Mr Itchy.

Can you say hydrocortisone?

Cheers, Barry

[UK4X4]

Ouch that looks itchy !

And a high percentage too

My wife's recently developed allergies,  even too our dogs

We've been trying to track down the root cause, in her case it seems to be hormonal as 4 days a month the allergies disappear
It's a work in progress.

Have you always had or something new ?

For Windows you can get a low expansion foam which won't compress the frame and leave you with unopening windows, especially with up c

[Barry Broome]

Time for an update. Though I've been out of the state mostly my wife and inlaws have been getting things done. We have installed the unsulation. The plumbing and wiring. The ceiling is up and about half the drywall. So here's some pics.... 

[Barry Broome]

A few notes of interest. Looks like our water meter may end up costing $800 which is about double what I expected. When finished I expect to have about $10K in the place. The wife and fam have floated the sheetrock, primed, and painted. They also got the outside wrapped again.

[Barry Broome]

Time for another update     house is pretty much finished. Wife and in laws did all the labor while I was away at work.

So the wife and fam trenched out over 1,000 feet of water line.





The bathroom turned out nice.







Our California King fit perfectly in the space created for it.



Wife bought all the upper cabinets used for $100 and restained them. Another cabinet in that set is in the bathroom over the washer and dryer. It was a steal and they turned out great. The narrow fridge we got used for around $120. Stove was new. Dishwasher was used ($130) but is one of those 'quiet' models and it's actually really quiet. Bottom cabinets, counter, and backsplash we picked up at Lowe's. That's a rotating 'lazy suzanne' in the corner by stove. It's nice and helps use the space in that niche.



Living room



More living room including the new sleeper sofa with pull out bed.



My daughter watching the deer down at the corn feeder



The updated exterior of the house - hardi planks - the outside is still in progress.



We have about $15K in the place I think. That should be pretty close. When/if I build a porch on the front that will be another $1,200 or so. I also have more work to do on the eaves around the roof. Woops I meant to say "somebody" has some more work to do on the eaves... LOL. Honestly I hate being gone at work so much but it's good money and we are getting a lot accomplished. Besides my wife likes to gloat about how she built the place     We owe Lowe's around 6K which we hope to have paid off in the Spring. If the economy and my career holds we will have most of our debts paid off in two years and can then consider building something larger... but the family has informed me that a contractor will be handling that. Even a house this small is a lot of work. More than I realized. Working with sheetrock is a mess... all the dust. It looks nice when it's finished though.

[Mike 870]

It came out great!  Tell your family they did a good job!

[TwoBeagles]

You did a very nice job with the floor plan lay-out. By the looks of how everything is set-up, not only did your wife build it, she also made it a home. Looks great!

[hpinson]

It's so amazing to see your project come together like this. 

[busted knuckles]

Place looks great. I love shed style roofs.