Coyote Ridge Observatory - 10x14 Modern Shed

[MikeOnBike]

Last year we were able to get the first of several structures built at our mtn. property.  That project was a bit of a beach head and intended for the kids and grandkids to have a place to camp until we eventually get a cabin built.  This year my wife and I are going to build a camp shed for ourselves up the hill.

Last year's project: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=10085.0

The other project was a 10x12 with sleeping loft.  My wife's trick knee says no way to a loft ladder so we are going with a little bigger footprint to accommodate a bed, chair and dry kitchen.  There will be a 8x10 deck out front with pergola for shade and a shower attached to one side.



I'm headed up this weekend to haul up the beams, floor joists, plywood for the floor and take inventory of what is already up there.  In a week I will take a week off work and hopefully get the the walls up, rafters in place and some sheathing over the rafters.  As always I am overly optimistic and it takes more time than I hope but that is the plan.

Here is the view from the shed.  A future cabin will start at the shower stall and go left.

[rdzone]

seems like this would be a perfect opportunity to use a murphy bed.  It would give lots of room during the day and you could still have your queen size bed. Just saying.

[MikeOnBike]

seems like this would be a perfect opportunity to use a murphy bed. 

Yeah it might.  We have a couple of ideas. 

- use the queen as a lounging couch
- put in a futon couch/bed
- put in a murphy bed

For now, I have a queen mattress.  I can put it on a scrap plywood frame.  We will see how cramped the shed feels.  We hope to be outside on the deck most of the time.  I do think that once we build the cabin and the shed becomes more of a shed I will put in more of a murphy type setup so I have more room in the shed for projects and can fold the murphy down when guests come up to visit.

[duncanshannon]

Looking forward to following your progress!

[MikeOnBike]

Just got back from a 6-day trip to the mtn.  I was able to get three days building in on the Observatory shed.  Two weeks ago I made a one day trip to our place and dropped off the materials for the piers, beams, floor joists and plywood floor.  A week ago I made another one day trip up and dropped off the materials for the front deck and walls.  I thought I could get all that done.  Silly me.  The weather was hot and I just needed to take a couple of days and recharge.  This is my first vacation this year.

Day 1:

I spent the whole day trying to find the best, i.e., deepest spots to sink 6 piers.  I dug at least a dozen holes in the rocky ground.  Frost heave won't be a problem, getting the pier deep enough to have some lateral stability is the issue.  Fortunately the pier/beam foundation doesn't require that the beams are exactly parallel. 



Day 2:

On the last shed we built this way the 4x6 beams were a nominal 3 1/2" wide.  These beams were 3 3/4" and 4".  My Simpson brackets are 3 1/2".  Ok, where is my chisel?  Well I didn't forget my hammer but the chisel was 100mi. away, time to improvise.  I love my cordless circular saw.  It only took a few minutes and slots for all six brackets were milled, a few minutes more and the beams were bolted and nailed to the piers.



I always buy a few extra boards and this time I bought exactly the correct number extra.  One of the 14' and two of the 10' joists went crooked on me in the 10 days they were lying in the sun.  I had just enough decent lumber to finish the floor joist.



I had enough daylight left to get all of the 2" foam insulation in place but I ran out of water and energy.  The temperature was only in the mid-80s but the sun at 6000' felt like torch.  I quit for the day a few pieces short.



Day 3:

The first task today was to finish putting the sheet foam in place.  I used some expanding window/door foam in a can to seal any gaps where the sheet foam didn't butt tight to the joist.

At last I could install the T/G plywood floor.  I used Liquid Nails to glue the plywood down and put a nail every foot.  The darn plywood had curled since I hauled it up the mtn. and I wanted to make sure it was flat and in contact with the glue.  I need to talk to my lumber supplier.

We are going to try a plywood floor with just polyurethane to seal it.  I stained it with Minwax 'Cinnamon' colored water based stain.  I used a broom handle mounted pad so I wouldn't kill my back with a brush.  I didn't pretreat the the plywood before the stain so it came out a bit blotchy as pine usually does.  It also didn't help that my initial application method wasn't exactly even.  I learned that the most even coverage was to essentially dry brush the stain on.  If the applicator pad was too wet the stain puddled a bit before I could get it spread and it left a darker spot.



The next planned work trip will be 4-5 days over Labor Day weekend.  If the weather forecast looks wet I'll try to get up before then and get some poly on the plywood floor.  I was disappointed that I didn't have time to get it applied before we left.

The plan for that trip will be to get the walls up.  If I have some extra time I'll start on the 8x10 deck.  All the materials are up there waiting for me.

[MikeOnBike]

Yesterday I was working within an hour of camp so I ran up the mtn. to put a coat of poly on the plywood floor.  On the way in I noticed ATV tracks on the goat trail to our place on the upper part of the property.  In the three years we have been going in this is the first time I have seen tracks go all the way in.

Got to camp and notice that the time lapse camera is missing.  The lids to all the 5-gal buckets that I store stuff in are loose.  The only other thing I can find missing is the screwdriver that I use to open the can of poly.

I guess it is time to get a locked gate and fence in place. 

[Tickhill]

Seems to more and more thieves running around. While majority of people are at work, they spend their time
Appears they could glass the area before getting too close to see you were around. Not alot of trees to hide a couple of trail cameras but it might make a good investment, if they found 1 they might not look for the other's??
Sorry to hear it. I guess the big employment plan that is coming out in September will help~~~

[rick91351]

MikeOnBike - I sure hate to hear or read stuff like this.   One can only hope when they go to hang the stolen camera.  That the ladder slips, and they fall on the screw driver that they also ripped off.   

       

[Sassy]

Sorry to hear about that 

[MikeOnBike]

I went up Sat. for the three day weekend.  Just me this trip.  Both of my kids had to work this weekend.

Day 1:

I walked the property and retagged the steel spikes we used to mark the property boundary.  If the weather allows this fall I need to add some more fence and another locked gate.  It looks like nothing else is missing so hopefully our theft was a one time problem.  First priority is getting the shed closed in.  Not too many weekends left.

Day 2:

I am so slow.  Only two walls up today.  I thought I would get a lot more done but it was another hot weekend.  I didn't drink enough so by the end of the day I was cramping. 



Day 3:

Another hot day.  I drank more but still not enough.  Two more walls up.  Ready for rafters and sheathing next trip.



View out the front window.




The fencing is really jumping to the top of the to-do list.  When I was leaving camp Mon. night I noticed that the BLM cows had knocked my pile of wood fence posts apart and had scattered them everywhere.  They were even some floating in the pond.  After the end of a long weekend I had to re-stack the pile.

[MikeOnBike]

I made it up to camp last weekend for 3 days, minus travel and supply shopping time.  Boy, that can eat up a day.  The goal this trip was to get the sheathing, rafters, roof plywood on and tarpaper the place.  I was doing pretty well until a stiff afternoon breeze came up on the last day.  There was no way I could handle long strips of tarpaper on the roof by myself. 

The first day I got into camp about 4:00p and started sheathing the shack.  I was able to get most of the big pieces up before it started getting dark.



Day two my daughter and her husband and my granddaughter made it up to help me with the rafters.  My method of building the fly rafters results in a very heavy assembly that would probably cause me bodily harm if I tried to get them in place myself.  Jade saved the day and he and I were able to get all the rafters in place, toe-nailed and hurricane clipped, in spite of an afternoon rain delay.



They had to be back to work on Mon. so on day three I was on my own again.  I got almost all the wall sheathing completed and put all but a small strip of the roof plywood in place.  The late afternoon gusty breeze drove me off the roof and I was done for the weekend.




Eight days of work so far from start to this point.  I'm pleased with the progress but impatient to have more done before the weather starts changing.

It looks like I'm going to be able to make it up this coming weekend.  Next on the list is to tarpaper the place and then install the door and three windows.

[Poopers]

Forgive my ignorance but what kind of roof is this? Googling told me it was a mono-pitch or "shed" roof. Any other terms for it? I want to do one and am trying to figure out how they are framed correctly. Thanks! Love your build so far.. if you have any close-ups of the roof framing please post up!

[Gary O]

Welcome Poopers

I know Mike is sometimes busy, so in the meantime, the style is sometimes referred to as a 'lean-to' design

Cheers
Gary O'

[Poopers]

Thanks a bunch. I like the simplicity of the style and think it would be a good choice for a first time builder as myself. Dont see too many downfalls to the lean-to style other than all the water being concentrated to one side of the house when it rains

[OlJarhead]

Great progress!

[Gary O]

Hey Mike
Really great progress on your 2nd build.
I know yer fightin' the clock on this one, but it looks like you're ahead.
I know the tarpaper tango.
I didn't need a breeze to play twister with the 14' pcs I'd cut for our cabin roof, and the 58° pitch didn't help much.
So, after getting the paper anaconda spiral off myself, I read somewhere that shorter, more manageable strips were OK, just more overlapping.......I'm sure the pros on this site have tricks to their trade, but that was my experience.

And yes, Poopers (I love typing that word), you'll only need one barrel/cistern....or dry well.....
Simplicity is the word for shed/lean-to styles.

[Alan Gage]

A good weekends work!

How long are you planning to leave the tar paper on the roof before covering it with the finished roof?

I ask because I had a couple small pieces on my roof and after only a few weeks of exposure to the weather they were getting pretty ratty and coming loose.

I covered the main roof with a synthetic underlayment that's rated for 6 months exposure. The stuff is lightweight, comes in 5' rolls, and will not tear. If you're going to leave it over the winter I'd look into something similar. Price wasn't bad, somewhere between $100-$200/square.

Alan

[MikeOnBike]

Poopers, I don't have any closeups of the framing but I'll post a couple of drawings and comments later this week.  It's not too hard, just a lot of angle cuts and those are easy if you make a simple marking jig for the roof pitch.

Gary, I'm a little ahead but I won't be back up there for two weeks and then another two weeks after that.  I went with the shed roof because I really didn't like crawling around on the last build with the 45deg pitch.  This roof is only 14deg. 

OJ, thanks, feels slow but I need to remind myself it's only been four 3-day weekends and those include travel and material gathering.

Alan, the tarpaper is only for two weeks.  I'll be back up the end of the month to put the metal roof on.  I think I got the edges nailed down pretty well and trimmed so they won't catch the breeze.  The 10-day forecast looks pretty forgiving.


I added some more small sheathing pieces on the sides you can't see in the photo but the bulk of the work this weekend was the roof.  I finished the small strip of decking at the top.  The previous weekend we set the rafters and we set the end or fly rafters first.  I made the mistake of not running a plumb line between the two ends to help align the reset of the rafters.  As a result I had some trimming to do on the high side and some shimming to do on the low side.

The next job was to get the 65lb, 9.25"x12' long Harditrim boards up on the eaves.  These things are 1" thick so all of the nail holes had to be pre-drilled.  I could either hold them up over my head or nail them, but not both.  The desired distance between the bottom of the rafter and the bottom of the trim board is 1.5".  This made it pretty easy to make some brackets with two offset pieces of scrap 2x4 that I screwed to the bottom of the rafter.  I then lifted the trim board up on the roof, lined it up, marked, drilled and started the nails and then I eased them over the edge onto the brackets.  At that point I just had to hold it in place and set all of the nails.

The last task was to cover the roof deck with 30lb tarpaper.  The breeze wasn't too bad so I put it on in full width 17' pieces.

The next trip will be in two weeks.  The plan is to get the metal roof installed.

[MikeOnBike]

I was able to make another trip to the mtn. for about a day and a half.  With rain and snow forecast for the coming week I really wanted to get the windows and door installed. 

When arrived at the lower camp where I sleep, I went in the shed to get some supplies and found myself standing in a shed with 200-300 wasps all over the walls, ceiling and windows.  At first I didn't notice the couple of hundred on the peaked ceiling so I grabbed a can of bug spray and started hosing down the wasps on the windows.  As I looked up I realized that I didn't have enough spray to kill them all.  I figured that they had been coming in to get away from the cold nights and couldn't find their way out.  I decided that the only thing I could do would be to leave the door open for the day and hope that they would fly out.  If they didn't I might not have a place to sleep that night.  When I came back down from building at the upper camp I found one wasp left inside.  With a little coaxing he flew out.  I'm sure I will have that problem every weekend until I can get the opening under the eaves sealed up over the next few trips.  I just hope they will cooperate as well next time.





The next planned trip is in a couple of weeks.  With the cooler weather coming I think we will put up the siding before the roof.  I want to get paint on the siding in case fall comes early and it starts getting too cold to paint.  I think the tarpaper on the roof will be good for another 3-4 weeks.  The metal roof should only take about a day to install.

[Gary O]

Ah, progress....nature has a way of helping with priorities.
Can't wait to hear about how the metal roofing goes, Mike.
We're headin' to the cabin soon too. May just be burning slash, however, as snow is all that's in the forecast for Chemult.

Check that..fresh fcst (new dart board).....just rain...new homemade door goes on....note to self: MAKE DOOR!

Keep a fire

[AdironDoc]

She looks great, Mike! And wow, what a view.. I'll be the wind howls on the open plains. Must be nice to bed down to that.

Sorry to hear about thieves and wasps, but I suppose it happens everywhere. I had similar worries so I mounted a couple deer cams on the perimeter of my place where they wouldn't be noticed. I was excited when two weeks later I saw that I had two photos, hoping they were deer, and if there were trespassers, I'd at least have their mugs in view. Funny thing was it was me. Once putting the cam up. Once, taking it down. Not a bad idea as a low budget security system. If your stuff turns up gone, and you get 'em in cam, more than likely a trip to the local precinct will result in, "aha, them again" from the desk Sarge.

I'm looking forward to more pics!

Doc

[rick91351]

Mike don't want to rain or snow on your parade.  We ran off to Salt Lake City yesterday.  (Had to turn in some paperwork to railroad retirement that I sure did not want the post office to loose.)  We had not had a road trip at all lately.  Did that and we came back through Windover, Wells and Elko.  Turned and come home trough Mountain City, Grasmere, Bruneau, Murphy and home.  Snow over there on top down through Riddle and Grasmere down to where it brakes off the mountain.  Temp was showing 33 and a very strong snow storm.  Rained from there steady down to Bruneau!

[MikeOnBike]

Yeah, we have a Snotel site near our place.  I've been watching it all week.  Freezing overnight and 1/2" of rain since yesterday morning.

I won't be back up there until the 14/15th so hopefully it will warm and dry by then.  Guess I got the windows, door and tarpaper on just in time.

[MikeOnBike]

I made it back up on the 16th for a couple of days.  This trip was all about siding. 

My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter come up to help.  Jade and I got started and got as far as three sheets of siding and the soffit on the back of the shed when it started to rain, lots of rain.  We spent the next 4 hrs. in the shed snacking and visiting.  The rain finally started to let up early evening and they headed back to town.  With a 1/2" of rain in 3-4 hrs. the ground was too muddy to work on so I called it a day and headed to the lower place for some dinner, more snacking really, and early bed.

Next morning the weather began to clear.  It froze overnight and the ground was steaming as the sun came out and burned off the fog.  I was able to get the last of the tarpaper up, finish the nailing from the previous days work and get three more sheets of siding up.  It didn't feel like much but it's a step closer to completion.

Headed back up on the 21st to put on the metal roof and get as much siding completed as possible.  We will also start painting.

[MikeOnBike]

Finally the end is in sight, for this season anyway.  All of the siding/soffit is up except for the 3 1/2" trim.  Next weekend I'll finish the trim and caulking on the first day and paint on the second.  That's the plan. 

I think the deck will have to wait until next spring.  I'm running out of weather and I need to help my daughter put in some firewood for the winter.



Even though the picture doesn't show it the roof is done.  I had to take a picture before it got too dark.  I finished the last of the metal in twilight.