Cuyamaca Cabin, 714 sq ft

[flyingvan]

Here's a few random pics from my first owner/builder project

You can see how the joists just clear the top of the boulders underneath

Tipping up the big wall----I used a come-along and a tree to keep it from falling

The curved rafters....They allowed the clearance for the upstairs window, and kept the place from looking like a pre-fab

Some of the interior framing.  There's lots of heavy timber

All done exterior

All done interior...I didn't want a post to the floor for the kitchen counter.  The rail down to the livingroom extends up and supports the counter instead.  The loft is above half the livingrooom

[Don_P]

 
How did you do the curved rafters?

[flyingvan]

  Well, first I got the four different points in place---the ridge, wall, beam, and edge beam of the porch.  Then I cut three 2x14's on the bottoms where they met their resting points (the ridge, wall, etc) and figured out the splices at the two points they joined, and rested them in place.  So you have to imagine the three top edges were still straight at this point...Then, I attached a string to the very top, and draped it over the very bottom.  Then I 'sagged' the string until it was the curve I needed, clearing the 2-0x2-0 window (There's a name for this sort of curve REAL architects have told me but I don't remember it) I spray painted over the string and it left a very clear mark where to cut.  Took the three boards down, and used each as a template to replicate 7 times.  (If you're cutting curves, set your skilsaw blade to just the depth of the material.   DO use a circular saw as you'll get a much better cut than with anything else)  The roof sheathing was t&g so it would follow the curve well, and looks really cool from underneath
   I can scan pictures of the process if you need

[Don_P]

No, I understand it now. Pretty neat.
The shape is a catenary IIRC.

[flyingvan]

Catenary.  Got it.  I thought 'catenary' was latin for chain...

[Don_P]

Bingo    It is actually a catenary arch, the natural arc formed by a chain sagged between 2 supports.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary

[MountainDon]

Very neat method. Looks nice too

[flyingvan]

Oh and to throw myself under the bus for a 'lesson learned'----I believe the only correct way to roof shingle valleys with composite shingles is to lace them (if you go with the metal valley flashing and just cut the shingles to it, leaves and pine needles always get in there and when the snow piles up, water finds a way through)....  The valley formed between the curved roof and constant pitch roof aren't the same angles so lacing the shingles (every other one on top---one from one roof plane, the next from the other) didn't work.  Different slope, number of shingles.  So it would lace 1:1 then 2:1 then 1:1....

[glenn kangiser]

Cool project.   Nice job.

Quite a ways south of me though I have worked near there and navigated off of the Julian VOR while flying years ago.    Nice country.

[flyingvan]

    Here's where the various projects are situated.  If I can buy the vacant lot uphill from where I'm building now (the cottage) we can walk between them all without crossing anyone else's property

  This is from the lake looking back where the neighborhood is.  The top of North Peak is just under 6000'.  The cottage project is at the top of the meadow across the lake.  The meadow is floodplane so no one will ever build to block the view

[flyingvan]

  This was a good lesson learned for me so I'm sharing it here, just another slide for the ole' mental slideshow.  For you electricians out there you'll know what the problem was immediately.  It took me awhile.
   I was just starting a 72 hour shift at the fire/rescue helicopter.  People staying at the cabin (my first owner builder project, finished in '03) called to say smoke was coming from their power strip.  So, I thought, you have a bad power strip.  Then they called to say the microwave was smoking, and they never used it.  Hmm...I'll look at it in three days when I get off work.  Next call, half the lights in the house were really bright; the rest were really dim.  Some were coming on by themselves.  They thought the place was haunted.
   Really bright lights, to me, represented a serious enough symptom to get someone to cover for me to make the hour drive home.
   My meter is at the pole I put in, then aluminum wire runs overhead to the cabin into a subpanel.  One leg showed 18v.  The other showed 202v.  It showed 220 potential between the legs as it should...I watched my meter as I shut off breakers one by one, thinking one of them would eliminate the problem, then I could trace where things were crossing over.  (Again, you electrically savvy folks already see the obvious.  For those that don't, these clues will point to a classic problem)
   I had lost my neutral leg.
   See, both your hot legs return through the common neutral.  It's good to balance the two sides; I understand the house will actually use less electricity if your two hots draw the same amount of power...Take the neutral out at the pole, and everything returns through the common in the house back through the other leg----hence the high voltage and low voltage.
   A tree branch had been beating up against my drip loops at the pole where the dielectric acorn nuts join the copper wire and the aluminum wire coming from the panel.  After re-greasing them with the dielectric goop, tightening the acorn nut, and re-taping it, everything worked great.  I went back and re-tightened all the connections, too.
   Total losses were a power strip, a microwave/range hood, and 5 hours away from the paying job.
   

[Sassy]

Love the curved roof!  Beautiful work