My 15.75 x 30 Jemez Cabin

[MountainDon]

Nice work Don   How much longer until your done?

Done? Next year, spring/summer. Summer probably.

When winter closes in actual work will likely cease. By close in I mean when it snows enough to defeat 4WD with lockers. That's usually accomplished by the snow being too deep to push through. There are a couple spots on the access road that drift in and then it's game over.

Of course there's the snowmobile, but it's not possible to carry much as far as materials, etc.

[MountainDon]

Inside the cabin on Saturday, I got the insulation batts completed in the ceiling. Man did that make a difference! With the wood stove burning on a low thermostat setting it was still 69 degrees inside on Sunday morning when it was 32 outside.   

Karen was sanding the 1x6 T&G outside in the cold. 45 - 60 degrees. Saturday about 5 PM it began to rain. We had stopped work for dinner. Because of the clouds we had tarped the trailer load before that. Not too hard a rain, but steady. 14 hours and 1.12 inches later it stopped. Sunday AM we caught a glimpse of snow on Redondo Peak to the north of us. Just a glimpse... it appeared to be from about 9500 feet and up. Clouds rolled in before a picture could be taken.

Then the clouds lifted and I got my first snowfall picture of the season. Half the snow we caught a glimpse of earlier had already melted.



Sunday the weather looked iffy so we untarped the trailer and hauled all the T&G inside. K continued to sand them.

I started installing the T&G 1x6 spruce ceiling; love my Senco finish nailer. 



Working Sunday and today I got about half the ceiling done before we had to pack up and leave about noon.



Next trip up, this Thursday MTL, the job list begins with completing the T&G ceiling... and goes on and on....

[MountainDon]

[OldDog]

Don't Ya just Love air tools!!!!

[MountainDon]

Long term love affair with mine. I've had that Senco for about 20 years or so and it's my newest one.     It's their junior size model; drives 1 to 2 inch 15 gauge finishing nails and weighs noticeably less than the full size gun.

[Whitlock]

T&G knotty pine my favorite It always seems cozy in a cabin that has knotty pine



Air tools what are air tools ???My wife dosen't let me play with power tools

[NM_Shooter]

2" ball?   

Yup!  tandem axle.  No brakes.  I try not to load it with more than 2500# when on rough roads, although rated for 5k.

-f-

[MaineRhino]

That looks great MtnDon!

[soomb]

What is the function of the blue (painters) tape on the sections of insulation?

[MountainDon]

Blue tape: good conversation starter. 

Some of the stud bays are not full width, due to window or door placement or the 15.75 external width. So those had the fiberglass trimmed/cut. With those the stapling flange disappeared. Hence tape. In others it repairs inadvertent tears and poked holes. Before the walls are finished there will be a layer of clear poly tape applied over the blue, for better vapor resistance. The Blue tape was all I had on hand at the time of installing the insulation.

[MountainDon]

Another weekend. Where to begin?

I got the ceiling almost all done. All the T&G is up except for the bathroom. And it's all been given 2 coats of Minwax Polycrylic Satin (Crystal Clear). 



We also did something different with the cabinets. We stained them green. 



Next step is to clear coat them with the satin we used on the ceiling. We took the doors home to finish them there/here.

[soomb]

Looks good.  Ahhh Minwax (my mom was their packaging director for those finishes)  Your makin' my ole mom proud 

[ScottA]

Looks great Don. I like the green. Different is good. 

[MountainDon]

I also got a start on the exterior. We've decided to use Hardie Plank lap siding in the cedarmill surface pattern. In another thread someplace here, on Hardie cement fiber trim, there were some negative comments. That raised my concern. However, as I mentioned in yet another thread my new close to home Lowe's has the 5/4 x 4 (1" x 3.5" actual) trim in stock. And it's all in wonderful shape; no chipped or flaked corners, even thickness and width... at least no worse than any lumber. So I bought 18 ten foot lengths and hauled them up to the mountains.

I also bought a new cement fiber cutting 7.25" blade. This one is a Freud Diablo and it is vastly superior to the other one (can't remember the name, can't read it on the blade anymore). The Freud is a bit thinner, cuts very clean, no tearing and makes a lot less dust than the other. It comes with a Hardie endorsement, FWIW.

Here's an overall view of the cabin with the corner and window trim installed.



Here's a window closer up...



...and a shot of one corner...



I also ripped starter strips off a 4x8 panel of Hardie siding to use as a starter strip for the plank lap siding. The edge looks wavy/funny because I applied a coat of primer paint to the cut edge after installation.

[MountainDon]

Looks great Don. I like the green. Different is good. 

Thanks, Scott

Looks good.  Ahhh Minwax (my mom was their packaging director for those finishes)  Your makin' my ole mom proud 

Thanks soomb. Thank your Mom. 

[Redoverfarm]

Got to love that Polycrylic.  Now if they would just drop the price a tad I would be in good shape.  I did notice that Zinsser came out with their variation at a considerable savings than Minwax.  But I was almost finished with what I had to do and was afraid to change brands mid stream.  I will try it out in the future though.

Yeah Don that is not the paint job expertise that you showed us before.  I thought you might have had a little anti-freeze while on the Mountain before doing that. 

[MountainDon]

Yeah Don that is not the paint job expertise that you showed us before.  I thought you might have had a little anti-freeze while on the Mountain before doing that. 

No sense in being picky when it's going to be hidden.    Plus there was a cold wind blowing.   Anti freeze is only imbibed after the work day.     Mostly. No power tool access allowed though.

[MountainDon]

Got to love that Polycrylic. 

Goes on very easy and I like the water clean up.

I know what you mean about mixing brands. You never know if there will be subtle differences in the finish.

[bayview]

MountainDon:

   For the fiber cement siding I have used an inexpensive 10" diamond blade in my sliding miter saw, works great . . . Probably want to be upwind though.  A lot of dust.

[ListerD]

I love the green cabinets! Had to show that to the wife!

Looking great Don!

[MountainDon]

Thanks Lister.

It's a Minwax water based stain, called Green Tea if memory serves me well. K is the one who selected and bought it. We used the Minwax pre stain conditioner prior to staining to assure better evenness of color. She did most of the work while I did the all important supervising. That'll get me in trouble.   

We actually worked as a team, she applied conditioner, I wiped and sanded. Then I applied stain and she did all the stain wiping in order to keep the same "touch/appearance". Sort of like having the same person do all the measuring and cutting when making rafters.

The cabinets will be finished with the same clear coat as the ceiling.

FYI, those cabinets are the unfinished Red Oak available from Lowe's. I got most of them over a year ago as damaged goods (small problems) and with a 10% off coupon/card to boot. We want to use some sort of knobs or pulls but haven't decided on just what. I could have made my own, in fact originally that was the plan. I don't want to make a full time career out of this though... I am willing to compromise for leisure/4 wheeling time. 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Don, I am really impressed with how fast your cain is coming together...it looks great!  I like the colored stain.  Minwax is good stuff... I was checking out the colored stains here a while back... guess I'd never noticed them before, but I think they look pretty good.

[MountainDon]

Don, I am really impressed with how fast your cabin is coming together...

I guess that comes from doing nothing much else other than working on it on the weekends.  I really need to take it easy and take a hike or two or something.


You can also have your stains custom tinted just like paint using the color scanner computers that are everywhere.

[MountainDon]

Well, this past weekend I didn't do too much other than screw up the drywall.

The weather was nice, we went for a short drive through the trees on one of the "4WD sure is handy" nearby roads/trails. We also took a little hike.

Oh the drywall screw up? It's like.. I screwed the drywall up to the studs.   
Did I have ya' wondering for even a moment?

Here's three views...

... looking at east end...



... looking at west wall; the wall that will receive T&G soon...

Yes, that's a lot of sheetrock for a small cabin. Originally our plans called for T&G 1x6 SPF on the north and east walls, maybe the south wall as well. We've been spending money like a sailor on leave liberty (cabin, peripherals and even other non related items) that we cut the wall T&G back to just the west wall for now. Later we'll add a wood T&G waincoat to the north wall and part of the south wall. The east wall, bedroom area, will likely stay drywall.

I used 5/8" sheets because of the 24" OC wall stud spacing; half inch would likely appear wavy. That 5/8" stuff in noticeably heavier!!   

Next weekend I'll get to mud it. 

Can't wait to get to the stage where I get to screw the cabinets to the wall so I'm not moving them all the time.    That's what comes when you get a deal and have no place to store them. 

[MountainDon]

The cleaning lady dropped by...   



Ouch! That'll get me in trouble.