20 x 30 Cabin Progress Photos

[Tennessee_Pride]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take the time to show off my 20 x 30 cabin that I built in the East Tennessee area.  I purchased the 20 x 30 plans around 2 years ago and certainly did my share of modifications to suite my needs.  I have also learned a great deal from periodically scouring the archives of forum post on this site as well as getting very good advise from several of the regulars (including John).


Pic of the front added. (John R.)

Here are some brief facts that I am sure some will be interested in.  The cabin sits adjacent to a river on the plateau of East Tennessee.  I own several acres that is stacked full of very large timber.  I have an abundant supply of very mature White Pines and Hemlock, which make up the majority of the cabin.  I decided early own that I wanted to mill my own lumber so I did.  I purchased a TA Scmid sawmill out of New York.  This saw has proofed to be a huge cost saver since I milled over 95% of all my wood using the mill.  The saw, with many unique features, has been invaluable in building this cabin for a fraction what it would have cost me otherwise.  I will have to point out that saw milling is rough work though!!

A lot of the wood was dried and then taken to a local mill for T&G treatment (for the interior wood).  The inside of the cabin is a blend of pine and popular, with the exterior siding milled (lap siding using the mill) out of Hemlock.  The framing lumber is all white pine.

I started the construction phase Febuary 25th, 2006.  The milling started out the year before to allow time for drying.  Although I have always considered myself a wannabe carpenter my experience building a structure such as this was limited.  This site really helped me gain my confidence.  

The cabin is almost there as far as being completed structurally.  I just got my power in and feel as though I can coast from this point.  I choose underground power due to the various environmental reasons.  There is a long story behind the power that I will have to share at a latter date.  I will tell you that I never thought I could have the power due to cost.  I was wrong but a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into the project.  In fact, this is true for the overall project.

My primary source of help was me, me, my 65-year-old dad (my primary help), me, some occasional friends, and my wife.  This was basically a weekend project since the cabin is over one hour away from my home.  I can definitely say the construction was a labor of love for the process.  Although I had numerous difficult times it has been extremely rewarding.

I am sure there are many mistakes to point out in the pictures.  I made plenty of mistakes.  My real purpose of putting these pics out here is to hopefully motivate someone out there who is hedging to get started.  If I can build one then I would think most could too.  I am sold on the sawmill route if you have the timber.  I want get into cost of the cabin but I will say the cost was extremely low based on the quality of material and effort I put into this cabin.  

I hope everyone can utilize the link provided to view the pictures.  I have only attached a sampling.  I hope you enjoy viewing the pictures and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.  Again, I asked a lot of question in the early stages of this build on this site.

Tennessee Pride

See pictures at below link
https://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa73/tennesseepride/

[Jimmy_Cason]

Simply Amazing!  

  Great Job!

[size=14]Feels Good Huh?[/size]

[John_M]

What a magnificent project.  You should be very proud of yourself!!!!

I too am working on a project...only on weekends basically.  My wife and I just had our first child three weeks ago.....that tends to slow things down even more!!  I have a foundation, it is framed, dried in with windows. We also have electricity!  We will get there!

Your project IS an inspiration to me!!

[John Raabe]

[highlight]What a terrific job![/highlight]

Some really nice touches and the personal involvement shows in the details.

A project for the ages.  

[glenn kangiser]

Very nice project.  I like your saw mill -- similar to mine although probably better.  Mines not fancy but will cut up to about  a 30" dia log up to 20' long.

Thanks for posting that.

[C.White]

Hi there,
I really enjoyed looking through your photos of the 20 X 30 cabin.  I will start mine very soon now.
Could you please tell me how deep your porches are?  They look about 12 feet from what I can tell, and very roomy.  
You are right in that seeing your photos inspires those coming up behind with their own projects.   Thanks for letting us see them.  I'm looking forward to being able to walk around in mine someday.
Christina

[Tennessee Pride]

Thanks for the positive feedback.  For those that are about to get started then I will say get ready for some rewarding times.  I had several milestones along the way that helped to keep me motiviated.  Some of these milestones included getting the sub-floor up, in the dry, siding on, electricity, and many more.  

The front porch is 10' wide and the back porch is 12'.  I went ahead and insulated the ceiling in the back/side porch prior to putting the T&G boards on for future plans of possibly making this a bedroom.  One BIG mistake I made on the front porch that is evident in the pictures is that I didn't allow any side overhang.  I didn't make this mistake twice and allowed myself 18" of side overhang.  

[rdzone]

Looks great!  I bet you feel terrific.  I can understand what you are talking about when you say difficult times.  I have had my ups and downs. Not to mention my share of mistakes.  At the moment the roof has been my nemesis.  I can't wait until I am as far along as you, you are an inspiration.

I do have a question... I am currently working on getting my metal roofing on.  I am at the point where I need to install the metal chimney do you have any pointers.  This is my first metal roof and definately my first chimney install...just a little nervous about cutting a hole in the roof sheathing and the metal roofing.  Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

[Tennessee Pride]

hey rdzone,

Nearing completion is diffently a good feeling.  I have worked on this cabin nearly every weekend and several full weeks for the past 16 months.  This is not to mention the saw milling, timber harvesting, stacking of wood, un-stacking of wood, and trips to the hardware store (numerous times).  I guess I wouldn't trade it for anything since it has been very rewarding.  

I was also very hestitate in cutting a hole in my metal roof.  My stove pipe is 8" pipe and the chimney portion was greater than 10".  I tried to find a flashing boot that I could use that would seal around the metal ridges on the roof.  I couldn't find one to accomodate the large chimney.  What I did, and it has worked great, is to use a flat piece of metal that matches my roof color to aid me in the flashing.  Let me explain.  

I planned my chimney to come out of my roof at around 20" or so below my metal roof ridge cap.  I cut the hole for the chimney, installed the steep roof flashing over the chimney (standard flashing meant for shingled roofs) and over the top of two of the metal roof ridges (the flashing boot stradles two of the metal ridges).  I then took the flat metal and cut to the same width as the flashing.  I tucked one end of the flashing UNDER the ridge cap and the other end OVER the flashing.  The flat metal lay on the same two ridges as the flashing.  I sealed and screwed very well.  I filled the lower portion of the flashing with ridgid insulation and sealed.  When it rains the water flows over the metal piece of metal that has been arragned under the ridge cap and over the flashing boot.  I am not sure I have explained myself well.  Take a look at the picture that has my chimney in it.  You can see the flashing boot and the ridges.  I will see if I can take a closer pic of the flat metal that I used as described above.  

[rdzone]

Thanks for the tips.  Cutting a hole in the roof is a big step.  I took a  look at your pictures and I understand what you are saying.   I plan on tucking the chimney flashing under the vented ridge.  I am going to take my time.  If I have a problem I will use your method as it looks like it works well.  If the weather is nice this weekend I am going to take a day and just work on installing the chimney and the one piece of roofing.  Getting the measurements right looks like the hard part.  Did you use nibblers to cut your roofing or hand snips?  

I have  basically just been working on the weekends myself.  I usually have my wife, daugther or one friend there, but I have done the majority of the work myself.  I have progress photos unter the title finally pictures of my 20'x34'.  I hope my place turns out as nice as yours!

Chuck

[williet]

This is a great cabin and great photos of the 20x30 project. Thanks so much for posting them. The truss pics will be very helpful. I also love the siding and your milling it explains the reason it's so beautiful.

[C.White]

I've looked through your photos several times.  
One of the "wake up" moments for me is where you placed your woodstove.  I have now moved mine to the crook in the stairs, because of your photographs.  That is such a reasonable placement for centering the heat source, and utilizing the rest of the floor plan in an open way.  I don't know why I didn't think of it myself.  
I actually e-mailed my builder, yes, I'm using a builder to get my house dried in, to tell him the change in the wood stove placement this morning.  The stove pipe coming out on the edge of the roof was going to cause a lot of extra effort and support.  Now, with it coming out closer to the peak, it will fix it's own problems.  

So, glad you had good pictures.  
Are there any favorite parts that are really working for you?
I really want to learn from other's successes as well as my own mistakes.  
Thanks,
Christina

[Tennessee Pride]

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback.  Again, I learned a great deal from the various forum post on this site.

Christina,

I am glad my pictures helped.  The wood stove really work great from this spot next to the stair well.  It also helped me center the chimney so it would come out of the roof close to the peak.  The long run of stove pipe improves my overall heat efficiency in the cabin (maybe too much).  I have had to open windows in the dead of winter to get a good night sleep.  The ceiling fans I have installed should improve this.  I will tell you that the 8" stove pipe and matching chimney cost me a fortune.  I think I had around 16' of stove pipe and 7' of chimnet pipe.  Behind the stone is what I call a fire wall.  I did this for safety and it consist of air gaps and metal.  If I did this again I would proably add a duct and blower that runs into my bathroom for heat.  The bathroom stay fairly chilled even with a hot fire.  This would be very easy to do and improve your heating.

Some other things I have done to aid me down the road include using some old metal roof for the finished walls in parts of my bathroom.  I stole the ideal from a TGI Fridays.  The reason this works for me is that I wanted to always have access to my plumbing in case of frozen pipes.  I have already taken advantage of this during the past winter.  The metal also gives a very rustic look.  Other things I did that I am pleased with is the laural branches I used versus standard spindles.  I am not complete with adding and staining the hand rails but I feel the look really gives me that rustic feel I was looking for.  

Since I will have only one bathroom I purposely made the bath very roomy.  What you don't see in the pictures is a claw foot tub in addition to the shower.  The tub was a gift from a friend so I had to use it.  I am sure I will find time to use it soon when I get things more in order.  I also built the cabinets to custom fit in the cabin.  When I added the cabinets I found out that the light you see in the picture was not as effective as I would have liked.  I ended up adding some small halogen lights under the cabinets and a rope light on top of the cabinets (hidden behind the crown).  I have these lights hooked together with a dimmer switch.  Not only does this give me the light I needed but also adds a very elegant touch and a night light to boot.  This was not a big cost item but it sure added to the cabins feel.

Another thing I did was to allow myself 1" of spacing from the riser of the step and the tread.  This space is located to the back of the stair next to the riser.  Since my closet is under the stairwell the light from the closet acts as a night light for the stairs when left on at night.  This is also a big safety issue in my mind since frequent night trips to the bathroom are common and the steps are steep!  

In the pictures you might notice that I built a small clsoet on the front porch as a utility room/water heater storage.  I did not want to give up any interior space for the water heater.  This has worked out well for me.  The closet is well insulated.  


I love the back porch.  As I stated I chose to insualte the ceiling just in case I want to go back and turn the porch into a bedroom.  However, the more I use the porch the more I feel I couldn't do without it.  

Things I wish I could have done better or added:

Overhang on front porch sides.  What was I thinking??
I would have added an access door from the wall of the loft into the "attic" space of the front porch.  I originally planned on leaving the front porch ceiling open.  When I had problems getting insurance with just a wood stove I was forced to add an HVAC system.  I ended up closing in the ceiling to hide duct work.  Had I known this I would have decked the attic space and added a "secret" door of some kind for storage.

Although I can go back and correct I wish I would have added some speaker wire to porches and interior during wiring.  Having speakers located at various locations would be a nice touch.

If I come up with any other posible suggestions I will post.  I am very pleased with the all wood look inside and the overall rustic look.  The overall process has most likely taken years off of my life. LOL  I can say that the stage I am in I am pleased I did it.  The nervous phase of starting a project quickly dimishes once the ground breaking has been completed and the rest is a major rollercoaster ride with spills and thrills (and a few chills prior to the woodstove)!!!!  

[John Raabe]

Thanks for sharing these ideas TP.

The spacing of the risers to provide lighted treads is brilliant! (Note this may not meet fire code if you use the understair area for storage.)

[williet]

TP,
Do you have any finished pics of the place? It looked great and we'd like to see the finished product.

[desdawg]

Fantastic! Felling trees, milling all of that lumber and doing the building in 16 months as a weekend warrior-very impressive. Just your dedication is an inspiration.

[Redoverfarm]

TP  Good Job .  I just hope my project turns out as well.  It is time consumming when you work by yourself.  I started in May/06 and still going.  I had alot of down time in the winter as access to the cabin was limited because of snow & ice. 

I read alot of the post and looked at your photo's.  Cutting in a roof opening in a metal roof does have it's complications.  A friend of mine decided to put skylights ( in his roof.  I think he has got all but one sealed up for good.  Still working on the other.  Weather shut him down as well as by-pass surgery.  Always next year. We'll jump on it then and get it worked out.  I noticed that you worked off of a chicken ladder for your flu pipe.  I had a block flu (3'X7') through my ridge.  It was also at an intersection of a built-on so I had 2 valleys on the back side.  I wanted to put a front porch so decided I would stone the front while I had better access(without the porch).  I used roof jacks(2) and 10'-2X6.  Then I was able to bridge from a scaffold to that and build a platform to work off of.  Just amounted to putting two more screws to hold the jacks.  Only had enough scaffold for one side at a time anyway. Theres next year huh.

I caught something about heat for your bathroom.  Is it directly behind your stove wall?  Have you thought about cutting a  vent directly above the stone into the siding wall to get heat from the stove.  A simple set of floor grates(one for each side of the wall) with a boxing and a small fan something like a computer fan to draw the air from one side to the other should work.  I have also seen fans that are activated by heat(no electric required).  I am sure from what I have seen you are pretty inventive and will come up with something.

[peteh2833]

I have a couple questions for you. How did you get your roof trusses up there? I see that you made all of the trusses on the ground. Did you use a ridge beam/board or did you tie them together some other way? Thanks Pete

[daybreakhuntin]

Do you have any detailed floor plans??

[peteh2833]

How did you insulate the subfloor??? Looks great. Pete

[Jens]

if you are not done yet, maybe I can trade some finishing labor for the chance to have a camping site for me and my family.  If you are in Knoxville, let me know.  Would be neat to actually meet someone from here.