14 x 14 Post & Beam w/ Scribed Log Infill

[Pine Cone]

I wish I had found this place four years ago when I started this project...

As it is, I got an acre of land in western Washington, near Puget Sound, and then bought a load of western white pine logs so I could build a cabin.  Used inspiration from James Mitchell's book "The Craft of Modular Post and Beam"  

If anyone is interested, I can go back to the beginning and describe the process.  Here is what it looks like this week.  Got the roof finished three days ago.

Looking from the northeast


Here is a view from the southwest


The cabin is 14x14 feet and the covered deck is 16x16.  The deck uses lots of store-bought dimension lumber, but the bulk of the cabin is from wood that started out as these logs...


In the winter of 2006 these logs got debarked by my wife and I, cut into shorter lengths, and then a friend with a Woodmizer portable saw mill sawed the sides off to make 8"x8" posts, 6" thick wall timbers, and lots of 1"x? lumber in late June 2006.

That process looked like this...


Let me know if you want more details... Lots more pictures and stories if you want them.

[robinl]

I for one would love to see more of the construction process. Looks great.

[MartyM]

The place looks great!   

I would really like to see some more pics, I have 14 x 24 post and beam in mind but I am still in the planing stage.

Marty

[Redoverfarm]

Pine Cone sounds like we both are on about the same timeline.  Nice looking retreat.  It is a retreat rather than a full time residence isn't it.  I had a couple questions.  What manner of attachment did you use for the wall members meeting the post?  What procedure did you use to secure and insulate what it is considered the "chink joint" between the logs. Anyway



A big  also goes out to MartyM and robinl

[Jens]

"well kiss me in the morning, and then just walk away!"  Of course we want more details!!

[poppy]

Pine Cone,  to the forum.

Realy cool cabin and porch.  Very unusual cabin design.  Would also love to see more photos and details of the construction process both on the cabin and the porch.

I started my 4th year of the cabin dream at the end of Sept. and have several more years to go, so you are way ahead of my schedule. 

[rick91351]

Hey Welcome!

I like the layout of your project, I bet it offers some great evenings out there on the deck.  The logs you used look very good, I can sure tell they are from more over on the coast both in verity and uniformity.  Your sawyer friend with his mill did you a great job, there was not much wasted there in your slab pile.  Interesting to me I see a couple old stumps most likely cedar or those big coastal fir on the left hand side of the picture where you had the mill and car topper set up.  Looks like they are sawed off very high like they use to do it up there in that region.  I for one would love to see your 'brag book' of photos.  I am sure you will be able to offer others some great guidance, and learn a few things yourself as you poke around here.


rlr

[MountainDon]

What a great cabin!!!      Everyone else has said it, of course we'd love more photos and more story whenever you can add. That's a wonderful porch too! Nice on rainy days I bet. 

[glenn kangiser]

I also would like to see more.  Cool.

[Pine Cone]

Thanks for the welcomes and the nice comments.  This project started almost by accident when we stumbled on some affordable property not to far from our house.  I work as a forester, and the area we bought in was once owned by the company I work for, and is about a 45 minute drive from our house. It is just south of about 40,000 acres which is still managed by the company I work for, so it was a pretty natural thought to consider using logs to build a cabin.  While this is Douglas-fir country, there is a fair amount of western red cedar and western white pine mixed in.  There is also western hemlock, red alder, and big-leaf maple, but those didn't seem like good cabin logs.

The cedar would make a great cabin, but at the time it was selling at about $1000-1200 per thousand board feet as logs on a landing.  Doug-fir was going for about $500 per thousand for good quality cabin logs, and the pine, a minor species around here, was about $300 per thousand.  Since lots of people have used white pine to build cabins, it seemed to be the best choice.  I looked at the timber sales my company was doing that year and found one about 5 miles from the property we bought which had reasonable amounts of white pine on it.  I ended up buying a log truck load of pine and getting it delivered to the property with the help of one of our loggers. 

Sad to say, that logger and his wife were both murdered by a crack-head earlier this year.  Rural America is not the place it once was... 

My wonderful wife Heather not only tolerated the idea of build a cabin, she has been actively involved since the beginning!  She has helped debark logs, cut down small trees, dug holes for foundation piers, helped with concrete work, planed and sanded cabin timbers, painted, and was my head cheerleader.  Couldn't have done in without her help. 

The property came with an old 50s/60s travel trailer and electricity which made the building process much easier.  We always had a place to get out of the rain and electricity for tools and lights. 

From the looks of the old high cedar stumps, the area was probably first logged between 1880 and 1920.  The second logging occured between 1950 and 1965 when the timber company sold off lots to people.  The previous owner logged it again between 1995 and 2000.  We bought the property in October 2005. At that time about half the property was covered in 1/2 to 2" diameter alder which was about 20 feet tall, spaced about 6" to 12" apart.

We considered building a house on the property, but decided to just build a retreat cabin, large enought to be comfortable in, but small enought to build in what we thought would be a short amount of time.

Got lots of books to help us with design ideas, but ended up using the ideas in this one the most.
http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Modular-Post-Beam-affordably/dp/0881791318/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259978411&sr=8-1

The concept is to build modular log walls, and then assemble them in a post-and-beam framework.  The log walls use 3/4" thick, 3" wide plywood splines to attach them to the posts. The modules are built on a jig, and are then either stored somewhere until it is time to build or are then re-build on the foundation.

Here is a picture of the first two wall modules on their jigs.  One module is about 43.75" wide and is for corners, while the other is 51" wide

[Ernest T. Bass]

Really cool! That book is a favorite of mine...

[Pine Cone]

Here's a collage of what the place looked like in the early days of the project

[Pine Cone]

Here's a look at the inside taken earlier this week



The basic walls are 6" thick western white pine, scribe-cut on the bottom edge, with emseal log tape and wool insulation in the groove.  Posts are 8"x8", also pine,

The cap beam at the top of the walls is store-bought Douglas-fir, and the top of this beam is 100" off the floor.

The bench is made from white pine scraps from the log milling and alder we cut down during the clearing process.

The space at the top of the timbers and below the cap beam is left for possible wood shrinkage making the timber portions of the walls shorter.  It still needs to be sealed, insulated, and covered with trim on both the inside and outside faces.

[Pine Cone]

Every building project has to start somewhere, and this one started with a picnic table.  The stakes with pink flagging indicate possible cabin corner locations.  To see how I liked the site, I would set up the picnic table "inside" the possible cabin location and see how I liked it over a week or two period.

The final cabin site ended up in the background of this photo, about 30 feet north of where the picnic table is in this picture.  Choosing the building site is worth a bit of effort...



At this point I though I was building a dogtrot, with two small cabins connected by a breezeway...

But that's not what happened

[Redoverfarm]

Pine Cone what changed you mind on the Dogtrot?   

[Pine Cone]

I began the cabin project thinking I would build a single cabin, maybe 16x24 feet with a large porch on one or more sides.  

As I investigated more, I discovered that in this county, like many others in Washington, you can build simple structures which are less than 200 square feet in size without needing to get a building permit.  The actual regulations are more complex than that, but that is the basic idea.  I also discovered that residence has a place to sleep, a place to cook, and a toilet all under one roof.  

To build a residence on this piece of property I would be required to have a well (likely to be 300-500 feet deep) and a fancy above-ground septic system.  I just didn't have the $$$ to do that.

I have worked as a forester since the mid 1970s and have lived in places that had specialized structures with limited functions, a cookhouse for cooking and eating, a bathhouse for showers and clothes washing, and a smaller structure (cabin or tent frame) to sleep in.  Not much of a stretch to think I could do that again.

I ran across the dog-trot concept on a visit to Georgia in the mid 1990's and had tucked the idea back in some recess of my mind.  (Redoverfarm - I am in awe of your great project.  Still reading your posts... 7 pages finished so far...) When I started thinking cabin(s) a dog trot seemed like a good bet.  One side would be sleeping quarters while the other would be for cooking and eating.  I was already planing to build an outhouse to house an Envirolet/Sancor composting toilet.  More on that later...

One of the other house ideas which caught my fancy long ago was the Australian outback farmhouse with a 10-12 foot wide deck on all four sides of  the home.  The one I remember best was Banoon, a house on a farm in New South Wales just beyond the Black Stump (really).  

For any of this to make sense, you need to know more about my Washington property.  The parcel is a rectangle with the long side oriented east-west for about 265 feet and the short side running north-south for about 165 feet.  The best cabin sites were about half-way down on the east-west line.  There is a slope break there, with about a 3 percent slope on the east side and about a 8 percent slope to the west.  The best views are to the west since the property slopes that direction and the ocean is about a quarter mile away in that direction.  In the winter months there is a filtered view of the ocean and the Olympic mountains to the west.

So I wanted a dog trot and I wanted a large porch.  To keep on grade and minimize earthwork, a dog trot would have to be oriented with one cabin south of the other, roof ridgeline running north/south, and the roof sloping towards the west.

Did I mention wet snow or snow and then lots of rain?  Not at all uncommon in this part of the world.  Heavy stuff.  It has crushed 4 metal framed tarp car shelters so far...  I decided to roof with a 6-in-12 pitch to make the snow slide off rather than crushing things.

When I started to make detailed design drawing it became clear to me that the roof line associated with a dog trot and a large porch overhang would not work well.  To keep the view I wanted to the west would end up with a roofline that would have to flatten out over the porch area, and that would trap snow.  

So I switched gears, and decided to rotate the cabin roof to run east-west and then add a larger covered deck to the west of the cabin.  I always wanted a large outside space which would stay dry.  So I ended up with a 16'x16' covered deck in front of (west of) the cabin.  This had an added advantage because it gave me a large dry, flat building area.  Since it does rain a bit around here that was a huge plus.

Here is a picture of the covered deck (in progress) and the cabin foundation


The deck roof is made of three timberframe bents made with a mix of mortise and tenon joints, bolts, and inset recesses in the 6x6 posts to hold smaller 2x pieces.

[Pine Cone]

Here's a look at a stack of knee braces ready to be used to build the deck timberframe.

[Pine Cone]

Test fitting a 4x4 knee brace in one of the 6x6 posts.

[Pine Cone]

Test fitting one of the deck timberframe bents before drilling for bolts.

[TexstarJim]

I so want to thank you for sharing your building with us, it is very fascinating to say the least.  Of all the different projects I have looked at and read in this forum, this may be the most pleasurable I have seen so far.  Please continue for I'm sure we're all enjoying your project, thanks.

[Redoverfarm]

Pine Cone thanks for your reply.  It sounds as if you gave your project considerable thought before persuing. You did great work on the cabin and porch addition.  

Thanks for the comments about my cabin.  Although it is not exactly a dogtrot by the original definition it is as close as I could get with the layout that I was after. To incorporate the "dogtrot" signature I would have had to seperate and relocate the fireplaces (Now I have one chase for all three liners to exhaust) to their respective cabins which would have devistated the usable space in each and the bump out would not have worked at that intersection of the dogtrot.  My original conception was a "traditional dogtrot" which would have utilized two large doors on the front and rear intersections of the cabins which could be closed in the winter months back against the cabins sides in the summer months. Incorporated within them would be a smaller entry door.  This would have been an outswing which when the larger doors were open in the summer months against the individual cabins it would have matched the doors on the sides of the individual cabin entry doors to allow access to each cabin.  Seems there is only two ways to operate the doors either swing or slide and the sliding door would definitely not work.  So in essence in the summer months it would appear as a traditional dogtrot and the winter would be similar in appearence as I have.  Oh well it is still designed in my mind which will have to do.  Still an interesting concept.  

BTW the timber industry is pretty stong in this area. In fact in 1994 the local high school FFA forestry team won 1st place in the nation competition.  My son is currently enrolled in the same class so hopefully he will learn some things I never knew about the industry.  

[Pine Cone]

Here's some pictures of a small outhouse/shed that I build in 2007.  It is 4'x8', build on PT skids, and houses an Sancor Envirolet composting toilet on one side, and a small storage shed on the other.  I think the split is roughly 4x5 feet for the toilet side and 4x3 feet for the shed.  Used glass block to build windows near the top of the wall. 

The siding is rough-cut western white pine milled while making posts and cabin timbers in June 2006.  Note the rain-water collection into 55 gallon drums.  My wife and I like to garden and this helps give us plenty of water for gardening as well as small amounts of concrete work. The old outhouse is on the right.  It will get torn down sometime next summer after I build a storage shed.  The cedar shakes on the old outhouse were split from wood on the property by the previous owner.  They are in pretty good shape, but the roof has leaked for years and so there is rot in some of the framing and floors.


Here is what the toilet side looks like.  Note the first aid kit on the door.  Luckily I haven't needed it too much


This is what the shed area before I added shelves.


The property came with an old trailer with a shed roof over it built from 3-5" diameter poles cut off the property about 30 years ago by the previous owner.  I had to re-roof it, but that was all it really needed.  The old outhouse/shed would have taken too much effort to rework, so I decided to build a new one that would house a composting toilet. 

Once again I went back to my forestry field experience for building inspiration.  The board and batten exterior reminds me of an old shack I saw out near Hyampom in1971, while the plywood interior must have been on at least half a dozen buildings I have lived or worked in.  Most of those didn't have any finish on them, but it seems prudent to varnish the inside walls on this one.

Decided to use plywood for the basic construction, the 4x8 size is from the sheet of 3/4" pressure treated ply that makes up the floor.  Lots of termites and carpenter ants around here so I'm using PT wood near the ground on all of my projects.  I'm also putting down rock on the foundation areas so I have a clean surface to crawl around on as well as an easy way to see termite tubes and other pest problems.  Used 3/4" clean basalt under the shed and 2" drain rock under the deck and cabin.

Red - glad to hear that timber is going strong in your area.  Hope your son is enjoying his forestry class.  I got my first forestry experiences in the Boy Scouts at Conservation Training Camp at Philmont Scout Ranch
in 1967.  FFA is a great group as well.  One of my step-sons was a member when we lived in the Redding area of North California, but this part of Washington is too urban to support the FFA locally.

[considerations]

Is that Envirolet toilet hooked to electricity?

[Pine Cone]

Yup!  It is their hybrid model, has a fan that runs all the time on 12 volt DC, and has the option of running a heater (for the compost to keep it warm and dry it out if needed) that can run on 120 volt AC.

http://www.envirolet.com/hybrid12v110v.html

We've been running it for about  2 years now and it works very well.

[Pine Cone]

Here are a few of the design plans I drew up...  final as-built versions are slightly different of course

The basic floor/foundation plans


Deck wall timberframe design, one of 3 bents


Deck wall side view (3 bents bolted together)


Deck built-in bench design


The bench design is a modification of the Gettysburg bench from this article
http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/2005/garden_bench.htm

The benches are very comfortable.  I'm likely to build some similar to the original design for putting around a campfire area.