A Victoria's Cottage in Western Maine

[Jeff922]

Done!!!!

[mldrenen]

those stairs looks great!  you really did one hell of a job.  can't wait to see how the rest of your build turns out.

[Bishopknight]

Beautiful Jeff, absolutely beautiful! 

[Sassy]

Gorgeous! 

[mountainmomma]

Phenomenal staircase!!       Job well done Jeff

[MaineRhino]

Wow, very nice!   

[bmancanfly]

Sweet !!  Great job.

[rdzone]

The stairs look great and look like a fun project.    Makes me want to build another cabin and try making a set since I have the plans already.  I think my wife would kill me...I still need to finish our big cabin and our daughters mini cabin!

[Onkeludo2]

Truly inspiring!

[Jeff922]

Well, I got my cedar shingles.  Second clear or C grade.  I'm still convinced there is not an industry standard for gradeing, or if there is, it must not be enforced.  I found varying quality among manufacturers.  There is actually a cedar shingle mill within spitting distance of my house.  The guy had the best price, but the quality wasn't so good.  In the end, after much driving around and looking, I went with the Canadian milled shingles at Lowes.  I got them home and offloaded into my barn where I unstrapped them and let them dry out a little more.  Then I started dipping them.  It is sloooooooow.  I've done 5 days worth and it's about half of the 15 squares I bought.  I've learned two things in this process.  1)  I now understand why dipping/backbrushing is by far the superior way to do it.  2)  I now understand why so many people don't bother.  But it's going to look awesome, and I'm sure I'll be glad I did it in the long run.





Corolla power baby!!!!   

[Solar Burrito]

Corolla Power baby! I used my 82' corolla to haul around my motorcycle trailer for years  Good times

I work for K2 Skis BTW if you lived near WA i'd trade you skis for shakes...

[Jeff922]

  Can you get me a Mike Hattrup autograph?   

[jenhagemann]

I guess I'm not clear from the photos how the base was put in for the foundation - It looked like dirt, not gravel, and then it looked like you dug out trenches for utilities? Love any more photos you have about that - we have the building bug, and are looking for land right now. Trying to decide if we rehab something or start from scratch, and also working on which state, etc, lots of decisions but enjoying your photos - Thanks!

[Redoverfarm]

Jeff back brushing is a necesssary evil with stain in my book. Good looking barn. Is that on the property and are you planning on utilizing it in your property layout?

[Jeff922]

jenhagemann, I can understand your confusion, it really does look like dirt, but it is gravel in fact.  It's not crushed stone type gravel but riverbed gravel.  It's just what's available locally as there is a ton of natural sand/gravel pits in this area.  I honestly don't know, but in other areas the crushed stone type may be more plentiful (and therefore affordable).  Some would probably argue that crushed/washed stone would be superior because of a lower moisture content, but my bell-slab foundation has not shown any signs of movement after two unheated winters.  The gravel was compacted in two 6" lifts and the trenches you see are the footings which were reinforced with two courses of rebar.  I'll see if I can dig up some more pics.  Let me know if you decide on a monolithic slab type foundation, I've done a ton of research on the subject and can point you to some good resources.

Redoverfarm, yeah it does seem to be the way to go but man is it slow!    Also because I'm covering the front and back of each shingle, plus most of the shingle (not just the reveal) it takes about 4-5 times as much bleaching oil ($$$).  But I'm an obsessive-type person so this kinda thing helps me sleep better at night.    The barn is at my primary residence and it was SO helpful to have this space to store supplies.  I want to eventually build a barn on the Victoria's property, but that's a little way down the road.

[Alasdair]

Bravo! A great job on everything - love the stair.  
Just out of interest how much time do you think it took to complete the stair? (I have been idly contemplating building one myself)
If you figured your own time into your costs (which none of us ever do!) and left out the feeling of acheivement would you still consider it a saving in $?
Al

P.S. just read back through thread - 60hrs and yes!

[SkagitDrifter]

Great job on the stair case.  Looks beautiful with the stained concrete floors.
And you started out with construction grade framing material... excellent work!

[Arlynn]

Further details for the insulation of the foundation, and pump or thermal flow details would be very helpful.

[waggin]

A friend of mine here in WA state dipped his shingles over a LONG period of time and is also a firm believer in going that extra mile.  He came up with a really cool recapture system for the stain using lots of PVC pipe cut in half that drained back into a 5-gal bucket.  Obviously, this required hanging each shake from a line, another time consuming process, but it saved a lot of money on stain.

[Jeff922]

Arlynn, The foundation is a "frost proof shallow foundation" based on the NHBA design for an unheated space (like a barn or garage).  The entire monolithic "bell" slab sits on 2" of rigid insulation which extends 4' beyond all the outside edges.  The sides of the slab are 17" tall and are also covered with 2" ridgid insulation.  It should be noted that this is specific to my building site's soil composition, drainage, geographic location, weather, etc.  I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "pump and thermal flow".