Poppy's 16x16 timber frame cabin

[poppy]

Part II



Set up and ready to pour, with the first 5 bags of concrete mix.  I left the generator (COSTCO) in the barn and strung a 100' cord to it.  The electric mixer was an auction find.




The old coal bucket (auction find) makes the perfect concrete mix tranfer device.  40# of mix is a lot easier than 80#.    The expandable walk board is another auction find.

On the first bag, the mixer threw the belt.  Oh no, that's one thing I forgot to check.    It was old and cracked, but I got it back on and was able to complete the pour without making a hardware store run. 





The "pan" is from a free broken down wheel barrow found on craigslist.  Decided to shovel the concrete into the forms from the central location of the mixer.

45 minutes in, the generator shut down.  It still had gas so I don't know why is stopped, but I didn't have time to mess with it, so the backup plan of stringing another 150' of cord down to the house was put into play.



The left over re-bar makes a good ram rod to get the concrete into all the right places.




It took a little less than 9 bags to complete the 4 piers.  I knew I should have left the spare bag in the barn. 

Under structure for the floor framing coming up next, once my body recovers. 

[MountainDon]

45 minutes in, the generator shut down. 

Low oil?  Mine has a low oil shutoff.

[poppy]

Thanks, Don, it could be low oil.  I'll check it next time out.

[TexstarJim]

Poppy, I may be the most appreciative member viewing your work of pouring the piers.  Oh how I hate doing those things.  I'm set up to pour the last 3 in the morning and afterwards, I think I will do a little Irish jig!

I'm excited for you doing a timber frame building, it'll be great if it keeps up with the quality of your work so far, good luck.

[Dave43950]

Out of curiosity, where abouts in southern Ohio are you? I'm over in St. Clairsville, about 9 miles west of Wheeling, WV.

-Dave

[poppy]

Dave, My place is in Adams County, just north of West Union.

[Dave43950]

     Ah, well there isn't much over there. West Union used to be home to a hand full of covered bridges but it's been a few for me since I've been around, we used to use 125 to 52 to go to the new ball park. I mostly stick to Pennsylvanian sports now, not as far of a drive to Pittsburgh for me.
     If you ever decide to come visit over here bring your tool belt  and work truck. I'm sure I'll need WANT something else built by then. 

-Dave

[poppy]

Jim, thanks for your encouragement.  No question that concrete work is hard; but if it were easy, anybody could do it. 

I still have the porch piers to do, but haven't decided on a final design.  Whatever the design, I will try to minimize the amount of concrete needed.

I don't think I have enough Irish blood (used to have some red hair) to do a jig, but there will be some dancing when there is a deck to dance on. 

Once the timber frame work starts then I will start believing that a cabin is really going up.

[poppy]

Dave, there is still an active covered bridge about 5 miles (as the crow flies) from my farm, just down the road from the largest Amish settlement.

Another one near where I grew up SW of West Union was de-commissioned and the road rerouted around it.  It's still standing but is in disrepair.  If someone doesn't fix the roof, it's going to rot away.

Don't hold your breath waiting for me to help you build something.    I barely have enough energy to keep my project going.

[poppy]

The latest craigslist find and a question for the experts here.




This is one of the 5 Anderson Silver Line 3900 all matching new construction windows that I just got off craigslist.  3 are 35 1/2 x 51 1/2 double hung vinyl inside and out.  One is 35 1/2 x 59 1/2 and one is 71 3/4 x 51 1/2 double wide double hung (2 windows attached).  Included were 6 full height screens.

The bonus pieces were a Pella arched accent window and 3 sets of vinyl shutters.  Everything for $160. 

Here is the window technical specs.




And here is a glazing scheme for the south wall of the cabin;



So the question for the experts on the window labled 60x36 (the 35 1/2 x 59 1/2 window turned on its side) is what modifications should I make on this window?    I figure that weep holes will need to added along what is now the bottom side, but is there anything else to worry about? 

[Bobmarlon]

The windows look great what a nice find. 

I would have to say I am very impressed with your foundation  a home made version of that pin foundation.  And I'm very envious that you only had to mix 9 bags to finish your job  very ingenious. Although down the road I cant wait to see you get those trees in place for your cruck frame.

[Beavers]

What a hellavu find!  All those windows for only $160 

[Redoverfarm]

The only thing that comes to mind other than what you had mentioned is that the window is designed to operate in the verticle fashion. I am not sure that it will operate correctly being a slider on the horizontal.  Most don't seem to like laying on their side.

[poppy]

John, thanks for the reply.  The guy who sold me the windows said that with the window on its side, it will tend to pop open when the locks are unlatched, since they are designed (spring loaded or something) to assist the opening in the vertical direction.

I guess I could just laid it down and give it a try. 

Yea, Beavers it seemed to be too good to be true when I first saw the ad which was 2 weeks old by the time I noticed it.  But then again, the ad only listed the double wide double hung window by itself for $35.  On craigslist around here that kind of window would typically be listed at $75-$100.

I Emailed the guy thinking that if it was as good of a deal as it appeared, it would be gone.  His response was that not only was it still available, but he also had several single wides that matched. 

When I talked to him by phone and verified what he had, I fell all over myself getting down to his house which was about 35 miles away, but it was surely worth it. And I didn't even know about the small window and the shutters until I was already loaded. 

Thanks for the kind words Bob.  I'm pretty pleased with the way the piers turned out, but the concrete work is not quite done yet.  I still have the porch piers to do. 

The cruck blades will certainly be a challenge, but I am looking forward to it.  I really respect the way our ancestors crafted their structures and I want to test my mechanical aptitude in crafting my own.    By the way, I will definitely be open to suggestions on methods when the time comes. 

[waggin]

Gotta say that you scored big time on those windows!  Congratulations!  I've been chasing around for windows on CL as well, and I've probably spent more in gas & my time for the ones I've picked up for FREE, and on a couple, I get there to find the nail fins cut off & lots of screw holes.  Work smarter, not harder, right?  I love the beige/tan color; doesn't stand out like the typical white vinyl & will fit in with your architectural style far better.  Now you've got me thinking...hmmm, maybe I should hold out for the colored frames. 

[poppy]

Thanks waggin, I must say that my patience paid off.  I was determined to get windows that were darker than white.  They were advertized as tan but officially are beige.

I have been going to auctions for almost 3 years and always look for windows.  There is one particular surplus building materials auction held in an old tobacco warehouse about 6 or 7 times a year and it always has windows.

One down side to this auction is that there is a buyers premium of 10% on windows, but not on other items like lumber or flooring. 

Most of the windows are white, of course, and most often there is only two or three that match.  I bid on some nice tan windows that had 10 or 12 matching in various sizes.  I stopped at $70 per window; the buyer paid $75 plus 10% and bought most of them.  Boy I'm sure glad I missed out on that buy. 

I did buy a brown aluminum clad casement window that was new but weathered at an auction a couple of years ago for $7.  It has a half moon section on the top and will probably go on the north wall, unless I find something better.

For some reason, I didn't try craigslist until this year; better late than never. 

[poppy]

Got the new windows out to the farm to store in the barn, but first I ran a test on the one that I was thinking of turning on its side.



After leveling the window, I released the locks and the window flew open and smacked into the stop as shown here. The seller said it would "tend" to pop open, but I didn't expect it to completely open.  

If I were smart, I would adjust the telephoto setting a little on the camera to get rid of the wide angle distortion. 

The Silver Line series has what they call a Block & Tackle operating system, whatever that means.  At any rate when the window is in the correct orientation, it opens very easily.  I'm thinking that this window will be used on another wall.  




Here are the extras.  I actually got a total of 8 screens.  There was already one installed on the taller one that I tested.  So I have 3 extra screens in the tall size, but only 4 of the regular size.  The seller thought I could get one of the taller screens cut down for the fifth window.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the white shutters.  At least they were free.  




Here is the double wide window.  It was the only one not in the factory wrap.  It may have been installed, but it wasn't really used.

All 6 windows and screens and shutters are now safely stored until installation sometime in 2012???  

[poppy]

After getting the new windows safety stored in the barn, it was time to do some stripping; of the concrete forms, that is.  



Not sure whether I like the funky OSB pattern on the concrete, but it is what it is.

Now for all of you-alls who did not respond to the contest to speculate on what would happen to the numbers on the NE pier; here are the results.  So it's too late to claim the great prize that I had in mind.  





The bottom of the "2" tried to come off with the form, but the others all stayed put.  I need to clean them up some more, but there won't be any doubt about when this foundation was laid.  




Seems like there are some things missing that's needed for the next phase.  




This is my version of the water level (before getting some food coloring from Wally World).  This shows the highest pier to the lowest pier (SW to NE) which is about a drop of 31 3/4".  TexstarJim had the right idea with colored water.  I got green.

The site slope is on the short side of 2 in 12 which is about the average across the whole length of the property.




A close up of the NE pier.  Yes the water level is visible, but without the color it's a little hard to see.

[Don_P]

Poppy, in the interest of science, while you have the water level out please benchmark the pier height to a fixed object somewhere in the landscape so that you can check it again in the spring.

[poppy]

Don, thanks for the reminder.  I had thought about doing that before, but forgot about it lately. 

As I learned in my surveying days, a spike at the base of a large tree will do the trick or maybe a long rod driven deep.

I wasn't really worried about settling over the winter, but, as you say, in the interest of science....

I will make it a project to check the elevations of the piers at least once a year, but I won't mind getting a reminder from you all as the years progress.

[poppy]

I decided to move the garage over the build site.  Not easy to do by yourself, but got it and the stockpile moved.  Now for some actual work.













A friend's neighbor had given me some old cedar shelving which made for good girder gussets.





I did get a little more done than pictured, but was so excited about finally driving some nails that I forgot about the camera. 

[TexstarJim]

Ahhhh poppy, you're coming right along, great!  Glad you used the water level, it works!  And Don mentioning the placement of a benchmark for observing long-time settling is something I never thought of, thanks for the input Don, great idea.  I'll be sure to do that before I get too far along.

Poppy, your numbers turned out really great and like you say, there will be no question of when you started this project.   

[poppy]

I've told you all about the building supplies auction held several times a year in a tobacco warehouse.  Went to another one on Sunday because they advertised what looked like the Silver Line windowns that I got off craigslist.

Sure enough, they were the same line, but were replacement rather than new construction; had half screens and single hung rather than double.  They were also odd sizes.




As you can see, they had a bunch.  Actually over 100 windows in 4 or 5 different sizes.  I didn't get there in time to see them sell but the clerk told me they went for $90 a window.  Then they add a 10% buyers premium and then sales tax on top of that. 

It's no wonder they only sold about 10 of them.  They will still be there for many more auctions in the future.

I still am optimistic that there will be some window deals to be had at this auction in odd ball lots. 

[poppy]

Got back to building the first girder.




Prep for the second side of the girder.




This shows the pipe clamps that were scored at an auction; they came with long pipes so I went to the local plumbing store and picked up a couple of 2' pipes to make them easier to handle.




Prep for the top flange. Sometimes clamping is more basic. 




The water level works much better with a little color; plus I wanted to verify the height of the riser required.




First termite guard.




Riser assembly.




Since I don't have a surface planer yet, I used a combination of shim thicknesses to get the necessary differential between piers.  This is the upper pier.




Now this is a girder.    8 1/4" x 12 3/4" which is stronger than 5 2x12's.




This transition section is not as complicated as it looks.  A smaller girder extension will mate up here to support the porch.  At this point the girder is just placed; I probably won't secure it until I place the second girder in case some adjustments are required. 




I'll call it good.    Gotta love the water level. 

[ScottA]

Looks to be a little off. 

That's quite the beam. Bet it feels good to be building.