Cabin project in east washington

[stressman79]

I got into my photobucket site.

Here are some pics of the view to the north.  The south needs some pruning.









enjoy, everyone!

Oh, and if you are interested in building a real log home from scratch for cheap,
www.loghomebuilders.org

-Peter

[diyfrank]

Hey peter   

I'm actually to the south off  long Alec creek.
I'll shoot you an email.

[ScottA]

Very nice spot. Should make for many pleasant years ahead.

[diyfrank]

I went over to start my holes. I left at 1:30am, drove 7 hours, dug my holes and drove back. Made it home at 2:30 am the next morning. whew 
At the property, I made it almost all the way up, it's muddy and steep. I had to unload my beams and 100 gallons of water right here and pack my tools up another 100' or so.

The ground I picked out for cabin was wet. I dug down 3' and got through the mud but the hole had a few inches of water at the bottom and very big rock. I'll see water the inspector says. It may be normal after the thaw and snow melt. I didn't dig any test holes anywhere else yet, but I'm going over next weekend so I'll check things out a little better.





Last year I built a few cameras to leave out over the winter. 2 were still working and one had moisture in it and had stop taking pictures. Had around 500 on them.

Here's a few I liked.






I counted 5 nice bucks that looked to have made it.

[Redoverfarm]

Frank if you are pouring the footings that little bit of water will not hurt anything.  In fact the concrete & water are friendly.      Actually it will force the water to the top.  Too much standing is not good but from the looks at the pics that is not bad.

[diyfrank]

I think as long as its a seasonal thing. 

I want to make sure I didn't just pick a spot that will always be wet.  It is a fairly steep hill.

[Yonderosa]

GREAT pictures frank!  The only moose pictures I've been able to get are of tracks...  That Deer looks big bodied.  My Sister has a place near Bonaparte and they have some of the biggest bodied Whitetails I've ever seen.  Must be something good to eat in your areas.  The moose looked a little skinny though.  One heck of a commute you put in.  Drive - work - drive.  Time goes too fast over there as it is but it looks like you got things rolling.

Stressman - Nice looking place you have there.  Looks like a lot of us here ended up with in the same country.  Maybe we should develop some kind of a code to keep the area a secret.  I think I'll change my location to "Eastern Canada." 

[Woodswalker]

Some real nice wildlife pics, Frank.  Got to get one of those cameras.
I would't get too concerned about a little water in your post holes this time of year.  Many areas around there have a seasonal high water table due to snow melt.  One year I had several inches of water show up in the outhouse pit, but it quickly disappeared.

The pic below was taken by a friend on Monday (5/18/09), on the road to Swan Lake.  Initially, the bruin stood upright in the middle of the road and appeared to be at least 6' tall.  It's a black bear, but this one is very brown - fairly rare.

[diyfrank]

Woodswalker, I think your probably right on the water table. The water doesn't seem to be too bad.  The holes where still holding when I showed up this weekend but, as the temps reached the low 80's, the water level dropped. I probed around and this spot was better than a lot of area's I checked.

The slope is around 20%.  I picked a spot that is partly on a old road grade,so total fall top to bottom of the building is only
2 1/2'.
I moved my location at the last minute and was digging like a fool before the inspection at 2:00 Thursday afternoon.



Friday was DW day, we walked and looked at flowers. took pictures and anything but work.


The work crew showed up Saturday morning at we began setting posts.


We used pt pole barn poles and hit them with Jasco preservative for extra protection and secured ep46hdg post base to them.


We added 2 80# sacks of Quickcrete, threw in some steel, and another 2 sacks on top.


This is where we left off.

[Sassy]

Those are some nice pics of the moose (mooses?    )

Woops, just realized I didn't look at the whole page - the rest of the pics are nice too!  Very pretty country.

[Yonderosa]

Out of the ground!   

The fun part is ahead!     Nice work!

[OkieJohn2]

The cabin security post caused me to flash back.....um, er,, remember a DIY cabin project probably in Popular Mechanics from the early 60's. There was about an 8 foot deck along the walls, with the decking tied together in panels and resting on girders.  The end near the house was hinged on an extended Ledger. Time to close up the house the deck panels were folded up and locked against the house over the windows.

[soomb]

Re: security:

could you build in the hardware to cover over windows with panels sized for the job and use pad locks?  There is a cabin (built of block) in Yakima that won several awards in the early 90's for a design that was a step up from camping and was secure when the owner left.
http://www.millerhull.com/htm/residential/marquand.htm

andhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/0520/aesthetic.html the text is inset along with the description of the steel window covers.

[diyfrank]

I made it over last saturday and this saturday and got a little done.
I also got a chance to meet up with Woodswalker and took a look at his place. He's building basically the same size cabin as what I'm doing. Nice looking piece of property overlooking the lake about 40 minute from where I'm at.

I picked up some foundation coating and applied some around the bottoms for the extra protection.



I slipped 8"sch 40 pvc over the posts and began mixing soil cement backfill for around the sleeves






I filled the insides with 5/8 rock for drainage.



I tilled the area inside the posts, added 6 bags of Portland cement and applied 50 gallon of water




I added a section of pipe for a floor drain, let it set for a few hours to soak, than I plate compacted.



The plan is to dig a foot or so deep around the perimeter for the skirting and backfill with pea gravel.

[IronRanger]

In the 3rd picture, is that a small garden tiller you're using to mix the cement in a wheelbarrow? 

[diyfrank]

That is a small garden tiller. It seems to be light enough to use for mixing small batches. It's faster than hand mixing.

[IronRanger]

Wow...I've never thought of that.  I've never heard of it either.  How's clean-up? 

I might have to steal that idea.  I need a small garden tiller/weeder anyways.  Thanks.

[diyfrank]

I mixed it dry so there wasn't any clean up needed. If the dirt was wet I think I would run it in some untreated dirt afterwards or just rinse.

[IronRanger]

I mixed it dry so there wasn't any clean up needed. If the dirt was wet I think I would run it in some untreated dirt afterwards or just rinse.

Haha...there I go learnin' again.     I thought cement had to mixed with some water before it was used.

Thanks for the info, diyfrank.  Much appreciated.

[Yonderosa]

Good stuff.  Thanks for pictures and the update.

[diyfrank]

We made it up last weekend and got a little more done.

We built the beams and got a start on the floor.


I took a suggestion from Donp and used 2 x12's for blocking between the beams.

[John Raabe]

Nice clean sturdy work. A real pleasure to watch.

What a dynamite view from that platform. 

[diyfrank]

Thanks John, I plan to open up the view more. Mainly just cleaning up Down hill.
Taking some of MD advise on fire defense.   It could really race through this place if ever started.

[diyfrank]

Getting back to it.
I placed some plastic underneath  for a vapor barrier.


The floor going down.



We hung felt between the skirting and the joists and beams. I don't know how important it was but felt is cheap and may keep the moister from sitting in between.


A look at my skirting frame work on the low side.


And a look into the unfinished crawler.


The skirting will be backfilled with pea gravel 1' up to the top of the pvc pipe sections.

I'll do a batten 16" oc on the skirting when done.



 

[upa]

Wow, what great attention to a quality foundation, I looking forward to seeing the rest of the house now.