20x 30 1 1/2 story- in Lac-Des-Plages, Quebec

[sharbin]

well, the weekend was a bit productive. I had couple of things to finalize on the dormer, then worked on the front fascia and soffit.

So here are the photos:

working on the side of the dormer (scaffolding and a tiny platform to access the sides):


Dormer sides are done:


Dormer front, fascia and soffit are done:


The finished product together with one section of the lake front:


A closeup of the soffit vents details on both the lake front and the dormer:


cornice detail:


The coming weekend should see the second gable and the rest of the side finished.

[duncanshannon]

Awesome looking place. I really like the brown and red colors.

[sharbin]

Thanks duncanshannon. We weren't sure about how it would look like, but your comment is assuring that it was a nice combination afterall

I worked this weekend and managed to "almost" finish the second dormer. However, I got over excited and rushed things to finish before the night fall. The result was that I missed couple of steps (nailing board for the soffit, and then forgetting to put insect screens for the vents ). So next weekend I will need to remove the soffit and re-do it again before claiming the dormer as a finished product  .

So lesson learned; Do not rush things.

[Sassy]

Very beautiful!  I like the combination of colors, also.  Everything goes together so well.   

[sharbin]

So this last weekend I went back up to the cottage, ripped the troublesome soffit off, and then reinstalled it.... took around 1 hour to accomplish, which is one third of the time that I wasted looking for shortcuts 
Alas, the dormers on the lake front are done which completed the whole lake front. Here is a picture of the finished product:



So I dismantled the scaffolding and moved it to the front side. However, there were 2 trees that needed to be removed in order to properly install the scaffolding. One tree is fairly small so that was not an issue. However, the second tree is a pine that is maybe 60 feet high. So started cutting a notch on the side that I wanted it to fall to, then started cutting on the opposite side. Once I cut half way the tree started to fall.... in the opposite direction  So it hit the front of the metal roof and I was lucky that it did not hit the dormers and only cause couple of dents on the edge of the metal roof. But boy oh boy was that scary!

here is a picture of where the tree was:


So next week, hopefully, will be finishing the front dormers, however I guess this is an over optimism

[Sassy]

Those must have been a scary few minutes, glad it didn't do too much damage!  The cabin is beautiful!

[Redoverfarm]

Sometime things just don't go as planned when it comes to trees.  I like to hook a rope/cable and come-a-long and put tension in the direction that I want it to go.  Sort of takes out some of the guess work.

[Barry Broome]

Very nice!!

[Alasdair]

Thanks for the pictures of the dormers sharbin they will be very helpful for me! Great job.

[duncanshannon]

I'm torn on building dormers.  I feel like I need to be very strict about keeping it simple to keep cost and time down.  I'm learning, thru work on my existing house, that its new 'new' or 'changes' that really add time and cost.  Example being just replacing existing windows or adding in all new windows (which require more demo, framing, more repair etc).  Holy cow... much faster and cheaper to just replace (and not add new).

The dormers seem tempting in a similar way... add lots of great space and views (esp. in a 1 1/2 story) but... do you find the time and complexity to be 'worth it' now that you have built them?

[sharbin]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Well I thought of tying a rope, but did not have it handy. And as usual  , I was impatient and did not want to wait for another day so I took the risk. I still have couple of trees that are close to the cottage to cut, but I think I will hire a professional to do it. This time it did not cause serious damage, so I won't take this risk again

As for building the dormers, as well as framing the roof and installing the metal for that matter, I hired professionals to do it. It cost me an additional $500 CAD per dormer to frame and another $500 to put metal roof on. However, finishing it, which I did it by myself, does not take that much material (cost me $125 CAD per dormer that includes the siding, soffit, fascia, and trims around the window and corners all stained), but takes lots of cuts and lots of details to pay attention to, and as such time consuming. So to answer the question, if I have knowledgeable helping hands I would definitely do it again, as the cost and time would decrease a lot, otherwise, the emotional part of me would still say yes, however the "pocket" and "logic" would say a big no.

[sharbin]

So this weekend I managed to "almost" finish the 3rd dormer. I say almost since I still have couple of cuts, a 15 minutes work. I worked till 11:00 p.m. when my headlamps died on me  . So I had to call it off for the day (well night in this case ) and the weekend.

So comparing to the first dormer that took me 3 weekends to complete, I congratulated myself for this accomplishment 

Here are 2 pictures, the first one shows the dormer with the chicken ladder I did to access the sides (contrast that to just a platform as previously done), and the second one shows pretty much what was done to the dormer.

[sharbin]

Hello all,

It took almost 2 month to get additional siding and trim to finish the 4th and last dormer as well as the rest of the sides.
So by now I still have one gable side and one dormer to go

Here is the progress:

Sept 2011- Front side done (well except one dormer which I will do next weekend)



Sept/Oct 2011- North Side


North Side DONE



Also I worked on managing some water coming in the crawlspace on 2 sides. I made a 12 inches wide trench and dug till got to the underneath rock (about 16 inches) and then laid a bed of washed rock till it got a bit higher than the other side, and then installed the perforated pipe. When I got to the other side, I realized that I only have around 10 inches and laying a pipe for such a small area does not add any benefit. So ditched the perforated pipe idea and simply filled the 12 inches wide trench with washed rock and put the sump pit (which is really a 5 gallons bucket with punched holes in it) in the corner which is the lowest point. I will see how this will work. And by the way, I was considering boring a hole in the footing, but then realized that this is a project by itself and is not that easy, so went with the easier solution. May be next year I will do that  

here are the photos:
(this picture was taken before covering the pipe with washed rock)


And this is the side that I did not use the pipe in it.

[sharbin]

So this past long week-end, it took me 3 days to finally finish the front and the last of the dormers. This thing really takes lots and lots of time to finish the tiny details. Here is how the front now looks like.



I also started with what's left from the last of the sides (half of the gable wall is done). I was hoping that it would not take more than a day or 2 to finish, but alas, it took me 3 hours  to just fit a 2 foot fascia piece between the top and bottom parts (had to do the fascia in 4 parts because of short available boards and lots of cutting errors  ). So now what is left from the side is to install the rest of the soffit, trims around 2 gable windows, and about 10 rows of siding.

To be continued and hopefully finished by end of next week end, weather permits.

[Danfish]

Excellent craftsmanship...wishing I was at that stage right now...winter bearing down and still have siding stacked in garage!!!

[sharbin]

Thanks Danfish. Well, it took me almost 4 years to get to this stage  . Good luck.

[sharbin]

Well this week-end was very rainy, so I only went up on Sunday. Started finishing up the last of the gables when suddenly I felt something in my eye as I was looking up   (it seems wood fiber that was hanging on my hair got into my eye), and I couldn't open it. Because of an almost 1 3/4 hours drive back, I decided to tough it and continue working. This is what I did (hitting the hammer once on the nail and another time on the wood  ). I worked couple of hours and headed back home. Well, I had to go to the emergency as my eye was really getting painful, swollen, and red. Alas, I spent almost 5 hours   there till 4:30 in the morning when the emergency doctor came and could not find anything. So gave me antibiotic and sent me home.

So to be continued next week-end.

[sharbin]

Finally, I was able to finish the last of the sides. Sometimes you spend hours on tiny details... and this is what happened to me. It took me from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. just to fit one piece of siding below and beside the gable windows  . The rest took me till 10 p.m. under -1 celcius skies ... but alas I was able to finish the siding/soffit, calulk around the windows/door and corner trims, dismantle the scaffolding, and load the wooden planks for return (only the planks were rental as I could not find any descently priced ones to buy. It cost  $240 to rent 6 planks for 4 months.)

before


after



What's left to do before calling it off for this year is to lay 6 mil vapour barrier in the crawlspace as well as building/insulating an access door for it.

[Redoverfarm]

There has to be a feeling of relief. Nice job.

[Sassy]

Beautiful cabin/home - you should have many years of enjoyment - just looking at it would bring a feeling of satisfaction 

[sharbin]

Thank you guys for the compliments. It sure is a relief (both physical and monetary  ) to finish specially before the cold kicks in, which it did this weekend where we had -6 Celsius over night.

[sharbin]

So the 6 mil was laid down in the crawlspace (and covering the whole hight of the wall) and the access door was built. That was 2 weeks ago.

Last weekend I went up there and started to install the sump pump by boring into the rim joist using 1 3/8 inches boring bit to later realize that the 1 1/4 inches pipe needed almost a 1 3/4 inches hole, which I did not have the bit for it. This coming weekend they are announcing sunny skies but with -11 Celsius  so not sure if it is doable or may be it is too late for this year to install the pump. we'll see.

[Redoverfarm]

So the 6 mil was laid down in the crawlspace (and covering the whole hight of the wall) and the access door was built. That was 2 weeks ago.

Last weekend I went up there and started to install the sump pump by boring into the rim joist using 1 3/8 inches boring bit to later realize that the 1 1/4 inches pipe needed almost a 1 3/4 inches hole, which I did not have the bit for it. This coming weekend they are announcing sunny skies but with -11 Celsius  so not sure if it is doable or may be it is too late for this year to install the pump. we'll see.

Yes probably the IS diameter of the pipe.  If it is just 2X (1-1/2") you can probably use a saber saw or sawzall to widen it to except the pipe. If you do find the right size bit just temporarily attach a small piece of ply (wood screw) and you can re-drill to widen the hole by using it to guide your pilot bit.  Otherwise there is no way to get it lined up.  In your case attach it to the outside, go inside and partially drill through the same hole with the original bit.  That will give you the pilot hole dead center.  Then go to the ouside and drill with the larger bit using the pilot hole you just made.

[rick91351]

Yes probably the IS diameter of the pipe.  If it is just 2X (1-1/2") you can probably use a saber saw or sawzall to widen it to except the pipe. If you do find the right size bit just temporarily attach a small piece of ply (wood screw) and you can re-drill to widen the hole by using it to guide your pilot bit.  Otherwise there is no way to get it lined up.  In your case attach it to the outside, go inside and partially drill through the same hole with the original bit.  That will give you the pilot hole dead center.  Then go to the ouside and drill with the larger bit using the pilot hole you just made.

I need to put that one in my memory book.  I have fought that a couple times and never really thought it out.  So simple yet     Thanks, gad that is so simple yet.....

[sharbin]

Yes probably the IS diameter of the pipe.  If it is just 2X (1-1/2") you can probably use a saber saw or sawzall to widen it to except the pipe. If you do find the right size bit just temporarily attach a small piece of ply (wood screw) and you can re-drill to widen the hole by using it to guide your pilot bit.  Otherwise there is no way to get it lined up.  In your case attach it to the outside, go inside and partially drill through the same hole with the original bit.  That will give you the pilot hole dead center.  Then go to the ouside and drill with the larger bit using the pilot hole you just made.

Since I filled the hole with foam, I think it should work fine  . However, if it does not work,  it is good to know that I have another alternative.  Never thought of the ply trick  . thanks.