24 x 46 1.5 Story in Ohio

Started by beckhamk, October 23, 2011, 10:47:23 AM

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Danfish

Outstanding build!!!

Wish everyone had access to one of those "Amish crews"...real craftsman.

Those security anchors really look substantial...it is getting so around here the "tweakers" will steal anything to feed their dope habit.

Redoverfarm

IMO a porch makes a house.  As for the toys in the barn.  In another 10 years you will be saying it's time for a yard sell. ;D


beckhamk

I wish I had found these guys earlier - might have even had them do the acutal build instead of me and my wife.  But we have really enjoyed the process for the most part.  We had them do put our trusses and metal on for the roof, the pole barn and the porch roof good guys.

I hear yeah on the toys, just need two of them so there wont be that many.  ;D

beckhamk

I forgot to mention I found the amish crew believe it or not on craigslist.  The person who drives them around posts an ad in the services section. You never know what you will find on craigslist.

Redoverfarm

Quote from: beckhamk on April 12, 2012, 10:22:43 AM
I forgot to mention I found the amish crew believe it or not on craigslist.  The person who drives them around posts an ad in the services section. You never know what you will find on craigslist.

As a general rule they do good work.  But just like every other trade there are exceptions.  My sister employed them to trim out their recently renovated house.  OMG I could have done better with a hatchet.  They definitely were not finish carpenters.


beckhamk

I agree with Redoverfarm - just make sure they are skilled at the trade you hire them for.  These guys had a portfolio of pole barns, cement work, stone and bricking, decks, siding etc.  pretty much anything along those construction lines.  I did ask about building out my knee wall for storage and I asked them about it, but they said that wasnt something they had done before and wast confortable.  So basically these guys are not the amish wood cabinets/furnature types.

oifmarine

Definitely not finish carpenters!  But, look at the tools they use!

beckhamk

Well got out to the cabin to build the first knee wall only got a small amount done as my plumber let me use his bobcat to move stone up around my pole barn. So I couldnt pass up the free use, just had to pay for the gas!    So the plumber was out to add some new T's to the steel pipe for the propane lines to the grill, generator and the furnace.   Then we decided to dig a trench for our down spouts. 

BIG NOTE - i never thought about the down spouts when we had the septic and foundation put in by the same contractor -  I wish i would have thought to have them add the piping in the ground done over the hill.  Anyways we went ahead and added that and ran it down the hill between the pole barn and the septic system.  Worked out nicely - sorry no pics of that.

Pics on all of the rock i brought up to the barn and the little driveway i made. still need to smooth it out.



The amish crew came back and finished the porch roof, we love it!  Really transformed the entire cabin.






Lastly, I needed to put in a ditch to catch all of the water coming off the hit as it kept comign over the driveway. So my plumber/excavator dug a trench for me all the way down to our first culvert.  We then installed a 20' culvert pipe for the new drive going to the pole barn. I then dropped lots of #2 in the ditch for a french drain. Turned out well.    Still need to remove some dirt we have around from the ditch but it rained last night and was too wet to mess with.



oifmarine

Good idea on the trench.  Very smart to use the bigger rock in it.  Hopefully it works for you.  Your build looks great!


Sassy

http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

beckhamk

#60
We we got our gutters now on the cabin and pole barn so we are all set with regards to water control! :)  ended up renting a trencher to  put in another downspout drain to the road. Worked like a charm and is working as expected.

We also got our propane tank on Friday.  Boy that was a pain.  NOTE: anyone wanting one of these tanks, make sure to request a site eval before they come if you are on rough or hilly terrain.  If your on flat ground your ok.  We figured these guys would want to see the locations first and they said no.  then the tech came and he had to use his truck which has a 20ft max reach boom.  Well that compunded our first location choice and then the max length of the hose also complicated the tanks location.  In the end we put it near the drive in from of the pole barn.  The new location doesnt bother me much, does the wife. But we'll plant from shrubs or something around it.   I forgot to take a pic. That to come.


Sat and Sun i was busy building the loft stair railing wall and knee wall.  Here is a pic of the wall that the stair railing will attach to.
I took some suggetions on here to keep the wall from being wobbly, and took two 2x6 and bolted them to the floor joits below and butted them up to that and the 2x4 wall. Worked like a charm.



Here are pics of the knee wall. It comes out 4 ft.  We will have plently of storage now!  Plan on putting pine down for the bottons. Then putting up the left over T&G on the inside and outside to form doors etc.



Redoverfarm

You will not regret the storage  areas.  I have them down both sides of my attic rooms.  I moved my insulated wall back to 18" near the rafters tails which gave me almost 4' of storage along the now 5' knee wall. It is basicly wasted space anyway as it was too short to place any furniture there.  I made raised panel doors to gain access to the areas.  The one area I even made my son a play room which was his barn, complete with dutch style barn doors.  He would spend hours at a time until he got too tall or should I say too big for his farm sets.







Believe it or not they are all stuff full now.

oifmarine


beckhamk

Well we have been very busy with the cabin, we have finally fiinished putting up all of the siding and it looks sharp.

Here are the pics.  We had been planning to go with Certainteens cement fiber board, with the dimanon kote finish. But the lumber company and diamond coat screwed up and sent us LP smart lap siding...  So we had the choice of getting what we wanted or going with the lp.  We researched it and liked that it was rot/bug resistant and it had the same diamond kote on it. Plus it came in 16ft lengths instead of 12ft which mean less seams!   All in all it is a great product and we will never have to stain it even as the siding comes pre-finished from the factory with a 30 year no fade warranty.  Any one interested in diamon kote - here is the website: www.diamondkoteprefinishing.com  LP also produces nice 1in trim 1x4 and 1x6 which we used, in addition they had pre-build corners to you didnt need to nail two trims together and then have to worry about chauling. I'll take a pic of one of the corners next time i am out.










Also been working on the T&G doors (look like barn doors from the inside lol). Got one side of doors completed and hung but forgot the pics.



oifmarine


beckhamk

I have been working on the knee wall storage in the loft of the cabin. Its coming along pretty good. I ended up needing to use some longer screws for the hinges to help keep the top hinge from leaning since i have the hinges attached to the T&G pine i placed on the inside walls. Well see how it turns up.  Here are two pics of the the doors and the one side that almost finally completed. 





Hanging these doors was tricky, even though i had a tool to help with hinge placement etc.  I am not sure how i feel about the gaps at the tops. I might reset the doors or just put some wood behind the door to help make the gap not so noticeable .  But all in all they came out very well.


I have a 2 walls and 2 ceilings (hallway and kitchen) to T&G still.  I couldnt complete those until i had the loft railing figured out.  I looked all over for an easy solution, but nothing seemed to match or look the way i wanted it to (pre-built).   So i decided to fab up my own railing from some left over 4x6 douglas fir beams i had. I need to get a better picture from down below. But it looks really nice.  Toughest part was sawing the 4x6 into the top and bottom railings using a 10in table saw.  Its worked but was tough since i was cutting them in 12ft lengths.  I then used an electrict plainer tool to  smooth them out and to make them look new again.  Lastly I took an orbital sander to them to finish and round out the edges of the railing.  So far its looking awesome, and the wife loves it.  She wants me to redo our banister railings with the iron ones you see here now.  I do have to say that I have a good 13 hours into what you  see on the railing - includes resting time since its like 84 inside the cabin right now but i have to give it to the guys who do this all of the time. This is hard work, alteast I feel it is when your making it from scratch, maybe not so much with pre-fab. :)






Redoverfarm

You could always "Picture frame" the doors to make it less noticable.  Using 3/4 -1" flat 1/4" stock similar to lattic mitered corners allowing 1/2" overlap onto the wall from the trim.  On the hinge side if you do not have the adequate clearence you could mount the trim flush to the door edge and just allow the overhang on the top, bottom and door side ( opposite of the hinge side).  I have even use window casing for door trim of this type.

It appears that you were trying to match the "v" grove from the door to the walls.  You could cut the trim at the specified "V" grove location with a "V groove design to disguise or camoflauge it better

beckhamk

#67
Well been busy at the cabin last few weeks getting things done. lol It never ends.  I do feel like we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  July 4th will make it one year since we started.

Here is the completed loft railing we made. Came out very nice



We had a bunch of left over siding and liked how it looked on the cabin. So we decided to put that up on the under side of the porch roof.



I also poored a 3x5 concrete pad for a generator that we are getting.  Boy that was an experience, not too bad. I rented a mixer for $$25/$30 cant remeber and that was great.  I love how the bags say 2.8L of water, but we ended up putting more than that in to get it just right. Just wish i didnt have to purchase the gallon jug of the acrylic sealer as we hardly used any of it. :)



Well big suprise is that the kitchen is done now....  Was down at the neighbords cabin, hadnt been there until 2 weeks ago.  I looked around and i said are those hickory cabinets?  They said yes, where at lowes here in town.  When i checked lowes many months ago at my primary house an hour away, they didnt cary hickory cabinets. But at this farm town they do go figure.  So we ran down and took a gander and got the entire kitchen.  I did want to say anyone using johns plans might want to take a gander at the sizes of the cabinets. As lowes didnt carry the sizes we had in our plans and had to rework some things. But it all worked out!







Redoverfarm

What kind and size generator are you getting?

akemt

Catherine

Stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of 6 in "nowhere" Alaska


beckhamk

Rover - Getting a Generac 14kw.    After much research on the off grid using a generator and battery charging etc the cost came out to about what it was going to cost me to just pay for the power.  Seemed like a no brainer.  So in the mean time i figured i would get a generator to hold us over until we are grid tied.  Once we get the power, I will either keep the generator as we are in an area that looses power alot or I will have the electrician move it to my primary home.

Redoverfarm

Quote from: beckhamk on June 25, 2012, 07:33:07 PM
Rover - Getting a Generac 14kw.    After much research on the off grid using a generator and battery charging etc the cost came out to about what it was going to cost me to just pay for the power.  Seemed like a no brainer.  So in the mean time i figured i would get a generator to hold us over until we are grid tied.  Once we get the power, I will either keep the generator as we are in an area that looses power alot or I will have the electrician move it to my primary home.

Maybe a word to the wise on the Generac.  The company does not warranty any of it's standby generators if used in an "off grid" capacity except one.  I ran into this when I was considering mine.  They do offer the EcoGen which is 6KW that is for Off Grid application. 

http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Generac-5818-Standby-Generator/p5511.html

With their Nexus controller ( standard on most of the models either off/on grid) you will need some energy source weither it be batteries or solar to maintain it's function and the start battery.

There are several features on the 5818 that are not on the other generators which may or may not account for the additional cost.  ??? 

beckhamk

Rover - Thanks for the info. I was aware of the warranty situation.    I might actually end up using your idea of picture boxing the knee wall doors in the loft. we'll see. :)

clehner1

which color of diamond kote is on the cabin with the red roof?

beckhamk

Its the cedar color diamonkote