Quote from: CjAl on November 13, 2011, 11:04:49 PM
did you get the underside buttoned up for winter this year? did you get your pipes to stop freezing last winter?

not yet. hoping to this weekend when im off work.

There are bars and chains that are made special for carving.

Bailey's Online

good work on the bear!!!

We are breaking ground on the addition this weekend. Ill post pics as they come available

That's great news.Look forward to the build. 

It'll be great to see the pics of the addition your adding. You sure are one hard working dude and an inspiration sir - thank you for posting.

Im still undecided if I should do a 16x16 or a 16x20. What are you guys thoughts. In these pics a 16x20 seems really big especially considering how tall our ceiling will be. and you also have to consider that the room will be much bigger up top because it will extend all the way back to the current roof line.

here are a couple pics of 16x20 bedrooms. Just seems really big and luxurious. Not to mention tough to heat and cool.... and build

I wouldn't go much by pictures.  Wide angle lenses and the like when done profesionally.  I added a 16 X 18 onto mine and no way is representative of a portion of the pictures depicted.   Maybe you can gauge it with your cabin demensions to get a better idea of the size. Or lay it out somewhere to give you an idea of the workable space.  Maybe you mentioned/or not what the layout will be on the mainfloor and loft. 

Our living room is a 16x16.5 we decided to do a 16x20. Its gonna cost less than $1000 for the extra 4 ft and while we may not NEED it now we would probably wish we had it later. So it will be 16 ft out from the house and 20 ft wide in line with the house. If that makes sense

Quote from: ajbremer on November 17, 2011, 06:04:47 AM
It'll be great to see the pics of the addition your adding. You sure are one hard working dude and an inspiration sir - thank you for posting.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am kind of dreading working in the colder temps. Hitting a cold thumb with a hammer hurts 10 times as bad as a warm one 

Its been a rainy cruddy weekend but I managed to get the holes dug for the piers, the concrete footers poured, roofing and the side of the house cut off to expose the main beam that I will be tying into, and all the materials to get the subfloor finished bought. Hopefully more progress can be made through the week. I was hoping to get a floor done this weekend. The good news is that the pond is rapidly filling up since I put 600 lbs of bentonite clay in the bottom of it.

Here is the progress made so far over about 4 days worth of work. Im hoping to start setting rafters in next week. I am on the night shift at work now so I have to stay on the same sleep schedule. Most of my days havent started til late in the afternoon then I build til about 2am.

Long time lurker, but first time posting to the forum.

I have been reading your thread for sometime now and have read it all. You and your family are very motivational. Best of luck to all of your family/home additions.

you don't waste any time when you make up your mind...
good progress, I cant wait to see the finished product, and knowing you I wont have to wait long.

Updated for todays work. Finished tying in the wall to the house. Tyveked it and installed our windows. Came inside completely soaked but the work got done and thats the important part. If all goes as planned rafter will be going on tuesday.

   Keep it up!  Pretty darn awesome progress!

Here is the accomplished work from the past couple days (well nights really)







This one is taken from the bottom of the soon to be french doors opening looking into the room. I like the beams and vaulted ceiling

Awesome work!  I must thank you for introducing me to this site!  I followed you here from jeepforum

good progress, looks great!

What will you do with the chimney?I thought they had to be 2ft above the highest part of the house.Seems like the right winds would blow smoke back into the house if a window or door was open.

Were going to add another 3 ft section of chimney pipe to it. Mainly just to help it draw better. Also when you are burning a fire correctly there should be no smoke. The only time our stove smokes is when it is first lit. After it gets up to temperature it does not produce any smoke.

Recommended chimney to building clearances...




Even though there may be no visible smoke if there is fire in the stove there is exhaust, the products of combustion. There may be no visible smoke but as long as there is fire there is smoke or emissions, not all of which is healthy to breath.

Quote from: MtnDon on December 02, 2011, 12:25:52 AM
Recommended chimney to building clearances...




Even though there may be no visible smoke if there is fire in the stove there is exhaust, the products of combustion. There may be no visible smoke but as long as there is fire there is smoke or emissions, not all of which is healthy to breath.

There are definitely emissions no doubt about it. Lots of carbon monoxide and Wood also produces Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as it burns. All of which are hard on human lungs. I was simply stating that there was no "visible smoke" from a properly burning fire as smoke is burned as fuel in a hot stove. As for the clearances. We havent had any issue with the wind not carrying the emissions away from the house. If you are looking at the front of the house the wind comes from the back right corner. Before the addition it carried it all away very fast. Now that we have the extra structure to block the wind we werent sure what it would do. I was aware that chimneys have to be above the ridge line. Its just that doing that on our a frame would require alot of tethering and would look pretty silly.

Got quoted $1000 for labor only for installing the metal roof on the cabin and new addition. Basically everything needed to make it watertight again. Couple that in with about $650 for materials and thats the roof. I am wondering what to install over the purlins to prevent sweating. The roofer suggested tar paper but it seems to me that would eventually want to start "caving in" I would think something like rigid foam would be better. Any ideas?

actually the chimny doesnt need to be above the ridge line. it needs to be 2' above the point that is 10' away from the roof measured horizontally. but on your house that looks to be above the ridge and with the price of that double wall chimney it adds up fast. when i put the stove in my house in WI i ended up not doing it up to code. one side the house was a low one story and the other side was a tall two story. the chimny came out.of the lowest part of the one story. to get it legal it would have been like 16+ feet tall and have two sets of bracing. one to the low roof and one 90 degrees off to the tall roof. i opted for two sections of four feet and one brace.saved about 500 buck and was much more solid. even with the second brace it was real wobbly up that high and with five joints.


personally i would sheet that roof and not use the purlins. my uncles cabin is built like that and the roof is now filled solid with wasps. the house has 2000 sq foot of covered porch and you cant use any of it