Another Curlew Cabin in WA

[Woodswalker]

A young man I know with several relatives living further up the hill from my cabin bought 5 acres or so about a mile away a couple years ago.  He worked for a home-building contractor in the area for several summers, and started building his own place this past winter.  He works summers and falls now in Montana taking tourists on horseback trail rides and guiding big game hunters.  His cabin construction is progressing in stages as he earns enough for materials.  Several relatives, including an uncle and a great uncle (over 80) are helping with the project.  I took several pics when he and his great uncle were laying blocks for the foundation, but have not seen it since.  His mother recently sent several additional pics showing progress.  I'm doing this post just to introduce folks to the project, and either he or a relative may start a seperate post later after I introduce them to this site and explain how to go about setting up a posting with pics.  Looks to me like the cabin is about 20' x 20', with a loft over half.  Interesting features include using I-joists as rafters, supported by three logs.  One supports the ridge area, and the other two support the rafters half-way up.  The ridge log is supported by a vertical log post in the middle that sits on the loft floor.  All the logs will be visible from the interior, giving a nice rustic appearance.  As far as I know he and relatives designed the structure.  Since he has already left for Montana, the cabin has been "dried-in" using some of that effective, blue FEMA roofing.



Crawl-space foundation going in.



Rafters are up, sheathing going on.



Roof sheathing being transferred up.



First sheet being positioned on rafters.



Steep pitched roof, so cleats have been applied on sheathing, and he is tied-off with a safety rope.



Temporary dry-in with FEMA roofing, until next construction start.  I-joists are expensive, but give lots of room for insulation, provide wider nailing surface (~3 in.) for sheathing and sheetrock, and produce a very strong roof.

Steve

[ScottA]

Looks great.    Hope to see more pics as it progresses.

[Willy]

It looks like your getting weather like me at your site. We are not to far from each other and it gets old with our long winter were having! It would be nice to get some tee/shirt weather. Not sure I will see any before mine is dried in?? I will be done before fire season starts. Great job! Mark

[Woodswalker]

Mark,

Haven't even been over to my cabin yet due to snow in the passes, so have not actually seen this one myself yet.  By the way, I've been trying to look at the latest posting you did on your project, but cannot get p3 to load.  There's a bug in the system somewhere.  Hope you're healing up well from both the intentional and accidental cuts.  Last summer I imbedded a large sliver from the edge of a sheet of plywood in the side of my thumb that ended up requiring a surgeon to remove - cost me a total of $500!  You can bet I'll always be wearing the heavy work gloves from now on when handling lumber.

Steve

[Willy]

Mark,

Haven't even been over to my cabin yet due to snow in the passes, so have not actually seen this one myself yet.  By the way, I've been trying to look at the latest posting you did on your project, but cannot get p3 to load.  There's a bug in the system somewhere.  Hope you're healing up well from both the intentional and accidental cuts.  Last summer I imbedded a large sliver from the edge of a sheet of plywood in the side of my thumb that ended up requiring a surgeon to remove - cost me a total of $500!  You can bet I'll always be wearing the heavy work gloves from now on when handling lumber.

Steve

It loads for me? Try aain or click on the last post and see if it comes up that way. I healed up nice so far on both cuts but the one on my left thumb bugs me when I hamer nails! I am afraid I will miss the nail and hit it and bust it open. So far so good I am being real carefull starting the nails. TEKO Nails are a bummer cause the head is so close to the thumb! You realy have to watch splinters moving wood. That treated stuff is murder for infections when you get one broke off inside the skin. Mark

[Woodswalker]

Here are some recent views of the log beams and post.  They were obtained by the builder from his grandfather's property in the area.  He debarked, dried, and stained the logs before installation.



Shot taken from the loft area toward the front.  I wouldn't want to be involved with hanging sheetrock and that high ceiling, but the owner is young, strong, and has similar friends.



Looking other direction in the loft.



Main floor view toward front, where a sliding door and deck will provide nice view.



Exterior view, without the snow.

[Redoverfarm]

Woodswalker looks like a job for scaffolding.  Is the beam functionaly or just ornimental?  What are the demensions of the beams? Nice scenry from the window.Opps looks like you have a double post.  You could just go back to one and delete.

[2zwudz]

    Steve
Is your block foundation mortared joints or drystacked and is that rebar in every third block that I see?  Will you fill that cell with concrete?

Thanks Mark

[Woodswalker]

The log beams are about 10" in diameter and 20' or so long.  They look to be functional to me, although I know of another home in the area that used I-beams for rafters without such beams for support.  The hewn surface of the logs might make supporting contact with the flat bottom of every rafter difficult to achieve.  Scaffolding will definitely be needed to hang ceiling sheetrock.  Just getting the 5/8" sheets up onto the scaffolding will be a tough job.  I've been using a rented lift to do the vaulted ceiling in my cabin nearby, but the maximum height there is only 12'.  Think if it were my place, I would get enough scaffolding up to assemble a lift up on it that would raise sheets the rest of the way and hold them in place until screws can be driven.  The young man building the place is working in Montana for the summer and fall, so I haven't had a chance to talk with him about the project.  Regarding the foundation questions, yes, the blocks were mortered, with vertical rebar every third block, imbedded in the concrete footing and surrounded with concrete in the void.  Seems to me it probably took some careful measuring to ensure all the rebar would line up with voids in the blocks.  Although I didn't check, I assume they also installed "J" bolts to fasten the wood plate securely to the top of the foundation.  The place is being built under permit in compliance with a building code.