14x24 Little House in the sticks

[Pa_Kettle]

PK,

If you don't mind, how much did the roof cost to have it installed, materials + labor?

thanks,

We agreed on $2750 on the intial contract.  I'm still waiting for the (itemized) bill before I send the check off.


PK

[phalynx]

That seems pretty reasonable considering the quality of a job he did and the slope of the roof that I wouldn't want to be on...

[Pa_Kettle]

That seems pretty reasonable considering the quality of a job he did and the slope of the roof that I wouldn't want to be on...

You've got that right.  45 degrees is scary steep.  It doesn't know if it wants to be a roof or a wall.  

He also did all of this without ever meeting us AND he ordered and delivered all the materials to the site.

I think we can handle most of the rest of the cabin ourselves... Although the sliding glass door is going to be fun.  It's really heavy and needs to be lifted about 20" into place.  May be time to haul out the patented concrete-block-tire-beam-holder-thing. :-?

PK

[peg_688]

[

the sliding glass door is going to be fun. PK

 PK remove the sliding / active door , just open it 1/2 way then lift up on the door the bottom will clear the track. Set the fixed panel and frame in the opening, tack in place , reinstall the active door then continue to set the door / frame / unit .  

[Pa_Kettle]

[

the sliding glass door is going to be fun. PK

 PK remove the sliding / active door , just open it 1/2 way then lift up on the door the bottom will clear the track. Set the fixed panel and frame in the opening, tack in place , reinstall the active door then continue to set the door / frame / unit .  

DOH!  I would have kicked myself if I would have put it in, then announced how difficult it was and then found out about the advice above.  Thanks PEG688!

Reminds me of an embarrassing story.  My wife and I were out at some property we have since sold.  We brought fixings for hotdogs, but when we went to make a fire to cook, we realized we forgot matches.  So, we spent 30 minutes trying to do it the old fashioned way (stick, rope bow).  After giving up, we drove 20 minutes each way to a gas station and bought matches.

Next day, I mention this to a co-worker.  He says, "Why didn't you just use the car's cigarette lighter?"...

PK

[youngins]

Thats rich...

[Pa_Kettle]

Got the doors and one window in.  Only eight more to go...
http://cabin.foxlore.net/cabin/windows_doors_1.html

Woohoo!  We will hopefully be sleeping in this thing next time up, but first we need to seal some openings up in the roof ridge... which these guys just love.



PK

[Pa_Kettle]

Four more windows in.  I sealed up the ends of the roof ridge and chased out (or killed) all the wasps.  We are planning on actually sleeping in it next time out.  Just four more windows to go...

http://cabin.foxlore.net/cabin/gable_kitchen_windows.html

PK

[peg_688]

Lookin good pa  8-)

[Pa_Kettle]

Lookin good pa  8-)

Thanks!  We are starting to get a little excited about our progress.  We have gotten as much work as possible done everytime we've made the trip, so we are looking forward to being able to actually relax a bit and enjoy the property itself.  We haven't even been to the borders since we bought the land.   Once we have the cabin totally out of the weather we'll be able to take that time.

On that same (out of the weather) thought, we have decided to go with vinyl.  I know that it is looked down upon by some, but I think it looks sharp when you don't try to make it look like anything it isn't.  We want low maintainence and that means nothing we have to paint.  Hopefully we will start putting it on during the long Memorial Day weekend.

PK

[Sassy]

Looks really nice, Pa - what fun when you're able to relax & enjoy!

[MountainDon]

We want low maintainence and that means nothing we have to paint.  

Nothing wrong with low maintenance PK. It's becoming one of my favorite materials as I mature.  

[Pa_Kettle]

Just another update.  We got all the windows in, woohoo!  We also got the siding on site.  It's "mist" color (except the for the white soffit material) which is probably going to end up pretty close the roof color.  We wanted to go a bit darker than the roof, but this should look fine.

http://cabin.foxlore.net/cabin/south_bath_windows.html

Saturday nights was our first night sleeping in the cabin.  Our inflatable mattress failed us, so we ended up on the loft floor.  Ouch!  We got to experience hot and humid and then cold and humid all in one night.  Ah well, some fans and a matress and we should do OK next time.

Hopefully we will be knee deep in vinyl this upcoming long holiday weekend.

PK

[glenn-k]

Gotta love those inflatable mattresses.  

Sassy will never forget the time we dropped down over the Sierra's in our plane to the little town of Lone Pine.  She wanted to go to the motel -- I wanted to camp under the wing of the plane.  No problem --- the inflatable mattress could be pumped up with the power from the friendly airport car battery.

Pumped it up  -- a few hours it was flat.  Pulled the car up -- pumped it up again -- all night.

At about midnight all the cows in the world broke out of the fenced rangeland across the street.  Mooing loudly they attracted the attention of the local police who turned all their red flashing lights on and ran up and down 395, sirens blaring.

Very interesting night and I saved $50 by not having to go to the Motel a couple blocks away.

[Pa_Kettle]

Very interesting night and I saved $50 by not having to go to the Motel a couple blocks away.

LOL!  Yeah we had one of those, "I don't really think I slept at all" nights, but I must have dropped off for at least a few hours. :-/

To make matters worse, we both had particle board saw dust on us from cutting out the window openings.  It felt like little bugs kept biting us but I'm fairly sure it was the saw dust.

I think we are going to get some of those foam mattresses, and set up an outdoor shower...

PK

[MountainDon]

A good reasonably dense foam pad, 4 inches thick works well as a temp mattress. For camping use I prefer the Thermarest or similar brand. Don't take up a lot of space and I sleep like a log on one. I use the 'camp" series, larger, thicker than the lighter backpack models. Not for everyone though.

http://www.thermarest.com/

[Sassy]

Costco has a nice 4" pad that folds into 3 sections for approx $44 - very comfortable - they also have a handy outdoor shower setup for approx $120 - you could probably build it a lot cheaper - Glenn just took the hose & put a spray nozzle on it & a pallet to stand on for a quick setup - cold water   but felt good when it was hot outside.  (we put it close to the hot tub)  

[Pa_Kettle]

A good reasonably dense foam pad, 4 inches thick works well as a temp mattress. For camping use I prefer the Thermarest or similar brand. Don't take up a lot of space and I sleep like a log on one. I use the 'camp" series, larger, thicker than the lighter backpack models. Not for everyone though.

http://www.thermarest.com/

We tried a Thermarest, the kind that self inflates, for camping once but it ended up not fitting the small tent we had, so we returned it.  They have some really nice stuff for light weight hiking.

Costco has a nice 4" pad that folds into 3 sections for approx $44 - very comfortable - they also have a handy outdoor shower setup for approx $120 - you could probably build it a lot cheaper - Glenn just took the hose & put a spray nozzle on it & a pallet to stand on for a quick setup - cold water   but felt good when it was hot outside.  (we put it close to the hot tub)  

I'll have to look for that 3 section matress.  Is it likely to be in the outdoor/sports area or ??

We like the "space age " foam mattress pads.  We use them for a bed, without any other matress, at home.  (Yes we are weird)  Sams Club has them, but the aren't cheap.  Something like $150 for a queen.  A couple of those on top of each other actually works pretty well.

For the shower we have one of those bags that you lay in the sun.  It works OK but is kind of a hassle and even at 5 gals. it still runs out of water too fast.  I friend of ours rigged up one of those square blue Walmart water jugs on top of a 8 ft. structure made from 4" diameter trees he cut down.  If it's sunny, the water is just right for a shower late in the afternoon.

Thanks for the tips!

PK

[Pa_Kettle]

On goes the vinyl!

http://cabin.foxlore.net/cabin/vinyl_1.html

It's pretty straight forward to install.  The key is to nail it down correctly.  The nails should just kiss the nailing flange (I think).  If you nail it down any more than that, the vinyl will buckle as it expands and contracts with temperature.

PK

[glenn-k]

Looks good, PK.

[Sassy]

Yes, it does look really nice!

[peg_688]

Looks good Pa , ya even got the flashing details right  8-)

[youngins]

Will there be a deck off of the sliding glass door? If so, how do you plan to attach to house?

Looks awesome PK

Chris

[Pa_Kettle]

Looks good Pa , ya even got the flashing details right  8-)

<elvis voice> Thank you, thank you very much</elvis voice>  Of course I got corrent info from this site.  

Will there be a deck off of the sliding glass door? If so, how do you plan to attach to house?
Looks awesome PK
Chris

Thanks!  There will be a deck, but seeing as I'm a serial task kinda guy, I have researched how it attaches to the house... yet.  Usually you lag bolt a 2x onto the house below the window and then use joist hangers.  I imagine I could run something at the bottom of the rim joist to install a deck thats even with the bottom of the house.

We plan to run a 3-4 ft deep deck from the front door around to the sliding glass window.  Eventually we would like to continue it around to that triple window area and make that deep enough to fit a table.  A deck deep enough to fit a table on that side (down hill) of the house would be like 8 ft off the ground at the end.  Make for a nice view.


PK

[peg_688]

Chris caught that one , you should have bolted on your ledger and "J" molded around it .




This is the red house with the deck stairs before paint / last year .

See the two ledgers on the wall.

Your problem with vinyl is you can't just bolt the ledger onto the siding , we do it that way on some remodels if the siding is on the place all ready.

We have to bolt on the ledgers , per code , with 1/2 x 4 / or longer in some cases, galv. or SS lags screws / and or   bolts with nuts in some cases.    2 bolts   Every 16 " , so two bolts between the joists .

If you bolt on the ledger before the joist are hung you need to lay out the joists becauce you'll play hell with the hangers and joist hitting those bolt heads , so either lay out the joist first or nail up the ledger , hang the joist and then bolt the ledger on after .

G/L PEG

Nice call Chris