20x27 single-story - Minnesota

[oifmarine]

Looks good!

[walkabout]

My father and I made some progress today. We hope to finishing installing the trusses and the floor sheathing tommorrow:


We are off all week, and will hopefully get a lot done if all goes well.

[walkabout]

We feel we made some great progress last week, but were completely exhausted after 6 days of work. There was just my old man and I doing the work.
This coming week the roof trusses arrive, so the plan for the weekend is to:
1. insulate the outside of the floor trusses and any outside facing wall cavities (corners and t-intersection of walls).
2. sheath the outside of the cabin
3. Install the roof trusses. Any advice on erecting roof trusses by hand?
4. possibly install the roof sheathing.

Here are some photos of our progress:
Floor sheathing installed:


1st 20' wall up. We built this as a single wall, but found it very difficult and heavy to lift.



2nd wall (27') built in 2 sections:


4th wall completed and some grading done.

The building inspector wanted at least 3-ply 2x6 from floor to roof line for extra strength against the strong westerly winds from across the lake, hence the extra vertical beams.

[Sassy]

Great progress & view! 

[MushCreek]

We put up trusses by hand once. They were about 30', all 2X4 construction. With a crew of 6, we had them more or less in place in half a day. We first attached uprights to the gable end to rest the first truss against. We had 3 people on the ground and 3 on the roof. Hoist a truss up, walk it into position, fasten it temporarily. Each subsequent truss is attached to the roof deck, and braced to the previous truss so they won't fall down. If it's at all windy, use plenty of bracing, or you'll wind up with a pile of expensive lumber in your yard. Once they're up, you can go back and fine-tune the alignment and location. Finish tying them down good. I found that I had to push and pull the trusses to line up with the sheathing as I went- they're not as straight as they look! Once sheathed, your roof is good and strong. With our trusses, 4 strong guys could probably have set them- they were light enough that I could pick one up by myself.

[duncanshannon]

looking good!!

[walkabout]

MushCreek. Thanks for the advice on the trusses. Our crew of three managed to install the roof trusses yesterday and my father and I sheathed the walls the day before.

Today (wather permitting) we will :
balloon frame the front gable end.
Sheath the gable ends.
Install ladder lookouts.
And hopefully start installing the roof sheathing.

Here are some photos of our progress the last 2 days:

[archimedes]

Nice progress.   

[walkabout]

We got some of what we intended to do today before we ran out of energy:

[walkabout]

Installing the trusses went very well. We carried them into the house (2 guys), then lifted them onto the walls upside down, slid them close to their correct location and then flipped them right-side up (3 guys) with the aid of a longer 2x4 with a fork in the end.

I am starting to plan for this weekend and need some advice on getting sheathing up onto the roof safely without using scaffalding. We will have 3 guys to do the work.
I though of having one person on the inside between the trusses leaning over the outside of the wall and having 2 people lift the sheets up to the first person.

I will also be building a ladder lookouts to give the 1' gable end overhangs:

I can install this before sheathing is installed, or install it after sheathing is installed.

Also do any of you have some good photos of how you framed your gable ends/soffits that

[walkabout]

We were able to finish the wall sheathing and sheath the roof this past weekend.
We started installing the roof tar paper even though we did not have the ice-shield or the trim boards installed, but soon stopped after doing one side as it was too hot, plus I had not thought it through enough. I realized that it was going to be too difficult to remove the bottom 2 rows of tar paper so that I could install the ice-shield and get the remaining tar paper rows to overlap nicely.

Anyways here is a photo from the weekend (minus the tar paper):

[walkabout]

Some more progress made the last few weeks although the heat and humidity here in Minnesota has slowed us a little.
We were however able to get ready for installing the windows and doors this weekend after we passed all our inspections (with some minor changes).
I have lost over 20lbs since starting this project (2 months).

[duncanshannon]

looking great!  the heat and humidity were incredible. Finally it broke... 85 has never felt so good

[Danfish]

Looking good with great progress...nothing like building a house to get the old body in shape!!!

[walkabout]

Thanks for the kind words.
I am further than I thought I would be, although I chose not to set expectations as I have normally agreed with the old saying that everything takes twice as long and twice as much as you think it would. My only goal was to have it dried by October so that I can work on the inside all winter. Unless something major happens we should be able to meet this goal.

I don't think I can continue at this pace for 2 reasons though:
1. My body is extremely tired. so far I have worked on the cabin 6 weekends in a row with one full week in there, so a total of 18 days in a 2 months.
2. Our cabin fund is running on empty, so it is time to save more before we start the inside.

The good thing is that we don't have too much more to do before winter:
1. windows this weekend.
2. siding early next month
3. rough electrical.
4. natural gas install.

[Alan Gage]

Looking good, you're smokin'!

That heat and humidity really slows down the pace, doesn't it?

Alan

[walkabout]

A little more progress to report. We took a few weeks off to recharge our batteries and are now in our final stages of drying in the cabin.
We have had electricity installed, and almost completed the siding.
We will doing the following next (in no particulr order):
1. having natural gas run.
2. fishish installing the siding (caulking and painting included)
3. bolder walls installed.
4. septic tanks installed.

Here are some photos:
Soffit framing:


Siding:

[walkabout]

A quick update.

Outside is now complete, so I will be starting to work on the inside as weather permits.
Next steps:
1. Plumb sump pump.
2. frame stairs to crawlspace/basement
3. frame internal walls.

[duncanshannon]

looks great!  (that was fast!)

[walkabout]

After taking a few months off over the holidays I have started working again on the cabin.
I had been stressing about the stairs for over a month now as I kept reading that it was one of the more difficult framing jobs you could do. Anyways I had been reading, and re-reading the following 2 books:

Building Stairs (For Pros By Pros)
http://www.amazon.com/Building-Stairs-Pros-Andy-Engel/dp/156158892X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327673784&sr=8-1

and

Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding: The Complete Handbook
http://www.amazon.com/Do---Yourself-Housebuilding-Complete-Handbook/dp/0806904240/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327673881&sr=1-4

I also spent countless hours drawing the stairs in Google Sketchup too:


After all this research I found that building the stairs was a piece of cake. I guess building the stairs in my head late at night so many times paid off!!

Having my laptop with me to make adjustments to the diagram to match the field measurements was invaluable too.

Here are the results:

[Danfish]

Looks great...real feeling of accomplishment when that plan in your head becomes reality!  Now the next challenge...railings.

[MountainDon]

guess building the stairs in my head late at night so many times paid off!!

Darn right !!!

[pmichelsen]

A lot of people stress about stairs, but if you take your time, measure accurately, and do some simple math they really aren't that bad at all. Yours look great!

[walkabout]

I will be starting on the interior walls on Thursday and I need some advice please:
Q1. When framing the interior door rough openings does one frame the opening 3/4" higher/longer than the door's rough opening height? (or whatever your finished floor thickness)
Q2. When installing the door and frame when the finished floor is not installed, does one use 3/4" spacers under the frame? Or is it better to install the finished floor before the doors/frames?

We have not decided on whether we are going with hardwood, tile or a combination of both throughout the cabin.
We are on a lake, have 2 boys and a yellow lab dog, so the chance of someone being wet or muddy is highly likely.
Q3. If you have a lake cabin/house or have a similar situation to us, what would you go with? Hardwood, or tile?

[MountainDon]

I can't say if it's the way they teach it in carpentry school, but I've always framed to R-O to the exact dimensions given on the plan, or the size that came with the door.  Then the walls/ceiling all get finished, painted, etc.

Then the wood or tile floor installed. Then the trim installed and the (interior) door bottoms cut if necessary to clear the floor. If trimming off a door the cut edge must be painted.  If wall to wall carpet is to be installed, especially if the trim is painted, then the trim is all installed before the carpet, with the base being rised of the rough floor 3/8" - 7/16" or so. Then paint, then carpet. With wood or tile floor paint or stain the trim in the garage and then install.

If the doors are all installed before the finish floor then the flooring can be changed at any later date and there is no worry about the door casing then being too short.


Anyplace there is a chance of water or dirt being tracked in we prefer tile, but then our entire house is carpet except for the M-bedroom which is wood. We assume the adults will be more responsible / careful. That has almost always worked.    Our cabin is all tile.