20x34(?) 1.5 story in Ashe County, NC

pickngrin · November 10, 2008, 09:52:59 PM

Hello all,

I've been lurking here a while and decided I should go ahead and introduce myself so - mainly so I could start asking questions. We bought 3 acres in Ashe County, NC about a year ago. Ashe County is in the NW corner of NC bordering TN to the west and VA to the north.

Photo from our property looking south. The North Fork of the New River is just visible as a glint of sunlight near the center of the photo

Shot of the morning sun shining through the mist coming off the river

Shortly after purchasing the property I started looking around the web for cabin ideas and knew I'd hit the jackpot when I found this site - plans for small but attractive cabins that cater to the owner/builder - yes! The forum is great and I have really been inspired by others' stories and pictures.

As my title suggests we're planning on a 20x34 1.5 story, though nothing set in stone at this point, and have purchased John's 1.5 story plans. When will we get started on the cabin? Hard to say. Right now we've got a small pop up camper on the property and have also brought up a picnic table. I've built an outhouse at home (3.5 hours east of the property) and plan to take that up in pieces over T-giving weekend and install it.

I've also got a deck built for an 8x12 shed.

Other things we've done to the property - had electric brought in ($2500) and had the road in regraded, added drainage culverts, and gravelled it ($4000). Our road contractor also does septic systems and estimated that ours would be in the neighborhood of $3500 - a real bargain compared to what I've seen others have paid for systems in other parts of the country.

Again - this site has been a real inspiration and I look forward to contributing information on our progress.

MountainDon · November 10, 2008, 10:02:14 PM

pickngrin. Good to see you drop in.

We'll eagerly be watching your progress.

November 10, 2008, 10:16:47 PM

pickngrin glad to have you on board. Your area looks a little like mine. What kind of elevation is at your site?
Your name indicates that you might be into older music are you? Are you between Ashville & Johnson City. Smokey Mt. area ? Not really that far from the Wild & Wonderful state up I77

rwanders · November 10, 2008, 10:17:57 PM

Does your county or state require "certification" of septic systems? It's not required in parts of Alaska but, I have found that if your system does not come with that 'birth certificate" many banks or credit unions will not finance the cabin----may not matter to you, but may be a problem if you try to sell it sometime in the future. Something worth exploring before you build it.

pickngrin · November 11, 2008, 10:36:07 AM

Thanks Mtn. Don.

Redover - our site is at about 3000 feet. In the winter we can see Phoenix Mtn across the river - it's about 4600 feet. So not real high up, but high enough to be about 10 degrees cooler than at home and cool enough in the winter for regular snows, which we hardly ever see at home. Yes, definitely into older music. I grew up watching HeeHaw and listening to my folks' 45s from the 50's and 60's. Love bluegrass and honky tonk country. I play guitar and sing in a fledgling bluegrass band called Yesterday's Pickles.

http://www.myspace.com/yesterdayspickles

Asheville is about 130 miles to our southwest. Johnson City is about 70 miles to our west, but it's over the mountain so it's about a 2 hour drive. The closest town to us is the combined hamlet of Jefferson and West Jefferson - about 15 minutes away. They have a Lowe's, Wal-mart, etc. I trout fish in TN fairly frequently and to get there I travel up I-77 to Wytheville and then take I-81 south from there. I know it's not much further up I-77 to the WV border - where are you located?

rwanders - yes, the county requires septic systems to be permitted and inspected. In fact, outhouses are legal in the county only if they're permitted and inspected. I thought about bypassing all that on the outhouse, but then thought better of it since we do hope to have a septic system someday and I didn't want discovery of an unpermitted outhouse to negatively impact the septic permitting and inspection process. I hope to be be able to build the cabin on a pay-as-we-go basis so hopefully no banks or credit unions will be involved.

Hope to get a lot of materials second hand - we have a Habitat Restore at home where I recently picked up a corner booth-type dining set for the cabin. I also check out Craig's list a lot. I'm supposed to pick up a woodstove for the cabin today that I found on Craig's list. Link to the add: http://raleigh.craigslist.org/fuo/910011986.html
Anybody have any experience with Century woodstoves? The one I'm looking at is 2 years old, but has never been used. It's a plate steel stove, which I don't have any experience with. I have a cast iron Jotul Castine at home that we love.

Thanks all.

November 11, 2008, 12:45:20 PM

pickngrin.

The plate steel stoves generally hold up well especially if they have a fire brick lining or at least a grate to get the wood off the bottom when clean. Ashes insulate well also to protect the steel. Super hot fire with lots of oxygen - air flow will eat away at the steel but it doesn't get that hot and fast in most situations.

You started off right putting the dancing on the deck photo there --- we almost require one of those here.

pickngrin · November 11, 2008, 01:33:24 PM

Thanks Glenn. The stove I'm looking at has a firebrick lining.

I thought the dancing on the deck photo would be appreciated.

cbc58 · November 11, 2008, 04:49:27 PM

hey... are you in Raleigh? I'm in Apex. Was just out that way last weekend camping in Doughton Park off of the Blue Ridge.

Redoverfarm · November 11, 2008, 05:22:33 PM

pickngrin

Check your PM box.

November 11, 2008, 09:52:08 PM

Yep, in Raleigh. I've fished Basin Creek in Doughton Park - pretty area.

pickngrin · December 02, 2008, 09:56:28 PM

Made it up to the property last Friday - Sunday and got the outhouse installed and some other work done around the place. I was pretty pleased with how quickly we were able to reassemble the outhouse on site and get most of the finishing touches done. I still plan to paint it and install a vent pipe, but that can wait. Now I just have to hope it passes inspection.

Here are some pieces and parts:

And the finished product:

It's not much progress as compared to what some folks on this forum have done, but it always feels good to get up there and get something done. One small, though necessary, step towards building a cabin.

I also made some fixes to the shed deck. I made a rookie mistake and forgot to trim the 8' joists down so that the building width would be 8' (instead of 8'3") when I added the rim joists. I used a recip saw and a jig saw to get things straightened out. Only took about an hour to fix.

A neat thing that happened on the trip was the discovery of a view I had never noticed. We've owned the property for a little over a year and I knew that we had a winter view of a short section of the North Fork of the New River, but as I was looking out towards the river this time I noticed that I could see much further upstream than I had previously realized - up to a point where the river makes a sharp turn against a rocky cliff that is maybe 30-40 feet high. I'll definitely have this view in mind when deciding on the final location of the cabin.

Weather permitting I hope to make it back up over New Year's weekend to do more work on the shed.

Finally - I ended up not buying the woodstove I mentioned in a previous message. It was in great shape, but it was just too small. I think it was maybe Maine Rhino who said something to the effect of it's much easier to build a small fire in a large stove than a big fire in a small stove. That makes some sense. I'll keep looking.

Redoverfarm · December 02, 2008, 11:16:00 PM

pickngrin any progress is always good progress. Make sure the privy is bolted tight. I can just visualize the meditation and the sides fall down.

As for the view. When the leaves come off your land usually takes on a new prospective. Mine is a little on the down side as you can now see it whereas in the summer you couldn't.

glenn kangiser · December 03, 2008, 01:18:39 AM

Haven't used ours in years but it didn't have a front door, so we could just sit there and look out over our subjects in the valleys below...

pickngrin · December 03, 2008, 09:21:50 AM

Not to worry, it's bolted down tight and walls aren't going anywhere. Before building this we were using a luggable loo type thing. I went up with a buddy in October to do some fishing and one morning I turned around and there he was sitting on the throne up on top of the shed platform. Whoa! Don't want to see that again.

I can always remove the spring from the door to enjoy the view from the seat:

Of course an open door doesn't do much good to keep out the 3 year olds. "Dad, what are you doing in there?"

December 03, 2008, 10:11:33 PM

pickngrin your outhouse made me think of this

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=5583.msg71420#msg71420

pickngrin · December 04, 2008, 12:24:48 PM

I actually witnessed a porta-potty toppling while someone was in it. I was at a big, outdoor party at Virginia Tech many years ago and saw some guys topple a porta john while another guy was in there. The porta john ended up on its back and when the door opened (it looked like someone was opening a coffin from the inside) a very angry and very blue individual emerged. I always felt bad for that guy and hope he eventually got even with the culprits.

glenn kangiser · December 05, 2008, 02:58:50 AM

That was pretty crappy of them wasn't it...

pickngrin · January 06, 2009, 10:10:10 PM

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season and are off to a good new year. I had almost two weeks off for the holidays and got to get up to the property for four days. My goal was to frame up an 8x12 shed/cabin prototype/future bunkie and build an 8x12 deck off the front. Of course I let myself think about getting some siding and windows done if things went really well. I accomplished my goal but no more, which is better than it sometimes goes.

I started with this:

. . . and ended with this:

I have done a very little bit of framing on a similar sized building several years ago. The first wall on the shed went up in a flash, on the next one - the one with windows and a door - I was breaking out the John Wagner framing book. I had never measured, marked and cut rafters so I had to refer to the book on that too.

I think I could've made a bit more progress had it not been for two delays. The first was a dusting of snow the morning after I arrived. It all melted by the afternoon, but it was enough to make the roads pretty slick and necessitate slower speeds and a bit of caution. I was out in it early, pulling my trailer and waiting to turn into Lowe's and a guy behind me got sideways as he pulled into the turn lane. I pulled forward as much as possible and he got it under control before crunching the trailer.

The second delay was caused when I was using my hammer to pound a 2x4 brace off one of the walls and as it came loose and tumbled to the ground one of the nails in the board went right through my air hose. Hsssssssssss - oh crud. I had to make two 40 minute round trips to Lowe's to get a new air hose and then to get some plumber's tape since the fittings weren't sealed in the package. Nonetheless I was pretty happy with my progress, and, working alone, I was happy there were no injuries.

What do you think of the color scheme of my boards? There are actually only a few new boards in the shed that you can easily spot by their light color. I got the darker studs and the rafters from the local habitat for humanity restore. The rafters are pt wood - picked up a bundle of 36 8' 2x6's for $100. I got most of the decking boards for free from a friend who was having his old deck redone. I love free stuff and am happy to keep good stuff out of the landfill.

Question for the forum: I'm planning to build a roof over the deck/porch but I'm not totally sure how to tie the rafters for that porch into the building. I'm thinking of just using 2x4s for those rafters and then 1x4 purlins spaced every 2 feet or so topped off with 5v metal roofing. It seems like the best option is to rest the 2x4 porch rafters on top of the cap plate of the front wall and next to the 2x6 main building rafters. If I go this route though I'm not sure how I'll do the bird blocking between the main building rafters since a 2x4 will be running into that space. I'm hoping to go with open rafter tails and I wasn't planning to build an enclosed porch roof, i.e., there will be no ceiling to the porch, when looking up you'd just see the rafters, purlins, and underside of the roofing. Hope this makes sense. Thanks for any suggestions/advice on how to handle this.

One more quick question - this will not be an insulated building so do I need to worry about venting the roof?

Thanks all

Redoverfarm · January 06, 2009, 10:57:43 PM

A little bit of cutting for the 2X4 in the Blocks but you could do it. Notch the 2X6 blocks (1-1/2" X 3-1/2") on one end to allow for the 2X4 rafters. If you went 16"OC on the porch you could just sister them along side of the rafters if you used 16OC on them.

As for the vents are you going to use sheeting or purlins on the roof? Remember that the metal will sweat irregardless of insulation. My porch sweats in summer with a rain. If you are not going to insulate then I wouldn't vent it. But I would sheeet it rather than strip it w/purlins.

I used 24"OC on mine but I didn't have to contend with sistering on the rafters. You might also PU a pitch diverter for the metal because you will not have that much tucked under your roof from the porch.

I will also send you a PM

ED: repaired image tag - MD

ScottA · January 07, 2009, 12:04:31 AM

Looks nice.

January 07, 2009, 09:17:39 AM

Thanks for the feedback. Redover - I'm going to use osb sheathing on the main roof. I was thinking of sistering the porch rafters to the main roof rafters as you suggest.

I'm not sure I know what a pitch diverter for a metal roof is - I assume it's something to help keep water/wind out where two sections of differently pitched roof meet?

For some reason I can't see the picture in your post, but I cut and pasted the link into another Firefox session and can see the picture that way. What do your porch rafters tie into on the wall side? Do they go through the log wall?

Redoverfarm · January 07, 2009, 12:31:57 PM

A pitch diverter is a piece of the roofing material that has been bent to varing pitches of two roofs. Usually 12" wide by 12' long. One edge is slipped under the upper roof and the lower lip falls on top of the lower roof. I guess you could do it with regular flashing if you had to but it would not fit well on the lower roof leaving a gap .

I bolted a plate against the log wall and then used hangers for the rafters.

glenn kangiser · January 07, 2009, 01:00:57 PM

12 inch wide aluminum flashing is readily available and will easily accommodate any pitch change.

Redoverfarm · January 07, 2009, 01:12:15 PM

That is what I was saying but there is a couple of drawbacks to using it in this application.

1. There will be a gap left when the flashing sits on top of the peak portion of the roof, That being the distance or elevation of the peak & valley of the metal roofing.

2. If you are in a snow region that will be where the snow will accumulate. There could be a potentional ice daming problem and water will back up under the flashing. I think the diverter is pressed to the same design ( at least one side)as the roofing and a butyl strip is placed between the diverter & the roof and then screws to draw it tight.

But as they say it is just a porch so a little drip probably wouldn't hurt as long as your rocking chair is not placed below it.

pickngrin · January 07, 2009, 08:59:04 PM

After several readings I think I'm following you. Not sure I'm going to go to the trouble to track down a diverter for the shed building. If the metal roofing supplier has them handy then great - otherwise I'll probably skip it.

Redover - what is the siding on the addition section and gables over the log walls on your place? Is that real board and batten or battens over something else? It looks really good. I'd like to do something similar on our cabin. The shed is just going to get T1-11.