TN mountain 1.5 story

[brian_nj]

Well we have started our new cabin in the mountains. We started out with a 2 story universal but recently have changed to a 20'x30' 1.5 story due to a change in the cabins intended use. So far we have been doing site prep trying to get things in order for a start of construction in the spring. So far we have made about 600' of our road passable by normal vehicles the next 600' is only passable in my jeep. We are still a bit undecided if we are going to smooth out the road the rest of the way or leave it rough to deter visitors.

We are building this cabin with the intent of having a place that we can go on the weekends for fun or a place to get out of the city if the world keeps on its current downward spiral. Yes I am one of those crazy survivalist nut jobs. With that in mind we are building the home totally grid independent and ensuring that all the necessary are done with redundancy. We are putting in a well but also have multiple natural springs on the property. We are doing two separate septic systems designed to handle the cabin and an RV. Our electrical is going to be handled by four separate sources in two systems, wind, solar, pico-hydro and generator. Our heating is going to be handled by three sources a solar hot water system running through  a radiant floor distribution system, a sealed combustion wood stove and a propane furnace.

Here are some pics of the beginning of our land work it doesn't seem like a lot done but if you saw how many huge boulders we moved to get to this point you would understand.


Cutting down some trees

This is as far as we have taken the developed road so far. Just getting to this point has torn the dozer up quite a bit. By the end of this project we're going to have a bit of refurbishing to do on the machinery.

the cabin will be about 60' above where the dozer is in this picture and back a bit on the site.


The only vehicle that can get within 400' of the cabin location so far.

That's what we have done so far. We are hoping to get up there after the holidays and start flattening the actual site for the cabin and hopefully dig the trenches for the septic system at the same time while we have a mini excavator on site.

[brian_nj]

Don't know how I forgot yo add it but here is the floor plan we are going with.

[Redoverfarm]

Looking good Brian.  If it will hold up move a little closer to the main road. .  Looks as if you will end up with a good bit of firewood if it isn't soft wood.  Could you not get the dozier in close enough to push the tree's over and then destump them?  Alot easier to get the stump out if that is the building site.   

[brian_nj]

We were originally going to go a bit closer to the road but to get the best view we needed to move up and back. It gives us about a 270 degree view. So far we have used the dozer to get most of the stumps out as we go but to get the lines we want/need with the road we are cutting the trees first. The other problem is that dozer is a little too big to get up the rest of the way, after the holidays were bringing up a D3 to do some more work.

And yeah we've got firewood lol, we've been giving it away we cut and stacked about 10 cords so far for us and have probably given away at least that much. I figure by the time we are done clearing about 5 acres I should have about 20 cords stacked and ready for burning. Most of it is hardwood as this area was planted in the 60's after they select logged it and the owner never had it logged again.   We also have been making some money off of some of the wood as we were glad to learn Walnut is worth a bit once we found that out we were real happy with the $2300 an acre we spent.

[phalynx]

Brian,

I'd love to get a little more information about your property, location, etc..  if you are willing to give it to me.  You an I share a very similar dream.  You are doing yours about a year from me.  I want to purchase a piece of property in East TN or KY to build another cabin on.  Please PM me if want to share some of the info privately or on here would be great.

On a side note, on your blueprints, I am a little confused about your stairs.  They start at the door correct?  If so, they would only be about 48" above the floor at the hallway.  Is this the plan or are you doing a very steep staircase?  I am about 3/4 of the way through my 1.5 story and ran into that design problem.

[Redoverfarm]

No Brian I was meaning to get the dozier to work closer to the front of the lot so you could get the concrete truck to the foundation and not have the worry of mixing your own.  Steep they usually can make if it has a good base or is frozen.  I had a friend who built on top of a knoll .  It was so steep that the concrete truck was loosing out of the top of the mixer making the climb.  But here it was just a dry mix until he got on site and added the water so there wasn't a lot lost. 

I don't recall whether you are going to use a woodstove to heat with but unless you have someplace to keep it out of the weather it will rot in a couple years anyway.  So best to sell or give away and only keep what you can use in the short term.  I hope you are not sawing the walnut for firewood. 

[brian_nj]

We did some exploring on the concrete issue and actually found a guy with a pump truck that can pump from where the dozer is up to the house site!!! That about made my day yesterday I was not looking forward to mixing it all by hand. I did accidental cut up one walnut before realizing (OK really it was a friend that realized) but since than I have been real careful. So far all the wood is being loaded into steel shipping containers for storage. We burn a bit when we are up working to give the kids a warm place to be and keep them out of our hair for a little. We have one with a solar fan on it that helps keep the moisture level down inside the box. But even with this I dont think I can use it all before it starts to rot as I am figuring it will take about 2 chords a year to heat the cabin if we lived there full time.

[brian_nj]

Brian,
On a side note, on your blueprints, I am a little confused about your stairs.  They start at the door correct?  If so, they would only be about 48" above the floor at the hallway.  Is this the plan or are you doing a very steep staircase?  I am about 3/4 of the way through my 1.5 story and ran into that design problem.

Right now they are just going to be steep. I am still toying with some ideas to get around this but have not made any of them work up to this point.

[MountainDon]

The only vehicle that can get within 400' of the cabin location so far.

Yet another white XJ      I love them

[soomb]

I noticed the XJ as well.  Nice!

[glenn kangiser]

I noticed the D6?

I'm partial to dozers.  Right side up or on their side.

[MountainDon]

XJ's are best right side up. No, that would put the left side down. Bad.

On all 4 wheels is best.   

[brian_nj]

On all 4 wheels is best.   

My wife would agree with that 100% but I have a bad habit of only keeping two or three of them on the hard pack the others are usually just hanging out 

[Jens]

I am in Knoxville, TN, it looks like you are in the same area.  I would be willing, and quite happy to help out at any stage.  I have a wife and fours kids, who are all totally into all of it too!  We haven't been able to get land yet, but I am a self employed carpenter.  Send me a PM if you like.

[Native_NM]

Nice design.  Any benefit to flipping the bath and commode to the other side to keep the access to plumping inside, as well as warmer?  I am trying to finalize my design right now, which is similar to yours. All my research indicates it is important to keep plumping away from exterior walls in small or seasonal buildings.  Thoughts, anyone?

[brian_nj]

Any benefit to flipping the bath and commode to the other side to keep the access to plumping inside, as well as warmer?  I am trying to finalize my design right now, which is similar to yours. All my research indicates it is important to keep plumping away from exterior walls in small or seasonal buildings.  Thoughts, anyone?

I would say a lot has to do with what type of foundation is used in if that would be an issue or not. I am either doing a crawl space or piers. If I do piers I will have to enclose the plumbing to keep it from freezing no matter what wall it is on. If it is in the crawl it should stay warm enough not to freeze on us even up in the mountains.. I am also planning on being able to drain the water lines easily so I dont have to leave water in the lines when not there. The only downside to that is having to use RV antifreeze in the drains which is not the best thing for septic efficiency.

[brian_nj]

well we mocked up the stairs in the floor plan above and while they would work they are not going to work for us. They were too steep and the risers were too high for our children. So we did a little redraw of the plan. We increased the plan to 20'x32' at the same time as making the stairs to code we added a little more room to the downstairs bedroom (our bedroom) and we plan on decking the whole 2nd floor. We are going to put two bedrooms on one side and a TV/kids play area on the other (ok we need an area for the Wii there is nothing like having a few stiff drinks and Wii bowling with friends We also decided that we are going to build on piers due to the cost of a block crawl and the ease of labor. With this change we will more than ofset the additional two feet in length. So here are the changes we came up with. At the same time

[phalynx]

Brian,,, you know I have a 42" LCD HD tv sitting on my front porch due to a Wii bowling incident......   kids...

Also, your stairs are much better.  I wasn't going to say anything before because I wasn't sure of your wants/needs but now you have fixed it.  Before your furniture was too far away from the fireplace to feel the warmth from it.  But now, you have it much better.  Also, if you are anything like all of us here, you'll redesign it 15 more times as you build.

[brian_nj]

Made a bit of progress on the roads this weekend and also started getting a level spot for the house site. So far we've done about 900' of road and have about 300' left to do but we're making progress. We did not get as much done as we had hoped due to the weather being cold and rainy most of Saturday but you win some and you loose some. Here are some pics from the weekends work.






We only stood the machine up on end a couple times  maybe we should have used a little bigger piece of ewuipment


We had to build a small bridge to get from point a to be due to some water we found. One thing we are not lacking is fresh spring water


And here are a couple pics of the beginning of the hose site. They are not real great because I could not back up far enough since there is a 90' drop off on two sides and a 30' drop off on the other.






y'all said you liked pictures

[peteh2833]

That looks like one heck of a driveway !!!!!

[Redoverfarm]

Brian is you house site set on the high part of the road elevation or the low side.  Just wondering if you will have to slide down or spin up coming and going.  Yeah that is just a bit small for those size trees and roots but "you have to do with what you have".  Eventually they will surrender.

[Bishopknight]

Wow great job!

I know how hard earth moving is. I also have a natural spring running through my land, nice job coming up with the bridge you designed.

- BK

[brian_nj]

Brian is you house site set on the high part of the road elevation or the low side.  Just wondering if you will have to slide down or spin up coming and going.

The house site is at the high point, we changed the road a bit to make the run out a little safer but we are still going to need to add a guard rail or two. Guess that is the price you pay to have a good view. On the positive note the kids get one heck of a snow hill to play on

[glenn kangiser]

That is cool, Brian.  Thanks for the pix.  I find the if you flip the machine on it's side it's easy to check the undercarriage  ...

and the boom should keep it from going over...if it is in the right position.  Great pix..

[brian_nj]

ha ha the boom should keep it from tipping, and when it doesn't it can also be used to turn the machine back right side up  not fun but doable lol