200 sf Mini Cabin - Olympic Peninsula - Washington State

[Solar Burrito]

We finally started our mini cabin after years of talking about it and about a year and a half after our Yurt collapsed (see my blog in my signature for photos). Here is the foundation that our Small cabin will go on. It's a the maximum size we can build without a permit, 200 square foot. The 4x8 bump out make it exactly 200 square foot vs other plans that are 192. I'll take the extra 8 feet!

The dimensions of this platform are 12x14 plus the 4x8 bump out. It will have a 12x14 loft in it. We're off the grid and have some plans to pump rain water up the hill for some water pressure.

Roughing in the blocks and beams. Here's Co-owner Nate in his best Union pose:


I don't think this is code but it gave us an idea of how high the beams would be off the ground. I bit higher than we liked but we had a problem with a boulder under one corner so we couldn't dig down  into the ground. It will probably be fine once we have a deck around it:


Finding level:


More leveling, hey look at our existing shed with loft. It's great to have a home base for our stuff.


We worked into the night since we knew our weather window was closing. This was March 20th 2010 and usually at this time there would be lots of snow up there.


Here's the 4x8 section roughed in:


Here's the Design:

Here's the reality:


Lot's more to do, still waiting on our lumber delivery.

[Beavers]

Congrats on breaking ground! 

Looks like a very cool location too!  Are you planning on using using any logs in the cabin, like the pole structure in the background?

[Solar Burrito]

Here are some more photos of the 5 acres. I know I love photos of other peoples property so I'll turn loose a ton of photos. We have a small view of Hood Canal and the property is located on the Southeast side of the Olympic National Rain Forest. Yes Washington has a rain forest.  




Lake Cushman, on a not so summery day (Labor day a few years ago)


Fishing inside the Olympic National park


Our view of Hood Canal, we need to do some logging. This is the only fjord in the continental US I think. If you're looking at a map this view is of the bottom.


Big stump near the north end of the lake, this is underwater in the summer




My boat near the stumpy part of the lake. It's a 10 mile long resivor, this is mid-water level.

[JavaMan]

That's Lake Cushman?  I thought it was bigger than 10 miles long - goes to show you what I know! And I didn't know the level rose and fell, either!

I've been out that way a couple times - actually about 5 years ago, I looked at some acreage that had a log cabin built on it already, but passed it up because the timing just wasn't right (I hadn't sold the house yet)

Looks really good.  Must be nice to have started!

[Yonderosa]

Thanks for posting.  I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.  Cool blog too.

[Solar Burrito]

Congrats on breaking ground! 

Looks like a very cool location too!  Are you planning on using using any logs in the cabin, like the pole structure in the background?

Logs, ya we'd love to use some logs in the cabin, but at this point I"m not sure where. We know we can use them for posts for our covered porch for sure though.

That structure in the background has to come down due to it being in the way of our back porch and us building it badly. We used pier blocks with thick rebar coming up through the pier blocks and into the tree about a foot. It's not that secure. We should have cut the trees longer and used cement... Oh well live and learn. It's not always good to build by commitee.

[Solar Burrito]

This past Saturday I awoke in Seattle to heavy clouds. I knew I was going out to the property alone that day and was hoping for a good stretch of Spring weather for the day.... Yeah right? I got out there after a 90 minutes drive and the rain only got heavier and heavier as I approached Hoodsport. If it's raining in Seattle it's usually raining harder here... I knew that but was hoping it would be different today.

I was hauling 7 sheets of 3/4″ plywood up to the site on my small trailer to use as subfloor for our cabin. Also on the agenda today was to brace the platform from racking side to side and front to back with some angled braces.

It rained as hard as I've ever seen rain come down! It rained like it can only rain on the Olympic Peninsula. A mist consumed where I was on Dow Mountain. At 2pm I could barely see the marks I was making on the wood to cut. After a few hours he rain was soaking through my snowboard coat so I switched to rain gear I found in the shed. Working through the rain I cut some 4×4 P/T braces for the legs to the beams and screwed them in with 2 galvanized lag screws on each end. Galv screws seem expensive, $.75 each and I was only using 3 1/2″ ones. They add up when using 3 per brace. But I guess it's the foundation so it's worth it.

Wishing I would have gotten better photos but it was raining so hard I didnt' bother. 90% of the subfloor is down, I need to cut off the edges and cut one piece in have and nail it down. No pictures of it Glad I staggered the plywood this way as it made for less cuts.

[Solar Burrito]

Heading out to the property today to receive a delivery of all the cabin materials! Very excited, hope forklift can off road a little!

[Jeff922]

Some breathtaking photos.  I empathize with your weather.  I got my first big shipment of building materials last May, right at the beginning of a record setting two and a half month stretch of rain.  Keep lots of tarps handy.  Excellent job on the platform - looks super rugged.

[Solar Burrito]

We go the materials delivered, the delivery man had never seen a dirt road.


"He almost slid off the mountain" - he said   

The roads just not that bad.

[Solar Burrito]

So this last weekend me and the co-owners Nate and Aaron went up to the Lake Cushman Property. The plan was to hit the project hard and get as much done as we could since it's hard to find a weekend that the 3 of us can get up there. We are building the Owl's Clover Mini Cabin from Penny Pincher Barns. Oh and it wasn't raining! That's rare in April on the Olympic Peninsula. The materials were waiting for us, having been delivered last Friday. Nate has some carpentry experience and with the help of a cheap Harbor Freight nail gun and us feeding him wood he framed up all 8 walls in one day! Our solar panel and battery were charging all the tool batteries and providing the tunes to keep on working late into the night. We had to use a generator for the compressor and power tools since our inverter is not up to the task.

The Tiny House Design Blog found my project and featured it on their site yesterday. Thanks Tiny House, you really upped my web stats. Link here: http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/2010/05/03/a-cabin-for-solar-burrito/

Now we need frame up the loft and rafters. Any one have a good tutorial on cutting rafters and angles in general? I have no idea how to do it and Nate is going to be busy for 3 weeks.

















Now we need frame up the loft and rafters. Any one have a good tutorial on cutting rafters and angles in general? I have no idea how to do it and Nate is going to be busy for 3 weeks.

[dug]

This program worked well for me-

http://www.blocklayer.com/roof/

You guys are moving along nicely!

[MountainDon]

That's a good one, IMO.  You enter all the variables and it provides the cut pattern.

However you get to the point when you cut wood, cut a pair of rafters first and trial fit them to see if adjustments are necessary. Also get the top of the walls all set properly plumb and square, side to side wall spacing equal all along the walls,  before advancing to the roof.

[Solar Burrito]

Thanks for the tips. I hope our walls are square, I'll their mostly plumb. We ran out of 2x4's provided with the kit before we framed up all the walls last weekend. We had to use some pressure treated extras to keep moving on the walls. So I guess we'll have to buy alot more wood for the gables. I don't think the company took into account all our windows and we did have alot of windows! Big ones. They took alot of extra wood to frame. Oh and in every corner, 8 of them we put an extra 2x4 for blocking later to attach paneling to.

Not going out there this weekend either. I want to finish my wood shed and build the 1' loft wall, not to mention go fishing in Lake Kokanee but I have too much stuff to do at home. Like boat and trailer maintenance and cleaning out the shed. Tired of driving out there by myself even though it's only 1 hour and 45mins each way.

[SkagitDrifter]

Looks like a lot of us are taking this weeknnd off.  I hear you about getting things done on the home front.
It seems my grass needs cutting a few times a week this time of year.
Cool place you have there- nothing like the OP for fun and adventure.  Great blog too.
All the best-

[JavaMan]

And don't forget the real reason we're all taking off this weekend ... it's Mother's Day !

Be sure to remember to honor the Mom's in your life this weekend!

[Solar Burrito]

I think I'm going up this weekend to put down the loft flooring. It's 2x8's, the plan is is use 16p finish nails in the field and regular on the edges that will be under the loft wall.

I'm then hoping to grab my nail gun and make the gable ends at home in Seattle and bring them up to the site built. Especially since I need to buy those materials.

Hopefully my wife and I can get some fishing in on Lake Kokanee or maybe Cushman if the weather is as nice as they say it's going to be! 67 on Saturday is the hottest it's been all year up here. 

[Sassy]

Beautiful area!  Does the water get warm enough to swim in?  That area where you were fishing sure looks inviting to swim in - the water is so clear!  Good progress 

[Solar Burrito]

Yes the water in Lake Cushman and Lake Kokanee does get very warm by the end of June to swim in. Your comment made me realized that all my photos are taken on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, 2 wet colder than average weekends. haha I just thought about it and I almost never take photos of hot days on Cushman since I'm too busy enjoying them.

The photo of fishing is probably cold year round since its this river inside the Olympic National Park that borders the lakes north end.

[Solar Burrito]

Here is a video update on our cabin progress and a partial tour of our property. I'd embed this video but I don't see how to do it here.

http://solarburrito.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/video-tour-of-our-property/

[Osprey]

Off topic but what is a Solar Burrito?

[MountainDon]

 scroll about 3/4 the way down the page... look for the heading "Solar Bean & Cheese Burrito"

http://berlinswhimsy.typepad.com/berlins_whimsy_childrens_/
     

[Osprey]

Sounds like a good way to end up hugging a toilet.

[Solar Burrito]

I've never met a burrito I didn't like.  

Heading back up to the property this weekend. I got a permit to cut down 9 trees improve the view.

[MountainDon]

I got a permit to cut down 9 trees improve the view.

that need boggles my mind.....   does it cost?