Hi all, I've been lurking here since the summer of 2009, following all of your builds and learning about building small houses. I'm on the ski patrol at White Pass and with my wife and 2 kids that are emphatically into skiing (one that is joining the race team this year and my 3 year old that first strapped on boards last year when he was 2), we have been wanting to build a small ski cabin to reduce our drive time and maximize time on the hill during the winter ... as well as enable more time in the Cascades, particularly since Rainier and St. Helen's parks are really close as well. However, I've never built anything on the scale of a house, but I stumbled onto this site. Last fall, I decided to give it a try and bought the little house plans from John. Using those I built a small 12x16 at home, so I could learn some things hands-on and make as many mistakes as possible on a smaller scale (mission accomplished there - i've redone lots of things, but haven't made too many of the same mistakes). That project is still not completely finished, but it's mostly done. It has been a great learning experience and after getting this one up here I'll get some pics of that that project up here too.
After finishing up most of the little house shell at the end of ski season last year we got a small lot in a tiny town nearest to WP and planned to break ground in the summer. We went through a number of designs, I bought my second set of plans from John (the 20x30 1.5 story plans), and set off to build a pod design - iow, a 20x32 main building with two 12x20s for bedrooms. But that worked out to be a bit pricey, particularly given the slope of our lot and need for a stepped foundation ... plus I didn't feel good about the angle of the lot and the pier and post foundation (even though I'm sure it would have been fine). So, I ended up doing a custom design using google sketchup for a single 20x34, had the wife review, changed to a 24x30, had the wife look, talked to several other people and looked at their cabins and finally settled on a 28x34 with loft, which is just long enough to fit between the septic and the setbacks from the road. Planned to break ground over the summer building by myself, but health problems got in the way - did some "therapy" for 2 months over the summer instead of building, felt terrible, and finally decided to get a crew to do the foundation and shell for me. I took to google sketchup to draw up the plans to submit to the county and get bids. The county approved my plans with no changes, I signed with the builder (which I just couldn't be happier with), and "we" broke ground the first week in November.
Enough story - here are some pics of the build - the shell is nearly done now, most of the metal roof is on (as you'll see in the pics) with the exception of the mud room/entrance way that is a separate gable to create a double door entrance system (yeah it's cold up there) which I was inspired to include based on all of the houses I've been in up in Canada. I'll try to orient the pics in order from lot to where we are today... Of course, suggestions are most welcome and as I start the plumbing and electrical (myself) I'll be asking more questions...
Lot after I installed a mobile home pack and masthead for power
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Here are some pics of the foundation going in....
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I got all of the windows and doors for the place myself (combination of Marvin wood windows as well as Milgard and custom ordered Atrium windows for the front gable), so as the walls were going up, I brought them up to the crew. I hung around for half the day on site to watch the first wall go up. The crew really is great and the builder had a ton of pictures of other jobs in an album he had on site.... I was really impressed with the workmanship of the crew... and at a really great price!! Plus, he's emailed or texted me photos every day of the build - it's really cool to get a text with a photo of more done... [cool]
More pics:
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nice big crawlspace - after they poured the stemwalls there was about a yard of concrete left over, so they put it in the lower part of the crawlspace and smoothed it out, so the lowest "step" has a scratch coat so to speak - and there is full head height in this part - going to be nice for a utility area for the air handler, water heater, and storage , particularly until I can get a detached garage built.
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first wall framing day... These show the start of the siding. We went with a really nice smooth (no grooves) doug fir T1-11, with cedar battens at 12" oc. We've been debating painting vs. staining and pretty convinced we'll paint it. More pics:
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In this pic you can see where the "mud room" will come out from the main part of the cabin. The gable will die into the main roof. One exterior door on the real outside, one exterior door on the inside to create a buffer to the cold outside air. We picked up an old church pew that we plan to cut to size and put in there along with all of our winter coats/gear/etc. Should be nice to have a place to step into to take your coat and boots off without intruding on the actual interior. At least that's the thought....
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During the rest of that week, work continued ... they framed up the other walls and the two bedrooms and bath on the first floor as well as the loft and stairs. I should have noted earlier that the cabin is positioned on top of a hill right next to the cowlitz river and is facing Mt. Rainier. So although I don't have any pics of it yet, we have a great view of the top. I'm going to need to get a telescope and see if we can watch climbers summit during the summer. More pics....
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In this pic you can see the back wall framing and will notice that low roof pitch. The front roof pitch of the cabin is a 12 in 12, whereas the back portion of the roof pitch over the loft is a 4 in 12. This was to accommodate ceiling height in the loft (well obviously) but we didn't return the roof pitch to 12 in 12 at the very back. Looked funny to me, but we can barely see the back of the house, so I traded off some visual appearance in the unseen back for usability within the loft. By the way, the loft ceiling height is ~ 13' at the ridge beam....
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Views from loft
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I put in a 15"x93" tempered window in the stairwell, so they had to balloon frame that wall section. Looked kind of funny till they got the roof on...
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Very nice project. Thanks for posting all of the pix.
Sounds like an exceptionally great experience with the county building dept. No changes doesn't happen often.
Was really cool to watch the roof go on.... I'm glad I didn't have to do it....
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Rainier is hiding over there in the clouds in this one behind Adam:
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26 guage metal roofing from Champion on the back portion over the loft:
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start of front wall framing:
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Custom ordered windows arrived ... and they were installed! Funny, the tallest one is 8'3" in the longest dimension, but it looks small in the pic! I shot from the hip a bit when coming up with the window design for the gable. I don't like it when the whole gable is consumed by windows right up the eaves, but I didn't want them to be too small, particularly considering the view. I think they look a bit small in this pic, even though I know they aren't, but I think they'll be fine when I actually get up there later today to check it all out.
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Final pic from yesterday afternoon. I have early patrol tomorrow, so I have to be on the lift at 7:30 am, so instead of getting everyone up at 4 am, we're going to grab a room tonight and spend this afternoon checking it all out. I'll post some more pics from the weekend in a few days when we return. Plus I'll have some plumbing/electrical/wood stove questions as I'll probably start that next week.... I'm on sabbatical until the end of January, so I have some time to focus on getting the cabin livable for the next 2 months.....
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Great project. Keep the pictures coming. [cool]
Really nice build going on there.
Very cool! Looks like it's going up quickly...congrats. I love White Pass; attended a PSIA/AASI Divisional Academy there a few years ago.
The place is about to be completely closed in now. The mud room is nearly complete (rafters were mostly up on Friday and it should be getting sheathed and the metal roofing put on today and/or tomorrow.
So I'm about to take over and start on getting the chimney installed as well as plumbing. Hence some questions...
I just scanned in the floor plan for reference below. I have two bathrooms, one of the first floor centered between the two first floor bedrooms on the back wall (toilet, sink, shower) and one in the upstairs loft on the "right" side of the loft. I'm lining up the walls to allow for a straight shot of 3" vent pipe from the crawlspace to the roof.
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The first floor seems pretty easy since the drains all tie in within the crawl space. However, since I'll be using that 3" "vent" pipe as the drain for the loft toilet and shower, it would therefore be a wet vent (as shown in the diagram I just scratched together below), which I think isn't correct, right? So I was thinking I could run a separate vent for the 1st floor shower and sink up right next to the 3" main stack and then connect it back to the 3" stack above the flood rim level of the loft bath... does that sound reasonable?
Also, in the loft bath, I have 2 sinks right next to a washer/dryer, which I can run down through the wall next to the stairs - I figured I would basically create another 2" stack in that wall, which would therefore drain and vent those 2 sinks and the washer/dryer and then tie that vent into the main stack vent in the ceiling of the bath. I wanted to do that so I would only need a single vent through the roof. Is that reasonable.
Finally, there is the kitchen sink and dishwasher - drain is easy, but I'm not how to avoid venting in an exterior wall... plus the vent for that is really tricky since I have a big LVL directly over the downstairs bath which the loft floor joists are hangered to... Any ideas or suggestions?
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Thanks for the help/suggestions. Btw, I'm in Lewis County, WA and there aren't any special provisions - just have to follow the Uniform Plumbing Code.
Can you take the vent out near the ridge to prevent sliding snow from ripping it off - maybe a couple 45's to get it to the peak - box it in with wood if it is going to be exposed and you don't want to look at it.
Looks like issues with venting on the downstairs stuff too - all wet vented due to the toilet and other plumbing above. I'm out of time now but perhaps I or others can help more later.
Yeah, it will go out really close to the ridge for that very reason. Even though LaNina hasn't started really stacking up the snow yet, I'm concerned about that; actually that's one of the reasons I'm hoping I can tie the vents together and have a single roof penetration...
As for the wet venting of downstairs, that's exactly what I was hoping for suggestions with. I was thinking that if I had a separate 2" vent for the downstairs shower and sink, and then run that up the same wall right next to the 3" main stack and then tie in above the floor rim of the upstairs bath drain/vents, I would be on the right track... However, it's not clear to me if the toilets are ok without separate venting?
Well, the shell is now complete and weather-tight. I spent the day up there yesterday installing locks on the doors, dropping off the wood stove and plumbing supplies, as well as trying to figure out how best to do the plumbing. The inspector showed up while I was there and he spent at least an hour helping me develop a complete code-compliant plan for the DWV while on-site! Was really great... I also stopped by LNI and pulled the electrical permits today (1 for the house, 1 for the feeder) and bought stuff to get started ... So, the good news is that the major check-writing is over, but now it's on me to get the rest done. I'll spend all of next week getting the DWV, supply plumbing, and electrical roughed in. Anyway, here are some pics....
These show the mud room pretty well.
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From the upstairs bathroom looking "through" the wall that will be there towards the great room.
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Master Bath
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Toilet room - check out that ceiling!
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Standing in the master bath looking towards the master bedroom in the loft.
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This is the view from the master bedroom through what will be 5' wide french doors towards the great room.
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All closed in.
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Looking good. It's nice to have an inspector willing to assist like that.
GREAT project. Thanks for sharing it with us. Look forward to seeing it through to completion.
Got started on the DWV - well, mostly the vent parts so far. Got the downstairs bath drains and vents in as well as the upstairs except for hanging and connecting the laundry box (forgot to get one, but have one now). All dry fit so far. Still have to finish running those vents to the roof, but I'm waiting for a dry day before I even think about getting up there. Plan to spend tomorrow in the crawl space connecting all of the drains and pointing them at the stub out through the footer to the septic. Hoping that will be it on that one...
Also, got most of main panel hung (yeah I know that's pretty trivial) as well as all of the boxes placed. Will start pulling wire right after I get the supply plumbing run - which after staring at things for a while, looks like it will be easier than I first thought. Went and got a cheap angle drill today to make things a bit easier as well.
Couple of not so glamorous shots...
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Well, I realized I hadn't updated this with any more pics since December 15. A few days before christmas last year I learned that the cancer I've been battling (had radiation last summer) had spread yet *again* and I had to do 3 months of chemo....which obviously put things on hold. However, I made it through all of that and got back to work on the cabin. I'm nearing the "big" rough-in inspection and thought I'd post some pics - it's a combined framing/plumbing/mechanical here in Lewis County then followed by electrical (via LNI). So, I've finished the electrical rough-in and actually had that inspected and all was mostly ok with a few minor corrections, notably to finish the plumbing and duct work (yeah, I might have called them a bit prematurely).
I've since finished all of the DWV plumbing from the septic connection through the roof and the supply is all hooked up - even turned on the water this past weekend to check for leaks and things look good. Two weeks ago I went up on the roof to get all of the plumbing vents installed...SCARY! I tied a rope to a tree, threw it over the top of the house and used that to get up the 12/12 to the 4/12 section where I had two of the three vents come out. Then this past weekend, I had to go back up there to install two bath fan exhaust vents. Pics of all of that below.
I had someone install the chimney for the wood stove as I couldn't pass up a pro chimney guy offering to do it for $400 labor. What? No brainer in my book. I bought all of the chimney pipe from Lowe's and when I went to pick it up one day, it was there! A quick check of their computer showed they hadn't even ordered it! On the plus side, they gave us a several hundred dollar gift card to make up for it, making the whole wood stove purchase even better!
Based on Mt. Don's LP lines and someone else's experiences, I installed most of the LP gas plumbing lines this past weekend as well. I just have a few more pieces to put together after the on-demand Rinnai water heater arrives this week. Plan is to get that installed (last part of the plumbing left - supply to the water heater and then hot water supply back to the hot water manifold. I haven't yet tested the black pipe for the LP yet under pressure although I have a Schrader (sp?) valve installed to do so.
The only thing after that is to get the heat pump installed. I installed all of the registers but two this weekend as well. Just finalized my duct design last night (manual D and manual J calculations can be a bit painful), so I'll be putting that all in this weekend. Then it's just a matter of getting my heat pump guy to bring the equipment, and connect the condenser to the air handler! Hoping for that inspection in 2-3 weeks. Based on the bids I had gotten previously, I won't be installing insulation, nor will I be doing sheetrock - the economics don't make sense to diy.
Anyway, that's my update and here are some pics!
Main panel installed and labeled. Still have number of spaces left
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I made a little "plumbing room" below the stairs and just to the right of the under-stairs pantry. The rest of the area to the right of the mini-utility room is going to be a built in bench that we figure the kids will be into. One of the cold air returns will be under that bench.
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The first plumbing vent (1.5") for the kitchen is at the peak of the mudroom
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One of the easier bath fan exhaust outlets
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The back two plumbing vents and two bath exhaust fan outlets on the upper part of the roof (4/12 pitch). That back drop off is ~36ft!!
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One of the scary drop offs looking left of the vents
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I would get on the ladder up to the top of the mudroom roof first then pull myself up the rope to the peak and mount the 4/12 roof. Here's looking down my path
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The wife making sure the rope attached to the tree doesn't slide too much on me
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The view forward showing the chimney. Weird that my iphone camera didn't pick up Mt. Rainier as it's right there - oh well
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Plumbing plumbing plumbing
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LP gas line
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1st floor bath plumbing. Took these so I could stare it this week as I'll be running duct work through here this weekend
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Final quick pic as we were getting ready to leave last night
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Sorry to hear about the cancer, hopefully it's gone for good this time!! It hasn't slowed you down though, you're getting it done :) I love your cabin. My husband and I love to snowboard and that is the reason why we are building our cabin up north. Of course our hills aren't quite as big as the ones you have there :P
Busy weekend as I got the heat pump installed and working! For reference, my place is ~1200 sq ft, so I went with a 2 Ton 14 SEER, 9.0 HSPF with variable speed A/H. I had to build up a level site for the outdoor condenser which took a bit longer than I originally planned, but basically I built it up with two layers of cinder blocks which I the back filled and then used some of the concrete "scraps" from the foundation pour to reinforce the sides and downhill sides. The idea was to get it up off the ground just a bit. Then I put the Styrofoam "pad" on top of that. In the crawlspace, we hung the air handler, I wired it up to the disconnect that I already had a HR to and then cut in and installed the last two registers (downstairs bath and under cabinet register for the kitchen). Connected up the line set and outdoor temp sensor, then wired up the outdoor unit to its disconnect, changed out the breaker in the main panel for a 60 amp (larger electric coil backup than I originally planned for) connected up the house and started it up! Then we put together the main trunk line with takeoffs for all of the downstairs registers, ran flex to all of the registers, and installed the thermostat (Vision 8000)!
I still have to put the return in and run a 10" round up to the loft and wye for the 8" I have for the loft bedroom and the 6" for the upstairs master bath, but I'll take care of that this weekend and it will officially be finished!
Also, got all of the LP piping installed as well as the ground wire run from the panel to the black pipe. Pressure tested it to 15psi and overnight I saw a fraction of a psi lower in the morning (which I hypothesized was due to temperature) and sure enough once it warmed up on Sunday it returned to the same 15psi. Felt great about that...
Finally, I got the Rinnai water heater installed. Ran out of 3/4" pex so I was only able to plumb the cold, supply side from the cold manifold, but adding the line from the w/h to the hot manifold won't be a big deal this weekend. Cutting down that exhaust and then lining that up and getting it seated by myself was a bit tricky, but it all worked out.
The cool thing is that I plan to call for the inspections next week after I get everything done this weekend! LNI will reinspect the electrical based on the required corrections from the earlier inspection and then the county will do the combined framing/plumbing/mechanical. I think everything will be in order after this next weekend, but we'll see!
On to pics:
Heat pump:
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4980adf1.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/3383fdee.jpg)
End of the supply trunk:
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/1d89aea0.jpg)
Supply runs:
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/19671a28.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/667f7e8d.jpg)
Outdoor unit:
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4ce4f491.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/505e018a.jpg)
Water heater:
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/147cb180.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/17362c3d.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/e3d765f6.jpg)
Nice to get all that in - looks like lots of work!
I passed my electrical rough-in inspection and my combined framing/plumbing/mechanical inspection yesterday!!!! Consequently, I've been approved to insulate, so I'm about to call up the insulation people and get scheduled for next week. Was a really great experience, well except for the morning. Talk about stress - I pulled into the cabin and there is a creek flowing down my driveway ... ok, I know I turned off the water "in" the house, but I left it on at the meter and that's the source of the river - the water meter box. I'm thinking the only thing I did there was connect the 1" poly water line... is that leaking? So, I turn it off, dig up the box and a nice hole all around it, turn the water back on the it's pressure regulator! It was the kind that I guess comes apart as there were four screws on the corner. I hypothesize that perhaps I could just tighten the screws and get through the plumbing inspection. So I touch one of the screws and the head falls off while the head for the adjacent screw is gone. Bummer. I run down to the local Ace hardware store hoping they have one and THEY DO! Score. And interestingly, the nice woman working there said that I should save the receipt and call the water service people because they are the only ones she's ever seen come in to buy pressure regulators and perhaps they'll reimburse the cost since she thinks they actually maintain that part. That might be good, but at the time I'm thinking, "the inspector is coming!"
So, I get back, replace the pressure regulator, check everything else and I'm back in business. Then I go around and check all of the plumbing one more time since I've had the DWV full of water to the roof since Sunday. I hear a drip drip in the crawlspace and find that one of the clean out fittings is leaking, so I run back to the ace and get a few parts and replace the fittings there. Then I find that the kitchen cleanout has been leaking a bit too. Grrrr... So I try to tighten the clean out and I crack the tee-fitting! Argh! So I quick replace the tee-fitting and related piping there too. Finally, I make sure all of the valves from the supply manifold are on and i find the hot fitting to the laundry box is leaking just slightly. Last weekend I went through the place and removed all fittings I had previously put together with teflon tape and redid them with rectoseal ... except one, and what do you know - it was leaking. So I quickly redo that one fitting with rectoseal and finally, all looks good. I am now with Mtn Don and others - I plan to rectoseal for *everything* now, teflon tape is out in my book. Just as I'm finishing up, the electrical inspector arrives. 5 mins later the building inspector arrives. I tell him about the day's saga and he says, well everything looks good now! I fill the DWV back up (using the fittings I created to fill the entire thing through the roof from the crawlspace so I didn't have a dedicated Tee-fitting for the test (his suggestion) at about which time the electrical inspector indicates everything looks great and gives me some stickers on the panel. Then I walk through the rest of the place with the building inspector and he points out a few things I need to correct and approves framing, plumbing, and mechanical!
Felt great to leave the place yesterday knowing all of the systems are now in order. The few corrections will be re-inspected at the insulation inspection, which hopefully will be in the next 2 weeks. Unfortunately, no pics from yesterday as I was too giddy to remember to take some.
Nice looking place! You seem to have some plumbing background... Right?
Always wanted to be ski patrol in the mountains. Not much for Great skiing here in Mn. :(
Hi duncanshannon - no, I don't have any formal plumbing background. I've only built a small guest cabin at my house (based on John's little house plans) and this cabin. Although I spent about 10 years collectively in the engineering departments across 3 universities, I don't count any of that time as experience when it comes to building.. ;-)
Yeah, the ski patrol thing is pretty fun most of the time, particularly given the whole family is now on the hill all winter. This cabin is already providing more time together. This winter should be the best yet if I can get more of it done quickly!
I had originally planned to have insulation installed this past Friday, but alas the company had to order more R38C as they don't carry as much of the high-density stuff in stock regularly. No problem...going with the flow. We still went up and got a few things done. I had a few punch list items from the last set of inspections, so I got those things all knocked out (extra strap in the crawl where the 3" DWV pipe went through the plate, changed out the w/h pressure relief valve to cpvc and fed through the wall to outside, hard-pipe the kitchen vent, few extra wide nail plates for studs with plumbing, etc.).
Since there isn't that much to do inside right now (which feels weird btw), I installed some light fixtures on the front and started framing the front porch. I ended up making it a bit bigger than originally planned, but we're liking it a lot. I'm finishing the deck with cedar, which is what I'll do for the decking on the front as well. There will be a wide set of stairs facing the driveway, but I didn't get around to even starting those. Instead we all went up to Paradise for the morning on Sunday to have a few snow ball fights!
On the plus side, insulation goes in tomorrow!
Lights!
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/dbe28bff.jpg)
Front porch
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/49efb067.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/af548962.jpg)
Few extra pics from Paradise at Mt. Rainier - still quite a bit of snow for late August.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/b76a137f.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/dbd41215.jpg)
Insulation went in yesterday. I had R38C put in the ceiling, R21 put in the walls, and R30 put in the floor. Then I had sound insulation installed in every interior wall and the loft floor and stairs. It's amazing how quiet things suddenly were after all of the insulation was installed. Finally, I had FSK paper put up on the ceilings where the cedar T&G is going, they did the "energy seal," and all exposed pipes in the crawl were insulated. The crew of 4 was in and out in ~4 hours and cost far less than just buying the materials and diy.
I'm getting bids from people for sheet rock now which I expect to start next week...
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/88e7b57b.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/d733361f.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4f3fa864.jpg)
This is where the kitchen will be
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/6d3a9c93.jpg)
I realized I didn't have a pic of the wood stove pipe install. A bit dark given it was so sunny outside, but you get the idea
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/01e55427.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/04bf7dfb.jpg)
master bedroom in the loft looking forward
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4adee8f4.jpg)
Mbr looking across from the master bath
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4aa1bfd6.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/63c6a20e.jpg)
I love following this thread! I would have no problem with this being my permanent residence!
Really coming along nicely! What a great way for the family to spend the winter - skiing! I used to have a lot of friends who were ski patrol that would give me free lift tickets, so did a lot of skiing during college. Haven't been for probably 20+ yrs... not since I was skiing at Snow Mass when the snow was not very good, icy & lots of rocks showing - I must have caught an edge & all of a sudden I was tumbling down the mountain side, skis flew one way, I flew the other... had to be taken down by a litter - that was embarrassing. It took a good 20-30 min to haul me down cuz I was way at the top.
Looking forward to seeing your progress - great looking cabin! Paridise looked beautiful, too. I used to be able to see Mt Baker & the 3 Sisters (I think that was the name) from my house up by Bellingham when I lived there. I worked for Rainier Bank back then.
Thanks Nathan! We think the same thing every time we are there. Once we have a phone line and an internet connection installed, I think we'll end up spending more and more time there.
Thanks Sassy! Ice and rocks definitely make skiing "interesting." Glad you were ok. Overall, it's really great family time. Everyone has a great time on the hill and the kids are *exhausted* at the end of the day. Because of the patrol we've gotten to know a lot more people up on the hill and in turn they know our kids as well. In fact my entire family often "patrols" with me when not doing lessons or the race team stuff. And they are very cool and understanding when I have to tend to accidents. Plus they love the perks of the various BBQs and events throughout the season during which we get to get back on the lift after it has closed to the public. Very fun.
Back to the cabin - called to get the insulation inspection tomorrow, which hopefully will happen. Then I scheduled a sheetrock crew to hang, tape & mud, texture (orange peel), as well as prime and paint all walls. They will start next week. That works out great for me since I still need to finish the front porch, get the deck going, order the T&G cedar for the ceilings and figure out the flooring situation. Can't wait!
Looking fantastic! I always found pleasure in clean construction site, you can see more and less likely for someone to trip and fall. I lived in Wyo and Montana in the middle 70's and always loved the Rainier beer commercials. Can't wait to see more pics.
Went up for just a day over the long weekend and met with the sheetrock/paint crew. It's funny how the perspective changes as various layers are added. After insulation, I was concerned that things were dark. Now with some of the sheetrock hung, it brightens back up. Anyway...
I had to finish up all of the framing beneath the stairs (frame out the return air duct, add nailers for sheet rock in the pantry, etc.) so the sheet rock guys could get it all hung. I also had to mount/install the shower pans and connect those up. Then I had to finish moving all of my stuff from inside to the crawlspace so it doesn't all get covered in mud/primer/paint. Not too much really given all of the other work days, but it was nice to see how things are going to look. Sheet rock inspection should be today and then they'll get going on the taping/mudding/sanding/texture ... oh and paint! Yeah, we are also having the crew do the painting as well. My wife just has to pick the colors. However, all of that is just for the walls- then I have to get going on the cedar T&G ceilings....
Left much later than planned, so no pics this time, but soon!
I flew my brother out from NH to help me out for a bit and spent a few days chasing down materials and delivering to the cabin as well as getting going on installation. All walls are now sheet rocked, mudded, taped, textured, primed, and painted! I went and bought all of the flooring (5/8" engineered; some sort of Asian Teak stained Oak IIRC), toilets and various other stuff, as well as 2 units of 1x6 T&G cedar. The plan has always been to use cedar on all of the ceilings as we prefer the look over sheet rock...well and the size of the pieces during installation. ;) The sheet rock crew left their scaffolding for me to use as they don't need it for their next job, which was pretty cool. I'm guessing that makes up for the fact that they broke my brand new Vision 8000 heat pump thermostat, although I'm still not happy about it. I digress.
We got all set up and started on the large open area of the ceiling first, which definitely proved interesting. The sections of the ceiling in the great room are just shy of 20' wide and 20' "long" from the top plate to the ridge beam. The bummer was that I had to cut every piece, which I did after figuring out which pattern to use and then staging the courses. Then I started banging them up there. I think each side took 47 or 48 courses. We had 3 levels of scaffolding and at the end we had to put the planks across the very top which I have to admit was kindah scary given how much movement there was (we were also short 2 sections of cross bracing). So I would stage the courses and my brother would move me back and forth, except for near the wood stove which required moving close and and then swinging perpendicularly over the hearth. Fun stuff. Each side ended up taking about 24 hours which included breaks and 6 hours of sleep time.
We also fired up the wood stove for the first time. It's just an inexpensive one from Lowe's (Pleasant Hearth is the brand), but works really well. Going to take some getting used to it I guess. I'm not sure why but it was very cool to see the smoke come out the chimney for the first time.
After finishing the two large sections of the great room, we installed the 68" ceiling fan. It looks like a huge wood prop and doesn't appear to be moving fast, but moves a lot of air. Since it's marketed for a "great room," there aren't any of those pesky little chains hanging down, and no light. So it operates entirely by remote control. Kind of cool. After all of that we moved upstairs and set up the scaffolding in the master bedroom. This was nice as we only needed a single level throughout and we set up multiples so I could run across all of it without having to be moved. The last several courses near the ridge beam required standing on a bucket on the scaffolding, but that just made it more exciting.
In between moving me around on the scaffolding, my brother got to work on the electrical - installing nearly all of the outlets and switches as well as the dining area light, fan/vents, etc. Was awesome to start turning stuff on and not having to fuss with the spiderweb of extension cords anymore!
Finally, we laid Ditra and tile in the downstairs bathroom as well as Ditra in the "potty room" in the master bath. That way next weekend I can install at least one toilet, which will make the kids and wife VERY happy. ;) It's the little things. I still have to finish the ceiling in the master bath upstairs, the narrow section over the stairs (more 32' ladder fun woo-hoo!), then move back downstairs and finish the small ceiling overhang in the kitchen, the ceiling of the 2 downstairs bedrooms and bath, and finally the mudroom. But the ceilings are limited to 9' in those first floor cases, so I now consider those pretty trivial. :P
On to some pics...
First several courses:
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/33312849.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/959b181b.jpg)
Finally one half done!
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/8d0ae154.jpg)
On to the other half
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/ae6f86e1.jpg)
We made it!
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/edce4d41.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/55f46917.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/6f9e22a2.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/35f78ae6.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4b619455.jpg)
Master Bedroom
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/b7e53397.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/4107ec95.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/b0660a04.jpg)
Master Bath "potty room" fan/light combo and recessed can as well as floor.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/dfd27b01.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/3a2ac21b.jpg)
Fire!
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/a2a6ed9a.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/1b383ce2.jpg)
Really nice job! You'll have it done in no time :)
This project is coming along amazing! I also noticed that your color scheme is the close to same for what I had in mind for my place, mind sharing the exact paint color for the "sage green" you used?
Thanks Nathan and Sassy! Yeah, hopefully we'll get there quickly as the snow levels are already starting to drop.
Nathan - yes, I'll look up the exact color shortly and post it for reference. I thought it was a bit light when I first saw it, but I think it looks pretty good, particularly against the cedar. I know it was a Rodda paint (what the sheet rock crew preferred) and I still have the sample chips around here somewhere. We went with the green everywhere except for the master bedroom and downstairs bath (i think). The idea on the master bedroom was that it would look like the sky when looking through the french doors from downstairs. The wife's idea, but I buy it.. ;)
We're heading back up Friday night for the weekend. Plan is to get the toilet installed and get more of the ceiling complete.
That would be great! Ive never used or heard of that type of paint, but I can probably color match
Hi Nathan - To be honest, I hadn't heard of that brand of paint either... but now that I have I've seen signs for it all over. Anyway, sorry for the delay - that sage green color is called water magic, according to my wife who picked it out...
Quite a delay from the last update, but the past several weekends I've been exhausted on Sunday evening when we finally pack up everything and the kids to head home and forget to take pics. I finally remembered yesterday.
The big news is that all ceilings are now done! Yes, every ceiling in the place is 1x6, T&G cedar. It took longer than expected (yeah, big surprise right?), but it's over. The last section was the narrow section over the stairwell that is at the 4-12 pitch. I knew I could start it with a ladder on the stairs, but figured the crux was the middle. I did a couple of scary ladder tricks for a few courses and finally built a platform from the upper landing extending out over the stairs and then used a 8 foot A-ladder on top of that. It was still the scariest part of the whole ceiling endeavor - guess that's why I left it to the last section.. d*
We also got the downstairs bath mostly installed, say 80%. Got most of the shower tiles installed with the exception of a few edge pieces up by the glass tile accent "stripe." Edges need to be fixed up a bit still, but those are details. We had the vanity already, but we bought a sink topper thing and I got the plumbing all done to hook it up, so that's all done.... and of course, most importantly we got the toilet installed. I bought dual-flush toilets not to save water so much as I've read that because they are designed for lower flow, they are more efficient in moving things along. I like the sound of that, so in it went. Yes, the wife and kids are much happier now. ;D Bath fan and all lights are in as well. The only things left are some cedar trim around the 2x4 that I used as a pseudo ledger around the dropped part of the ceiling, cutting up some of the tiles for the baseboard trim after I get the door trim on, and thresholds.
We also got the slate down in the mudroom. We had previously decided to go with Ditra instead of cement board just for ease and speed in installation. It's pretty nice stuff. So, we laid down the Ditra in there one weekend and put the slate down this past weekend and are pleased with the look. Grouting and sealing will happen this coming weekend.
I also finally built some stairs to the front porch. No railings yet, but given that we are now to the stage of installing flooring, we wanted to be able to have the kids not track in so much stuff from outside. Just simple stairs, but they feel and look beefy which I think goes with the place. I went back and forth on what I should use for the treads and finally just went with simple Doug Fir 2x12s, but then for the risers I used cedar. I still have to put the blocks beneath the bottom of the stairs, but that's not a big deal.
Finally, we started on the hardwood floors this weekend as well, just before we left on Sunday. We got the kids' room done! After working with the cedar T&G for so long, the flooring goes together easy and fast, like butter. 8) Really a nice change. We are using a 5" wide, 5/8" engineered hardwood, White Oak, stained an Asian Teak. Looks pretty good I think. The big thing for me was the width, a 5" course makes it feel like you're making progress during install. No doubt, it's just a head game, but I'll take anything I can get. ;) Given I had already installed the ceiling fan in the kids' room, the only thing left are doors and trim and we can call that room done.
We plan to get most of the rest of the flooring done next weekend, which I think will make for a huge change in how things feel overall ... and reduce the dust from the sheetrock! Anyway, too much typing, here are some pics:
ceiling shots
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/f931dd61.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/e40746e8.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/ea834a7b.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/da74fe82.jpg)
mudroom ceiling/lights/floor
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/eddf16ac.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/b4f28a44.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/2136babd.jpg)
downstairs bath
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/5392ddbe.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/ae0261f6.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/7e76405d.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/1c796dea.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/ee655b67.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/ac6ce928.jpg)
bedroom floor/ceiling/fan
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/b9cf6d90.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/2bad56d9.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/b8794466.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/78fa5b82.jpg)
front porch stairs
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/0c20f32a.jpg)
Wow, really nice work metolent!
Thanks Mogie! We keep plodding on every weekend ... I'm trying to get everything complete before the snow starts flying consistently and accumulating, because when that happens it will be hard to choose between working on the cabin and skiing.
As to progress, we got the mudroom slate and the hearth slate grouted and Ditra laid down in the master bath in preparation for tile. We still need to seal the slate, but we'll get to it. The sheet rock guys also came and hung the durock in the master bath shower, so that's ready for tile now. The big news is that we finished installing the hardwood flooring throughout the entire place! We installed hardwood everywhere except for the bathrooms and the mudroom. I got all 1st floor hardwood installed last weekend, then finished up the flooring in the loft/master bedroom this weekend. It's quite nice to finally be done with all of the dust left over from having the walls sheet rocked.
I also got all of the treads/risers installed, which took quite a bit of head scratching before starting. I originally planned to rip up the 2x12 treads and use the pre-fab oak treads with rounded edge, but I like how stout the 2x12s feel. So, we decided to use the h/w flooring, but it's engineered, so we couldn't just trim the edges because you'd see the plywood layers. So, given we have cedar on the ceilings (and soon all trim/molding will be cedar as well, we decided to use the flooring for the treads and trim out the edges all with cedar; sort of a ceiling materials meet the flooring materials in the middle kind of thing. Plus it would keep all of the rise/run dimensions consistent and within the code required variance limits. Also, I've read about how the contrast factor in stairs is a safety thing...great. So, I start ripping down the left over 1x6 T&G cedar to make it all work. I started at the bottom just to get the layout and dimensions worked out for patterning purposes. I figured if I did the first few steps up to the landing, then the rest of the stairs would be easy just working off the pattern. I also did most of the "side" of the moldings on the lower steps/landing to ensure the face pieces worked with the side moldings. Turns out I had to change at least one of the sizes 1/4" to work it all out. In the end, I got all of the treads and risers installed, now I just need to finish the "finished" edge and edge face as well as the side moldings up the wall. But I think I like the end results, even if a bit labor intensive. Let me know what you think.... For reference, we have 16 steps up the loft (9' walls on the first floor and the loft floor is 11 7/8" TJIs hangered on a 6x12 LVL in the middle, so the finished floor is just over 10' up.
Here you can see the side moldings I did in cedar that I will continue all the way up the stairs. Although I wasn't sure I would like the contrast between the teak-stained oak flooring and the cedar, I think it's looking ok. We'll finish the cedar when I'm done with installation.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/d853a27b.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/d58385d0.jpg)
Here's a closer shot. I ended up doing cedar around the periphery of the landing just to continue the cedar edging as part of the transition. Thinking it looks ok.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/c8fde0b1.jpg)
all treads finished... just need to finish the rest of the trim and get the handrail up....
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/ff8a93fd.jpg)
We're taking next weekend off from the cabin as I have to do the OEC refresher this weekend with the Mt Hood ski patrol before the season starts. Plus we're planning to hit a few cabinet outlet places to look for deals on kitchen cabinets that we're actually ready to start installing. If you know of any good places in the Seattle/Portland area to find cabinets, let me know!
Very nice work! I especially like the stairs ;D
I think the stairs look great, too - everything looks great! Nice job :)
We've been way too busy lately... and are pushing hard to try to get everything in so we can get our CO before the holiday. We'll see. The stairs are now complete, I've mounted the cabinet boxes I'm building so we could get the measurements for the counters, I've mounted the vent hood even though I don't have the cover piece over the flex up to the ceiling yet. I've also finished the stairs completely, including the hand rail, tiled the master bath floor and even the master bath shower. I was going to mount the master bath toilet and set the vanity today, but ran out of time. If our counter people can get our order done quickly this week, I'll also hook up the kitchen sink next week. Still need a dishwasher, but haven't been able to get a deal on a good one yet...so still looking. I also mounted all the posts for the front porch railing, but ran out of baluster material, so will have to finish that next weekend.
I've gotta get a call into the inspector to make sure we can get the final inspection once all of the plumbing fixtures are in... even though I haven't finished all the trim work. I think electrical is now done with the exception of the ceiling fan/light in the master bedroom and the dishwasher.... so I should be able to call LNI for the final very soon.... In serious hurry hurry hurry mode ...
Despite the rush, we managed to get in a great ski day on Thanksgiving - no one there and it snowed all afternoon! We didn't ski the rest of the weekend, but we did go up to the pass to eat dinner and got in a lot of sledding... fortunately, the sledding area next to the lodge is illuminated!
Some messy pics I hastily took as we were heading out the door this afternoon....
master bath shower - the "stripe" are all glass tiles
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/e2995c00.jpg)
crazy looking light fixture we haven't figured out how to position yet
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/eb795dc3.jpg)
master bath floor is tiled
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/58fb5683.jpg)
stairs
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/a5b11b3d.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/005357e5.jpg)
kitchen is coming together - messy since we were packing up.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/d9593a68.jpg)
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/70c1f578.jpg)
Fantastic work metolent, I really love your cabin!! We're waiting for the snow to start here, nothing on the forecast yet :(
Thanks mogie! The snow has taken a brief break for the last several days which has made for some nice sunshine (and break from the rain in the Puget Sound), but I'm sure it will be back shortly....
We're in the mad rush to get to our final inspection. One from LNI (which I'm not particularly concerned about) and then the final inspection to get our CO from the county. I think I can schedule those two concurrently, right?
I forgot to take pictures, but we got quite a bit done. When we left last weekend, we had tiled the entire shower with the exception of 2 tiles. So we got those, installed, and then grouted the whole thing. After that, we installed all the shower trim fittings and it's now ready for doors. I also installed the second toilet in the master bath as well as placed the vanity. All we have left up there for the inspection is to get the counter with sinks and faucets installed! We still have to do tile baseboards, trim some stuff, and hang doors, but I don't think interior doors are required for the CO inspection..... I hope.
We also got the dishwasher installed with the exception of the drain line hooked up, which I'm waiting until I have the sink that is being mounted to the counters this week. We got a great deal on a Bosch d/w that is only 44db, so even though it's corny, I'm looking forward to running it to see how quiet it is... I got the CO detectors in and then worked on the porch a bit more. I got all of the railing 4x4 posts up and most of the balusters, but I ran out ... again. But I did get the stairs leveled out with a concrete footer underneath, so that was good. I also got the stainless cover installed over the ducting from the range vent hood - the wife was happy to see the finished look.
Hopefully after next weekend we'll be ready for the final inspections. The kitchen counters should be ready this friday, so I have to build an A frame thing for the trailer this week before picking them up and transporting to the cabin. We'll pick up the vanity counter/sinks and all the faucets, and then after finishing the handrail up front I think we are probably ready ... Like I said, we still don't have all of the trim installed, nor do we have all the interior doors installed, but I don't think that typically matters for the CO given we are owner/builders, yes?
Any other advice regarding the final inspections?
We decided to put off the final inspections and slow things down a bit. In reality, the rush rush rush was self-imposed and not necessarily rooted in reality. The big reality check was that last Friday we picked up our granite counter tops we had ordered. Beautiful and the colors work great with the wall colors, the appliances, and the future glass tiles that will be our back splash. Trailered them up there and left it out in the front yard on the trailer overnight as we got up there late. Put the small piece on the cabinet and it looked great. Woke up Saturday morning, got coffee, looked out at the counter and realized the sink was in the wrong place! d*
My first thought was the fabrication guys had made a mistake despite the fact I had drawn up very detailed plans with all the measurements. So I head outside and take measurements even though I'm beyond upset. ??? Turns out it was MY mistake. Despite all of the measurements I've taken and the simple adding/subtracting i've done building this place, I messed up the simple arithmetic for the center of the sink and here it was exactly 10" to the left. Argh. Ok, well I guess I'm out another load of cash and the smoking deal I got is not really that great a deal after all. We call the granite shop, explain the problem, and ask whether they might have another piece of this same color slab we could get to have another go at it... We get off the phone so he can check inventory. He calls back and no, they are out of the the thick granite in that color, but have a thinner one, but then we'd have to remake the other piece as well. Dammit! BUT he asks some clarifying questions about my error and says he has been thinking about it and has a potential solution. His idea is to enlarge the sink opening hole in the proper direction so the sink is centered under the window and take a piece of the thinner piece of granite of the same color and epoxy that in the empty 10" hole to make a dish board. Says they actually do that all the time and because we have an under mount sink it should work out just fine! Woohoo! Great, we have to take the counter back, but I never unstrapped it from the trailer.
So we table finishing the kitchen for the moment, push off the inspections, and decide to go look for a Xmas tree in the National Forest since it's a beautiful day and the stress level has been high all morning. We returned the counter back to the shop and plan to pick it up again once they are done which they are pushing to get done before Xmas. Awesome ... love these people. Turns out the g ;Duys helping us were the owners and I would definitely recommend them....
We spent the rest of the weekend finishing up lots of "stuff," decorating a bit for the holidays (including lights on the outside which look awesome at night given the 12x12 roof) and cleaning up for our several week stay over the holiday break. I also started building the cabinet face frames using the screw jig tool and it works great! Got the bath vanity in and all plumbing done and all tile/grount/sealing is now complete on both bathrooms. I also hooked up the dishwasher and plan to get a temporary sink from the Restore to use until next week when the counters will be ready. Forgot to take pictures last weekend, but will shortly. And now that we have internet service up there, I can post from there! More pics shortly, but I'll be double-checking my math now.... of course my oldest (in 3rd grade right now) took great joy in the fact that I got a double digit math problem wrong... so much for that PhD, now where did I put that drink mixer... ;D
amazing progress. awesome solution to your sink problem!
You have done an awesome job sir!
I really like the siding you've used, Doug Fir T1-11, with cedar battens at 12" oc. I went to Lowe's yesterday after work
and asked to see their T1-11 and they only had two choices, rough-sawn 4" oc and 8" oc. The stuff you used looked like
it had not been sawed or did you find rough-sawn 12" oc? Then it looked like you added the cedar battens over every saw
mark and lined them up vertically (was there a saw mark?) I went on Lowe's website and found 1x2x8 cedar boards for $3.40
each, is that what you used? The T1-11 stuff over at Lowe's runs around $37.00 a sheet. I want to use log-siding and I wonder
what the price comparison would be between what you've done (sheets + boards) and pine log-siding.
I also thought that you could have put a small window in the side wall between the two roof pitches couldn't you, do people do
that? I guess maybe not, due to possible snow build up on the roof next to the window.
Lastly, I guess a person has to consider the snow-load when changing pitches of roof, especially to a flatter 4:12 pitch? Would
that change your rafter size in that section due to span calculations? That section of roof has to be stronger than the 12:12 section doesn't it?
I want to thank you for all of your documentation and pictures that you've done along the way. You are a great help!
Thanks for the kind words ajbremer...
I can't answer your questions on pricing as I don't recall the details even though I did have the cost breakdown from several sources (including ProBuild) at one point. The DF T1-11 is smooth - there are no vertical "saw marks" as you see in a lot of T1-11. If I didn't have the cedar battens it would simply be a smooth sheet. All of my lumber came from a local yard - Lincoln Creek Lumber (lincolncreeklumber.com).
Yeah, we could (and should) have put windows in the side walls between the two roof pitches. I'll probably go back and add some at least on the one side on the mudroom side of the cabin as we would have a great view of Mt. Rainier through those. The other side wall is in the bathroom, so windows there don't make the most sense - at least in a way that would clear the mirrors and still not look funny from the exterior. But that is definitely one of the things I should have done on the other side. But adding a few windows later won't be a big deal.
Our rafters are all 2x12s, 24" OC sitting on top of the ridge beam. I can't have the calculations I did last year handy when I originally did the plans, but they were ok. The rafters on the 12/12 pitch are long!
I need to post some pics from our progress over the holidays, but I forgot to take pictures. We finally got the granite counters in which proved to be a bit tricky as it was HEAVY! I had installed a temporary sink/faucet I had picked up from the Restore to get us through a few days, then went back to Olympia to pick up the counter. The integrated dish board thing worked out perfectly. It looks like I had intended it to be there. Mounted the under-mount single basin sink and installed the faucet/ d/w air gap thingie / and soap dispenser and that was that! Everything is now fully functional. I also started on some of the window/door trim out with the cedar and am liking the way it's turning out. Finally, my wife put up half the glass tiles for the kitchen backsplash which we think looks great! I'll be sure to snap a few pics this weekend to post....
I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped on cabin - although it was even better as we skied almost every day and got a nice dump right after Xmas to freshen up the base. Official drop was 15" and then more for a few days, so we got to chase down some nice not-so-deep-but-better-than-ice pow stashes. So, we spent a lot of time skiing and just hanging out... exactly why we built it in the first place!
Your external sidewalls that comes down from the 4:12 pitch and touch the 12:12 pitch, they seem
to line up with the outer edge of the stairway below, is that correct? That would put your interior
wall about 2' from where the pitch change is? What's the proper term for those external walls that
fall from the higher pitch to the lower one?
Yes, the walls from the 4/12 pitch that die into the 12/12 pitch on the front side line up with the outer edge of the stairs. But that is approximately 38" - 39" from the interior wall. I've built my cabin to code as everything required inspection - so my stairs are code-compliant. I made them a touch over the minimum to make getting things up and down a bit easier, giving me a true 36" between the finished interior wall and the balusters/hand rail (instead of the minimum which I believe is ~32"). The real catch was ensuring I had the required head room at the first few steps at the transition between the pitches.
Proper term? I dunno if they have a special name... Maybe PEG, Don_P or some else on here might...
The proper term for the external wall that goes down from the roof, between pitches is a cheek-wall.
Cheek wall - thanks for the insight ajbremer!
Got a few more things done. Amazingly, after almost 700 8' 1x6 cedar boards (2 full units), I'm almost out. And by out, I mean I'm down to cull wood, which I'll cut up to use as kindling. So I need to pick up more, but I did manage to get nearly all of the loft/master bath windows trimmed out. Just a few more pieces to go on the rectangular windows, then I have to tackle the angled windows up front as I'm leaving those to last. Also got the one interior door we currently have trimmed out. I'm using 2-panel clear fir doors, but the place I get them from is out, so we haven't been able to bring up any more yet. Naturally I didn't get pictures of any of this. d* The damn cat decided to crawl down into one of our ducts (the only one without a register) to hide ...which we didn't realize until we were leaving on Sunday evening! Argh!!! Anyway, I'll make a point of taking pictures this weekend. However, we also got the backsplash tiles up and the wife took a picture of the part between the range hood/vent and over the stove. So, finally a pic to share. It still needs to be grouted, but we were anxious to see how it would look. You can see one of the under cabinet lights on the right - still have to put in the one on the left. We went with LED which should last a long time, don't get hot, and are pretty efficient.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/a6740592.jpg)
"The damn cat decided to crawl down into one of our ducts (the only one without a register) to hide"
Ah yes the curiosity of our furry friends!
I really like the way your upstairs dormer turned out, great work!
Well, I haven't posted here in a long time, but there's been a lot going on so I thought I'd resurrect this thread...
During the remainder of the ski season we continued splitting our weekend time between skiing and finishing the cabin. In March, we had "most" of it done and called for our final inspection, even though a lot was left ... most significantly that I didn't have the front deck on yet. If I just had windows on the front or I wanted to board up the french doors, it wouldn't have been a problem, but I didn't want to do that. Plus I didn't want to spend time building stairs down when I was just going to rip them out. So, we didn't pass our final inspection, but it was good because we got a list of things that the county inspector wanted to see done before the "real" final. The list was pretty short: 1) build front deck, 2) install baseboard in bathrooms, 3) put up screen/rodent protection under the mud room, 4) add some shaped handrails on the 1x4 handrails that are part of the steps leading up to the front porch 4) caulk around the base of the toilets. He also wanted to see a proper door between the master bedroom and bath. He's a really helpful and friendly guy and said there you go, take your time and see you in 6 months!
Since then we've done almost everything, except for the rodent screening and I have things left to do by the deck, namely add a step between the main deck and the driveway, finish a side deck I decided to add on for the bbq grill and step leading down to the firewood pile over on the other side of the main deck, and add an integrated flower/plant box. The deck was a bigger ordeal that we originally planned given I had planned for an 8' deep deck (and ~28' wide - full width of the cabin) and the wife decided she wanted a 10' deep deck. So, after a bunch of digging, we have a 10' deep, full-width deck and I'm glad we do. I also finally finished installing all of the interior doors and related trim....and amazingly that completes all of the trim for the entire cabin! We did tile baseboards in the bath rooms and we finished that this weekend as well. Now that summer came a few weeks ago, it's finally dry enough to paint the exterior, we are hot on getting that done before the rain returns again. We missed our opportunity to do so last year. Finally, we also expanded the driveway with probably 30 cubic yards of gravel and some creative boulder placement to make it a bit closer to level and then added a fire pit that we are slowly collecting rocks for from the National Forest (we have a permit). I have them dry-stacked for now, but plan to mortar them at some point.
Anyway, we are finally starting to really enjoy the cabin now that we aren't working so hard just to get things operational and it's great. Even though we did work some every day Friday - Sunday this weekend, we still managed to get down to the river for swimming 2 of 3 days (yes, the melting snowpack makes the Cowlitz River cold - we measured it at 54 degrees) and up to Paradise at Mt Rainier for our annual August snowball fight and hike. That's what this place is all about.... While I've been terribly remiss in taking pictures over the last 6 months, and I'll get more on the next trip, here are a few ...
Deck going in...
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/eaa2753c.jpg)
Final load of 5/8" crushed for the driveway, path to fire pit, and fire pit. Fortunately, this was the only one that we moved by hand.
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/d095bd82.jpg)
Finished deck (It's 2x6 cedar and hasn't been sealed yet and has faded already, but figure the pressure washer will bring it back when I seal it later this month) and main siding color. Trim and doors will be done on the next trip....
(https://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/metolent/ski%20cabin/7417545b.jpg)