20 X 36 in Central Utah

suburbancowboy · June 16, 2011, 12:13:01 PM

Well after 3 years of planning, fighting the permit process and purchasing lumber over the last year I finally started on the cabin last month. I have been up there working on it a couple times a week weather pending. Here in northern utah we have had 300% normal snow amounts so that delayed things by a couple of months. Most of the work has been done by myself. Also I have learned a lesson that it takes twice as long to accomplish things than you plan. $:-\$ Oh well thats ok. Being on the mountain is better than being any where else. I have many pictures that I have taken at the end of each day I have worked. I will post most of them over the next couple of days.

Below is the plans that I am building to.

suburbancowboy · June 16, 2011, 12:30:20 PM

Week before memorial day I tried to get to the cabin and the last 1/2 mile which is in the shade, still had snow. I had to walk up to the cabin. It was very wet and mucky up there. I had to unload the lumber and 4 wheeler at the bottom. Here are some pics of the trip.

Left over snow from the bunk house.

Squirrel living in the bunk house

Foundation poured about 18 months ago

4 Wheeler got stuck

June 16, 2011, 02:38:28 PM

Glad to see you've finally gotten a chance to get back on it! Pretty area. Looking forward to more pics & progress!

spence · June 16, 2011, 03:05:06 PM

Just curious about the permit process. May be trying to build something in the same area this year. Thanks.

suburbancowboy · June 16, 2011, 04:06:11 PM

You have to have engineered and stamped plans. First you have to have the county fire Marshall come an look at you place and get your fire rating. He doesn't even come to talk to you until you have payed a 1000 dollar processing fee. Next is the septic drainage inspection, installation and inspection. There was something else but I don't remember. Once you have gotten this far you can apply for a building permit. Another 800 dollars. Here it has to be at least a 20X20. Mine was 16X36 to start, had to re-engineer, another 600 dollars. Next is the inspection for the foundation. I had my foundation guy handle that. 5000 for the foundation. Next inspection will be the framing. I am about 1/2 way through getting dried in. Next will be plumbing and electrical. Then there is the fire marshal again to see if you have cut out most of your trees and brush. Once all that is done you have final inspection which then you get you can live in your place. That will probably be next year at this rate.

June 16, 2011, 10:11:44 PM

Over the memorial day weekend I took a few extra days off to work on the cabin. Unfortunatly the mother nature had other plans. I did get some work done.

Start of work the friday before

end of day friday

Saturday the wife came up to help some. End of day Saturday.

Sunday the weather turned so we didn't go up.

Monday we went up and this is what greeted us.

After we unloaded we came off the mountain and went to lunch. After lunch I took the wife home and loaded the truck again and went back up. By the end of the day it started to clear up.

This is what I got done end of day tuesday.

End of day wensday

duncanshannon · June 17, 2011, 06:42:14 AM

loved the time i've had in utah (Skiing near salt lake city and mountain biking near Zion)... looking forward to watching your project!

suburbancowboy · June 19, 2011, 12:09:53 PM

More up dates on 6/4/2011 I brought up my daughter and step son. We got the rest of the floor decking put on they both worked pretty good. It was nice to have some help and it was even nicer to have some good weather.

This is about a days worth of work for me.

suburbancowboy · June 19, 2011, 12:28:43 PM

On 6/11/2011 I took my two youngest daughters up to help start framing the cabin. By the end of the second day on friday we had one wall section up. Buy the end of the day Saturday this is where we got.

After we finished framing we spent the rest of the day riding the 4 wheelers.

June 19, 2011, 12:35:58 PM

Last Wednesday we had a company party. The first half was business the second half was activities. I took off the second half and went to work on the cabin. I framed up two more walls and put in two windows. I am putting in the window after the walls are up because I can put them in by myself but I can't stand walls up by myself. Windows take alot of time to put in. Here is my progress end of day Wednesday .

suburbancowboy · June 19, 2011, 12:43:37 PM

Friday the wife and step kids went up to the cabin. We got one of the wall sections up before it got dark. I got up early in the morning and framed up another wall section before the others got up. I love early mornings there. By 8:30 we had two more wall sections up. About that time my father in law came up. He has built 5 or 6 houses in his spare time so he has alot of knowledge. I found out the things that I have done wrong. Oh well it was a good trade off to get his help. We finished the wall and he got the osb on one end. The biggest thing was getting the second floor beams put in. In total there was 6, each of which weighed about 200 pounds. Needless to say I am a little sore this morning.

oifmarine · June 21, 2011, 09:46:13 PM

looks good so far. Keep the pictures coming!

Sassy · June 21, 2011, 11:48:23 PM

You're moving right along - great views! Yep, keep posting the pics

suburbancowboy · June 23, 2011, 08:59:44 AM

Went up to cabin after work on monday and tuesday to get the windows framed up. I still need to nail them together. I didn't feel like starting the generator while I was up there. I like the nice and quiet. I didn't to them before we stood up the wall because they take so much time and I wanted my help to help get the walls up. It was a lot of work 3 hours driving each day for 3 hours of work up there. I was worth it. This weekend We will finish the sheathing and upper floor joists. Next weekend the trusses.

June 23, 2011, 10:09:44 AM

Moving right along. Your progress is inspiring and the view is great!

Generators can be a lovely thing to turn off...

duncanshannon · June 25, 2011, 08:25:11 AM

hi - great progress... cant wait to be doing this myself someday!

What did you use for beams?

also.. what sort of things did you find out you did wrong?

suburbancowboy · June 27, 2011, 07:59:34 PM

The beams are LVL's. Each one is made up of three pieces. About 800 dollars. I had them delivered with the trusses. Each weighed about 200 pounds. My father in law and myself put them up last weekend. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

What I would have done different. Two years ago the guy that put the foundation in told me that he could buy all the lumber, frame it and get it dried in for 15,000. If I had it to do over I would have had him build it. This has been a ton of work. I have learned a lot and lost 15 pounds. I haven't been in this good of shape for 8 years.

suburbancowboy · June 27, 2011, 09:06:20 PM

I had another long weekend of building. I took friday off work and the wife and I went to the cabin. We kind of got a later start but when we got there we got all the lower 8 feet of osb put on all around the outside.

We stayed at the bunk house over night and got up around 8.

Kind of late for us. The next morning we started the floor joists on the second floor. We went until we ran out of lumber for the floor joists. We also put some osb on the floor joist. This is just temp flooring until the roof gets on then I will take the osb off, put it on the top half of the outside.

The plan was to come home saturday afternoon and get more lumber then I was going to go backup and finish the upstairs sunday morning. Well what do they say about the best laid plans. I fed the horse when we got home and my daughters barrel racing horse seem a little odd. When you have horse you get to know them well. So I go to HD to get the lumber that I needed to finish the upstairs. We got all the lumber in the truck. About a thousand pounds worth. Well I thought I had better check the horses one more time. This time I could tell there was something seriously bad with the horse. If you know anything about horses they can colic easy. Last year I lost two horses. So I was in a panic. So we unloaded all the lumber and hooked up the horse trailer and ran him to the vet for an after hours visit. He pumped him full of mineral oil and other drugs and said he should be better in the morning.
The vet called me sunday morning and said I could come and pick him up. So I pick him up sunday morning and spent most of the rest of the day checking on him every hour. Late in the day he was still looking good, so we loaded all the lumber back into the truck. I sent my boss an email that I was taking monday off instead of friday. The wife was staying at the house so I felt ok to leave the horse. She could call me and I could head back if needed. Anyway I got to the cabin around 10 and watch a movie on the laptop to unwind a bit before I went to sleep. Having a great wife makes things a lot easier.
I got up at 7 this morning and got started. Breakfast consisted of a mountain dew and a snickers. Wow I got a ton done until I gassed out around 4pm the temps hit almost 90. Up on the mountain the lot is south facing so it always feels warmer than it is. By 10 I had all the upper floor joists on.

By noon I had all the temp floor decking on.

By 3:30 I had the upper wall and seal plate competed on one end

I had a lot of stuff to put away so after that I spent 45 minutes cleaning things up, putting things away, and putting the 4 wheelers away. Whew Im tired.

mldrenen · June 28, 2011, 11:37:55 AM

your place is really coming along nicely, and those views are beautiful. as someone who spends a good deal of time working on projects alone, i can say that i'm impressed with how much you've accomplished.

if i could just make one critical observation: osb boards are engineered to be installed horizontally. they have almost no strength installed vertically, and you lose most of rigidity and racking resistance that the sheathing is supposed to provide the structure.

duncanshannon · June 28, 2011, 07:05:58 PM

what will you use the room in the 'upper left' corner of the main floor plans? is that a main floor bed room or something else?

i'm thinking of changing plans to the 1 & 1/2 story instead of 2 story... and trying to think it thru. Also, is the open space in the loft that is oposite the stairs just for vaulted ceilings?]

I like where you are headed with the beams.

i'm thinking about the 1 1/2 story considering a walkout basement for some more space.. perhaps as a compromise to a full 2 story.

duncan

June 28, 2011, 09:11:03 PM

mldrenen I had planned on going horizontal with the osb but my father in law said go vertical because his son who is a building inspector said that is how it is done nodays. I called the county inspector and he said to go that way because these days you have to cover all seams and vertical osb has fewer seams.

duncanshannon The room on the upper left in the plans will be the wife and my bedroom. We will stick the kids, family and friends in the bedrooms upstairs. The areas on both sides of the cat walk will be open to the ceiling. As far as the foundation goes, if I had it to do over I would have added 3 more feet to the foundation and had a walk out basement. It would have been another 400 square feet for only 2000 more dollars.

duncanshannon · June 28, 2011, 09:16:34 PM

Cool! I'm thinking i'd need a BR on the main and then two upstairs... one being a 'bunk room' for our kids and what ever visitors kids we might have and another for the adults. (we want to be able to go to the cabin with one other family of 4 and be pretty comfortable).

with the walk out, if somewhat finished, we should be able to squeeze 3 families in, or perhaps a boy scout troop!

did you consider a full 2 story at all?

mldrenen · June 28, 2011, 09:25:14 PM

suburbancowboy --- i was wrong. i'd been under the impression that the strength axis stamped on the sheets of osb had to be followed, but further research indicates that it makes little difference. i literally learn something new every day i'm on here.

suburbancowboy · June 29, 2011, 09:22:23 AM

duncanshannon I really never did consider a full two story. I started out wanting an A Frame but after doing a lot of research and finding this site I went with the 1 1/2 story. I need a steep pitched roof to handle the snow load hear. At one point this winter there was 5 feet of snow on the level here.

suburbancowboy · July 06, 2011, 10:53:52 AM

Well a little update on last weekends progress. Friday and saturday I took a couple of kids up and we finished the last wall on the upstairs and got all the wall tied together with the cap. On saturday we got one truss put up and move another up on top. Why is it that it takes 4 times longer to do the first one than the rest? After lunch we road the 4 wheelers some before we headed home. If it is all work and no play the kids don't won't want to come and help any more.

We went back up on Sunday night to get ready for the big crew coming up on the morning of the 4th. I got the temp cat walks up to span the gaps before they showed up at 7 that morning. My father, mother and brother in law came up to help get the trusses up. They are great. Here are a couple of pics what we got done.

By 2:30 we had all the trusses up and 2 rows of OSB on. Not bad considering the generator got a plugged fuel filter half way through the day. Then we went back to old school. We did a lot of bracing so hopefully the wind don't blow things down.

This weekend I will try and get the rest of the osb up.