20 X 36 in Central Utah

[suburbancowboy]

Well I'm out of money, out of time and finally ready for the final inspection.  I went over by about a month when I thought I would get the inspection done.  I'm meeting with the building inspector tomorrow at 2pm.  Wish me luck.  I still have a handful of things to finish but not needed for the inspection.  Here is a photo of the completed outside.



I ran out of satin on the outside so that is why the color is so lite on the top left side.  Maybe complete in the AM hours.

[suburbancowboy]

Well I had the inspection done Tuesday.  I had five failures.
1.  Landing on the front step wasn't big enough.  Needs 3feetX3feet.
2. No anti tip bracket on stove.
3. Electrical panel wasn't all the way labeled
4. Landing on the stairs inside was 1 inch to low.
5. Didn't like the way the vent on the tankless water heater went outside.

Come on only number 5 is of any concern. 
I am headed up to the cabin in a hour to meet with the gas guys to fix the pipe.  I will fix the rest tomorrow.  At least he said I could send him the pictures of the fixes and then he will mail the occupancy certificate to me.  Then it is mine!!!!!

[UK4X4]

awsome !

Just in time for the snow too !

[MountainDon]

 

At least he said I could send him the pictures of the fixes and then he will mail the occupancy certificate to me. 

He didn't want to drive the distance.   

[suburbancowboy]

The main reason that he said I would email him the pictures is because his truck is just two wheel drive and it snowed up here this last week.  So he would have to come up on my snowmobile.  He said he is to old for that. 

So I headed up friday after work to meet with the plumbing guys to fix the exhaust vent on the water heater.  He was in a two wheel drive van.  After the snow thrusday, I lost him in the last snowy streatch.  I have a 4 wheel drive truck so I had to go back and get him.  For those of you needing to put in a vent pipe this is what you should use and what it should look like.

Double wall pipe


Plate on the wall


Here are some other failed items I had to fix
Anti tip bracket on stove.  It is in the bottom right on the photo


New front porch and stairs.  Landing has to be 3X3 with three stairs, any more and you need hand rails


Back stairs they are not as picky on


On the landing on these stairs the rise has to be the same.  On the upper set I was 1 inch to high, on the lower I was 1 inch to low, so he said to add another layer of boards to make them even.  I think it looks dorky.


Also make sure your panel is labeled.


On the fun side here is the first fire in the fireplace.  Boy have I used it a lot.  Saturday it got down to 25.


This weekend I used the stove for the first time.  Nothing better than potatoes and onion with cheese and a big rib eye stake.


Here are some of my neighbors, these turkeys come up my driveway every morning and then go back down every night.  Their water source is down the mountain from me.

[suburbancowboy]

I have a question for my forum friends.  The main bedroom is just on the other side of the wall from the fireplace.  Problem is not much of the heat gets from the fireplace into the bedroom. This makes for a very cold room when temps < 40 outside.  I am wondering if anybody has some ideas of what to do to get heat in?

My ideas that I have thought of includes.
Portable propane heater - Don't like the smell
Cut hole in wall for barn style window next to fireplace which can be closed. - Don't want big hole in the wall
Swap the upstairs bedroom for the down stairs room.  - I like the room downstairs better
Get some kind of battery powered fan to put in the wall to try and draw some warmer air in. - I think this would have to be a large fan?

Please note I won't have power on to the cabin 99% of the time.

[ColchesterCabin]

Wow I can't wait for next srping until I am whipping up my breakfast's just like that! As for the heating issue, that's a good one requires some more thought... hmm!

[Ndrmyr]

If you have power try a room to room fan, used with wood stoves to transfer heat from a warm room to a cold one.  Here is an example at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Room---Room-Fan-Circulate-Cold/dp/B0015RZW0K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351640179&sr=8-1&keywords=room+to+room+fans

If you want 12 volt, try a marina.  Boats use a 12 volt exhaust fan to clear an engine compartment of gas fumes prior to starting an engine to prevent explosion.  such as this: http://www.amazon.com/Rule-240-Marine-Blower-4-Inch/dp/B000O8D0IC

[MountainDon]

No electrical power makes that difficult. Natural convection circulation requires some large openings.

If you were to have a small PV installation you might be able to use some high efficiency PC cooling fans such as this. This one is particularly quiet too. Three speed model Several of the three speed models draw about 1 watt at 12 VDC. Pretty good.

This guy uses these in a thing he calls a Heatstick to move air.

It would have to run for long periods but at 1 watt per fan that should be easy to power. Might need more than one. I've been meaning to build one to try it out.

Otherwise some squirrel cage fans with some real squirrels might work. 

[nysono]

consider a pair of these: http://www.ecofriend.com/works-heat-activated-fan.html
with an opening behind stove they will push enough air to warm things up.  I have two and they work quite well to move air through out camp.  Not a big breeze but enough.  Great conversation piece too

[suburbancowboy]

Well I think the story has come to an end.  Yesterday I got buy off by the SanPete County firemarshall that my land looks good, my fire tank looks good.  So I am done with him.  Last week I got the occupancy permit from the SanPete county building inspector.  So now the cabin is mine and the county government is out of my hair!!  Freedommmmmmm!!!   Well I still have property tax.   Here are a few parting photo's

This is a new picture I just hung.


Every cabin needs a dead animal.


I am also fixing up a couple of old snowmobiles for the winter.  Maybe I will post some pics during the winter.
Good luck everybody and don't give up the dream.

[kenhill]

Not sure what brand snowmobiles you are working on, but if they are Arctic Cats, there is a great support forum called arcticchat   
http://www.arcticchat.com/forum/snowmobiles/

[Huge29]

The deer makes for a very nice touch!

[suburbancowboy]

Just to give a couple of updates and learnings on my cabin and winter living.  I have been up there 4 times since the snow got deep.

   Not all snowmobiles are good in the powder.  Two of the four times I got my machine stuck in the powder.  Takes a long time to get unstuck by yourself.
   It takes a very long time to heat up the cabin.  About 2 degrees per hour.  It doesn't seem to get much above 60 degrees no matter how much wood I burn.  Yesterday when I woke up at 7 it was 16 out side and 59 inside.  I added one log in the middle of the night.  I guess I can live with it.
    I think that crawl spaces are less conducive to heating than if I can built this on a slab.  Also my water freezing issue would have been easier to deal with.
   Shoveling 3 feet to snow isn't fun.  Note to self next year by a heavy duty snow blower for the cabin.  I had 4 paths to shovel.  To wood shed, to bunk house, to power trailer, to snowmobile parking.   4 hours of shoveling.  Man am I sore today.
  Hauling supplies in by snowmobile isn't fun.  Tieing boards to the snowmobile can be a challenge.  I guess I should finish the pull behind trailer I have had all winter.
   Melting snow to run the toilet can take a long time.  Seems like I had to melt three pots of snow per flush.  Good thing I am a guy and don't need to flush more than once a day.

   Best of all it is so beautiful in the mountains in the winter.




Here is one project that I finished.  It is a small in the corner entertainment center.



I also started to do the finish work around the windows.  I should have more pictures of that next time.

[UK4X4]

  "I think that crawl spaces are less conducive to heating than if I can built this on a slab.  Also my water freezing issue would have been easier to deal with."

Did you insulate the crawl space ? between the crawl space and the house ?

below a slab things would still freeze- only worse---no access

The temperature slow change is due to your thermal mass, ie when you get there everything wood -insulation furniture etc etc is all frozen solid- temperature wise

So you basicly have to heat up the whole interior before its comfy- in our trailer its the second day before all the interior is fully heated


Its a BTU's V's area math thing- as you got there all your heat was just being sucked into the inaminate objects- once they gained room temperature things should have been heating up faster.

South facing windows help too - my trailer sits at 22oc in the afternoon with just the sun through the large windows

5 mins after sun down the furnace is on and double bubble on the windows !

[MountainDon]

That does seem like a very long warm up.   What is the BTU rating of the stove?

I figure that our cabin is roughly 45-47% the size of yours calculating by cu ft estimated.  We have two heaters; wood stove rated at 18K BTU and propane heater rated at 18K BTU. (BTU ratings downgraded for altitude works out to about 13.5K apiece.)  We get a 20 degree an hour rise averaged over two hours; often its around 25 inside when we arrive and 2 hours later 65 - 68. I have trouble resolving that low rise you have   Each of our heaters do have exterior fresh air intakes and I do believe that helps a lot.


Yes, most snowmobiles suck in virgin powder.  I used my snowshoes as a shovel.

[suburbancowboy]

I hauled a cool new toy up to the cabin this weekend.  It is an eco temp fan.  You just put in on the fireplace and wamo you have a working fan.  I was surprised at how much air it moved around.  I might buy another one to put on the other side.



Well spring is coming but look at what I woke up to this morning.

[suburbancowboy]

Just a quick update on what I have been working on the last couple of months.  While there was still snow on the roads I have been working on trimming the windows.  Last time I was up I finished all but the bedroom.  I was hauling up supplies about three miles away by either snowmobile or 4 wheeler.  I used pine on the inside and cedar for the trim.  They all look like this.



This is on the north side so I haven't taken off the board outside that protects the window from snow.

I also completed the bar on the back of the cabnet.  It will only be used by the grandkids to do activities like coloring on or a light lunch.



I also finished the trim around the floor joists on the east end.



The roads where melted all the way to the cabin so the truck made it.  Even better the wife made it.  First time in 7 1/2 months.

[suburbancowboy]

Just a quick update on what I have been working on this summer.  I have found that my little solar trailer doesn't supply enough juice for my families needs if they want to watch a movie and run the lights half the night.  During the winter I picked up three 250Watt panels.  The measure 3X6 feet.  Very large.  24V. This should provide enough power for our short term needs.  Problem was I have no place for the new panels inverter, charge control, batteries etc.  I have designed the whole thing to expand so when we live there full time in the next few years I don't have to start over.  So I decided to build a solar shed to house everything.  Most of the wood I am using is left over from the cabin build.  Under othe overhang I will story fire wood.

Here it is during the framing phase.


Here it is with the roof on.  The old solar setup is to the right.  Also the steps are new.  They are a life saver.


I should be complete after one more long weekend.

[suburbancowboy]

Well I did some more work on the power shed this weekend.  I got the metal roofing on, house wrap, Corner boards, diagonal supports for the lower roof,  and the south side siding on.  Next weekend I am up there I will finish the osb on the top and put the door on.  Does anybody have any good designs on a shed door?  4' X 7' I need it wide so I can get a four wheeler in there.  Not sure on bracing and placement of the hinges.  For the hinges I am using the old rod iron gate style.

In three weeks I will be having 30 people for a family reunion up there.  Yuck.  My little piece of heaven will be interrupted for a weekend and become the other place.

[OlJarhead]

I love it!  Great idea and you can run 120v cable to the cabin from there without worrying too much about the distance.  heck, I might have to consider this!

[suburbancowboy]

Shed update.  All of the log siding is now on except a small area around the windows on the back side in the loft area.  I would have finished but all 7 of my batteries ran out of juice.

I was wondering how I was going to do the door a couple of weeks ago and couldn't come up with anything that I liked.  So one saturday while I was taking a nap it came to me how I wanted to do it.  Here it is:



Here it is as it stands today.



I used my last left over 2X4 on the door and my last sheet of OSB for the sofets. Notice that the leaves are starting to change color.  I was up there last week with 30 of my family and they hadn't changed yet.
All that is left is to do is some chaulking, put on some sealer and block the trusses.  Then I can put the panels on and add the battery box.

[UK4X4]

Love the door !

thats a well cute shed- I presume you'll be filling the overhang with firewood

[Redoverfarm]

Good solution to the door.  I often do some of my best planning when I go to bed.  I stuggle (in thought)most of the day for a solution and then most of the time it comes to me at night.  Often times I think it is just best to temporiarly walk away and clear your head and most of the time it gives you a new prospective and generally a solution.

[rick91351]

Great idea and design!