David and Lisa's 20 x 30 in Plumas County, CA

[metolent]

Thanks for the description David - that's helpful.  I've been going back and forth on mine which is similar.  I'm about 6-8" off from being able to fit a standard 36"x36" lazy susan corner base cabinet due to where I put the kitchen window in relation to the wall between the kitchen and bedroom.  One of my oversights when I drew up the plans.  I'll probably do the same thing you have.

[davidj]

A few more photos of the kitchen now we've got most of the cabinet doors on.

Still have to sort out the fridge/freezer - needs to be 24" wide so not a huge amount of options.  We've got an old RV Dometic but I couldn't convince myself it was safe enough to use - enough of a gap in the panels that a piece of paper could fall in and catch light.

[davidj]

The other big news is that the propane is now up and running.  Not a bad time of year for indoor hot water, given it's dropping down to 24F tomorrow night.

All that's left is 15' of a wall of paneling and two interior doors.  Hope to have the final inspection a week from today...

[mogie01]

Your place looks wonderful!!  Good luck with the final inspection, very exciting.

[Sassy]

Beautiful cabin    Love how you did the cabinet doors    That copper sink looks great - always wanted one but the prices are so expensive & have never seen one on Craig's list or any other 2nd hand site.  How is it for cleaning?

[davidj]

That copper sink looks great - always wanted one but the prices are so expensive & have never seen one on Craig's list or any other 2nd hand site.  How is it for cleaning?

The sink is from regular stock at HD.  Still expensive ($500) but maybe if they had an open-box or ex-display sink it might get down to a decent price.

So far it's not seen a lot of action yet.  However, it is getting a bit blotchy in a couple of spots on the bottom (I guess from acids - sodas or vinegar maybe?).  But it still looks good and I can't wait until the whole thing has a varied patina all over.

One plus is that it was very easy to install - nice and light compared to a cast iron sink.

[davidj]

All that's left is 15' of a wall of paneling and two interior doors.  Hope to have the final inspection a week from today...

The paneling is up, the doors are hung and, as of about 10am yesterday, we passed final inspection!  A couple of photos whilst it was all tidied up:

[Redoverfarm]

    

[mogie01]

Congratulations!!  Your place looks fantastic, you must feel so proud

[rick91351]

WOW!! Looks great!  Very nice!   

When do the snows of the Sierra Nevada's return?  Getting close I bet.

[davidj]

   
When do the snows of the Sierra Nevada's return?  Getting close I bet.

Snow's forecast for Friday although it shouldn't stay around for long.  The usual drop-dead date for hauling stuff out is Thanksgiving but we got snowed in the week before last year.

So we're cutting it pretty fine - a couple of weekends worth of work to sort out firewood and service the ATV isn't gonna leave a whole bunch of time for dancing around waving the CofO in the air!

[rick91351]

Thanksgiving is the general rule up at our place as well.  They have snow forecast for Friday but not much.  Most of our heavy storms seem to come up from your way.

   

[SkagitDrifter]

Hey Dave-
Congrats on the final.  Your place is beautiful, great job.
What is the plan for the floors?
Again- good work!
Tom

[davidj]

The floors are gonna be slate, just the same as the bathroom.  So far we just did the minimum to pass inspection, which is why there's backerboard around the wood-burning stove.  I think the rest of the floor can wait until next Summer when cleaning tiling tools is less of a hassle.

Actually, you can see the slate in the outside photo - it's under a tarp just to the left of the front deck.  I'm assuming it can survive a winter buried in snow...

[davidj]

Even though there's still a lot to do, this is probably a good time to say a huge "thank you" to all of the folks on countryplans.com who have helped with the cabin.  I can't imagine how it would have happened without this site - not only the answers to my questions but the answers to everyone else's issues that have educated me to the point where I could actually build my own cabin in the woods.

A special shout-out to the "regulars" who spend so much time helping out, particularly Mountain Don, Glenn K, PEG and Don P, who have been amazing sources of guidance and inspiration.  But there are lots of others that also deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, too many for me to name in one posting.  And of course thanks to John for starting the whole thing.  You only realize how great his designs are when you build one - almost all of the problems and hard bits were on the parts where I deviated from the original drawings. 

Thanks everyone!

David.

[duncanshannon]

congrats on passing the final inspection! must be awesome.

[archimedes]

The place looks great.  This has always been one of my favorite build threads here.  Congrats on passing your inspection.     

I've heard a lot of bad reviews for the electric on demand water heaters.  Glad you're satifisfied with yours.  What brand did you use?

[davidj]

I've heard a lot of bad reviews for the electric on demand water heaters.  Glad you're satifisfied with yours.  What brand did you use?

We've got a gas on-demand water heater.  It's a Takagi, which no one seems to have heard of in the mountains but are quite common in the Bay Area.  We also got the remote control panel for it, which is fun - you can see the input temperature, output temperature and gallons-per-minute.

It's definitely slower to get hot water to where you want it than a tank heater - it can take 2-3 seconds of water flow before the burner starts and I'd guess another couple of seconds for everything to start warming up.  But that's the only downside (apart from price) I've seen so far.  Given space constraints and the fact we're not at the cabin most of the time, it does seem like the better solution.

[CjAl]

I had put an electric tankless on my house in wi and i loved it. Cut my electric bills in half overnight. They were not real common in the usa back then. I forget the name of the one i bought but it starged with an E and was  built in germany.

[altaoaks]

Hey there David and Lisa, I am so excited for you!  What an acheivement.  The place looks just awsome, it must be a relief to know you can go up to the cabin and relax as opposed to the big push.  I really love the copper sink, I was looking at it at HD, just wondering as you have got some use under your belt, is it easy to keep up?  I'll be anxious to hear how it does.  CONGRATS again!

[davidj]

Hey there David and Lisa, I am so excited for you!  What an acheivement.  The place looks just awsome, it must be a relief to know you can go up to the cabin and relax as opposed to the big push.

Once we passed the final inspection I was hoping to take it easy, but then we realized we had to get ready for the winter.  So there was a frantic weekend tidying up and splitting/stacking firewood.  Then I realized we had absolutely no firewood for Winter 2012 (it takes >1 year to dry the local fir) so another mad couple of weekends cutting down unwanted trees and stacking logs.  Finally, by the weekend before Christmas, we had chance to relax.  At first I'd forgotten how to hang out at the cabin without working, but it only took a couple of weekends for me to remember how.

Last year, when we had loads of work to do, we got snowed-in mid November.  This year, with everything finished by early December, the road stayed open until yesterday (Jan 19th)!  Time to get the cross country skis out of the closet...

I really love the copper sink, I was looking at it at HD, just wondering as you have got some use under your belt, is it easy to keep up?  I'll be anxious to hear how it does.  CONGRATS again!

The sink is working well but it's pretty blotchy - mostly dark but a few lighter patches too.  We haven't made any attempt to clean or polish it was we like it like that.

[altaoaks]

well it is really good to hear you figured out how to relax at the place you worked so hard to build...for relaxation and escape from city life!  But I experienced a taste of not knowing how anymore over the holidays, so I know what you were feeling.

So if I understand what you are saying about the sink, its getting very rustic?  I guess I would want rustic, thats definately my style!  You know, to clean copper the best product is called bar keepers friend.  most grocery stores carry it, as well as HD, Target, etc.  and it does a beautiful job on copper.  to keep it rustic just use less elbow grease.  I have used it on a copper countertop, but never on  a sink.  I'm sure it would work the same.  I would also suggest only using the blue kitchen scotch brite sponge as it is not going to scratch.

Well I sure hope you got those skis out, we are finally getting that long overdue snow!  Huraahhhhh!

I am so happy for you guys, you worked really hard, now its time for the pleasure!

[davidj]

A while back a couple of folks were asking about our copper sink.  It's the $500 Pegasus model from Home Depot.  Here are a couple of photos of the patina after about six months.  Note that one photo is natural light, the other flash - the true color is somewhere between the two.

[davidj]

It's been a slow Spring at the cabin - mostly working on trim and various details but also spending more time in the city and at the office :-(  The three big jobs for the Summer are:

• Finish trim and other details (towel rails etc)
• Lay slate on floor
• Get the solar system up, including a shed for the inverter/batteries

The hard one is gonna be number 2 - given how long it took me to the bathroom floor I'm in for a lot of kneeling and thin set mixing!

In the mean time, here's a more up to date photo of the bathroom:

And here are a couple of pictures of the pan rack in the kitchen (don't tell Lisa - this is a surprise for Memorial Day!).

[Sassy]

Bathroom looks great & I really like the pan rack!