My 15.75 x 30 Jemez Cabin

[Redoverfarm]

I prefer the 2nd option.  Always have like those.

[MountainDon]

Last weekend we went up for a few days again. There had been a lot more snow and it snowed another 4 inches while we were there.



I don't shovel anymore. Instead we walk back and forth on the cabin to shed, cabin to woodpile paths a few times with snow shoes on and call it good enough.  

Yes, we have snow!!!  



We snowshoed around the property and across the meadow.



This is about 9 AM. The winter sun hasn't yet come around the trees far enough to hit the PV panels properly. By 10:30 or 11 they are in full sun though and stay that way till late afternoon. Summer is no problem at all though. It was no problem keeping the batteries up over the few days we were there though. Overdesign pays off.    The panels seem to shed the snow easily.



Anyhow we stayed toasty warm inside.

A problem surfaced with the water pump and cistern though. The last time I used it I did not take time to bleed air into the standpipe/downpipe from the pump head into the cistern. There is now a frozen slug of water in the upper section of the pipe. I didn't try to thaw it this time as it was a bit nippy outside and we had a few jugs in the cabin. As well the recent snow was of very high moisture content and melted down to provide a lot of water without too much trouble. A pot hand packed with snow would melt down to just  a tad under a half pot of water.






So I'm pondering a couple solutions to that problem. More on that later. Ideas/queries accepted gladly.

[EcoHeliGuy]

Hey Don

I have had many of times melting snow, and lots of it, just thought I would speed up your process, place a inch of water in the pot before you add snow, It will melt rapid fast, and then keep adding snow you the warm water. If i'm not back packing, and happen to have a wood stove, I just keep feeding a stock pot with snow.

[OlJarhead]

We have a frost free spicket that I can look into.  It works in all temperatures.  When you turn it off it bleeds the pipes so there is never any ice in them.

[MountainDon]

We finally got around to totaling up the receipts.     I just couldn't find the time till now.   

The cabin from the ground up to the metal roofing and the casual labor costs, including the interior finish work, electrical and plumbing, but not including anything in the solar PV equipment. So electrical includes everything from the service panel to inside, just like a regular home. The wood stove and propane wall heater are included as is the gas range and Servel propane fridge and the SunMar composting toilet. So basically what you see in the photos, minus the furniture.      $21K   or $44 a square foot.


The PV system, including the pole, panels, cable and conduit, Outback charge controller and 3500 watt pure sine wave inverter, batteries cables and copper bars, stainless steel hardware, trencher rental...      $8800   less $2640 tax credit equals $6160 out of pocket.

[glenn kangiser]

Not bad - cheaper than a new RV and more enjoyable with less breakdowns.

[MountainDon]

Ooops. Small error. Add $1K to the cabin.  $46 per sq ft

[ScottA]

Pretty close to what I paid. Not bad Don.

[MountainDon]

It's more than we planned way back we we decided to buy the property.

But then we built bigger and fancier than we were first thinking too.



Reaching back to the roots of this project we were planning a more rustic 10 x 20.

[Jens]

this is probably answered somewhere in the thread but, why 15.75?

[MountainDon]

Hi Jens,

I cut the first couple of floor joists too short.   


No that's not it. 
I was planning on using T&G subfloor material in the nominal 4' x 8' size. As you know, it's actually not that wide because of the T&G being cut. So rather than have to deal with little strips if I made it a real 16 foot wide, I made the cabin a little narrower. It helps my OCD which demands things fit together nicely.    Ditto the exterior sheathing width across the end. My OSB panels overlap nicely at the corners.    It also prompts questions, promotes discussion.

[soomb]

15.75 ft = 15 ft 9 inches

That avoids the shortfall when using 4 x 8 T&G sheathing   

This is a trip back to page 17, but I wanted to ask what the detail was to the explanation about going 15.75'

Thanks

[MountainDon]

Wow. That was a while back.  


I suppose if I had really wanted to I could have measured the T&G "dropoff" per sheet and calculated the precise width to an 1/8" and maximized the width of the T&G subflooring. ...I'm not that OCD.  



Latest news.... Snow in May....  photos at 10...  

[Proud_Poppa]

    Greetings Don

I've spent a good share of the last 2 DAYS going through your construction thread. Awesome Job, and AWESOME location! I am learning a lot!! I'm currently on page 23, reply# 457....where I noticed at the underside of the roof, where it intersects the wall....what is that metal? Is it just standard metal flashing nailed up from the outside....or is it a "product" of some sort? What is it's purpose? I'm an electrician (industrial) by trade, but I'm fascinated with the idea of building a small home for my wife and I to retire to (I'm 50 at the moment). Thanks for all the effort to "document" all your work! This is a fascinating forum!!

I installed some of the wall insulation.



I had this much done when I realized it was upside down.     
I tore it out and put it back the right way.   


... just funning ya'll.   

[NM_Shooter]

How well are the batteries wintering?

[MountainDon]

Thanks for the kind words and your patience in reading my ramblings.

You have a good eye for detail.   That is a non approved "bird blocking"  

A few of us owner-builders commit the same "sin"; that of not estimating sufficient time to get everything done at the time "it" should be done, or would be completed most easily. I should have installed 2x bird blocking in the rafter bays as the rafters were being installed and before the sheathing was installed. While the walls and roof were being built it rained frequently, daily for a while. So I left the blocking for later. Later took a while in coming.  

I needed to close those off in order to keep birds out of the cabin and then after the ceiling was installed, out of the attic. I knew it was impossible to do everything I needed to do before snow flew and blocked us out for the winter. As it happened somewhere along the way I had picked up a couple rolls of aluminum flashing cheap; somebody's yard sale. I cut aluminum to fit the rafter bay width. They're nailed in placed from the exterior, nailing the bottom edge to the wall top and curving the metal in against the underside of the roof sheathing. It kept the birds and weather out of the attic over the winter. In spring when we were ready to blow in the cellulose attic insulation and install the soffit material I slid corrugated foam sheet insulation ventilators in between the sheathing and the aluminum.

As you continue your way through this let us all know if you see anything in the electrical stuff that is wrong or so-so. Many readers emulate what they see here and corrections to technique for either safety or practicality reasons are always welcome.

[MountainDon]

How well are the batteries wintering?

The batteries have done very well.  The fluid levels were well up; I haven't had to add water all winter. For the most part they are just sitting there doing nothing but a little self discharge with a daily top up from the PV system. Every time we've been up over the winter they have been sitting waiting at full charge. The log in the Outback charge controller records the last 128 days stats; max daily battery voltage, power (amp-hours and/or KwH) into the bank, max peak voltage from the PV panels, max amps from the panels, etc.

Of interest (to me anyways  ) is that the maximum peak input voltage from the PV panels was 127 VDC, well within the 150 VDC maximum permitted by Outback. That value was recorded a few times. [FYI, that value is usually hit first thing on a cold morning as the sun first strikes the panels, although I have seen it reached later in the day on occasion.]

This trip I ran the generator for a few hours and gave the batteries a tickle with an equalization charge. I hadn't run the generator since some time in January or early February.

[MountainDon]

Okay now! It's May 1st. It's spring! And what does that mean at the cabin in the midst of a pine forest?  

A fresh crop of needles dropped since last fall and blown out of the trees by the winter winds.

[MountainDon]

And what does it mean when the Miller's are confronted with a new years crop of dropped pine needles?

It's time to rake and burn!  Here's where we started...



Moving around the back (south) side of the cabin...



I seem to spend a lot of time burning stuff. 

[MountainDon]

There is a cabin in there somewhere...  (fallen pine needles do make a lot of smoke.)



see...



We had about 20 little piles and rows going...




We did a lot but do still have more to do. We want to clean up a wide swath around the cabin, shed and gazebo area and then work our way down the slope about another 100 feet or so. Last year it paid off handsomely when the small forest blaze occurred. This will be our annual spring ritual for years to come.

Pine needles do burn good, but if in too large a pile the fire slows down after the outside is consumed. It's necessary to turn the piles/rows several times. It's also nice to have a slight breeze to fan the flames. Just a slight breeze mind you.

My plan was to present next day photos of "after".

[MountainDon]

We planned on getting up and doing some more raking into piles and rows, all set to burn next time. At midnight the skies were clear and the stars twinkling. Some time between then and 6 AM something went wrong....

May 2nd dawns....



Looks like December!      The shovel's in the shed, put away till next winter.



It snowed on and off all morning through to 2 PM when we decided to head home.

[MountainDon]

I have added something to this thread. A friend wondered if an index could be added to make it easier to find a certain spot in the topic. So I have added an index of sorts way back at the beginning. I have inserted a chronological index of major steps and some minor steps along the way. Click Here to return to the beginning...

[Proud_Poppa]

Shooooey

Just finished the whole thread...took me about 4 days of readin' !

First....THANK YOU so much for all the work you did in documenting this project for us! Great hideaway!

A couple observations:
  It looks like your task of burning brush will never end! Gosh that area is just a perfect fit for forest fires isn't it!?!

  How long will it be before you tell the boss to "Take this job and shove it" and make your hideaway permanent. It would be a big temptation for me with as nice as you've got the place set up. It could only be better if there was a public library in walking distance! 

PP

[MountainDon]

Thanks and you're most welcome. And you are right, there will always be some brush trash to clean up.

Gosh that area is just a perfect fit for forest fires isn't it!?!

Ten years ago today some 40 miles away a prescribed burn left the prescribed boundaries and burned some 48,000 acres including several hundred homes in Los Alamos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Grande_Fire#Damage_to_buildings

It's like many of the forests in the western states.


I won't be telling the boss to "TTJASI" as I'm married to her.    But we have wound down to 4 days a week and take summer off.


The nearest library is a drive; back to the suburbs.

[MountainDon]

Nothing much this weekend, not even a single photo.

We raked pine needles, burned some and discovered something voluntarily coming up in last years small garden spot.

We marked 40 to 50 trees for future thinning.

I began laying out a couple of new drainage runoff holding basins, as well as a few new ground water diverters.