20x34(?) 1.5 story in Ashe County, NC

[cbc58]

could you get away with a portable kerosene heater?  that'd be the least expensive way to go i'd think for the little time you will use the shed/cabinette.

in boy scouts we used to have a portable coleman heater that cost about $70 which heated up the tent nicely when we did deep winter camping.... that may work also.... as long as there is some ventilation.   just something to take the chill off.  camping in 20 below weather is no fun without a tent heater.

[Don_P]

Don't forget a kerosene heater requires a window be left cracked  . On the hot cord, it means you are pulling too much current through too short a cord, yes that is a common cause of fires. Use a larger guage cord, I usually don't buy anything smaller than 12 guage which can handle ~20 amps or up to about 2400 watts. One more downer as long as I'm being that way, grapevines are a real common source of powderpost beetles. Bringing in a grapevine wreath is a good way to give the little devils a new home, don't ask me how I know this  .

I went by L&E sawmill over towards West Jefferson/Crumpler yesterday to pick up some nice hemlock. Nice folks, good prices. I am small taters to him, they deal in tractor trailer loads so I stayed out of the way, did my own loading and sorting and left his piles in better shape than I found them. He had a yard full of nice heavy timber and lumber, can saw up to 24'. As we were tieing up and chatting he realized he made a mistake on the price, didn't see a layer on the trailer, and was perfectly willing to eat it, which we wouldn't allow. I do like a businessman with ethics. They are on Huckleberry Ridge Rd off Shatley Springs off 221. Just another resource. He had a red oak log in there that came up to my shoulders laying down! Hope you got to see the rhodos and azeleas in bloom too, they did good this year 

[pickngrin]

I'm not crazy about the kerosene heater option.  I don't think my wife would go for it - she has a very sensitive, or maybe I should say "finely tuned" nose.  If there was any kerosene smell she wouldn't be able to sleep.  Also I don't think I'd enjoy having to keep refilling it with kerosene. 

Don P. - too much current through too short a cord, or too long a cord?  I've always thought the longer your cord run the heavier gauge it needed to be. I think I'm leaning toward getting a heavier gauge cord and doing some insulating - at least on the floor.  I'm wondering if I could lay some rigid foam sheets  down on the subfloor and put another layer of plywood on top of that.  Would the rigid foam just get crushed with any weight on it?  I'll keep an eye out for powderpost beetles. 

That is great to know about the L&E sawmill - sounds like exactly the kind of place I am hoping to work with once the main cabin gets underway - just checked Google and L&E is about 9 miles from our place.  I really appreciate that tip. 

[Don_P]

Coffee must not have kicked in... too much current thru too small a cord. Yup the further you go the thicker the guage needs to be. A classic cause of fires is those lightweight lamp cords in an old house with too few outlets. Folks hide them under a rug and that just makes them hotter until something ignites. A breaker correctly sized for the cord on the feed end of things will cause it to trip if you pull too much. Those little outlet strips with a 15 amp built in breaker can provide some protection in a pinch. I got my rear end chewed on one job, I had hooked my jobsite box into the main and I thought the inspector was going to have a heart attack. It was quite unsafe, I had 10 times more available current than the wire could handle, it never would have tripped if I had needed it to.
This is a line drop calc I put together that might help some;
http://windyhilllogworks.com/Calcs/linedropcalc.htm

edit;
Yes you can put down blueboard or most foam sheets and cover them with ply without crushing them. I've done that upstairs to reduce sound going through an exposed beam floor system. I screwed it on about a 12" grid to make sure it stayed flat and then we carpeted over it for more sound deadening. The only possible downside I can see is I had our camper down at my little sawmill and had sawn through some really badly carpenter ant infested logs (nothing is madder'n half an ant). The little varmints got into the foam in the camper and nested there. I had a devil of a time getting rid of them. That was pretty unusual but another critter to keep your eyes open for.

[suburbancowboy]

So pickn did you ever have your plans inspected by and engineer or do you have plans on when you will start with the main cabin.  My plans that are similar to your are at the engineer now finishing the final draft.  Fire marshall has inspected land and looked over my paper work and I should get my certificate this week.  Engineer next week.  Letter from the home owner association the following week, building inspector the next week.  Boy will I ever get started.

[pickngrin]

Suburban - no not yet.  We're still hemming and hawing over what exactly do we want vs. what can we afford vs. what can we realistically build and manage ourselves.  Though I have contacted the local building department and found out exactly what I need to submit in order to get a permit.  I know I'll have to have my well and septic permits in hand and that's a whole process unto itself.  I'm also still trying to figure out the best way to get modified plans drawn up that will satisfy the building department.  I have a friend who has an architecture degree who I'm sure would do the drawings for me, but I sort of feel bad about asking him for help again.  He did the plans for our current home and everyone seems to go to him for this kind of help.  I know the plans development and review stage always takes longer than one thinks so I need to get on it.  Just too many other distractions. 

What did you actually submit to the engineer?  I assume you met with them in person to go over your drawings and talk about what you wanted?  Mind if I ask what they're charging for this service? 

How far are you from your build site?  Once you get the go ahead from everyone who needs to sign off will you be able to work on the place full time, or will you be more like me - a weekend and vacation builder?  We're 3.5 hours from the property so I'm trying to figure out how to use my time once we're ready to start building.  I'm thinking I can get to the deck stage with 3-4 long weekends, but once we're ready to actually start framing I would like to take at two weeks off work and go at the building pretty hard in the hopes I can get close to a dried-in state.  Though as I write this that seems overly optimistic.

[suburbancowboy]

I took the plans that I had drawn up to the engineer to get that very expensive stamp on them.  They told me that it would be about $500 on the phone when I got there and they looked at the plans I could see that they where laughing under there breath at me.  So we talked for awhile and they said that they could redo them in a manner that the building inspector and them would accecpt.  So after some fanagling we decided upon $1400 for the rework of the plans and the stamp.  I have got the first draft from them and it is alot beefier than what I was planning on but the snow load was alot more than I was planning on.  Seeing that our design is so similiar maybe we should split the cost?

Anyway I did get the stamped paper from the firemarshall yesterday, so at least that is done.  That was alot of work to clean up, cut up and burn the extra wood on the property, and I have one more days worth of clean up left to do, but it seem to be worth it if there is a fire up there.

I live about 1 1/2 hours from the property and have been up there at least once a week since spring.  My excavator has been slow but I want to keep checking his progress.  I talked to him last night and week agreed that he is done for now so now the $5000 check to him for the road, pad and septic tank.

I will be working on the cabin every weekend once the building inspector gives me the final go ahead.  I figure I need to go from floor joist to roof in two weeks.  I will probably take some extra days off those weeks.  I think that my father inlaw will be able to help with the roof.  He is 60 but can out work me like you can't believe.