12x16 shed/cabin w/loft

[MushCreek]

I like your decor- everything ya need, and nothin' ya don't!

[Freeholdfarm]

In hunting camp I sleep with my clothes shoved down in the foot of the bed No t cold in the morning that way.


Cool place,W

That's what I was going to suggest.  You can actually get dressed under the covers, too -- I've done it inside a sleeping bag while camping.  If you put a small rug on the floor by the bed, your feet won't get cold as soon as you step out of bed -- keep slippers or shoes right there to slip on.  Personally, I prefer a cold house in the morning because I normally wake up hot. 

Kathleen

[Phssthpok]

Well, it's been a while since I updated, but I didn't think I'd been relegated to page SIX! Part of what held me up was winter weather running late into spring and jacking up my build schedule, and part of it was due to needing to make a few more runs to move the rest of my stuff. However, in the last few weeks things have really picked up. I would have posted sooner but I somehow managed to lose just ONE of my four rechargeable batteries for the camera and I know that photos are much appreciated in posts. First a few overview shots of the place.

The view from the treeline 3/4 of the way to the top of my land. I got a dozer for a weekend to work the road and cut a driveway/building pad(s).


I really like the zoom on my camera! You can see the roof truss' and some of the other wall 'panels' I preconstruceted on the wet side last year sitting on the 'house' pad (about 30x40).


The round-a-bout driveway I had cut and my 'contractors office/current home'. Note the 325 gallon potable water tank I scored off Craigslist for $150. Elevation difference is about 60 feet from driveway to house pad. It won't give 'municipal' water pressure, but at least I won't have to run a booster pump just to tap a glass of water or do dishes! What you can't see here is the driveway going from the loop down to the pad.


Montana sunset out of my (very dirty) 'bedroom' window (the photo really doesn't do it justice).


It seems as though some of the locals don't want to honor the Private Property signs I put up, though. I'll give 'em till fall to bring themselves in line.


I had pretty much decided to go with sono-tube footings, but scoring 96 cement blocks for free changed that. I got the footings, the support beams, and floor truss' set and leveled last week.


Now I'm just showing off my view! That cluster of trees is coming down for reasons of fire abatement, solar improvement, wind improvement (I just HAVE to put a genny up here!), and building poles....and of course, view. Just about every time I drive up my road I wonder just what the heck I was thinking buying this far up the hill...Then I see my view and remember.


Made some re-bar 'staples' to go over the beams, through the footings and into the ground, then set them with concrete. Locals suggested I do something due to the possibility of earthquakes, but honestly I'm more concerned about the danged WIND I get up here! I'm near the top of a North/South ridge so I get hit pretty good when weather fronts move through. 12x16 and over 16' high makes for a pretty big wind catcher without much footprint.


Finally getting busy on all that danged insulation I hauled. $2 Harbor Freight quick clamps and a 2x6 makes for a nice straight(ish) trim cut.


The first two were the hardest due to having to trim both edges, but at least they're single pieces.


Through sheer dumb luck the remaining pieces were all wide enough with at least one straight(ish) edge from the factory that I was able to just split them in half up the center and get usable widths, though some piecing together was necessary for length. Hrm....this one has a seam that JUST misses being supported by the center beam. How to hold it together long enough for it to get foamed into place?


Mountain man engineering, that's how!



All openings filled and foamed into place. All I have to do now is wait for the foam to harden, trim off the high parts, lay down the house wrap and sub-floor and I'll be ready to start tipping up walls! I just hope 5-1/2 solid inches of  foam insulation will be enough when it gets down to -30 in winter. Fortunately it seems I'll have plenty of 5-1/2" left to do the roof and walls without having to step down to some of the 4" thick stuff in the pile.


From the top of the driveway leading down to the pad you can almost see where I have chosen to develop one of the many springs on that hill side. The one I'm working on is uphill from, and hidden by the two dying firs (blankety-blank pine beetles).


One of the locals was clearing out his garage and asked if I had any use for about 25' of PEX tubing. I found a clear pool in the runoff from one of the other springs and set up a continuous run of water for laundry and other non-potable water uses. Flows about 2.5 GPM, limited by hose diameter.


The progress so far on the spring.I still need to try and get that slab of granite out of there, then dig about another 2-3 feet down, but I pulled a muscle between my shoulder blades a few days ago working on it, so it's on the back burner for a bit till I heal up.


I just wish all that glittery stuff was read gold instead of Pyrite...I'd never have to worry about money again!


There's at least four infiltration points in the spring-hole I've dug (so far) with the biggest flowing close to the output of my PEX-pipe set up. I'm hoping to get 4-5 GPM when all is said and done. Elevation from the spring to the building pad is about 120' so if I can get 5GPM at that head I should put me close to 'municipal' levels for flow and pressure without needing to pump anything. The drawback is that it's about 1000' away. The money I save on not buying a pump will get eaten up by the cost of piping.

More update photos soon. I should have the sub-floor installed by the end of today.

[ben2go]

Looks good.I know those winds are gonna get rough,especially during those -30 days with snow.Could you put up some temporary under pinning through the winter?You'll need air movement come spring to keep down mold,mildew,and decay.

[Solar Burrito]

Very cool project and what a view. Looking forward to see more of how to develop the spring. Such a score for it to be above your site!

[Phssthpok]

Another update.

Things are starting to move along nicely.

I managed to get three walls up by myself today...mostly. They're obviously NOT plumb, but they're braced all to heck and tomorrow a couple of friends are going to come up and help put up the 'walls 'o windows'. Things will get all squared and trued at that time.



Speaking of windows...Since I didn't have to hold to my 8' highway limitation any more, I re-worked the west wall to include all three windows as originally planned. The top and bottom plates from the previous wall section, were cut down to make the header for the center window (actually a door which will be made functional later) with the scrap being EXACTLY the right length for the..footers?... of the side windows (since they are considerably shorter than the center section).



I also made some stub-walls for the end. These are non load bearing and are intended to provide a platform to attach the siding to as well as tie in the ends of the stub walls on the sides. I also cut some non load bearing studs to go from these stub walls to the end roof truss's, again primarily for siding attachment purposes, but forgot to take photos.



Finally...another sunset photo...this one with the proverbial silver lining.

[Sassy]

beautiful area!  great progress!   

[Phssthpok]

Yet another update (things are really moving fast now!)

On Friday two friends came up to lend a hand. We got the remaining walls up, square and plumb, the siding up, the second floor joists (mostly) hung and subfloor installed.



The nice thing about rural building is no gummint interventions. This allows for 'on the fly' redesigning. I changed over from a spiral staircase to a 'ship's ladder' type steep staircase instead. 6 foot long going up 9 feet to the upper floor. Steeper than a traditional stair, but not quite in the territory of 'ladder'. Here you can just make out the cross joists for the opening above the ladder.



I also revised my plans for a full length 'window wall' on the south side, opting instead for a full 180 degree view to the south/west/north. Here you see the re-worked western wall with some residual bracing. The small wood stove will go in the corner to the right. Above will be a 3 1/2' x 7 1/2' opening (4x8 minus wall thickness on one side and one end) to allow for heat migration and light infiltration to the upstairs. The SW and SE corners upstairs will be closed off as closets leaving me with an effective 9x11.5 footprint for my bedroom.



Sadly, my maths were wrong and I found myself just two hangers shy of being able to complete the upstairs yesterday, and the local hardware store is closed for a local celebration of some sort. I suppose it's just as well since I completely brai-farted the housewrap before we put up the siding!

[Shawn B]

Anymore progress, photos, updates before winter hits?  I used to live in the Flathead Valley. Looks to me that you are east of the divide 

Shawn

[speedfunk]

very cool 

[Shawn B]

Curious if you are moved in and staying on the mountain for the winter?

[Bob S.]

This is one of my favorite builds. Are you living in it this winter? Can you get to it in the winter? Looking for any updates.

[GabrielPatrick]

I suppose since I've actually plunked money down for material, I can stop debating whether or not I'm going to build.

Back story: A couple of months ago I was laid off. (Don't feel too bad for me...I'm single, no kids, no bills, and I saw this coming from WAY off so I was prepared ). I was just beginning year four of a five year plan to buy land in Montana, build a cabin and go as self-sufficient as I could. To this end I've not only been saving money for land (the 'gulch' fund as it were), but also acquiring materiel for remote living; solar panels, charge controllers, batteries, inverter/charger, generator, tools,wood stoves, and most importantly initial shelter in the form of a 1972 22' Terry RV trailer given to me gratis by a long time friend. It needs some sprucing up, but it's dry and solid.

The plan (once I acquired land) was to live in the trailer while building a more permanent abode...like him, his wife, three boys and a 65 lb furball did when building their house (that's why it needs some sprucing up! ) and then gut the trailer for the fixtures /plumbing, wiring, etc. to put in the cabin. The big hitch is that he's storing the trailer about 120 miles away (no room for it here) and it's hard for me to get up there to work on it. With that in mind, a couple of weeks after I got laid off he made me an offer that was very tempting:

"Build your 'cabin' here on our five acres, and use it as storage for all you 'stuff' so you can move up here to work on (and eventually move into) your trailer until such time as you make the move to Montana." Now this offer is not altogether altruistic, I'm sure. He needs some manual labor assistance around the place that his three boys are just a bit too young to provide, but I don't have a problem with that...I'm usually put to work when I visit anyway. The other upside is that it places me in a lower cost living arrangement, while at the same time increasing my available job market. Still...I wasn't sure I wanted to add the cost and hassle of an extra 'move' into my plans.

The local lumberyards monthly clearance sale cured that right quick. I wasn't able to buy EVERY thing for the shed/cabin, but here's what I got on my first run:

(14)        4X10 T-111 siding (plus one free 4x8 throw-in)
(48)        2x6x8 fir studs
(9)          2x6x12 TAP (treated, all purpose)
(2)          2x6x16 TAP
(3)          6x8x18 TAP (someone snagged the 6x6x16's that I needed, so I was 'forced' to upgrade  )
(~20)      12"x11' engineered floor joists*
(~10)      12"x(random lengths between 10 and 16') engineered floor joists*
(3)          3 step risers ($6 each....couldn't pass up the chance to save a headache)
(240 lf)    2x6 fir (random sizes from 8 - 20 feet)

With a $25 delivery charge (WELL worth it) the total came to just over $775. (*This was almost three times what I needed for less cost than buying ONLY what I needed (10 pcs.@12' long) just because they didn't want to bother with breaking the mish-mash bundle that my desired pieces were in. Price was listed as $1/foot but the deal they cut put me at about .45/foot! I still haven't counted/measured them as the bundle is on the bottom of the pile). So far I'm WELL on track to come in under my $2K budget. 

Of course they also had windows (some of them custom arches!) and doors from canceled orders on hand, and it was VERY tempting, but first things first. Pier blocks, screws, and some subflooring are all I need to start construction.

The plan is for a 12x16 w/gambrel roof for more loft space almost identical to the one below (minus the side shed) with the exception that mine will be 2x6 construction instead of 2x4. The loft will be full length in the original (storage) configuration, but I may leave a section open when I reassemble it in Montana as a home. (I'm constructing with screws instead of nails in order to make de-construction for transport that much easier.)



Fortune smiles on me in yet another aspect of this project. My friend works for a walk-in cooler/freezer manufacturer and can get me as many closed cell rigid foam panels as I want for insulation for FREE! These are 'blowouts' from when the factory is constructing metal skinned insulated panels. If the skin doesn't hold when the foam is injected, then it 'blows-out' and the panel must be stripped of the foam, reconstructed and shot again. The hardened blow-out foam is useless to them at that point so they just pile it up in the back and pay to have it hauled away. Most of these panels are a standard 4'x8' and all are 3-3/4 thick!(panels are 2x4 framing) I'll have to shave down some of the excess (where it blows out), but they should keep me plenty toasty in the winter.

I am faced with one dilemma though; how to roof the gambrel. You see, I want (read MUST HAVE) a metal roof where I'm going to be in Montana (forest fire territory!), but due to snow, and my desire to shed it effectively, I need the ridges to be vertical, not horizontal. My google-fu has yet to unveil a solution for the 'hips' of the gambrel when using metal roofing in a vertical orientation. None of the metal roof manufacturers (that I've so far found) even show a gambrel roof with metal on it! Does anyone here have any experience/ideas regarding this quandary? I just don't like the idea of an exposed joint both for looks and coverage. :-\

It was very exciting project indeed.. Were you able to complete it? My dream is to get one such shed in outskirts region of our town