24 x 30 1 1/2 story cabin in Monroe Maine

[Don & Ginger Lundgren]

WOW! it has been a long time since we updated the site. With all of the normal holiday family events and such from Thanksgiving until New Years we have not had much time to work on the house. Then when we did most of the time it was either raining or snowing or bitter cold. Building your own house while both having full time jobs and such can be a real chore. Granted a chore we enjoy none the less.

We have managed to complete our sheathing finally. Now just have to get the housewrap all on. We were waiting on that until we had the roof completed but that is proving to be a bit more of a pain due to weather and such on the few days we have had to work. So we are taking a different path and will go ahead and get the exterior walls wrapped up and the windows and doors sealed in place next.

We have also managed to get all of our interior walls on both the main floor and the loft in place(after moving some around a bit...). Once we had our rafter ties/ceiling joists all in place and removed the temporary center post that supported the center of the ridge while we were building the roof it really opened up the area. This really made things look nice to us.

Here is a couple of shots of the rafter tie and ceiling joists we have put in. This gives us a total ceiling height in the living room/dining room of about 17 feet or so. That will really be nice when it is finished off. Even in the loft the main ceiling height is over 8 feet. Helps to make it feel bigger than it really is.





Here is a shot showing where the kitchen and the 2nd bathroom/utility room is. The saw and stack of weathered planks is in kitchen. You can see the bathroom/utility room behind the kitchen.



Here is a shot showing the loft area framing in place with the master bath on the right and master bedroom on the left. We have a cool idea for the doorway here but we are not telling at the moment... need to iron out some details first.




Here is a shot showing from top to bottom now that the temporary post has been removed. That really opens things up without it there.




Here are some other shots showing the interior framing in place.







Here you can look into the master bath.




And now some shots from the loft. The big rectangle on the gable end is where our big half circle window is going. Still have to complete building its frame before we can put it in.







We have also started getting the soffit installed. We had to modify our plan on the soffit but believe that it is coming out good all in all.





So we have been keeping busy but things are just taking longer than expected and with lots of interuptions and such. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will show some more progress.

[Thoughts-from-Jules]

You guys are doing a great job, bravo on all the finds at CL and yardsales!  I started looking recently for CL items and in a few areas surrounding us it is AMAZING the deals out there!  Especially with the slow down of development in a lot of areas and people trying to ditch their supplies.

Anyway it is looking great.

Care to share what you've spent so far as an inspiration to the rest of us to know it is possible to build for less than retail everything?  That would be really helpful.

[poppy]

I'm no expert, but it might be wise to review the thread in General on "collar tie/rafter tie".

I'm worried about the open area with the knee wall and no rafter ties. 

[MountainDon]

Good question, poppy.

And are there going to be a couple beams or something across that wide open high vaulted ceiling space to prevent any possible spreading of the walls?

[Redoverfarm]

Great Job Don & Ginger Lundgren .  I guess by now you can see that the hard work is paying off.  It is always nice to have it dried in and start working on the inside.  Don't be gone so long as it is nice to see different stages as they progress.  I am not real good a multi-tasking visulation.

[Don & Ginger Lundgren]

Good questions poppy & MountainDon. We have considered it but after speaking with some various friends who have similar styled homes and construction we do not believe we will need any additional support in the open area.  The primary reasons for this is that because of the very steep pitch 10.5/12 in that area combined with the steel roofing that will not let anything really stay on it the loading should be well within acceptable limits. We have taken careful measurements of the width at the plates and keep checking. We just had a snow storm last weekend that dumped about 15" of snow on us. the snow would not even stay on the roof with just a tarp on it even with the roof cleats under it that we used to scale the roof. I checked out our span measurements when the snow was on it first thing in the morning and had 0 deflection from the weight of the snow. Within a few hours of sunrise the roof had cleared itself(slid off) . We are going to monitor it and if we see any signs of movement we will add additional support as needed.

Now one of the methods that we have seen used to sure up a wall to prevent the rafter spread was the addition of a doubled up 2x12 with a plywood spacer. This was installed and wrapped in such a way as to look like a decorative shelf along the wall at the plate height. It basically created a shelf which did not detract from the open feeling of the room but because it was tied into the plates along the entire wall gave the wall the rigidity that was needed. We have been giving this some thought as may adopt this strategy if we find any movement in the rafters or walls.

We are going to try to get our synthetic underlayment on for the roof this weekend and put a new tarp in place taking the time to really get it sealed down well. I do not feel we should try to put the steel on at this time as both weather and very cold temps make it too risky for me to do. We feel confident that if we get th underlayment down correctly and the new tarp installed really carefully and tight that we should be able to wait for spring to put on the steel roofing. A small place only minutes away from us has done this and had it that way for over 6 months now and the tarp never moved ot leaked. If we can get it sealed up well we can then insulate and complete the inside aspects of the home during the balance of the winter.

Thanks again for all the comments and this has been quite and adventure so far. Some people think we are nuts to do this ourselves but we really are enjoying the feeling of accomplishment when we complete any of the portions we are working on.

Keep warm everyone and God bless you all.

[Redoverfarm]

Don & Ginger if you are going with something like Titanium Felt there would really be no need for the tarp after it is installed.  The tricky part is installing it so that you do not penetrate it with cleats(temporary for walking).  The way I did mine was to install it from the top down. Slipping each subsequent course under the previous with the required overlap.  Just leave it loose ( bottom 6")until you slip the lower course in place then attach.  Most underlayment such as I mentioned are to be nailed with "button or cap" nail.  That prevents it from tearing.  If you go this route you can still use the cleats and keep moving them down until you get to the bottom course and it will have to be worked on with ladders or scaffolding.  

Just a hint.  After you have it installed wait until you get some precipitation and check for leaks before insulating.  You shouldn't BUT things happen.  As long as you use the overlap and get the nail caps tight it should be fine.  

[considerations]

What a lovely layout - thanks for the pics - you guys are just smokin along!

[Don & Ginger Lundgren]

Well, we did not fall off the edge of the earth... it has been a very long time since we updated our website or this site. Kinda sad when I do that stuff for other people for a living... Anyway, we have finally gotten the outside almost completely finished for now. We have the new cedar shingles on and they look awesome. We wanted something that looked a bit rustic and so I played around with a few samples to show my Ginger how we could do it. We settled on what you see there which is a 1" stagger of every other shingle. We think it came out awesome and and everyone has thought it was as well.

View from North East Corner


View from South East Corner


View from South West Corner


View from North West Corner


We have been doing this project as time and money permit(ok, more as money permits than time). So far we have stuck to our guns and as of now do not owe anything on the house. This forum has been a great asset to our build.

[John Raabe]

Nice sturdy house - and handsome too! I expect it will age well and I can almost see a big future deck tying the two side doors to an outside living space.

[cbc58]

oohh ahhh... nice.  looks great.  how did you do that skirting??  almost looks like a full foundation.

[MaineRhino]

Beautiful! Very nice effect on the cedar siding too!

[oifmarine]

Very nice.  I just bookmarked your website for when I start my 20 x 30 in the spring!

[Don & Ginger Lundgren]

Thanks for the comments. As for the skirting, it is actually just waferboard that has been painted grey. It is actually temporary until we decide exactly what we want to do there. We plan on building a wrap around porch that will wrap from front(north side) to the left(east side) and to the back(south side). The porch on the back side will house our hot tub(working freebie on craigslist). The porches will be done such that they are for 4 season use. Figure if we are going to build them I want to be able to use them anytime we want.