14 x 14 Post & Beam w/ Scribed Log Infill

[Pine Cone]

Thanks for the kind words Yonderosa

Lots of things  going on besides cabin building, including a trip to Montana and Idaho where I saw lots of little cabins and got a glimpse of Dugout Dick's caves south of Salmon, Idaho.  Got to spend a couple of nights in an old homestead cabin outside of Salmon.  Very nice, but I like mine better

Cabin work is progressing more slowly.  Working on the floor install now.  Was hoping to get it installed today, but the rented floor-hammer-stapler broke about 8 feet into a 13 foot floor.

I am using a pre-finished, engineered wood floor made of tauari or Brazilian oak.  Very nice stuff.  It took two years of looking for the right close-out deal, but I managed to pick up 173 square feet of flooring at only 99 cents per square foot.  It was one of those total fluke deals.  I think the original price was around $6/square foot, but this was all the store had left, and it was only enough for one small room.  Lucky for me, it was just the right amount.  They recommend you purchase about 5% more than you need, and this batch was 7% bigger than the room.




I'm pretty sore right now, but with luck I will recover and finish the job tomorrow.  If not there is always next weekend.  The wood grain and colors vary nicely, and the end result will be much nicer than any floor I've ever lived with.  Some minor glitches and dings added during the install, but I think it looks pretty darn nice!

Just shows what you can find if you are both watchful and patient


Started working on the cabin walls one year ago tomorrow.  Always more work and effort than I optimistically estimate.  It will be nice to have the basic cabin finished and at least that end is very much in sight.  A bit of flooring, trim, electrical and one porch and stairs to go.  I was hoping for a cabin-warming by 4th of July, but now Labor Day looks like a reasonable target.

[Pine Cone]

Floors are done except for trim which I will have to make myself to get it to fit the quirky geometry of the wall/sill plate/floor geometry.

Got a couple of pieces of jatoba, for my door sills.  Jatoba a very hard South American hardwood, and pretty cheap.  The wood for the two thresholds was less that $15.  I finished making and installing them today, and they turned out well.  I have always liked wood, especially fancy wood, and figure that for only a slight increase in cost over "normal" wood, having some accent pieces of local and tropical hardwoods adds a lot to the pieces of the house I will look at all the time with only a minor increase in the cost of the cabin.

Here's what it looked like out there today.  Flowers in the hanging baskets have been slow to bloom.


Jatoba Threshold Closeup


Working on the queen-sized wallbed, but that is going slow.  Might get it done by the end of next weekend, but furniture tends to take a long time, especially since there is more finish work than regular construction.  I'm using the Create-a-Bed hardware kit.  I think Yonderosa used one in his cabin bed as well.  Seems to be a pretty good set of hardware and plans.

[Pine Cone]

Finally got the wall bed done today.  Built with the Create-a-Bed hardware kit.

Queen size mattress, up against the wall... Takes up very little space which is most welcome. 


On the way down


Almost ready for bed...


Latest Banjo Project, built from parts.  Hank Volk walnut block rim with beach tonering, Rickard Dobson-style brass tonering, Gold Tone neck, misc parts from Stewart McDonald, First Quality Music, and Taisamlu tuners. 

[Pine Cone]

Moved some furniture out there today.  Getting pretty darn domesticated!  The chairs once belonged to my wife's grandfather, the rest of the stuff I made...









A year ago I finished the first wall module and ended the day by smashing one of my fingers with a sledge hammer.  Today as much less painful...

Still need to build another porch, stairs, finish some electrical, and get the water tank buried...

[NM_Shooter]

Amazingly nice work.  Don't you wish you could hear the comments 100 years from now?   

[SkagitDrifter]

Great work Pine Cone-
Love that Murphy Bed.

[Pine Cone]

Thanks   It took a lot of time and effort to get this far.



As many of you know, you start this stuff with the thought that "Maybe I could..."

Most people either look at you like you are crazy or go along with you just to humor you...

Years pass, $$$ spent, hours of planning, days and months of site work, building and revising...

Nobody sees the vision in your head, and you hope to heck you can pull it off even close to how you envision it...



After about 55 months of work I'm pleased to be able to show a pretty finished result, look down, kick the dirt and think to yourself...  "I just might have pulled this whole thing off..."

Heck, my Dad's cousin Ralph did it before I was born.  We stayed at his Minnesota cabin in 1959.   I guess I figured if he could do it, so could I.   Looks like I was right.   Only took 51 years

[Texas Tornado]

Fantastic to read this thread!!! Thank You for sharing it with us all!!!
Irene

[Sassy]

Looks great, PineCone!  Somehow I missed this thread.  You can tell lots of hard work went into your cabin 

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for taking time to post all of the detailed instruction, Pine Cone.  Your cabin is a beauty.

[considerations]

Sweet - but you will find more that needs to be done, it never ends. 

[Pine Cone]

Thanks for all the kind words

The wall bed passed its use test last weekend.  Spending the night and waking up rested sure starts the day right!  Got on to a variety of belated chores that we have been ignoring including more outside paint/stain on the stairs and underside of the roof and some electrical work.

Here's a good example of a feature from a bug!  While we stored the wood for a few years the carpenter ants moved in a started a nest between a couple of 8x8 posts.  We discovered them before too much damage was done, and I decided their work looked interesting enough to highlight.  The two posts they carved face each other on opposite sides of the building.  Here is the one on the east side... It's about eye-level, but normally hidden by the window curtains.



Finally got the remaining lights electrified!  Lots of rolling around under the cabin running conduit, but not too difficult.  The only problem is the electrical outlet on the north wall.  The holes I drilled in the logs as I assembled the wall somehow don't quite fit right, so I have been unable to get the wires though the logs from underneath the house.  Got a drill bit extension on Sunday to redrill the hole, but forgot to bring the drill and bit so it will have to wait until next week.



Weather finally got hot again.  The cabin wants to be cooler than the afternoon outside temps, but it is still very nice to have the ceiling fan to keep things cool.  Both the ceiling fan lights and gable lights are compact fluorencents which seem to work fairly well.  I'll see how they do when the weather gets cold this winter...

Starting on the east door porch and stairs next weekend, and I might be able to cut the boards for floor trim some evening this week.  Remaining projects will require bringing out the planer to clean up more boards for cabinets and shelves.  With luck there will be a cabin-warming party sometime around Labor Day

[Pine Cone]

Got the east porch and stairs mostly finished this weekend.  Still have to put a bunch of rock down on the paths to minimize the dirt tracked into the cabin, and still need to finish the stair railing.

Here the porch is in place and we have started making the new path to the outhouse.


Looking south from the NE corner of the cabin


Looking out the door at the new path to the outhouse


Mostly just little stuff left to do...  but there seems to be an endless supply of little projects which keep popping up.

[John Raabe]

Just a great project with a wealth of well-documented information. Thanks for helping folks who will see this long after you are finished and kicking back. 

[Pine Cone]

Just about got the new paths finished.  All the inside trim work is now done, and almost all the log-caulking is done as well.  Time to start thinking of what needs to be done for this year's winterizing.  Gotta move a bunch of wood and re-do the tarps covering it.  Still need to get the water tank in, but that isn't urgent.  

We turned the table 90 degrees, now you can open either door without having to move the chairs.  The bed still folds down without having to move the bench.



Got the bottle opener and fire extinguisher installed.  Gotta be ready for beverages... or fires.  

Note the log caulk between the timbers.  Still need to finish caulking log cracks, but all the larger cracks are on the inside of the cabin by design.




Finished re-aligning the path from the cabin to the composting toilet, including finally building some concrete block stairs.



Added more stone to the path



Nice having more rocked paths now that the rainy season has started again.



Lots of plans for more stuff, water system, storage shed, outdoor covered kitchen area, cob oven, etc. but for now I'm enjoying the acoustics and playing old time banjo in the cabin.  Went to American Banjo Camp earlier this month and I have a bunch of new tunes to work on...  Here's the first new tune, lots more tunes to learn... http://www.hangoutstorage.com/jukebox.asp?site=Banjo+Hangout&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.banjohangout.org%2Fmyhangout%2Fmedia-player%2Faudio_player.asp%3Fisjukebox%3Dno%26musicID%3D18451


Had a nice visit with my oldest sister who hadn't seen the project in person since we finished the covered deck.  Ready for more visits as cabin users than cabin builders in the next few months.  Deer season starts here in a few weeks so I'll probably be out here the night before the season opens.    Too busy building to hunt much last year so I'm looking forward to it.  Don't really care if I get a buck, but I sure like walking in the woods.

[rick91351]

Wow I love it!  Very interesting the carpenter ant sculpture!  I like the touch of blued timber here and there - both inside and out.   

[Redoverfarm]

Nice work Scott.  Never ceases to amaze me the variation of music from one region to the other. 

[Pine Cone]

Got some help this weekend in restacking timbers and rough-cut lumber so we could consolidate multiple wood piles and put on new tarps before the wet season really begins.  Even had the time to take the tarps of the Costco Carport shelter we were storing wood in so that it does not get crushed by winter snows.  Lost 3 of them to snow so far on the project, so it is nice to know we just have to put the tarps on this one next spring and we will have extra dry storage.  Here is what the wood pile looked like before we covered it.



I have the feeling there better be another small building in my future.  Just a little bit left over after finishing this one.  Must have miscounted something

Here is what it looks like now with a blue-tarp makeover


Got a chance to take a good picture of our hand cart, based on plans by David & Jeanie Stiles in their book "Cabins".  Could not have built the cabin without it.  With it, you can move half-a-ton pretty easily on flat or downhill grades.  Of course, we did try it with heavier loads, but they were not as fun.


Starting to think about furniture designs and winter projects.  Now if I just knew where I could find some wood...

[Pine Cone]

Found a used oak armoire on Craigslist which fits the space between the wall and the wall bed pretty well.  I was going to build one myself, but it seemed easier to buy it used.  Saves me a lot of time and effort, both of which seem to be in short supply lately.

Deer season starts this Saturday, and right now I'd rather go hunting than building much of anything.  Not sure if I actually want to shoot anything, but I like the walk-around-in-the-woods-being-attentive part of hunting.  Probably spend Friday night out at the cabin and hunt a nearby area Saturday morning.



I also picked up a mega-BBQ at a fall closeout sale.  One side is gas, the other charcoal/wood with a side fire box for smoking.  Should provide hours of fun and some great eats as well.  Now I really need to build that outdoor kitchen area so I can move it off my porch...

[MountainDon]

Wow!  That's a cooker!!

[astidham]

very nice grill

[Pine Cone]

Enough of this hanging out and enjoying the cabin.

Time to start building again!

Started clearing for a storage building/workshop.

We had picked out a building site earlier this year, but it just didn't feel right.  A couple of weeks ago I found a better site, and clearing has commenced.

It is fairly level, and in an area where it won't be in the way.  I want to build something 10'x18' so I can build kayaks and other boats as well as store some of the kayaks I have already built.

Here is the clearing partly done so you can see what needs  more work...



Lots of little-ish 12-18" diameter  red-cedar stumps to cut down and then grind with a stump grinder.  Got the chainsaw out today and made some progress.  Still lots more to do before any foundation work, but winter is a good season to do that sort of work.  This is the burning season, so any wood and limb waste is easily disposed of...



The structure in the back of the photos is an old shelter build over a travel trailer, using a mix of small poles cut off the property covered by cedar shakes made on the property by the previous owner.  I has to be at least 30 years old.  I added a new layer of OSB and sheet roofing as well as new corregated plastic for the windows, otherwise, it is the original construction.

[MountainDon]

For the past few years the best thing about winter, to me, is being able to burn slash and other unwanted debris. We have about 20 piles just waiting for good snow cover. 

[Pine Cone]

I have to admit that I love the burning season.  Lucky for us, it runs from about November through the end of May around here. 

I use a propane blowtorch to start my burn-pile fires these days.  Much easier than a driptorch filled with a mixture of diesel and gasoline that I used back in the 1980's.

We started out having to clear 1000's of small red alder trees off the property, most between 1 and 3 inches in diameter at the ground.  Here's what the property looked like in November 2005...  and that's after we had spend weeks cutting and burning alders.  You could hardly walk through the property.



Never would have got the cabin built without a large number of burn piles...  This picture is taken from about the same place that I took the picture from last weekend, this is facing west while the recent picture faces north.  Quite a difference in five years!

[waggin]

Those alders do grow like weeds here in Western WA!  Since my place was logged in 1998, I have a similar infestation, but some are now about 35' tall.  I'll have to dig up some pics of my place showing the alders over time, starting in 2007.  Just had someone out at my place with a tractor/backhoe yesterday clearing all of the alder stumps for my cabin location.  I also had him dig the trenches to fill with gravel where the skids will rest.  Thanks for the tips on bracing for skidded structures, by the way!