Cabin Building Continues

Trips to New Orleans and Tampa have somewhat slowed the pace of construction, but things are moving ahead steadily. One-inch foam panels were cut to fit between the floor joists and are supported by furring strips. This insulation should make the floor cozy in the winter months.

The subfloor is 3/4" tongue-in-groove Advantech 4x8 plywood. This product is supposed to be able to shed water for 90 days or so--giving builders time to get the roof up before moisture damage can occur. The pictures show Terry and me standing about idly while Jim is down on his knees trying to figure out a problem in making the last few pieces of plywood fit. (Really and truly, Terry and I are not always so idle!)

 The next two snapshots show the current state of the project. Look closely and you can see the temporary cleats (or blocks) near the top of the posts. Today's work will have us lifting 2x12 beams to rest on those blocks. We will glue, nail, and bolt them to the posts.

 Note the various cross braces in the snapshot below. No matter how hard one tries, it is impossible to get the posts perfectly vertical as they are lifted and cemented into the foundation holes. The bracing brings them into better position and will stay in place until the 4x4 cross beams firm up the entire frame.

One of my biggest nightmares in the planning of this addition has been calculating the exact height at which the beams should attach to each post. The new roof must wedge under the roof on the old part of the cabin with at least ten inches of clearance (to allow hammering, etc.). The ceiling in the lowest part of the new addition should be adequate (about 90" or more). The pass-through from the new addition to the bathroom in the old cabin has about a 5" step up and the must pass right beneath the lowest part of a major beam; head clearance of about 78" is required.  Some of these specifications conflict with one another in vexing ways. Indeed, it was almost impossible to find a way to have enough head room in the passthrough to the bath. Eventually I decided to add several sub-posts along the east wall, allowing me to cut the main beam from 2x12 down to 2x6.

The little sketch below was an early attempt to check my calculations of roof slope. It barely hints at the hours of measuring, calculating, and remeasuring that I have done. On one sad day (just before 5 PM--exactly the wrong time to make a major decision) I cut two of the center posts off too short. Initially it appeared that I would have only 1 1/2" of exposed post on which to attach my main support beams! Not good! I spent a whole day cutting big dadoes and biscuits so that I could lengthen those two posts. After much additional calculation I found that the beams would actually attach enough lower on the posts to allow my bolts to run through firm wood, but the extensions are still helpful.

Cabin Buiding -- part 2

Revised Addition Plan

 
A lot has changed in the month since my last post about the cabin construction project. Most notably I spent hours staring under the current cabin and finding myself absolutely unable to figure out how to hook a new bathroom into our current septic system. Finally I spend a few more hours whining about my problems to Sue before I was able to convince her to let me redraw the plans. The new plan has us expanding and remodeling one of the bathrooms in the current cabin and limiting the addition to having a mini-kitchen. Removing the third bathroom makes the floor plan for the addition considerably more spacious.

Even before settling on a final floor plan, I was able to press ahead with digging post holes. Unfortunately, several tree stumps got in the way so I hired my friend Matt Foster to send Reese over with a back hoe to dig out the stumps. While he was there, I was persuaded to have him dig all the post holes as well. That turned out to be a very mixed blessing. A back hoe does the job quickly and powerfully, but it leaves one with post holes that are far too big. That forced me to build plywood forms for the concrete (a time-consuming job) and then to spend about as much back-breaking time filling the holes as I would have spent digging them in the first place. Fortunately, I have been able to recruit my friends Terry and Jim to help.

The first load of lumber was delivered on September 24.
 

Shortly afterward the three of us were hard at work . . . if you can call it working when Terry and I are joking and laughing while Jim sweats away mixing cement.


 
A few days later we had tipped all the posts into the holes, filled the forms with concrete, and attached bracing to keep everything standing while the concrete dried.

More days passed in the joy of refilling the holes with rocks and dirt, and then beginning the task of putting up beams and joists. By October 3rd something like a cabin addition was starting to emerge.

The construction site in our remote extremity of the Ozarks is very peaceful. Few visitors stop to admire our work, but in these final two snapshots you see two who did take the time to come by.

The eagle settled into a tree about fifty feet from the deck and spent most of a morning observing the surrounding terrain.

The tarantula was just passing through and barely seemed to notice or care what we were doing.