Month: July 2021

Each morning, we start the day with percolated coffee, listening to the local FM station with a happy selection of pop music and weather every 10 minutes. “Chance of showers” it says. Time to get the cabin ready to roof.

With the roofers coming a week early to install the metal roof, the final item on the ‘to do’ list is to transfer all the framing lumber to the second floor.

With a good part of the afternoon ahead of us, we enjoyed a bike ride, ice cream and yummy dinner. As we retire for the night, we hear rumbling in the distance. “Chance of showers”, we remember. We cover all the saws, get the tools from the second floor and under cover.

At 1:30am, we hear a crash in the distance, along with the sounds of steady rain. J takes the flashlight to the house, expecting to see a bear or deer crashing around the first floor, knocking over windows. Luckily, all is intact, but an inch of water in the crawl space and everything wet. After going back to bed, thinking the worst was over, we both wake up at 6:30 with continuous rain flooding our new construction.

With barely a sip of coffee to fuel us, we go into save mode, gathering up soaked screw boxes, random tools and getting them into the dry shed. We assess our option, and get crucial lumber into the empty trailer. We look at the tarps we took off the original foundation and decide we have enough to cover the trusses. For today’s fun activity, we decide to go up in a metal basket above the roof, on wet trusses with a wet vinyl tarps, and get the cabin dried in.

With that excitement over, we wait for the changing of the guard, as most of us go home to jobs and responsibilities and J staying put with a little help from his friends. Stay tuned…

With the first week behind us, we needed to focus on the details. With the trusses in place, we could cut the windows out of the Force Shield OSB, making it look less like an artistic grey cube, and more like a cabin in the woods.

Next, we had to clean the site, move lumber piles and dig a trench to the new location for the propane tank.

Unless we wanted to climb up and down ladders, the stairs were next. At $40 per 2×12, measure 4 times, cut once.

Lastly, all seams were taped and windows prepped.

Progressing nicely, slightly ahead of schedule, with the help of family and a couple friends. Teamwork makes the dream work. Hooha!! J&M

On Day 1, 3 of us travelled to the cabin site, loaded up with tools and supplies. Upon arriving, we set up camp in an RV which would serve as our home base.

Day 2 served as tearing off the punky subfloor and setting up tools. Day 3 was Delivery Day: all the lumber, and telehandler to facilitate the build.

Subfloor was replaced and walls framed.

Second story building started on Day 5, with the help of heavy equipment and friends.

More troops arrived to the site on Day 6, just in time to nourish the hungry builders.

Trusses were the plan on Day 7. This required using the telehandler, ropes and a good deal of prayer.

After a very long, and hardworking day by all, we had all trusses up without a trip to the ER.

It has been a very productive first week of cabin building! Dreams + hard work + patience = THIS!! Hooha!!

After several years of fits and starts, we finally decided to build that cabin. We got the process started in 2017 by clearing out trees, and then in 2018, building the foundation.

After 2 years of weather, despite tarping and covering the subfloor, this year, all of it had to be removed.

The cabin planning has been a meticulous process. Prior to committing to a diy project such as this, every detail must be considered.

To choose to build in 2021 meant to swallow a triple increase in lumber prices. Lumber was ordered early, as were trusses, with costs much higher than anticipated when the planning began. We chose a start date to spend 4 weeks building in July 2021. Lumber was ordered from local sources and delivered to the site during the first couple of days. Windows and doors were ordered from home, and transported. Headers were built at home to save space in the trailer.

With all the preparations in place, the building can begin!! Hooha!! J&M