Up on the roof

As it turns out, putting tar paper on a roof when the sun is out is not the best way to spend an afternoon if you really like being super warm.

More Pictures

On occasion, my little brother came up to visit and took a few pictures of me during various stages of the process. Obviously, the photos that I'm in, were taken by him.


This was an exciting day for me because it was after I got the first wall in place.



In this one, I am trying to fit the last roof board into place. I've found that for tongue and groove 2x6's, using a hammer to beat them into place is the best option.



If you look closely in this one, you can see me laying on the roof.



And now for the interior. In this pic, you are looking at the front right corner.



This is the back wall. If you look at the 4x4's in all of these, you'll notice that you don't see any hardware. Like I mentioned in a previous post, it's because they're all held together with wooden pegs.



Here's me standing out front after getting the door put up. I've never built a door before, but believe me when I say that it is not easy. This one ended up being about three inches thick of solid wood.

It's almost time to move!

Well everything has been coming along nicely and by my calculations I have one more solid weekend left to finish things up.

-I have my wood stove, and have found plenty of standing dead trees that will make good firewood. I've already cut down and started work on two of them, because if I hadn't taken them out, they could have fallen on my cabin if a strong wind blew through.

-Unfortunately water is still a minor issue. There is a pump nearby that draws from a spring, but the pump is old and I had to order a few parts. As soon as they arrive then everything should be fine.

-Security wise, I did put a chain across the small road leading up the hill to my place, just to keep people from poking around at least until I get a lock on my door.

-My plan this weekend is to finish up the roof and get the door installed. After that I'll finally have a glorified shed to call my own.

More Book Ideas.

I mentioned before that after a few interviews about reading material I would compile a list of books that I plan to take with me. Here is a solid part of that list.

Damian by Herman Hesse - A sort of coming of age tale that takes place in the years leading up to and after WWI

Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse - The story of a young German man named Goldmund wondering throughout medieval Germany searching for the meaning of life.

Apparently these first two books are practically required reading in many other countries around the world, but for whatever reason, never really caught on in the United States.


The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell - writings on the comparative mythology of the journey taken by the archetypal hero. On a side note, someone game me this book when I became an Eagle Scout my junior year of high school. I never read it and had totally forgotten about it until it came up in this conversation. After a little searching, I was able to find it buried in a box out at my parents house, and now am very much looking forward to reading it.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville - This is considered to be one of the greatest novels in the English language. Yet another example of something that I've always wanted to read, but just never got around to actually doing it.

Call of the Wild by Jack London - I can remember reading this when I was younger, but I think it would definitely be worth revisiting. FYI - the first movie adaptation of this book, starring Clark Gable, was filmed up at Mount Baker. Yes, that Mt. Baker.

Runaway Horses by Yuko Mishima - According to wikipedia, this book explores the boundary between atheism and religious belief by presenting Honda (one of the main characters) with seeming evidence of reincarnation and exploring his emotional responses. The religions of Buddhism and Shinto are contrasted.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - From what I've heard about this book, it sounds kind of like The Divinci Code, only set in the year 1327.


I'm looking forward to these, as they should keep me busy for a little bit.

Book Report 1

This book ended up in my hands in kind of a roundabout way. I had a class last quarter taught by WWU professor Charles Sylvester and one day a student brought this in to his office to show him. I had already talked with Charlie about this cabin that I wanted to build and he suggested that the student contact me and show me the book instead.

Great idea.

This book, published in 2005 by Running Press Book Publishers, is filled with snippets, trials, tribulations and thoughts compiled by a man named Dan Price during his ongoing fourteen year journey to eliminating the clutter from his life.

I found some of them to be applicable to what I plan on doing out in the woods, the biggest of them being the idea of not cooking. Dan says that "dirty dishes suck," and I have to agree with him. It would be one thing if I had running water in my cabin, but without it cleaning dishes just means hauling more water in and then hauling waste water out again. He said he was able to achieve this by spending a few months out of the year making lots of jerky, tending to a garden, and dehydrating lots and lots of food.

I'm not against cooking, but keeping it to a minimum does seem like it would be a much more efficient option for me.

Picture Time!

My camera has a mind of it's own and sometimes I can't get it to turn on. A few weeks ago I thought it was the battery, which has since been replaced, but I'm realizing more and more that it's probably just the camera. That being said, here are some pictures.



This was taken after I finished the subfloor. I laid out the side walls on a pattern that I drew on the floor so that I knew that both walls would match up.

I guess this would be a good time to mention that the plans have changed a bit. Originally I was going to go with standard 2x4 studs framed up every 24 inches over center, but changed it to 4x4's which are going to be held together with wooden pegs, timber-frame style. The flooring material was an absolute pain in the ass to get nailed down, but the siding for the walls has been going a lot smoother.

The hardest part of the entire thing has been making sure all of my angles are square and that all of my my lines are level where they need to be.



Here's what the finished floor looks like. It's 2x6 tongue and groove fir. It's not vertical grain, so it's still kind soft for a floor material, but that will just help to add some eventual character to the place. Plus it looks a lot better then plywood.

Almost there...

I just had a huge load of siding delivered today, which was fun. I met the truck driver at the bottom of the hill and he asked where I wanted it, at which time I gestured towards the top of the mountain and told him we needed to go to the top. He was really nice and everything, but on the way up he kept grumbling about how he was driving a new truck that they just got from California and he was worried that all of the overgrown branches brushing the sides would leave marks or bust his mirrors off.

It started to get a little steep, so we made it as far as we could and then he unloaded it and we headed back down the hill. Our windows were rolled down and on the way he got stabbed in the shoulder with a branch that came through the window. Not more then 15 seconds later, the same thing happened to me, except I got mine in the chest and arm. I joked with him that he was just trying to even things out, one for him and one for me.

As another tree branched scraped over the top of his rig he laughed and said that not only did he wish he could do that, but that we were not even close to being even.

Hmmm.

...

So I drive back into town and feel and itch on the back of my neck. I reach to scratch it and feel something grabbing my fingers, at which point I freaked out a little bit and threw whatever it was to the ground. "It" was a big black beetle. Apparently it had decided to hitch a ride in my hair for an hour or so.

I hope that Mr. Beetle likes the sidewalks of Bellingham, because he is a long way from home.

Roof?

I almost litterally stumbled upon this galvanized material tied to a tree on a neighboring piece of property. It looks like it's been here for a long time, so the plan is to talk to the owner and see if some kind of a deal can be worked out. If so, you might be looking at my new roof.

Concrete (not the town)

Originally, I was going to build this thing attached to a foundation, but then I decided to bump up the square footage which meant that I would need to build it on skids in order to avoid needing a permit (skids means it can move, meaning that it's a non-permanent structure).

After careful consideration I decided to dig down to the bedrock and pour six little concrete pads that the skids can sit on. This way everything will be level and I won't have to worry about the ground sagging over time.

There's no water up there yet, so I had to haul buckets up from a nearby lake and mix the concrete in that big white tub you can see on the left. I was able to get by only using about four 80 lb bags, but that was because I also filled some of the holes with large rocks to help take up some space.

Everything else should start moving pretty quickly now, since most all of the wood is cut and ready to go, It just needs to be nailed together.

Location Pics

Here's the spot. It's fairly level, and based on some test holes that I've dug, I won't have to dig very deep at all to reach bedrock. There is however, one large, dead, problem with this area...


...and here it is. I'll need to bring up a chainsaw soon and take this thing down. It's pretty rotten, but I should be able to salvage some decent firewood from it.

2 Things

2 things that I have figured out:

When buying lumber, even it the tag says that it's 10 ft long, or any length for that matter, that is not always true. While I haven't ended up with any that are shorter then specified, I have ended up with lots that need to have about a 1/2 inch trimmed off.

The second thing is that when using a skill saw to cut all this lumber, it's easier to tilt the board on it's edge a bit, so that gravity can help pull the saw through, instead of having to push it all yourself.

I'm getting excited.

Construction is still moving along. Right now I'm still spending a lot of time measuring, cutting and numbering all of the lumber.

Hopefully by this weekend I'll get to start moving things to my spot and actually assembling it.

I did have a sit down meeting this week with someone that builds houses for a living just to make sure that I was covering all my bases. I showed him my drawings and he thought everything looked good, but when I get to the roof I'm going to meet with him again just to make sure I've got everything right.

Also, I met with a professor in the Communications department to talk about books and extended education. He was raised in Chile and I thought that since he didn't have the standard American public school education like most people I know, there was a pretty good chance he could bring something new to the table in terms of relevant literature that significantly influenced their life. We talked about a lot of books and he is making me a list that I will post shortly.

Floor Plan

I finally got my camera working, so here's a picture of my floor plan. The floor should be pretty solid, since everything else is going to be built on top of it. For that same reason, it needs to be built first. If you click on the picture, you should be able to view a larger version of it.



Also, this week I think I located a little wood burning cook stove that I can get for $50. I've only seen pictures of it so far, but I am going to stop by this guy's garage and take a look at it this weekend.

Note: I realize that my lines aren't perfectly straight, but I'm mostly drawing this for myself. The real life cabin will be much straighter, level, and full of right angles. You'll have to take my word on it.

Besides, as far as drawing goes, straight lines rarely have any personality.

Week 3

I have been working on transporting materials up to the location. So far I have a stack of 2x4 studs and about 10 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood that I've stacked up under a tarp. My plan is to get the floor material up there, so that I can start on that soon.

Also this week I've been reading a book titled Radical Simplicity by Dan Price. Soon I'll type up a little book report for it.

Week 2

I have been playing around with different designs all week and I think I've got things pretty well sorted out.
-There is going to be a foundation (blocks) unless I can find a deal on some treated lumber for skids.
-The floor plan is 8x12. This keeps me within the 100 sq ft requirement, and means I won't have to rip any plywood.
-The height is going to be 12ft along one of the 12ft sides, with the opposite wall at 10ft. This will allow plenty of angle to keep the water and snow running off, and allow me to have a decent sized loft.

Also this week I started researching different methods of power. I do have a few solar panels, which I plan on using eventually, but I am also interested in wind.

I've been reading and studying different framing designs tying to learn a little of the vocabulary that goes with building and to make sure that I am drawing my plans correctly.

Pictures will be posted soon.

Pictures

I ordered a new battery for my camera today, so as soon as it gets here I bill be able to start adding photographs.

Shipping Containers.

I saw an advertisement today for Global Portable Buildings Inc. They're a company that builds ready made dwellings out of steel shipping containers.

Although I do like the idea of security that comes with living in a metal house, I would still rather build something on my own.

The floor plans are the best part. It's interesting to me to see how they have chosen to lay out the interior.

-

This week I plan to keep my eyes open to the "materials" section of Craigslist to see if any deals pop up. Also, I am working on trying to meet up with a contractor friend of mine to see if he can look over my plans.

Site Preperation.

I had some time to get up there and look at some of the different areas that I have been thinking about building.

Some of the factors I've been considering are:
-natural protection from the weather/elements
-proximity to water
-scenery
-canopy (I obviously can't build under a thick forest canopy if I'm going to be using a wood stove)
-whether or not I will build on skids, or a permanent foundation.
----legally, skids allow for up to 200 sq feet, while a PF would allow 100 sq feet.
----there is no restriction on height, so a 100 sq ft structure could have two stories.

Interview 1

Today I set down with a friend of mine that works as an engineer. We talked for about an hour about some of the logistics of building a small shelter, and he was able to give me some cost estimates depending on how I decide to build the floor and roof, since those could potentially be the most expensive parts.

I've decided on basic slanted roof design, since It would be the easiest to make and require less material then trying to build in some kind of peak.

Objective

The purpose of this blog is to allow the reader to follow my progress as I attempt to develop and complete a plan that will allow me to build a cabin out in the woods and live in it for one year. Special consideration will be payed to construcing a kind of extended self-education in order to create a “personal renaissance period.”