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Nov 07 2010
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Building, Our Cabin Posts, Video

Making log ladder to loft – video

I made this “Stadder” last weekend, aka ladder combined with stairs. The goal was to allow people to climb up into the cabin loft barefoot and with no hands. We don’t have much room for real stairs. The loft ladder in our shed is also homemade and really painful on the feet, standing on 3/4″ of board isn’t that comfortable. It was a sunny day, which has been really rare around here. Too much rain on the weekends. The video is pretty slow at the start but stick with it, it picks up as I drink more coffee! I sharpened the chain saw 2 times to cut the log! I could tell when it was sharp because the shavings were really long.

Watch the Video below.


This piece of rebar is there because, this was a vertical log that held up our log shelter. The rebar went into pier block.
We had to tear it down since it was too near the cabin but we’ll be re-using all of the logs.


That’s about as strait as I could get with out cutting the rebar.

completed log ladder

completed log ladder

Oct 19 2010
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Our Cabin Posts, Video

October Cabin Video Update

Hi Ya’ll, Thanks Deek of RelaxShacks.com for the email blast. I’m eagerly awaiting your new book, I have your current one. My co-worker saw you in Make Magazine so congrats!

The video cabin tour this summer was popular so here’s another one that I did this week on a cold but sunny October day. Watch part 1 and 2. To update everyone this is still a work in progress but it’s a 200 square foot off grid cabin built on a post and pier foundation similar to a shed but also has house like features. For those of you boaters out there that’s a 1968 Johnson 3hp fordable outboard motor on the back of that canoe. It was my grandpa’s and it still screams!

This weekend we put in “Bird Blocks” aka the boards that go between the rafters where they meet the top of the walls. Also I put in 1 of 3 window that will go in the loft. Now there is light up there, before it was ver dark.

We didn’t plan on staying the night so we had 1 sleeping bag for 2 people and a dog to keep warm, 35 degrees outside that night. That is when that huge heater wasn’t running. I turned it off before we went to bed so we didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning… I don’t think that’s meant to run in enclosed spaces but the cabin is pretty loose right now. :|

Oct 03 2010
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Our Cabin Posts

Some Siding Done

Just got back from a short trip to the cabin. Managed to get the t1-11 siding up all the way around. The 3 gables will have a belly band trim strip then have cedar shingles above that.  I’ve been finding them free on craigslist in various condition. Not really sure how the used shingles will look but the price is right. I do know the shingles will look way better than doing t1-11 all the way up.

Brent had a Milwaukee cordless circular saw and it actually works! We used it to do all our work and charged the batteries with our inverter/solar panel so we never had to start up the generator. I have a Ryobi 18v circular saw and it doesn’t cut worth a damn. It would drain the battery before it cut a 2×4.

Thanks to Brent for helping me out and saving my back! We were only there for 24 hours but we managed to get all the siding done and went on a dirt bike ride past this washed out road on DNR land that I’ve never been past. Know I know the quad can make it around the washout we’ll be able to connect to many many more miles of road and trails that haven’t bee accessed for years, at least from this side.

The “J” is for Joseph. Lots of funny cuts like this since we have so many windows.

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Sep 24 2010
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3D Models, Our Cabin Posts

3D Interior Cabin floor Plan & Maple Counter Top

So I made these scale 3D floor plans in Sketch-up last winter when I was planning the cabin and just now remembered I made them. I was trying to figure out exactly what would fit in 200 square feet. Sketch-up had this huge library of models that were the actual sizes of things like that wood stove that looks just like ours and the futon which I think we need another of. So it’s great for planning, especially for a visual person like myself. Things have changed slightly since I made these models. We’ve put the door on the opposite side and may not be putting the wood stove in there… Read more on that below

Maple Slab with live edge

Maple Slab with live edge will be our counter top

Also that is a 8′ counter top which my friend Kevin just got us a solid piece of 2″ thick maple to use. It’s even go “Live edges” for that rustic look that we badly need after our conventional building practices so far. He works at a sawmill in the Skagit Valley so he went out in the yard and selected this log months ago, putting my name on it. And they just cut it and ran it through the sander once. Thanks Kevin!

I want to put a wood stove in but since we’re not supposed to heat a shed we’re worried that “the MAN” might spot our shinny stainless steel smoke stack from the road. So maybe we’ll do a removable stack through the back wall? Not sure if that will work. If it doesn’t we’ll do propane heat like a Big Buddy heater or the 35,000 BTU space heater Nate has, though it’s overkill.

Anyone have any ideas how to do a removable smoke stack?

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Sep 22 2010
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Building, Our Cabin Posts

The Roof Is On

Finally the roof is on and the cabin is officially dried in! (warning crappy photos they were an afterthought)

The weather forecast was RAIN RAIN RAIN all weekend but Nate and I said we were going to put the roof on the cabin and us Washingtonians don’t usually let the weather change our plans. Nate brought his roofing nailer and better compressor along with some nails he found and we were off.

Miraculously the ferry ride out there was a bright sunny day almost 69 degrees and we were in our Tshirts on the back deck of the ferry loving life.

We got there and saw that the cabin roof with just tar paper on it had been leaking pretty bad with our recent rain storms. It was leaking in both roof valleys with one having a puddle of standing water inside. Good think we were putting a roof on this weekend. We cranked up the genny and setup some ladder jacks we borrowed and started roofing the back side of the cabin which is the easy and biggest side. The pitch is 12/12 so it’s very steep. Nate was on the roof and I was cutting shingles to size and bringing them up to them.

No pics of the back side getting roofed since we were in a hurry and I wasn’t worried about pics. Then about 3pm when we were almost done with the backside the rain started and the sky got so dark I though it was 7pm… Oh well I guess that’s what they predicted. We both found some rain gear in the shed and moved on to the steeper slope on the front side. We got the 1 valley of the front side roofed by midnight then called it quits. We both were roofing in the dark and the pouring down rain with a tiny light powered by the generator…. good times… haha. But it had to get done and we were running out of hours.

By this time I was totally soaked so we moved inside, installed the door and cranked up the 35,000 btu propane heater then went to bed.

In the morning roof lines actually look pretty good. haha

Anyway this is a long post and the pictures are pretty boring they were taken Sunday afternoon…

Lesson learned: Don’t use roofing nails to hold in roof jacks! Nate tried this 3 times and 3 times it eventually blew out and he luckily slide into the ladder every time. Scared the shit out of him though! 4th time’s charm and he used some 16Ds. Didn’t pull out.

Siding is next. t1-11 on the lower 8′ then rough cut cedar shakes for the gables. I already found the shakes for free.

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Aug 30 2010
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Our Cabin Posts

Windows in and cabin has Tyvek on it.

Here’s a quick up date on last weekend. Finished up the sheathing, which took way longer than I thought. Mostly because there were alot of triangles to cut. Then we moved on to the building wrap. Got it all wrapped up like a giant Christmas present then and went to eat some Mexican food. so good since I was so hungry. My parents were helping me and we got in alot of work! Then on Sunday we started the windows. Quickly I realzed that the window rough openings were a little too small. I think Nate framed them to the exact size of the windows instead of a 1/2″ extra in each dimension. So we ripped off the sill on 2 off them and cut down the studs below the sill with a sawsall then reattached. It was delicate since we didn’t want to tear the building wrap. Also I was able to swap a bigger window for an extra smaller one I had which fit better on one side.

The big windows had nailing flanges and went in easy and are water tight. $20 off craigslist was a good deal for those. The other 2 smaller ones were free but the nailing flange had been removed so I had to shim them up then screw through the window into the jambs. Huge gaps around those ones so I need to figure out how to caulk/flash those ones. Should have taken a photo…

All in all we got tons off work done in a short time and we worked all day so I am really happy about the progress.

Lowering window sill for window to fit

dragging triangle tyvek piece to top of gable

Caulking cabin window

Caulking cabin window under tyvek at top only

Dad thinking it's been a long weekend but he wants a cabin too!

cabin sheathing

still putting sheathing up, all the last pieces took the longest

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Aug 24 2010
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Our Cabin Posts

Roof Decking and Tar paper on the roof

This past weekend at the property was a very productive and really fun weekend. All the owners were there and our friends Ty and Kevin were in the area riding dirt bikes and they met us there Friday night. The great thing about that is Ty and Kevin build houses for a living so they know how to do things fast, and correct the first time with out alot of head scratching and having to think about how to do it for 45 minutes then hoping it was right.

I brought up the huge 5×5 windows on the top of my Jeep rack so those are finally out of my back yard and ready to install. I got all the windows for the cabin so far for $100 not including all the gas and driving around to get them. We still need 2 more loft windows…

Ty started cutting the remaining roof decking or car decking as he called it. (2×6 T&G). They all had to be beveled to meet in the valley, way more work than OSB roof decking but it will be a better look on the inside.

Then on Sunday morning I drove to Shelton to get the Valley metal flashing, $43 per 10 stick! Ridiculous! I also got shorter roofing nails and eve metal. When I got back we realized we didn’t have metal snips so no one wanted to install the valley flashing yet. Then Kevin said we didn’t need the eve angle flashing since we already installed the fascia. I guess I can take back the 7 sticks.

I hope to get the roof shingled and finished by the end of September to be totally dried in by winter. I am going up there with my pops next weekend but its going to be a nice family weekend and I’m not going to have him on the roof that high and that steep! So I think we’ll focus on finishing the sheathing, building wrap then windows. Maybe the siding if we get really lucky!

Our water barrel is empty for the summer, there’s a few inches of water in there that the frogs love but not enough to wash hands anymore. I think I’ll connect our 2nd water barrel for next season and maybe our huge tank even.

Aug 13 2010
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Our Cabin Posts

Little more progress

This is a 15 second exposure when it was pitch black outside with just a small fire.

I went up the other day alone and cut the rest of the jack rafters. It took me a long time to do… Had to break out the hand saw for some compound angles on 8 rafters but they are done.

No pictures of them right now. These pictures are from earlier before the rafters were done. They do show how our window are going to look.

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May 27 2010
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Our Cabin Posts, Property

Cabin Gables are Up and Big Trees Cut


Made some good progress last weekend. This post is late. My friend Cam came out and helped us cut down some trees in front of the cabin. It improved our view  of Hood Canal and gave us some more light for the soon to be moved solar panels. 9 trees made a huge difference! When they were down I realized that they were over 100′ tall. Douglas firs.

While Cam and I were logging Nate and Aaron were up in the loft framing the pony wall that boosts our ceiling height. Also they managed to get 3 gable ends framed up. The first one took 3 tries I think. The window openings are final yet, we still don’t have windows anyway. They are 2×4′ now and I think the windows should be 2×3′. Back to craigslist for some used windows. It’s easier to find really big windows than small ones.
Anyway I’ll be back up there Memorial Day weekend for some Clamming, Oyster hunting and fishing… More playing this time! Also I borrowed a snatch block to try to get some of those trees out of the forest. Stay tuned…

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May 16 2010
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Off-Grid Tech, Our Cabin Posts, Property, Video

Video Tour of our Property – Cabin progress

Off-grid cabin and Property Tour. Here’s the progress we’ve made so far building the Owl’s Clover cabin kit.

Stay tuned for more videos about our Solar Power System and other topics.

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