|
| Author |
Message |
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 11:38
Reply
My Dad own 12 acres in Western New York. We use it for camping and occasionally hunting. Its been in the family for many years and recently it wasn't being used as much as it used to be. One day during the last winter i said to my dad and brother lets build a cabin on "The Land" (as we call it).My brother was excited. My Dad on the other hand, had mixed feelings on it. He was saying something about wasting money and nobody will use it... blah blah i zoned out as i usually do on one of his rants lol.
So I tossed in a challenge. The challenge was to spend nearly nothing on it. I mean recycle as much materials as we can use second hand wood, reuse doors, windows everthing etc. He agreed.
At my Dads work there is always a big pile of 10ft by 4ft pallets that they cut up and through out in the dumpster. Which wastes man hours for the company. The pallets dont really have a monetary value becuase they are an unusual size and untreated or painted. Whenever there is an empty pallet they now put it off to the side and we take it. Its a win win for everyone. The best part is its untreated. That way there is no chemicals to worry about.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 11:42
Reply
So we have wood but we have to disassemble each pallet and stockpile the wood until we get enough wood to start. Our original plan was for a 10 by 10 with a loft so we could stay perfectly legal. Well that didnt work out. It grew to 10 by 16. which makes a whirl of a difference. Right now it is sitting on cinderblocks. The area where the cabin is wetland. So we will jack it up if need be and place shims. We took old reclaimed 2 by 12 barn beams and made a a very sturdy outer perimeter and added cross beams. Then we took 4 pallets and layed them next to each other on top of the beams and nailed them down. an instant floor that is rock solid. Next we put down the flooring. A bunch of the pallets had 4 foot deck boards so we staggered the boards to make a nice pattern. We may sand it down and stain it or polyurethane it.(i like the all natural look myself)
over the next few weeks we stockpiled more and more wood until we had enough to do all the walls. Up to this point we have zero dollars invested. A few weekends invested but no money.
|
|
Scott_T
Member
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 11:50
Reply
Fantastic, sourmashjack! Real ingenuity on your part...cannot wait to see the finished cabin!
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 11:58
Reply
At this point the only thing stopping us from finishing the cabin is the weather!! It rained and rained and rained. We stopped working on the cabin to build raised wooden walkways through the woods so we didnt create mud holes. The place were we have the cabin we have to walk everything back. Its about a thousand feet back into the woods. So eveything that we bring in we have to bring out at the end of the day. Wheelbarrows helped until it got too muddy. The raised walkways where a welcome addition it makes things so much easier. We have the three walls done and just waiting for the weather to get better.
|
|
CabinBuilder
Admin
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 12:37 - Edited by: CabinBuilder
Reply
Good start, sourmashjack. Nice going on 'no-spending' approach.
Do you plan for some sort of decay resistant treatment of the barn beams and the sub-floor, especially underneath the cabin? I think you should. You said "The area where the cabin is wetland" so there will be lots of moisture and untreated wood may start to rot sooner than you want.
Also, make sure you have a good ventilation under the cabin.
Good luck with your project. Keep us posted.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 12:51
Reply
Every day last week i was checking the weather to see how the weather would be on the weekend i would check 3 different websites everyday and turn to the weather channel and they all forecasted rain for the weekend and then thursday comes around and then said partly cloudy NO RAIN on Saturday/21. I called my brother I called my dad it was Game Time!. My brother and I went on Friday and set up the camp.(AKA doing all the hard work lol) and my Dad would come out Saturday. Saturday we got a lot accomplished. We finished the front wall. We put in all the rafters. My brother and i were going to tear apart more pallet wood and use that for the exteroir wall. But my Dad had a surprise for us. He said "hey lets go to Homedepot and get some OSB board and I'll pay for it". He said the magic words "i'll pay for it"ok so up to this point we had zero invested so our grand total is now up to $165.62 I'm not counted the $400 dollar chainsaw that he told my Mother that he needed for the "Cabin" lol . The cabin will have 3 used windows. 1 was an extra brand new window that my dad had. I asked where he got it he said " from the basement, I bought it many years ago just in case the other one broke". A door that laying around. and 2 windows(not installed yet) from a Habitat for Humanity resale store. The windows where $20 Each. so our grand total is $205.62 dollars. So now I'm up to present day.
886.JPG
| 
899.JPG
| 
917.JPG
| 
928.JPG
|
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 12:59
Reply
Quoting: CabinBuilder Do you plan for some sort of decay resistant treatment of the barn beams and the sub-floor, especially underneath the cabin?
Yes we thought of it .. but we haven't really figured out what to do yet. we laid down a tarp on the ground underneath and will leave it opened for the time being until we figure out what to do. any suggestions?
|
|
CabinBuilder
Admin
|
# Posted: 24 May 2011 14:14
Reply
Quoting: sourmashjack any suggestions?
Your cabin's structure is pretty much completed...
I would get a can of product called "copper green" or similar (from Home Depot, Lowes etc.), crawl underneath the cabin and apply it on all wood surfaces there.
You can also search this forum for discussions in this topic.
|
|
|
smitty
Member
|
# Posted: 25 May 2011 05:27
Reply
Very nice. Thanks for the pics. Can't beat that price!
|
|
turkeyhunter
Member
|
# Posted: 25 May 2011 07:13 - Edited by: turkeyhunter
Reply
FREE......that is priced to move!!!!!
it amazing my grown daughters are so GREEN now, with recyling....
and i told them your Dad has been Green ....his whole life , we always took trash and made a tresure out of it. Amazing what people throw away.
Nice job on the build. I have a friend who uses burnt motor oil and off road diesel fuel in a pump up sprayer to insect proof a log building. You have to keep the bugs out of those floot joists.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 25 May 2011 08:35
Reply
@turkeyhunter Who knew being a penny pincher and frugal was so green. So my grandfather was ahead of the curve with the green movement then. lol
I have heard of people using used oil for log homes. I just worry about the smell and the possibility of polluting the ground.
My parents bought a Small early 60's Shasta trailer and we have been using that for almost 15 years. (Thats a story in its self). Believe it or not seven of us would fit in there. I would usually sleep in a tent or under the sky unless it was raining. (Comfort is something you thru out the window when you are cold and its raining outside.) Another reason for building this cabin is our family has grown. I have 2 young daughters now and a Wife and 2 of my brothers are still living at home. So needless to say we needed a lil extra room.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 26 May 2011 21:53
Reply
TWilliams
Thank you! I like your "netty" or ought house it looks so nice. I will have to eventually build one. I might borrow your design.
We did some more work on the cabin to protect it from the upcoming rain. We have covered the front and back peaks with tarps that way water wont get in. and we laid down a layer of tar paper until we can shingle on part of the roof this week. I have got 5 bundles of shingles and 2/3rds roll of felt for free from a friend. So i will do one side and when i get more shingles i will finish the other side. Yes one side of the roof will be a different color then the other. OH Well people in the airplanes that fly above me will know I'm Polish lol.
The inside is coming along. A Tim Horton's near us was remodeling and they were throwing out all the old seats and benches sooo.. Of course I grabbed from a dumpster (2) 8 Ft Bench seats and (2) 2 seats and a table combos.
I bought a small bartenders sink from the habitat for humanity store for 15 dollars too good of a deal to pass.
I have also acquired from a relative a metal bunk-bed that has a queen/full on the bottom and i believe a twin on top. He wanted 50 bucks i got him down to nothing provided he could come camping and i get him a 6 pack of beer. Good Deal to me.
Grand total so far $220.62 and a 6 pack
|
|
neb
Member
|
# Posted: 26 May 2011 22:49
Reply
That is great and also nice looking cabin.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 29 Jun 2011 22:05
Reply
So we spend our first night in the cabin! It felt so good. We had a roaring fire and sat on the porch.
Since the last time we have done a lot to the cabin. We installed another window on the right side. We put a porch on. Closed up the eaves. The one wall inside is completely insulated the other three will stay uninsulated until we now there aren't any leaks.The front is stained but that is still a work in progress. We are about 90 percent done. Slowly but surely!
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 29 Jun 2011 22:10
Reply
90 percent done!
|
|
hilltop
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jun 2011 19:50
Reply
Looks nice - enjoy the summer in WNY.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 30 Jun 2011 21:42
Reply
well we are just getting over the rainy season we should have good weather for a few weeks before it starts getting cold again. lol
|
|
dabones
Member
|
# Posted: 1 Jul 2011 10:26
Reply
Where in WNY are you? we have land near Olean. :) yeah when do we get to have a nice-weather weekend??
We also wetlands on our property, stupid beaver dams!
I love your super cheap approach to building :)
keep up the good work!
|
|
turkeyhunter
Member
|
# Posted: 1 Jul 2011 19:02
Reply
Quoting: sourmashjack well we are just getting over the rainy season we should have good weather for a few weeks before it starts getting cold again
so true in the cooler climates, we had a summer this year that started in march............ no spring.:-(
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 6 Nov 2016 09:06
Reply
Wow time flies I havent updated this in a long time.
|
|
sourmashjack
Member
|
# Posted: 6 Nov 2016 09:15 - Edited by: sourmashjack
Reply
We have made a lot of progress in the last couple years. When i started building this cabin I had one daughter. Now i have 3 daughters. The size is still perfect with the addition of bunkbeds however i thinks its time to finish the loft or expand a lil bit. This years improvements was insulating the sleeping portion of the cabin and we are the process of installing a wood stove. We used a Mr. Heater propane heater which worked great.
IMG_20131121_122751_.jpg
| 
IMG_20131121_123057_.jpg
| 
IMG_20131121_122820_.jpg
| 
IMG_20131121_122731_.jpg
|
|
|
bc thunder
Member
|
# Posted: 6 Nov 2016 11:04
Reply
LOVE IT........
|
|
|
