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trollbridge
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# Posted: 22 Jul 2011 21:57
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Hello! We are in the process of building our cabin. We have been lurking since 2007 when we first bought our 10 acres of wooded land. We have enjoyed reading and have gained a lot of helpful information from this site. We have been working hard since 2007 to complete our get-away. Our timeline to date goes like this...
1. January 2007 purchase land
2. Spring- begin clearing for driveway
3. June- begin building 12x16 "little cabin". All of our materials had to be hauled in from the street because we were waiting for our bridge permit to clear.
4. May 2008-build bridge over creek and complete driveway.
5. October- purchased holding tank and built outhouse.
6. July 2009- broke ground for "big" cabin.
7. Still plugging away as many weekends as we can trying to complete the outside. A little less rain would be helpful!
Here are some pics.
Our "little" cabin
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bridge that was a nightmare to get permits for.
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holding tank for outhouse
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our outhouse
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 22 Jul 2011 23:24 - Edited by: trollbridge
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Here are more pics of where we are at now. The little cabin is 12x16 and the bridge is 12x20. The big cabin is 24x26 with 10 foot sidewalls and a 12-12 pitch plus the screen porch, which is 10.5x20 with the end angled.
"big" cabin
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"big" cabin
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screened porch
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Erins#1Mom
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 09:14
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Several things but first: OMG.
I love the bridge; should be able to move tank over it.
Tell more about the purchase of the holding tank (brand, purchase price).
Size of both cabins?
What part of the country are you from? The reason I ask is there's not a southern woman alive who wouldn't kill for a screened in porch that size.
CONGRATS ON YOUR DREAM! Thank you for sharing.
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Montanan
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 20:15
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Wow- that is spectacular!! I love the logs/branches you have used as columns and railings. And that bridge is fabulous! Ours was already built when we bought the land- thank goodness. I have the same question about the size of the cabins. Will you be using the small cabin as guest quarters? Also, do you have interior photos?
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 20:39 - Edited by: trollbridge
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Here are a few more random pictures. We will post a few more that will show the cabin's progression. Any questions or comments would be appreciated. Let us know what you think!
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 20:48
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Here are some early shots of us framing the bridge and the foundation for the 'big' cabin.
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 21:11 - Edited by: trollbridge
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Here are some shots of us standing up the giant pine tree. We took two old saw blades and cut holes in them with a plasma cutter so that we could slip them over the center post. You will see that later!
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 21:17
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Here we are lifting up the ridge beam, which is double laminated 12 inch LVL's. Fortunately we didn't lose anyone this day!
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 21:22
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Roof decking going on and a shot of the dormer. We still didn't have any casualties!
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 21:32 - Edited by: trollbridge
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Putting up shingles and a nasty fall off a rickety, wooden, 6 foot step ladder! My advice - never stand on the very top of the ladder! We tried to keep warm with an outdoor fire pit inside the cabin but we ended up smoking ourselves out!
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 21:58
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Interior and wood stove.
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 22:03
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Here are some winter pictures.
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naturelover66
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 22:06
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omg thats the biggest bruise ive ever seen. Wonderful Cabin.......... totally worth it right?
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 22:11
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Yes, it was worth it! Along with all the sawdust in my eyes and constant sore back!
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Montanan
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2011 23:55
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Ouch- that looks painful!
Photos are great. How long is your driveway/road in? Do you snow blow the whole thing, or do you have a plow? That's going to become a significant issue for us this winter and we have no current plan (other than park at the bridge and snowshoe in!)
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Scott_T
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# Posted: 24 Jul 2011 09:01
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Quoting: trollbridge working hard since 2007 to complete
Hey Trollbridge love your cabin and the story timeline. Curious though why you've kept this from all of us for so long? Everyone here is always itching to see new pics and read new threads about someone's dream becoming a reality...thanks for sharing and look forward to more great photos and stories!
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 24 Jul 2011 12:45
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Thanks for the compliments! I see my husband added more pics last night. I am soooo glad he retired the old wooden ladder and relieved so far that he has not managed to fall off of 3 stories of scaffolding with a ladder teetering on top of that! I can hardly bare to watch him at times. Going with the 10' walls and 12x12 pitch for the roof gives us great space but it has definitely made some jobs a lot harder, especially without heavy equipment being brought in.
As far as plowing the driveway we have a local guy up there come and plow in January. We have only needed him once each year so far and he is very reasonable in cost. We pay $40.00. We bring the snow blower up in January to clear our paths to the cabins and outhouse. The total length of our driveway is approximately 300'.
We are planning to use the little cabin(we call it the bunkhouse) as guest quarters. It is set up to sleep 6 and can seat 8 to eat if we wish. It has a woodstove in it that keeps us toasty. So it has worked out very nicely for us.
To answer the question about the holding tank for our outhouse...it is awesome!!I highly recommend this type of system. We researched forever and finally this type was recommended to us by Young Plumbing out of Superior. We bought it through him for $750.00 but the tank is made in Rice Lake,Wi. Our outhouse is 6x6 plus the porch and there is no stink! We use holding tank deodorizer from Walmart and it works great! We have not had it pumped out yet-probably next year. The tank is 300 gallons with the toilet built right in and the vent. We sank it into the ground and built around it. I can actually say I love my outhouse!
As far as not posting before-sorry. Just finally went for it. We have learned so much during this process and are happy to pass on any info that may be helpful to someone else. One good thing about having to fight the county and DNR for permits is that it has given us a ton of time to think through what we want, even though when we first started looking for land what we originally set out to build was basically our little cabin. There were sq. foot requirements to be met for the county though that went from 600 to 800 before we built and we ended up at 926sq. Ft total cause "why not?". The little cabin is a "storage building" and it did a nice job of "storing" all of us. Ha! It has been an interesting adventure and has definitely been a labor of love as all of you can relate to I'm sure. Congrats to everyone else who has set out on the same adventure and succeeded. Now if we could just keep the tax assessor away!
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neb
Member
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# Posted: 24 Jul 2011 23:26
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Very nice cabin. You have done a great job. Have you done building before you started on your cabin?
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2011 11:36
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Thank you. Before we built our cabin we built the deck on our home and our shed at home so not much experience. It does help that my husband installs all types of flooring so he is around new construction. We were fortunate to have help with the framing of the walls and the roof. Our oldest son has a friend who is in construction. We learned a lot about framing from him. He also shingled the roof. That was worth the $$ paid because of the steepness. Once the main structure was up we have mostly done everything ourselves. We have learned a great deal.
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2011 11:48
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Didn't get to the cabin this weekend cause our 2nd grandbaby was born Friday morning! He is precious that is for certain. We hope someday he will enjoy spending time playing at the cabin.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2011 14:20
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trollbridge: Your entire "compound" is absolutely fabulous!!! I love the bridge, both cabins and that outhouse - WOW!!! Do you think you might live here full time at some point? I would!!!! I'd love to see more inside photos.
Congratulations on your new grandson!!!! You have created a beautiful place for all of your family (present and future) to enjoy. Congratulations!!!!
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naturelover66
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2011 14:37
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Congrats !!!
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2011 22:33 - Edited by: trollbridge
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Thanks Hattie and naturelover66. The little guy had to be moved to Minneapolis and is in the NICU. Have to put the cabin on hold till we know more. Hopefully we will get up north soon cause that means he is getting better. Amazing how quickly one can fall in love-definetely love at first sight!
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2011 23:48
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Our prayers will be with your precious grandson trollbridge. Please keep us posted on how he is doing. Yes, they steal our hearts even before they are born.
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2011 11:49
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Our new grandson had surgery yesterday. He is doing well and hopefully will improve each day so that he can go home soon. We are very proud of him and his parents who have shown much courage through all this.
As for the cabin, heavy rains have caused extensive flooding and the highway and many county roads around the cabin have been closed. We are anxious to find out if we still have a bridge and driveway and no trees down on the cabin. Hopefully we will be able to run up this weekend to check. We are trying to keep all that has happened this week in perspective-so whatever happens at the cabin will be nothing compared to having our grandsons life saved.
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naturelover66
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2011 12:26
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Best wishes to you and your family. I sincerely hope your little grandson does well and can come home soon.
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Erins#1Mom
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2011 18:59
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trollbridge,
Will keep you and yours in my prayers.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2011 21:25
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trollbridge - I'm glad your grandson is improving. We'll be keeping him in our prayers.
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 5 Aug 2011 13:00
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Thank you...I am happy to report that he is doing very well and as of yesterday was finally receiving food into his tummy through a feeding tube. This is the first food he has been able to have since the day he was born when drs. discovered the problem. Such a relief!
I also have good news to report on the cabin-mainly our bridge. My husband went up early this morning because luckily he is working way up north today. The bridge is fine. The water had been flooded over the creek banks but has receded. They call our tiny creek a "flash" creek meaning water rises high but goes back down fairly quickly. The river close by was as high as he had ever seen it by far...it was about a foot under the bridge that crosses it. That is amazing to me to imagine. Yesturday I had a fever and felt like I had been run over by a semi truck. Today I am feeling better -so far no fever- and since we don't want to go anywhere near the NICU we are going to the cabin. I don't know how much work we will get done or even what we will choose to work on but it will be good to get away. For everybody who is able to get to their cabins this weekend-ENJOY!
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naturelover66
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# Posted: 5 Aug 2011 15:00
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Glad to hear the baby is better........ have a great weekend !
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