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mwarren
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 09:28pm
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Here is a cabin I built on the back part of our property. We use it in the winter a ton as we have a snowboard/ski/Sledding hill (complete with rope tow). It is a great place to stay warm, cook food and hang out with friends.
I'm just about finished with the interior. I have one more wall upstairs to put shiplap pine on and it will be done! Been a year in the making. It started as something MUCH less than what it turned out to be...one thing after another and here it is, could almost live in it full time!!!
I have it wired for a generator but would love to get a small solar setup for lights and the radio. That will be this summer's project.
Let me know what you think.
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Great Outdoors
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 10:08pm
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That looks great! Do you have any pictures of the interior?
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hct4all
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 10:15pm
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Agreed!
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mwarren
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 10:20pm
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I have a few. The downstairs has been finished for about 10 months. The upstairs has been unfinished but hoping to get it finished this next weekend.
There are two pics before the inside was finished downstairs. They show the stairs going up, and the open floor.
The next pics are from last winter, once the downstairs was all finished. It is 16x16 with a 6 foot front porch. I used 4x8 beams for the second floor, with 2x6 T&G pine for the floor. It is coming along pretty nicely. I'll post pics of the upstairs this weekend once it's all done.
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mwarren
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 10:21pm
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Here are a few more.
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mwarren
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 10:25pm
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Here is a video of the rope tow in action... The cabin wasn't stained or finished on the outside when this video was made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kDcpnxyPRA
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Great Outdoors
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2018 10:58pm
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That was a great video... put a smile on my face!
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rockies
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# Posted: 13 Nov 2018 09:21pm
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How is your wood stove fire shield installed?
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mwarren
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# Posted: 13 Nov 2018 09:53pm
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It wasn't installed completely in those pics but it still did work pretty well. Since then, I have installed it with the use of ceramic electric fence insulators. They work well to space the metal about an inch and a half away from the wall creating just enough air space to keep the wall perfectly cool.
I still need to do a better hearth in front and under the stove. It's plenty cool underneath, I just worry about coals falling out onto the floor...
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rockies
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# Posted: 13 Nov 2018 10:36pm
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I was wondering, it looks like you installed your staircase upside down. The rise between steps seems very high while the step itself is quite narrow. Also the final step to the floor is so short it could become a tripping hazard.
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mwarren
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# Posted: 14 Nov 2018 07:03am
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They were built that way on purpose. I wanted to have the stairs have as little impact on the floor space (upstairs and down) as possible. We decided to make them fairly steep. The way the math worked out, we had a higher rise then the actual tread itself. It seems to work ok, although not totally ideal. In order to get a wider tread, the stairs would have had to run almost the whole length of the back wall and I didn't want that cause it would have gotten too close to the stove.
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ColdFlame
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# Posted: 14 Nov 2018 10:56am
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Beautiful little cabin, and what a wonderful "ski hill" you've made. Those memories will certainly last a lifetime for all involved. Great job!
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rockies
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# Posted: 14 Nov 2018 07:22pm
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mwarren: yes, I understand your reasoning for the design, but if the staircase has been built to fit the area (length, width and height) and the treads as they are right now are level (they look level) then the staircase could be flipped so that the rise becomes the tread and vice versa.
The staircase would still fit in the same area but your rise would be now be less and your tread wider resulting in a safer staircase.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 14 Nov 2018 08:18pm - Edited by: darz5150
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Quoting: rockies your rise would be now be less and your tread wider resulting in a safer staircase.
He needs that rise to reach the second floor. If he adds wider treads, it will push the stairs too close to the wall without building a landing. If he has 12 or 13 steps and adds an inch to each. That would put the bottom stair a foot closer to the wall.
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rockies
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# Posted: 14 Nov 2018 11:04pm
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darz5150: what I suggest doesn't involve replacing or redesigning the staircase in any way. It's just flipping it around so that the bottom become the top. It's still the same length and height in the same space, it's just that the risers become the treads.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 14 Nov 2018 11:24pm - Edited by: darz5150
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@rockies. Didn't mean to offend you. Its a math thing. If your stairs have to be a certain height. They have to be that height.
Unless the tread and rise are the same, he can't flip the stairs and have it fit. You said "Your rise would be less". And you are correct.
I have literally built over 100 + stair cases. There should be an option on one of your design programs for designing stairs.
Don't wanna sidetrack mwarrens post. Great looking cabin and property. Nice ski slope and tow rope system.ðŸ˜ðŸ‘
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rockies
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# Posted: 15 Nov 2018 07:04pm - Edited by: rockies
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darz5150: There comes a point, however, where the differences between riser heights and tread depths start to even out. For example, a staircase with a rise of 10†and a run (tread) depth of 7 3/4†has a total length of 124â€.
However, a staircase with a rise of 7 3/4†and a run of 9†has a length of 126â€. This staircase has a much safer tread depth, an easier rise and a less steep angle in approximately the same space.
The things that concern me about this staircase are not only the steepness of the stair (and the rise between steps) but also the shallow last step at the bottom. At the very least the staircase should have come down to a single stepped landing at the bottom (perhaps 3’ square). Not only would the landing have fitted in with the stair design (as well as being out of the way in the corner) but it also would have reduced the number of risers needed for the stair itself (which would have also decreased the riser height).
What would be even better would be to have a single step up to a landing and then the staircase. For example, if the riser heights for the entire staircase were approximately 7 7/8†(the highest height usually recommended by code) then the landing height would be 15 3/4â€. If the 2nd floor ceiling is a standard 96†height then you’d have 80 1/4†of headroom when standing on the landing ( 6’ 8 1/4†from the landing to the underside of the ceiling).
In any case, that first step at the bottom is a dangerous tripping hazard and should be corrected.
Steep Staircase
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Less Steep Staircase
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rockies
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# Posted: 19 Nov 2018 07:07pm
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Mwarren: Sorry about your thread getting hijacked by the staircase discussion. If you want, I'd like to see what might be a safer staircase design for your cabin. Can you tell me the exact height measured from the surface of your main floor to the surface of your second floor, as well as your stairwell dimensions?
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mwarren
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# Posted: 25 Nov 2018 07:02am
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Thanks for the concern about the stairs. They are not ideal, and perhaps next year I'll do something different but for this year, I am done working on it. I have finally finished the inside of the cabin and don't have another ounce of motivation to work on it anymore. We have about a foot of snow here and working outside cutting (cause I don't want all the dust inside) is getting old. My youngest son and I spent two nights in it (Night before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving night). We had a great time! Got a bit warm as I haven't figured out how to regulate the stove yet for the overnight but woke in the morning to it being absolutely perfect temp inside when it was about 5 degrees outside.
Here are a few pics of the finished product upstairs.
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mwarren
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# Posted: 25 Nov 2018 07:03am
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Here they are....
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fiftyfifty
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# Posted: 25 Nov 2018 07:42am
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That window set like a diamond is the perfect touch! Really nice work!
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lburners
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# Posted: 25 Nov 2018 12:32pm
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Impressive,
I would be interested on how you rigged up the rope tow.
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mwarren
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# Posted: 25 Nov 2018 09:26pm
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The rope tow has had a few different versions. The first two were made with lawn tractors jacked up on blocks and the rope wrapped around the rear wheel. The rear ends were not very heavy duty and the tow only lasted one year for each of them.
The latest version was made by converting a small DR brand woodchipper. I took the chipper part off of the frame, used the 18hp motor and hooked it up to a heavy duty rear end from a larger tractor. This rear end is oil filled where the others were only packed with grease.
I mounted two trailer wheels together so the groove between them is perfect for the rope to slip into and grab really tight.
As you can see from the video, the small 18hp motor has plenty of power to pull a bunch of kids or adults up the hill at once. If the rear end on this one doesn't last, I'm just going to build a gear reduction with a couple of pulley's and sprockets to duplicate the same ratio as the current set up.
If I had a way to track the number of rides, it would be great. I bet on a busy day it pulls hundreds and hundreds of trips. I have about $750 into this version and it has been in use for two seasons. It gets used a few nights during the week (we have lights set up on the hill) and at least one day on the weekend. It has already paid for itself over and over with the great memories it has created.
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mwarren
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# Posted: 25 Nov 2018 09:31pm
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Forgot, I took the wheels off of the trailer that the chipper was mounted to and set the whole thing up on a cement block that I had laying around from a wall that I deconstructed. The belt that ran the chipper mounted up perfectly to the rear end that I mounted on the frame.
If you search online, there are a ton of rope tows set up in peoples back yards. Some are pretty simple and some are pretty complex. I think mine falls in the middle. It works really well for the hill that we have ( the hill is around 500' long with about 110' of vertical drop).
We've been using it since the 16th of this month. It's the earliest that we've ever used it here. Today it got pretty warm and turned most of the snow into slush so we'll have to wait to use it again.
Thanks for the interest in the rope tow and the cabin.
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lburners
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# Posted: 26 Nov 2018 06:55pm
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Im up in VT as well with a bit steeper of a slope. Afraid this is beyond my capabilities by a long shot but thoroughly impressed.
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