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cjm
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 02:00pm
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We got started on our cabin this weekend. Before Sunday, I had prepped the site, leveled block pillars, and built the 4lam 2x12 girders. On Sunday, it rained all day, so all we did was shuttle all the material back to the site. We started building Monday. Here's what we got done:
Monday: Built the floor box, put down the plywood subfloor, laid a layer of xps, added a sheet of plastic over all that, and put a layer of osb over that. We framed the walls, got the ridge board ready, and put up the first two rafters.
Tuesday: Finished framing the gable ends, finished all rafters, added the loft joists/rafter ties, and sheathed the walls.
Wednesday: Finished sheathing the gable ends, sheathed the roof, housewrapped the walls with a draining housewrap, hung the huge 7x11 window in the end of the cabin, built a temporary ramp to the door, shuttled the rest of the material inside, and put a tarp over the roof until we can get back to it.
It's been fun, and hard... and 12/12 roofs look great but suck to work on. I'll try post some pics below.
The BEST part was on Wednesday. My parents watched our 2.5-year-old son while we worked, so my dad brought him up to see it. He ran from the car to give me a hug and said "Thanks for building the cabin daddy! I love it!" So, the hard parts are worth-it 
I have more pics on Instagram - my handle is grouse.and.things
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mojo
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 02:31pm
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Quoting: cjm I have more pics on Instagram - my handle is grouse.and.things
Checked out your IG, and the cabin looks great an all, but I'm way more interested in your dogs. What kennel are they out of?
I've got an aging drahthaar...he probably has 2 more seasons left in him (hopefully), and I've been eyeing a PP as his replacement. I've been casually starting to look at breeders.
I'm currently building a 16' x 30' in the heart of NH's grouse country...won't be complete by October but certainly usable for grouse camp.
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Steve_S
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 02:32pm
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Quoting: cjm "Thanks for building the cabin daddy! I love it!"
THAT is the BEST REWARD EVER !
You'll have so many good memories & times there.... Let him help and even offer a suggestion that you CAN incorporate, It will make it partly "his" too and make it even more significant. Believe me, best thing I did for my daughters when they were young.
Looks really good, 12:12 is nice but yeah, not fun ! I hired someone else to finish the roof for me on 9:12 cause I physically can't (screwed up legs).
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cjm
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 02:37pm
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Quoting: mojo but I'm way more interested in your dogs. What kennel are they out of?
Ha They are from Rockcreek Kennel in MN. Feel free to message me in IG - I'm always happy to talk more about dogs.
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cjm
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 02:38pm
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Quoting: Steve_S even offer a suggestion that you CAN incorporate
Great idea - I'll be sure to do that.
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davestreck
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 07:38pm
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Well done. I'm flashing back... our son was 3 when we started building. Every year he'd spend 2 weeks with my parents while my wife and I headed up north to work on the cabin. When we finally had the place dried in he started coming too. He's 14 now and still calls the cabin his favorite place in the world. You are building something you can cherish with your son for many years to come. Enjoy it!
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davestreck
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2019 07:39pm
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And yes, 12 pitch roofs suck
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cjm
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# Posted: 15 Dec 2020 12:19pm
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It's been slow and steady on our cabin. Over this summer we built a shed, finished the insulation (all exterior foam) and exterior, graded the yard and driveway, and the roof is finally completed. It looks pretty sharp.
All my pics are on instagram under the hashtag #mygrousecamp
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Brettny
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# Posted: 15 Dec 2020 02:45pm
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Looks great CJM
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WILL1E
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# Posted: 15 Dec 2020 03:15pm
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cjm So you just have blocks stacked on the surface of the ground or are they buried to some degree?
You recent pictures it looks like (particularly the front corner of the 2nd picture) that your beam is blocked up with wood. Was that intentionally from the get go or did something settle over time already?
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cjm
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# Posted: 15 Dec 2020 03:36pm
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Thanks Brettny
Willie - we dug out the top soil down to gravel, filled with gravel and tamped it well, and stacked the concrete directly on the gravel. The wood you see was just to get the beams level in the first place. There is at least a thin piece of treated wood and/or a vapor barrier and shingle between the blocks and beam at each point because the beams are not treated. It definitely has not moved at all - granted, this is only the second winter. I'm pretty confident it will work for the long haul though... the water drains away from the cabin, the soil is gravel and dries quickly, and we have gutters on the roof. And if it did heave at all, the beams are 4lam 2x12s, so I think it would stay solid.
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Brettny
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:16am
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You could always put skirting around the eve ends of the cabin to stop the water splashing against the non PT beam.
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WILL1E
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:25am
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@ CJM What state is your cabin in? Mind if i ask what you've got into the shell of the cabin cost wise? Trying to get some calibration to what size and floorplans run these days.
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cjm
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:15am
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Willie - we've spent about 30k so far on what we are tracking as cabin "structure." That includes the cabin, a nice wood stove, composting toilet, and 12x12 shed. In addition to the main building materials, the cabin shell includes exterior insulation, siding, paint, and paying someone to put on the standing seam metal roof and gutters. So, if you take away the stove, toilet, shed, and did a cheaper roof, I'd guess it was more like 20k for a fully insulated and completed shell. This does not include the few thousand we've spent on things like a generator, renting a skidsteer, chainsaw, moving truck for materials, etc etc etc.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:39am - Edited by: gcrank1
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Will, make your best est and at least double it, maybe better triple it. Sooner or later you will eventually spend it.
Lol
Consider buying salvage lumber or a structure to salvage for the lumber.
Using multiples of 4x8',typical 16" and 24" centers, etc. will allow you to maximize std building products and techniques. Trust me, stick built with odd sizes will haunt you forever.
My 1st build was 12x24 with a 12x12 loft. After middle age and some injuries the loft was a problem and became more storage than useful living space; ie, I wished that space was on the ground floor with a shallower storage loft above (some storage is good, too much is a waste of space). And the heat all goes up.
This second one, prev.owner built, is 16x24. The square footage is similar between the two but we sure like this better!
If building new Id sure consider 20x24 or 24x24. We like an open floor plan because it is so versatile, move thing about however you want, but do plan well for your power inputs, gas piping/manifolds, heating, etc. and your traffic flow.
In my 1st cabin the wood stove was pretty much central with a straight up chimney just off the peak, it sure heated the cabin better than the new one that is off to one end and 'through the gable wall' chimney.
All according to the area's rules and reg's, of course.
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cjm
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:47am
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A few other things I'd add:
- Doing the exterior insulation was definitely more time and money than standard construction.
- I think we've chosen high-quality materials but still tried to choose where to spend/save money. e.g., We have new triple pane windows (one that is 7'x11') and a nice metal 3-0 door... but we got them all from building consignment warehouses or craigslist and bought them before building the cabin so we could frame based on the windows we found.
- Lumber is probably more right now than when we bought it.
- We've had very little waste/extra building material because of careful planning.
- We've spent more than we planned... mostly on all those things I said you could subtract out when calculating the cost of the shell.
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cjm
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2020 10:52am
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Quoting: gcrank1 Will, make your best est and at least double it, maybe better triple it. Sooner or later you will eventually spend it.
Agree  There were a number of things that I estimated based on the "main" component... not realizing that the "extra" pieces can really add up. e.g., Having to buy really long screws for furring strips and roof decking over the exterior insulation.
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cjm
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 11:39am - Edited by: cjm
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We installed the stove about a month ago and I wanted to post an update related to insulation/heating. This is something I read/thought a lot about before building. I wanted it to function well but didn't want to overdo it and spend more than needed.
The stove is Hearthstone's Green Mountain 40. The cabin has 1.5" of xps in the floor, 2.5" on the walls, and 4" on the roof. The insulation creates a perfect envelope; all seams overlap. There is no other insulation. The windows are double pane.
If the cabin is 20* inside when we arrive, it takes about 5hrs to get it to around 60*. If we go to sleep with the cabin 70* and it is 15-25* outside, I close the windows and put a couple logs on hot coals with the damper all the way closed... the temp will rise a couple degrees and then fall until morning... when we wake up in the morning, it is 60-65* inside. (If I pack the stove before bed, it gets too hot without windows open... and then it gets colder when the fire dies down because the windows are open.)
So, my conclusion is that we hit a nice sweet spot. When it is colder, I burn more overnight; when it is warmer, we won't need a fire overnight. More insulation would have held the temp even better but wouldn't have been worth the work or cost to me. We have no problem keeping it warm at -10*, even with a couple windows cracked for oxygen.
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Brettny
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 12:25pm - Edited by: Brettny
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That your describing with your temp rise/drop over night could be that the stove isnt sealed or your stove isnt big enough. Im leaning more towards the stove isnt sealed enough or choked down enough. Some times I have to be creative with where I place wood in our homes wood stove.
Thank you for keeping us updated on how the cabin is performing.
Did you spray foam the roof? One pic shows the bottom of the metal roofing.
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cjm
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 12:53pm
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Brettny - re the roof... you must be referring to the pic that someone else posted. Our cabin has 4" of xps between two layers of sheathing.
Re the stove... Thanks for the comment. You could be right that perhaps it could be sealed tighter to burn lower with a full box. But I'm actually guessing that there is no way to get it burning low enough that it won't overheat the cabin with windows closed/barely cracked. I am certain that the stove is bigger than we need. For comparison... before we had the stove, we used an electric space heater overnight. The space heater puts out 4-5,000 BTUs and was plenty to maintain the cabin temp, even when 0* outside. The stove can put out 40,000 BTUs. I'm skeptical that I can get the stove down to a constant 4,000 BTUs. I could be wrong though.
In any case, I couldn't be happier with a 5* degree drop by morning in 20* weather. We sleep comfortably all night and never have to add wood until we wake up... can't ask for more than that!
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Nate R
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 01:33pm
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Brettny, I'm not sure there's any issue with the stove...It's got soapstone sides in it, so temp swings take a bit longer, and if he closes the windows (which were presumably open before) when he goes to bed and reloads at that time, I could see the temp rising some before starting to fall.
Also, some stoves only let you choke them down so much... EPA 2020 rules and all. 
cjm: Cabin looks great! Fantastic info about your wood stove use. I wish more people recorded this stuff publicly. Knowing what insulation you have, wood stove you have, and inside and outside temps is really helpful!
Did you do any heat load calculations to figure out how much foam to use, or just go with what made sense to you?
Interesting that you did ALL exterior foam. I'm kinda going the opposite route, and doing NO exterior foam, but might do some 1/2" or 1" foam on the interior with mineral wool batts in the cavities. Probably will at least do foam in the cathedral ceiling and tape it as the air barrier there.
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WILL1E
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 01:35pm
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cjm What kind of pooches you got there? They look very similar to one of my dogs. Mine is a wired hair terrier and lab mix.
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cjm
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 01:55pm
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Nate - Thanks! No calculations for heat load, just tried to do lots of comparisons... e.g., I tried to find examples of other people's heating needs and estimate their R value. I also compared to my house... we have a 1950 house and I'm sure our walls have an R value <10 (which is the R value of a 2x4 wall with R-13 batts). I figured I'd be happy with anything better than our house.
Willie - they do look similar Mine are pudelpointers... a wirehair breed originally from Germany and one of the foundation breeds for German Wirehaired Pointers.
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WILL1E
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 02:07pm
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cjm Never heard of that breed before. Yours look larger than mine. At first i thought they were wired haired griffons which are quite a bit larger than mine. Mine is maybe 16-19" tall at the backbone.
Curious, with the snow where your located do you have issues with it sticking to their wired fur? It sticks horribly to mine and packs up her pads instantly. Thinking i need to get her boots or something. I tried these once but she took them off instantly and they seems like they would mess with her dew claw.
Sorry to hijack your thread
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cjm
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 02:17pm
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One of mine is 42lbs and one is 51lbs... similar in size to griffs but maybe lighter/thinner frame. For feet, here are my 2c: Use something like Musher's Secret OR use an electric trimmer to trim out the hair between pads. If you just want something for short outings, use stretchy rubber boots like those made by Pawz. If you want heavy boots that will stay on, get Lewis rubber boots that you tape on.
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WILL1E
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# Posted: 19 Jan 2021 02:20pm
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Intersting...mine is around 35lbs.
We use mushers secret when her pads get dry, but never did it before going out in snow. Ill also need to do trimming next time as well.
I'll check out those boots as well.
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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 2 Feb 2021 12:41pm
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cjm What size joist did you use? Any bounce?
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cjm
Member
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2021 11:17am
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2x10s with a 14ft span between the beams. I'm satisfied with it and doesn't feel bouncy to me. We have 2x8s for the loft floor, which is a 15ft span and that has some bounce (but we just sleep up there).
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