Grown-Up Linclon Logs

In addition to getting the building site ready for the foundation, Ray and I have a laundry list of projects to finish up before winter. One of the most important ones is the new and improved Chow House. We have an old tent that we call the Chow House where we store all our cooking supplies, chairs, coolers, etc. It is located near the fire ring and far away from where we sleep, so if there are any critters looking for a snack in the night, they would be far away from us. The tent was pretty old to begin with and it is really on its last legs now. We knew that we would need a different set up next season and we also need a storage building to keep all our supplies in over the winter. We had been kicking around the idea of buying a shed, but the nice ones run about $1000 or more and that was just not in the budget right now. We came up with the idea of building a 3-sided Adirondack style shelter that can serve as the summer kitchen and also double as a storage building in the winter. When we are ready to leave for the weekend or close down for the year we will just tarp up the open side. This is what the building should look like when we're finished. The plan is to build in lots of shelves, storage pegs and a wooden counter top. The amazing sink Ray built will also live in it. We got the basic frame up this weekend (four corner posts and horizontals across the front, back and sides.) We are using felled trees for the frame and will side it with salvaged lumber. It will have a simple plywood roof covered with roll roofing. It certainly won't be 100% weather proof, but it should be a far cry better than the sad old tent we're using now. You can see said sad tent in the photo of our progress. We are basically just constructing around the tent and will dismantle it when the building is done. It's hard to see in the photo, but Ray carefully carefully cut notches in the logs with his chainsaw and a hatchet. The logs are fitted together and then we drove in huge metal spikes with a sledge hammer to hold the operation together. The corners are also braced and tied together with ropes. The roof and siding are really necessary to keep the whole thing solid, so I'm kind of nervous that we might find the whole thing on the ground next time we head out to work on it. Building with logs was an eye-opening experience. When we talk about the cabin, people often ask us if we're building with logs. After working with them for one day, I can say I am extremely glad that we are not. They are extraordinarily heavy and even the straight ones aren't really straight. It's kind of fun using materials off the land for this scale of building, but give me regular old 2x4's for anything much more substantial.

Hired

I think we just hired a concrete contractor last night. We talked to two different guys. They both visited the site and submitted bids for the work. We liked the higher priced guy better. After receiving the lower bid, we went back to the first guy and asked him if he would do the work for the lower price. He agreed. We're happy because we hired the guy we liked at the price we liked. I suppose we should be getting three bids on jobs like these, but both contractors came in pretty close, so I feel like we are getting a fair price. He is writing up the contract and going to be putting it in the mail soon. We are still waiting for the paperwork on our building permit and don't want to start anything until we have that in hand. To be on the safe side, we told the contractor we were looking to start work around the middle of October. That should give us plenty of time to finish up any last minute paperwork, as well as give him plenty of time to finish up before the ground freezes. I am so relieved to be passing off this job to a professional. For us to pour these footings ourselves would have been backbreaking. We have done a few footings in the past (for the front porch of our house) and it's not complicated, but hauling concrete is heavy and dirty. We have no access to water there right now, so I was pretty stumped as to how we were going to mix it. We had talked about hauling water up from the lake, but it has so much sediment in it, I think we would have had to filter it before it could be used. Not to mention that if the concrete cured wrong because of the water, we would have had thousands of pounds of bad cement to haul out. Also, if you get the concrete mix on your skin, it can start to burn pretty quick and with no place to wash it off, that could have been a real issue. This guy has a bobcat and a concrete truck. What would have been weeks of hard labor for us will be done in a few days. This seemed like an obvious time to hire out.

Have I Mentioned That I Love Craigslist?

One of our goals in building the cabin is to use as many salvaged materials as possible. I wish I could say that it's because I want to keep perfectly usable materials from ending up in the landfill, but in reality, it's because we're cheap. We have big dreams and a tiny budget. So every 2x4 and every sheet of plywood I find in the alley is just one more I don't have to buy. We are also paying for this project in cash as we go. That may mean it takes a bit longer, but we will own it free and clear when the project is done. That said, I have been trolling the craigslist free page for months looking for windows. They are a huge expense and I was hoping to find a way to save some money there. When people are replacing the windows on their house, they will sometimes post the old ones for free on craigslist. The problem is often times the windows they are removing from their house have no business being anywhere but the landfill. In other words, they are crap. Today was a different story. A fellow d-i-y-er and self-professed craigslist junkie in South Saint Paul had a garage full of windows that she herself had scored on craigslist thinking she would use them to build some kind of sun porch. She hung on to them for a while, and eventually realized the project wasn't going to happen and she needed her garage back. She said the guy she got them from took them out of his house because they were "hail damaged." There may be a ding or two on the vinyl, but they'll work for me! The tag on one of the windows said 1996, so they're pretty new, wood on the inside, white vinyl on the outside. They have the nice dividers between the panes of glass so they're smooth to clean, but look charming. They even have full screens! The only thing is that they're huge. They are much bigger than what we would have chosen, but that's not a bad problem to have. Better too big than too small, right? Maybe my architect sister can help me tweak the plans to accommodate ginormous windows . . .

Accepted!

The kids are back in school and the weather is turning cooler. We probably only have a few weekends at camp left this season and we still have a lot we'd like to accomplish before the snow flies. Our main goal is to get the concrete footings, which will act as the foundation of the cabin, poured. We have bids from two concrete contractors and we are anxious to choose someone and get the ball rolling. We can't do any work, though, until we have the building permit. We can't get the permit without building plans. Ray spent all of Labor Day Weekend hunched over the kitchen table with a ruler and a pad of graph paper drawing the plans. He nervously sent them off the building inspector last week. Some of you know our history of ignoring the permitting process in the past. We're not that into asking permission before doing things! Since we've never been through this process before, we didn't know how much detail we were expected to provide. I think it's safe to say that Ray erred on the side of caution and provided the inspector with page after page of clear, detailed drawings. I only included a few here. The inspector called shortly after receiving them to let us know he'll issue the permit just as soon as we write him a check. I know Ray was extremely relieved. If we can get this step done this fall, we will take a nice long winter break, saving our energy and money for the spring!