Happy New Year!

We spent a freezing cold day up at Camp Freedom today. Actually, it was in the 30's, could be much worse, but still felt mighty cold. We spent the day hanging insulation and Ray put in a window. The big hole in the wall for part of the day didn't do much for our attempts to warm up the inside of the cabin. We are about halfway done insulating the walls and haven't started working on the ceiling. I think that's where we're losing most of the heat at this point. The kids were real troopers. They worked hard and didn't complain about the cold. I'm really proud of them! We were really fortunate this week to score a great "vintage" Ethan Allen leather couch and chair for free off of Craigslist and brought them up today. They're both very well loved, but the price was right and I love how distressed they are. I think they will work just perfectly in the room. Georgia had a great day finally being able to enjoy her two favorite things at the same time - Camp Freedom and couches. We're all looking forward to ringing in the New Year tomorrow night at home with some friends. 2012 is the year we finish this project and start relaxing! I asked the boys what they wanted to do with all our free time once the cabin is done. They both answered - "Treehouse!" Of course, another building project. Happy New Year and much love to all our family and friends!

Mid-Winter Update

Wow I can't believe that the last time we posted anything was at the beginning of November! Pet pictures no less....

At that rate everyone I would be surprised if everyone who was reading this hasn't moved on. Well if you did you would be missing out because we have not been idle and will soon be posting brand new pictures of what we've been up to!

The mild winter has made it possible for us to keep visiting CF on a regular basis, continually sealing up the cabin and making it more and more livable with amenities like heaters and insulation. Most of the pictures I have recently have been taken with a cell phone and I have yet to figure out how to transfer them onto a computer, so there's a little bit of a delay on the tech end of this project... Hopefully I can get that taken care of this week and will post something flashy to grab your attention.

Happy New Year!

Just for Fun

File this under "Pets Kill Owners in Sleep". I'm no pet psychic, but I'd say the cat hates it, the dog loves it.

Stairs in Progress

This week we started assembling the parts for the loft stairs, which is technically a ladder.  Last night I put the first round of stain on the wood.  Below are some pictures of it propped up in the garage to dry.

This is cypress wood, with a cherry stain.

The whole thing will be a lot more vertical when it's actually installed.  As a "ship ladder" it will form a 70 degree angle to the wall.  That will be pretty steep, but we have to get up pretty high, and if we made it less steep then the base would stick out very far into the room below.  We'll be adding handrails that skim just above the side boards, so that should make it a lot easier to get up and down.

I loosened up the screws on the sides so that the stain would coat completely, making sure that we don't have any bare wood spots.  We'll be taking this apart to haul up to the cabin, and reassembling it there.

Lofty Ideas, Part II

I went back to CF last week for a little one on one with the cabin.  We had finished putting in the floor of the loft the week before, and on this trip I put up a little half wall across to the front to keep people from running off the edge.  Let me know what you think.

The ladder is temporary

The view from the top, before I added the last little wall section in front of the hole.

This little thing is to ensure no accidental descents.

Look Dad! There's a light switch right on the wall!

It switches the outlet to the left, on a 3-pole switch to the hallway below.

I took some pictures to try to show the size of the loft space, but I can't arrange them on the screen the way I wanted to...  So, yeah.  It's... spacey.

   

 

Let There Be Loft!

About 2 weeks ago we went out to Camp Freedom and put up the floor joists for the loft.  We got a couple of sheets of the flooring plywood hoisted up and nailed down before we ran out of time.  We came back this weekend and finished the job.

View from Below

The View from Above

Guthrie tries it out

Turns out it's really far from the ground.  We're working on the stairs/ladder, and will be putting in a solid half wall (around 4' high) all across the front.  That should make it feel a lot safer than it did yesterday.

Oh yeah, and we installed some steps for the front door.  So far all of you who thought someone was going to break an ankle on the ramp coming out the front door...  I'm planning to move the ramp to the porch side of the building.  It's a good ramp, would be a shame to waste it.

Let's Get Electrical

My dad came out last weekend and we bought everything we needed to bring electricity into our fledgling cabin.  Inviting an electrician into a job like this is a complicated proposition.  We ended up expanding our original wiring blueprint, adding in several helpful outlets and light fixtures, but without the help this could have gone on for weeks - nay, months!

When we arrived, before we could start the wiring, the first thing we needed to do was finish putting up the interior walls so that we could run wiring through them.  Dad and I set to work on them on Friday night as soon as we got there.

Laying out the first interior wall

We made pretty good progress, and finished up the next morning.  My sister came down from Hayward and helped push up the final pieces.

All the interior partition walls done

Later on Saturday, Katie and the boys came to check out the progress.

Guthrie likes that drill!

With all the walls in place, we double checked the layout, and got down to the job of running the wire through the walls, and nailing all of those blue boxes in place for receptacles, light switches, light fixtures, and power for other appliances (like wall heaters).

Monique Lends a Hand

With our nice high ceilings we'll have plenty of room for a chandelier.

The spot for the light is a lot higher than it seemed...

It was a whirlwind weekend that left my hands throbbing from yanking wires through tiny little holes and around corners, but I can't believe how much we got done...

Just the breaker panel left...

The local inspector has checked the breaker panel and the socket for the meter (so they can move the meter off of our temporary post and into a permanent spot on the house), and the utility company should be out there to power it up any time now.  Soon we'll be able to plug things in from the inside!

Many thank to Ray Sr. for making this mountain of work look so easy.  Not having to figure everything out from a book or a drawing makes everything go so much faster.  We couldn't have done it without him - not this year at any rate.

Major Updates Done

Watch this space! Ray senior came up for a whirlwind weekend at the labor camp, and our progress surged ahead. We will post new pictures and give the details soon.

More Great Freebies

While Ray has been busy hanging sheathing, doors and windows, I have been trolling Craigslist for more great materials to use in the cabin. I have found some really great finds recently. Most importantly, we have a kitchen! I got this entire set of base cabinets from a house in Uptown which was being remodeled. I have been hard at work in the garage at home cleaning, sanding and painting them to get them ready to install. They were white when we got them, but I'm having fun experimenting with some bolder colors for the cabin. I have been decorating in tasteful neutrals for a while now at home, and it's been fun to take some risks! We got a cool upper cabinet from a free pile in our neighborhood. The finish on this cabinet is so lovely, I am just going to leave it as is. I will post pictures of the results when they're ready.

We were able to score this great cultured stone slab which we will use to protect the floor underneath the wood stove we are planning to install. It is the same material as a Corian countertop, which is heat safe. They man we got it from also used it under a wood stove, so it should work great for this application. It was heavy and awkward to move, but you can't beat the price - $0!

Our most exciting contribution to Camp Freedom came from our dear friends, the Colby-Priest's. They got this canoe from their neighbors and thought they would use it up at Julie's parent's cabin. It sat in her backyard while she pondered the fact that her parents already have two canoes at their cabin. Ultimately, Julie and Tim decided it would be better off at Camp Freedom and generously gave it to us. We are so excited to take it up soon and get it in the water of Mighty Mud Lake. We are so grateful to all the friends, family and anonymous strangers whose generosity is helping to make Camp Freedom a reality!

Dutch Door

Ray mentioned the door he installed this weekend in his last post. I wanted to add a few more notes about this door's history. The house my mom and aunt grew up in was unfortunately demolished recently to make way for yet another McMansion. My aunt visited the house one last time before it was torn down and the current owners asked her if she wanted any keepsakes before it was gone. My aunt rescued this dutch door, which was originally installed by her father in 1948. She gave it to us and it lived in our garage for well over a year in the hopes that we'd be able to use it in the cabin. I know it was not easy and I am so grateful to Ray for doing the extra work necessary to make this door work.

Coming up Next

Yesterday I drove up to CF to plug away at the doors and windows for a couple of hours. We have a dutch door that we've been planning to use for the back door leading out to the porch and, after four tedious hours, it is finally installed. It even opens and shuts! It occurred to me that at this point we can actually close the doors on the cabin, and even *gasp* leave the dog at home while we go out! Maybe we'll finally be able to go to a nice supper club on a lake...

I also got two windows installed, which is less that I wanted to get installed, but more than we had at the beginning of the day, so progress is progress.

These are preparations for the next big step in this building process - putting in the wiring. My dad and uncle are coming up in September to bring some modern conveniences to this old shack of ours. I picked up the electrical permit from the village president on my way out of town so we are clear for take off. Well, after we install just 5 more windows, then we'll be clear for take off. Oh, and build our interior partition walls, then we'll be clear for take off....

Let's Build Some Walls!, Part II

Last weekend I persuaded my friend Pete to spend the weekend with me sweating in the woods hauling around heavy things instead of tending to his family. I am very grateful to have had the help.

Having fallen short of the previous goal of having all of the walls buttoned up, the Tyvec wrapped around the outside walls, and the doors and windows installed, we set out on a Saturday morning trying to do just that.

First stop, more plywood. In this picture we have made some progress and filled in some (but not all) of the open spots on the front:

I got tired of putting up the plywood (which only one person can do, after a certain point), and Pete helped me unroll the house wrap and get our first layer going:

If you look closely, you can see that the "door hole" is now a "doorway"!

I went back to nailing plywood while Pete took over installing the front door. Late in the day it was pretty clear that we weren't going to get all the windows in, but I was happy to at least be able to close the door when we were ready to leave.

Getting the house wrap on all the way to the top was challenging, because again, our ladder doesn't go all the way to the top. I ended up climbing onto the roof and reaching around the eaves, trying to hold the material against the wall and wildly smashing it with the stapler, hoping that the end result would be... ok. Here I am at the top:

let's zoom out a little...

We'll file that under "good enough". Notice how wrinkly the top piece is compared to the relatively smooth and flat layers further down.


Oh well. When we install the siding, we'll have to do a better job setting up some kind of scaffolding to do the upper part of the wall. (I don't think we will be able to install the siding from a ladder). We can use that to do a better job on the wrap, and maybe nail down the plywood a little better before we call it "done". but until then, I think we can call this building "weatherized"!

While I was finishing that, Pete came up to the roof to take some pictures, and monkey around. This isn't a zoo, you monkey! Get off the roof!

While I wish we could have done all the work from the ground and/or ladder, if we have to go on the roof, we can at least pause appreciate the view!

And lastly, in the previous post, we started out mentioning that the roof was completely shingled, so here is a nice wide shot of the roof from the top. Do people appreciate a neatly shingled roof? I sure do. I especially appreciate not having to do it personally. I should add that the roofers did this during one of those 110 degree heat index weeks. It seems like they really didn't want to do the job on account of the weather, but in the end it's hard to turn down a paycheck. And for that, we thank them.

Darn near a cabin...

Well the rumors have been confirmed, there is indeed a roof! Before I jump right into the very latest it looks like we have some catching up to do. Apparently it's been exactly 1 month since we posted any new pictures. tsk tsk. Let's review the progress.

Setting the trusses in place was only part one of the job. After I left the other guys came back the following week and nailed on the plywood decking for the roof. Here is a picture of where they left it:


Looking pretty good, eh? having the plywood down goes a long way to making it look like an actual building, even more so than the trusses alone. I somehow got the idea that the plywood decking would help keep water off the floor in the event that it rained, but I was sorely mistaken. It did rain during our next visit, and the water from the roof just pooled and poured in at the edges of the plywood, thoroughly soaking the floor and everything on it. Nothing new though.

This picture shows the temporary scaffolding that the carpenters rigged up while putting on the plywood decking:


It's these kinds of "tricks of the trade" that we really don't know and couldn't know that let the pros finish so much faster. That and having all of the best tools.

We started out this visit with grand plans to finish putting on the sheathing on the exterior walls, wrapping the walls with the required vapor barrier (to keep moisture out of the walls), and install all the doors and windows. My sister met us there for the weekend and to the delight of everyone spent a lot of time with the boys, taking them swimming, to movies, and doing whatever else they could think of! We were thinking that this would give us plenty of time to finish our goals. Again, we were mistaken.

As it turns out, getting sheets of plywood 20-30 feet up in the air and nailed onto a wall is harder than it sounds.



I managed to complete the first couple of rows (above what we could reach from the ground) by sliding full sheets up the ladder, popping them into place and holding them up with one hand while hammering with the other. That was a pretty good system but we started to run into a problem. Our extension ladder apparently isn't tall enough to get all the way to the peak, and when standing near the top rung with the ladder fully extended, I couldn't get the plywood up into position without that terrible sickening feeling that everything was about to come crashing down (self included). We took a break to think and devised a method of hoisting the plywood up to upper regions using a c-clamp and some rope looped over the trusses like a makeshift pulley. I wish we'd thought of that earlier! This let us get the last two pieces up without so much ladder anxiety. This left just one little hole at the top. One little, impossible to get, nerve wracking hole.


In the end, we were able to close up the hole by bringing the extension ladder inside and setting it up against the wall (it does go to the peak when the feet are on the floor). We ran our rope through the hole and hoisting the piece up from the outside. We pulled it into position and then screwed it to the studs from the inside. I'm pretty sure that's not how the pros would do it, but the pros probably would not be attempting this with just a ladder and a rope.

End of the weekend, one wall done: