Done for the Winter?

Although there haven't been a lot of posts, a lot has been going on. The whole roof is done, including all of the trim. And, the outside of the whole house is stained! It's exciting to have something that is "done". At first we were concerned that we might not be able to handle something as important as the roof on our own. But, Kenyon spoke with the guy at the roofing store several times, and he was extremely helpful. We felt like we would be able to do it ourselves. When I say "ourselves" I mean Kenyon.

We learned that it's possible to do with 2 people up on the roof, but much easier with 3. The tough part was just manuevering the panels. For a metal roof, such as ours, the panels get made specifically for the length of the roof. So, this is one of those areas that having the bigger size house makes more difficult because that in turn makes the panels longer. The panels actually snapped together fairly easily.

We used the forklift to get the panels up to the roof.

After the first few panels on that side were in place.

Kenyon and his dad actually placing the panels. Between his dad, David and Hunt, we had some extremely valuable help this year. We couldn't have done it without them!

All of the roof panels on.

Another view of the finished roof.

Then it was time to stain. We had had a scare when we found out that the stain choice we had finally made, had changed. It wasn't exactly discontinued but they changed the name and the shades but you could still get the old colors. So, we went ahead and ordered all of the stain we would need for the outside just in case we wouldn't be able to get it in the future. I spoke with a salesman at one of the log home stores and he said that the company has since decided to no longer discontinue the old colors, thank goodness! Since we had all the stain, we decided we might as well go ahead and do that.

We have to try to find some shots of the actual staining. Basically, Kenyon had to go over all of the rough spots or spots where all of the bark hadn't come off and lightly sand them, and then apply the stain. We ended up using 3 coats of stain. My family was able to visit for a weekend, which was great. My dad and Kenyon worked all day each day he was here on the sanding and stain. It was a huge help, although it couldn't have been a very exciting vacation! But we're so fortunate to have been able to have the help!

All of the final trim was stained and put up.

We got everything done just in time for the first snow storm!

Luckily, the snow melted, so we may be able to do a little more, but we may also just stop. At this point, our next step is to put in the windows. We ordered the windows for the front wall, but we're not sure yet if we are going to go that next step or not. Next week it's supposed to start raining/snowing again, so the weather may be making the decision for us.

Tribute to the Yard Stick

It may be surprising but one of the most useful tools during this project has been a yardstick. I do not mean to imply that it is a single yardstick throughout the project, but many, many yardsticks! We buy them by the armload. One time we were at Home Depot or Lowe’s and were going through the checkout line with around 30 yardsticks, the guy looked at us quizzically, “You have some sort of school project?” Our response, “No, we’re building a cabin.” Doesn’t everyone routinely purchase hundreds of yardsticks when they’re building a house?

One time we were stacking logs with the crane, and Kenyon or I needed to measure something so we pulled out a yardstick. The crane operator looked at us like we were crazy and said, “Do you need to borrow a tape measure?” We assured him that the yardstick worked far better.

We have gone through so many, the area around our cabin is a veritable graveyard of yardsticks. Some are mangled, some are broken purposefully, some are warped from a year in the elements, and still others are probably OK, but have been sitting out so long they are covered in dirt so their straight edge is questionable.

Here’s why they are so useful:
- Other than the concrete walls, there are no straight lines or edges on the house, so to measure you need something that will stay flat (we often use in conjunction with a level)
- We used them to measure the heights of the walls as we were building
- We used them to fish straps between the logs to hold the logs in place
- We use them to create templates for drilling, etc
- We used them to measure the rebar on the chop saw before cutting, to reduce the amount of steps
- We used them to measure the height needed for rebar (1 ½ logs)
- We used them to show the center line of the logs
- We use them to extend the length of the concrete wall out far enough to measure up for windows and doors
- Most recently, (and the moment I realized the tribute was necessary) Kenyon used them as a “shoe horn” to get the wood trim up under the metal trim pieces that were already in place

If only there was a big market for yard sticks, I would try to get a sponsor or a job as a spokesman. I must say that I highly recommend the Lowe’s yard sticks because they are slightly thicker and more sturdy than others. Alas, I don’t think Lowe’s is going to be throwing any money at me for advertising yard sticks, perhaps because they cost about 30 cents each.


Finding the centerline of the first log and the concrete wall

Measuring the heights of the wall after each log

Template for nailing OSB

Another template, pre-drilling holes into wood trim

"Shoe horning" wood trim underneath metal

First Half of 2012

I know, it's been a while - so this is a long post. We have been busy with the cabin and life and I just didn't update the blog. Recap: This is where we ended for winter - all of the tongue & groove (ceiling/paneling) was up and was covered in roof wrap to try to keep it dry.

We started back up this spring once everything was dry. Because we had to quit abruptly with the snow, there was a lot of cleanup to do around the building site. And then we were off.

The way we put up the tongue & groove to optimize the pieces we had, left some overhang off the ends. Rather than cut everything ahead of time, we decided to leave it long and then we would go back later to make it straight. This is what it looked like when we finished in the winter.

The next step is to put up the "internal rafters". The stained rafters that are visible as part of the ceiling are really the structural rafters, but you need something to contain the insulation and help with the roof. These are 2x10 (vs 4x12 for the big ones), and there are twice as many, which is 80 2x10s to be placed 16 inches apart.

As proponents of planning tasks down on the ground and developing tools so that no "thinking" is necessary up on the roof, Kenyon planned out a way to know where to put each of the rafters using brackets. But, before we started doing all of them, we wanted to try it out on one set. Unlike the big rafters, these ones have to be cut to perfectly match up at the peak.

Next, we needed to lift the remaining 78 rafters. This is where our friendly crane driver comes in. He has been a great help! To try to best utilize his time (and minimize cost) we wanted to get all of the rafters up and then place them afterwards. We took them up in bundles.

Kenyon built some safety stops to hold them up there so then he could put them in place.

Progress on the first day with the rafters was much better and faster than expected. We thought it would take quite awhile, but this was after just that first day. Kenyon, his dad, and our good friend, Hunt, got it all done.

It didn't take long to get all the rafters up and done. A lot of nails were needed to do all the brackets and then up and down the rafters.

Kenyon also had to go back and cut the tongue & groove. It was pretty scary, but the cut ended up really nice.

Once all the rafters were up, the cross-bracing was needed. One row at the log wall and another row up at the top above the ridge pole. These are all individual ~16" pieces.

At the ends of the rafters, we now need it to line up with the big rafters below. The roof trim will then go on this part.

Since there is no real attic space, just the ceiling-insulation-roof, any wiring or lights that we need in the ceiling need to be done now. So, being our usual particular selves, we developed an elaborate way of measuring out where the lights should be (we have can lights, and light fixtures/ceiling fans). It sounds like this should be easy, but it's not. Factors include - dimensions are 2-dimensional from a "flat" ceiling, ours is sloped, there are no internal walls yet, there are no real solid measurements because the walls are logs. We then had the electrician out and Kenyon helped him get all the wiring done pretty quickly. These are the lights for the family room.

We then decided to go with the foam insulation. This was after a lot of research and weighing pros and cons. So, if you disagree and think we should have gone a different way - keep it to yourself! Once the insulation was installed, we covered up the whole thing with OSB.

Once the OSB was on, the whole thing was covered in roof wrap. The next step is the actual metal roof! Kenyon did the last few steps in a couple of days time (I was out of town) with the help of his dad, our LHBA friend, David, and our friend, Hunt, it was a lot of work in a short period of time, and he couldn't have done it without all of their help!