Upstairs

Cabin, Family, Land, ,

Well, we can’t really go up stairs at the cabin yet, but this weekend we finished the flooring in the upstairs!  We finished all of the first floor interior walls which allowed us to then install the floor-of-the-sleeping-loft/ceiling-of-the-first-floor.  I had really hoped to start hanging rafters but we had 20 mile/hour winds both Saturday and Sunday.  Besides that, we had to fix a problem with the second story floor.

Interior wall framing for the small cabin Isaac using the pasolode propane framing nailer

Early on when we we installing the beams, we discovered that the wood we were using was not all cut the same length.  Ten foot boards are supposed to be 10 feet long, end of story.  We got burned on one of the beams, the hard way.  I hate the thought of having to measure every board I use but it almost seems necessary after we discovered another board-length issue this weekend.  These “shortages” are not obvious until something farther down the line just doesn’t work out.

Interior walls and sleeping loft framed in our small cabin
This is the floor of the sleeping loft

So, we had to rip up some stuff and make it right which slowed our roofing progress.  Our goal this year is to get the roof up to keep the snow out so any screw-ups this late in the year hurt.  Still, we should be ok if we can get clear weekends.

Sleeping loft floor in our small cabin
The subfloor laid in the sleeping loft. The extra height of the exterior walls gives us a knee wall for added headroom

So, it’s hard to see the rooms but we have a living room, kitchen and bathroom on the first floor.  The second floor is a sleeping area.  With the floor in place, I think it is a bit more obvious why we made the outer walls 10 feet tall.  The extra 2 feet of height before the roof cuts in should give us a little more room in the sleeping area.

Another view from the sleeping loft of our small cabin
Another view of the subfloor...the view is going to be so cool!
The stairwell to the sleeping loft in our small cabin
The stairwell into the sleeping loft

Abigail stayed with her great-grandparents this weekend while Isaac, Emily and I worked.  We taught Isaac how to measure precisely and he even ran the chop saw quite a bit.  He understands sixteenths better than a lot of adults I have seen so he did a really great job cutting boards for me at the exact length I needed.  He knows about “leaving the line” and “cutting the line”.  He knows when I say, “cut a board a skinny 77 inches” means I need a sixteenth short of 77 inches.  It surely saved my knees a lot of up and down the ladder.

Learning to measure a board
Learning to measure a board
Measuring a board by himself
Measuring solo!
Using the chop saw
Isaac using the chop saw solo

We probably won’t get much done beyond weathering in the place, but I do plan to close in the area under the building.  I am considering doing a cord-wood wall structure around the base but I am not yet sure.  Anyone have any opinions?   Luckily, I think it won’t hurt if we don’t get to it until Spring.  In the meantime, I will probably work on getting stairs in place so I can actually go up stairs to get to the upstairs part of our deluxe shed!

See all of the progress on the cabin

11 thoughts on “Upstairs”

  1. Perfect fusion of family time/bonding and learning something extremely useful.
    It’s looking great!
    PS>..Buy that sweet boy some protective eyewear. 🙂

  2. Good idea CeeCee. If he’s going to be doing this kind of work eye protection is a must. The shed is looking great almost good enough to live in. Hope the weather holds out for you to do the roof.

  4. I agree! 10 foot boards should be 10 feet! Here’s a tip that we did to our floors when we were building. We sprayed the subfloors with Thompson Waterseal. When trying to build during hunting season it is impossible to get any man to work at all! We lost a good month on getting our house finished because of hunting! We did agree to let the men work and hunt if they seen something! 🙂 That was a sight to see! They were putting on the siding and had their guns slug over their shoulders! They didn’t get any though! 🙂

  5. Love seeing the progress! What a great experience for Isaac to get to help with so many parts of the building process. (And, what a great helper for you!)

  6. I checked out the wikipedia for cordwood construction and was amazed that I had never heard of it before. Sounds cool. So what are your plans for the under-shed room’s use?
    Winter has set in here, hope you have time to get the roof on before it hits there. With all of Issac’s building experience I suppose he will be planning a log cagin of his own soon.

  7. We had the same problem with 12 foot boards when we built our deck this summer. I’m really glad my father in law took the time to measure each board after it was delivered. Tedious, yes, but the short boards got cut down for shorter lengths, and the long ones were spared for stringers.

    I’ve done a lot of research into cabin design and tiny home building, since it’s looking like that’s what we’ll be able to afford for our first home. I’ve always thought cordwood construction was especially beautiful. There’s just something about the cross-sections of all those logs. I love the idea of sticking random bottles in for added light. It seems that it would be very economical if you had a wooded area that you could do some selective harvesting on. And the R-value seems to be pretty good as well 🙂

    Thanks for sharing your progress. It’s very inspiring!

  9. I agree, you are teaching Isaac extremely useful life skills. Your claim shanty is coming along nicely, y’all should be very proud of your skillz!!!

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