It's a girl! No, the pink ribbon around the hammer helps make it easier to spot. These days, if I'm not hammering, I'm knitting so I took a picture of the two projects in my life right now. Here's the inspector, Sissy. She approved of both knitting & the building. While I'm busy hammering, she'll walk towards me with her head down and tail wagging. This is a sign to stop everything, put the hammer down, and time for a hug, oooh, she's such a sweetie!
The east (far) wall went up in 10 minutes without a scare factor.
Looking back to August 10th when we started this project, we've come a long way. It's been 3 weeks and we are happy to be this far along, but the weather is changing, leaves are beginning to turn color….. will it be an Indian Summer?
There's the sign, "Private Residence - No Hunting" and here is the driveway into our homesite. Hmmm, maybe we should have built the house right about here, the view's fantastic! Those are foothills of the Canadian Rockies. They are a lot older than the ones near Calgary, which have sharper peaks. These are well rounded and very low so you can tell they have been around longer. They are about 5 miles from our place and are calling us to go for a hike. Maybe next summer, we have to get this cabin built before the snow flies. Snow? Doesn't this driveway look long, I mean really long? I muse about being cabin bound for days, months….
If you squint, you can see the cabin right here---^---. It's that light colored spot above the curve in the driveway. Small poplar trees in that clearing will soon enclose the cabin and hide it from view of the main road. Those trees grow like weeds, over a foot a year so there'll be a cozy little hideaway in there soon. We just bought a Husquavarna brush cutter that I'm learning to run. Hmmm, I just realized I'm getting in touch with my manly side since we arrived. Wearing a tool belt, running a skillsaw, clearing brush… and I feel like a kid in a candy shop! ……..or am I just having a mid life crisis.., well then, fill the LARGE candy bag please.
Andrew looking for a way out? This is the west and last wall to go up. It has the most windows and as you can see we didn't "design" the look of it, there was a "newbie" moment when we realized we should have drawn a plan… But … it's a caaaabin, not a house, we're good….
Here's the ceiling beam being made. It will hold the attic floor up. We originally had planned on using a milled poplar tree but with the length of the beam, the milling of it would take too long so we opted for the basic 2x12x12' style. It went together very quickly.
Here's the center beam. It's glued and nailed together and makes a sturdier beam compared to a single timber. And we thought we were done with the Fear Factor disclaimer. … It wasn't that bad but this durn thing is wobbly! It tipped on our test lift and we were fishtailing for a second or two before we got it back on the floor. Nothing like dancing with a heavy drunken beam! Maybe we gave it too much glue…
The beams up ("beam me up Scottie", gees I loved Star Trek!) ..huh? Andrew's cleaning out the notch the end of the beam will rest in. Right now it's just sitting on top of the wall and we will slide it into the notch once he's done. This beam supports the attic floor we'll work on next. Since this cabin will be 640 sq.ft. we'll need all the extra space we can get.
Andrew had (1) found the above straight poplar and cut it down to use as the center beam but (2) it wasn't milled by the time we needed it so we made the drunken laminated one instead. (3) So, with the above poplar already here (4) he's cutting it to size for the post since we ran out of glue to make a laminated post… I knew we gave that beam too much glue…
Center post in place, beams secure. Don't those pink steps give the place a homey look? I think I quite like them really. But now I wonder if I'm getting eccentric??
When you are putting joists up, you have to mark the spacing first. We haven't had any maaaaajor problems yet but I'm beginning to feel we are due one any time. Being one of those people who have learned to trust my instincts, I get out my tape measure and double check, looks good, WE are much happier now. At the end of the day we are tired, it's harder to double check things, so when it's done, the other one is very happy…tappity tap, on top of the ladder(Disclaimer # 398….)