Finishing Up My Cabin

[rufgr]

Two years ago last June my son and I started work on a small (16 x 32) cabin located on some property we own in southern Indiana. The downstairs plan was to have one large room with a full bath, kitchen area and a queen size murphy bed in one corner for my wife and I. Upstairs there are two 8 x 15 lofts which will be sleeping areas for my two sons and their wives.

The framing and all structural members are just standard construction material. The interior floor, wall and ceiling coverings are made from poplar, red oak and 1/4 sawn sycamore. This lumber was cut off of our property and milled into boards on our Woodmizer LT-15 sawmill. We of course had to plane and rip the lumber to size. My son, being somewhat of a perfectionist, used a hand plane to hand fit pretty much every single board. He did an excellent job and in most places you have to look very hard to see the joints.

We have installed everything but the downstairs floor and yesterday we finished up some electrical work and put the first finish on the loft floor. I have attached a couple of pictures. In the pictures the floor and walls are red oak while the ceiling and gable end are poplar.

It has been a lot of work, and a little blood (I broke my leg nailing up roof trusses) but it has also been a lot of good times with my son.

 

[Watchdog]

That looks great! Color me bright green with envy. What I wouldn't give to have something like that out in some woods somewhere on just a few acres. I'd sell this house in a heartbeat and live out my days in a cabin like that. Wow. Major congratulations on coming to the end of a great project! I do hope you enjoy it.

About how many square feet you reckon you'll end up with? What will be your heat source?

EDIT: More photos...please! Inside and out. And of the surroundings. The woodworking looks just fantastic.

 

[da gimp]

Waugh............

 

[soFlaNative]

Outstanding!

 

[old bear]

rufgr, that is going to be a nice cabin, but it's already a great story of how you and your son spent some quality time together building an even stronger father son relationship. May you and yours have many years of enjoyment there.

 

[paplinker]

Great start.

Your dimensions are very close to my camp. The lay out is identical except my bathroom and a back porch were added on years later.

If i could give any advise i would say go big on the insulation and vapor barrier. My place takes very little heat to keep my place warm.They really did it well. Sucks to spend a lot of time or money to heat the place. I have a propane fed stove that looks just like a wood stove. Real clean quiet and fits the rustic look well. Beats spending my days off up there cutting-splitting wood.

 

[kwselke]

I spent every other weekend for about four years manning a Woodmizer mill. Oak, pecan, elm, and a bit of hickory were what we did. It is hard yet satisfying work. How did you dry the lumber?

 

[vonn]

Very nice! Southern Indiana is some pretty country to put up a nice cabin.

 

[DeathGrip]

Nice work!!!

The Red Oak is great. I could imagine what the cost would be at the lumber yard down here in Fla.

I hope your leg healed up well.

More pictures please.

 

[Bozz10mm]

That is awesome. More pics please. Exterior too.

 

[erics]

Next step hand building furniture and cabinets. Enjoy living amongst the memories.

 

[doublesharp]

Howdy neighbor! Are you near Patoka Lake? Cabin looks great. Well done.

 

[cricket185]

That is really beautiful work.

 

[16thVACav]

Very nice! And air conditioning too!

 

[walkin jack]

What a beauty! And I know where I'd put my bed....

 

[zzzippper]

I envy you. If you abut the Hoosier National Forest I double envy you.

 

[rufgr]

I really appreciate all of the positive comments. I will try and answer some of the questions that were asked.

The cabin is insulated except for the floor and we are going to heat with a wood stove. We enjoy cutting fire wood so that is no problem.

The plumbing was designed to drain by gravity and we used 2 on demand water heaters which will not freeze if you keep the power on. We only have to winterize the traps and the toilet.

Our lumber is cut 7/8 thick and then air dried outside for at least a year. We then rip it to width and finally plane it to 3/4 thick.

The back of our property adjoins several hundred acres of state forest that can only be accessed about a mile away. This was the main reason I purchased this property in 1982.

My leg did finally get back to normal but it took two surgeries and two years. I still have 8 screws and a plate in my leg. The two big screws in the photo were removed and the Dr. gave them to me use to hang pictures in the cabin. Believe it or not the other side of my leg had an incision twice as long and looked much worse.

I really don't have any additional photos of the cabin but did attach some photos of the kind of logs we are sawing.

 

[Onomea]

Congratulations on the near completion of your project, Rufgr. Not many people could do that, and far fewer could do it so well.

It's beautiful.

 

[Jessie]

I want to do a similar job at my place.
I have plenty of poplar and want to use them for rounds up to the windows, then board and batten to the roof line.
How long did you cure your poplar?

 

[rufgr]

I want to do a similar job at my place.
I have plenty of poplar and want to use them for rounds up to the windows, then board and batten to the roof line.
How long did you cure your poplar?

The poplar and sycamore dried much faster than the red oak. I think we could have used the poplar after 6 months.