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The cabin near Hurricane, a summary of decisions and progress.

Posted by on December 30, 2011

I figured I needed to do a summary on how we got to where we are and all the trips and work done so far to get a cabin built in the woods.

So back in Jan 2009, my buddy Dean and I decided to check out 5 acres of land east of the Parks Hwy at Mile Marker 169. This was the land advertised for sale that my wife Trish discovered one day and that Dean and I spent a day trying to locate, but could never find the corner markers. Of course it didn’t help that there was 10 feet of snow on the ground the day we tried to locate the property corners. But it did help to convince us to buy the place as a great get a way for riding our snow machines.

Summary Of Hurricane Cabin

Photos from my summary of the Hurricane Cabin building, Feb 09 through Dec 2011

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Our first real trip down there was Feb 2009, we said we were going to locate the property corners, but really we just wanted to go play in the deep snow. However, we did find a couple of the corner posts that were actually attached to a couple of trees. I wrote about this weekend and our claim to fame or I should say Dean’s claim to fame in the post at http://bjb.be5.myftpupload.com/index.php/archives/531

Well it took a couple months to get the purchase done and then of course life goes on and we didn’t make it back down to the property until June 2010 and started to layout the stakes for the cabin foundation and work a second trail. The trail brushing was a lot of work, cutting down 12 foot tall alders and slash through a jungle of brush took more than I think either of us thought it would. It did however motive us to buy a chipper, which won’t go out until this coming spring, 2012, so we can use it in the summer.

August 2010 we placed the foundation posts and beams. Do to the average snow levels the post and beams were set to place the floor at 6 feet above grade. We rented a post hole digger with a 12 inch auger bit and were able to drill down about 3 to 4 feet before we hit rocks, not just little bitty rock, but big boulders the drill bit couldn’t get past.

In August 2010 we placed the floor joist and floor, even enjoyed a nice afternoon looking at the mountains to the south sitting on the deck. We got the front deck in figuring it’d be nice to have something to work on and easier to handle materials when we come back and do the walls. This ended our building time for 2010 as we ran out of material, so now we needed to haul more material in, which is what we did in December 2010 as well as March and April 2011.

The April trip was a combination of material hauling and playing, lots of fresh snow to ride around in and play a bit. Not much else on this trip, but it was a lot of fun.

July 2011 we commenced raising the walls. I wanted a full half loft with 4 foot pony walls and decided to do 13 foot balloon walls rather the build on top of a standard 8 foot lower level wall. It went pretty good thanks to the loan of a couple of wall jacks, there’s no way we could have gotten the walls raised with only the two of us.

A short trip in August 2011 and we raised the front wall, set the interior walls and started on the roof. The original plan called for a 12/12 pitch, but after standing on the loft and trying to get high enough on a ladder to make it a 12/12 pitch I settled on a 9/12 pitch. Still plenty steep enough for the snow to flow off and about 4 feet shorter on the peak. So we got what we could and covered it with a blue trap to help keep the rain from ruining the floor.

September is moose season, so after spending 10 days in moose camp and getting my moose, I headed out to the cabin. Dean and I finished the roof over the cabin to where it’s ready for tar paper and sheeting. Hopefully I can get the roof on over the front deck and then the tar paper and sheeting done early in the season this coming year. That and some heat and I’m staying in the cabin on my trips down. Will save lots of time and gas money not having to drive the RV there and the ATV’s back and forth every day when I’m working on the cabin..

November I drove down with Tyler, 13 year old grandson and meet his mom’s boyfriend, a journeyman electrician, and started on the wiring. Plan is to wire it to code and leave enough romex on the supply side to reach 75 feet. Plan is to build a generator shed in the summer 2012 and run the power from there to the cabin breaker box. This will keep the noise down to an acceptable level when the generator is running. Figured I’d insulate the generator shed walls and lower the noise to almost nothing.

We also hauled in an old furnace to supply heat, unfortunately the old 2.2 kw generator I have just isn’t big enough to run the furnace and lights let alone power tools. So my new material list includes a larger generator, maybe a 7.5 kw if I can afford it.

So that’s it for now. Plan is to acquire more materials, haul it in this spring and then schedule time to get back down there and work on the electricity, insulation, finish sheathing the exterior walls, and get the roof on. With any luck I can start staying at the cabin next winter and enjoy some R&R while I work on the interior and get it ready for the wife.

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