Waking up from hibernation

Our cabin project slept through the winter under a metal roof, wearing its "Tyvek Pajamas". But the winter didn't sleep. Here were a some visitors.

Are these wolves or coyotes? I can't tell them apart.

And our first shot of the cougar!

First thing we did was hang construction lights through the cabin so we could see things in our still-windowless building. Much better!

Then we ventured into the crawlspace to clean up a bit of mold that had grown from water that ran down through the floor before the roof got put on in the fall.

Oh boy were we in for a nasty surprise. In the fall we had only cut in two foundation vents, and those ended up getting covered by the housewrap, so we had no venting. And we hadn't yet put down plastic over the dirt, because how moist could it be in there? Turns out, with thermal cycles and nowhere to go, there was so much moisture that some of the exterior-facing rim boards were damp! Lots of mold. Aaargh.

We hosed the mold down with TSP substitute, then uncovered and cut in the foundation vents.

After too much time underground, we cleaned up the great room and organized our tools.

Comments

The trim finishing journey begins

The last time we installed wood trim (almost two years ago!), we sanded and cut the material inside the cabin (it was winter) and installed it unfinished. Finishing it meant taping everything off and applying three coats of finish in place. Removing the masking was frustrating (the finish glued it to the wall in places), and in other places the finish still got where it didn't belong. Now the cabin is full of nice, finished floors, cabinets, and counters. It's not a shop. So this time, I'm sanding and pre-finishing all the boards outdoors. Thankfully, there's still pretty nice weather; that black tarp garage heats up pretty well when the sun's out. Today I got the first batch of wood sanded and a coat of finish applied. Christina installed eight receptacles in the kitchen and great room. My mom came up to enjoy the warm ambiance of the not-yet-active wood stove.

Uncrating the wood stove

I drove up to the cabin today to meet a tree contractor. Since I was up there anyway, I took care of some other business. I got the wood stove out and ready to install on Monday. I vacuumed up the tiny particles of styrofoam packaging material from last year's roofing panels that would have been much easier to clean up last year. I put the bathroom outlet back into its adjusted place above the backsplash. I corrected my installation of the heat pump wiring with a pair of reducing washers. Now it's really done. I replaced the emergency brake battery system in the flatbed trailer. I bucked a bunch of old logs into rounds for firewood.

It is DONE!

The final inspection was today. This guy is Levi, the county inspector, and as you can see, we passed! He only had two questions for me. One was about the energy efficiency credits and the blower door test, for which I had the compensating paperwork for the low-flow faucets already prepared. The second was asking for a smoke detector outside the bedroom; I pointed up and he saw that we already had one tucked into the alcove. And that was that! I got up at 5am to be certain I'd be here before the inspector, and I was ... by about five hours. In that time, I took another truckload of tool buckets down to the storage container, then picked up all the floor protection in the great room and vacuumed and mopped. It's glowing! Then I went back down to the storage container to get a hammer so I could glue in 32 wood plugs to cover the screws for the french doors. I fought with installing the screens, but the frames are too big! The manufacturer said "yeah we don't even make th...

Howell Cabin

Search This Blog