30 year old 20x40 cabin complete remodel

[Deleted]

First before I start I want to say, I post on another forum and the next 2 post are just copy an paste from that forum. That is why its a post from winter and one from now.

In April 2014 the wife and I decided to sell out house and move to the family property. There is a old deer camp cabin on the property that my father in law build close to 30 years ago. Its been sitting for the past 8 years rotting away, so we decided to fix it up and move into it. The first set of pictures show what it looked like before we started cleaning it and repair.















As you can see It is in pretty rough condition. We forgot to take pictures of one of the worst parts. Up on the upper roof there was a spot that was probably 4ft x 4ft that had rotted and start to become a hole. also whats not pictured is theres another door that the subfloor by it was rotten as well as the outside 2x12 under it.

I work out of town for the railroad, So I work 6 weeks and off for 2. So the rebuild will take probably another 9 months (hopefully)

First thing we did was sit down and figure out how we wanted to do the floor plan. One of the main things we wanted to do was keep the stair's to the loft the same way as they are now.





One of the things that has changed since we drew up the plans - where we originally going to have a traditional hot water heater under the stairs, but now we are doing a tankless heater in the same spot. Also, there is a loft that is over the bedroom and bathroom.

So first thing we did was repair and replace the upper roof. We ended up replacing half of the decking on both sides and put on galvilume metal roof.







As you can see in the pictures is that it snowed on us in the middle of repairing it. Which it hardly ever snows in Arkansas. One thing that really sucked is the upper roof is a 12/12 pitch. So it sucked working up there lol. Luckily we had a cherry picker that we could use.

Thats all we were able to do during that time I was home. The next time I was home we repaired the lower roof and put the metal roof on it. As well as repair the floor and replaced the back door. We also replaced all the outer 2x12's on that side of the house with treated boards.














One thing I forgot to mention is that while we were in the middle of doing all the repairs this time home we got hammered by Tropical Storm Bill. That made it fun. lol

This last time I was home we took an easy and didnt do too much on the cabin. We replaced the door in the front with a french door as well as replacing the floor that was rotten and the 2x12's. We also framed out the window that will be going next to the door.










So whats on the agenda for next time im home.

- We should be getting power ran up there so I have to get the meter loop installed.

- Ill be installing/replacing the windows on the front. As well as putting up the sheathing and tyvek.

But till then. Have a good one.

[Deleted]

UPDATE:

First I’ll start off with this latest thing that has happened. The 4.5 cm laceration that resulted in 8 stitches. First I’ll explain what happened then ill post LINKS to the photos since they are pretty graphic.
Story:
Im a contract worker for BNSF and our machine has yellow strobe lights. Well they have a metal collar
that hold the light part to the housing. I was replacing it and when I was putting the collar back on I
dropped the screw to it. I went up to the cab to find a bolt to replace the screw and all the ones we had
were too big. So, I had to drill out the hole a little bigger for the bolt to fit. I was holding the collar in my
had while I was drilling the hole bigger when the drill bit caught on the metal and twisted. The result
was the metal slicing my finger wide open.

Mistake #1) Should have had gloves on
Mistake #2) Should have put the collar in a vice.

!!!WARNING PHOTOS ARE GRAPHIC!!!
i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh34/jinx906/IMG_0179.jpg
i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh34/jinx906/IMG_0180.jpg

Onto the cabin update:
We’ve made a few design changes since I have last updated:
- Unfortunately, we are no longer keeping the stairs the same. They will just take up way too much valuable space that is needed. We have decided to do conventional staircase. Underneath it will become a small pantry. Tankless hot water system will stay underneath the stairs.
- We were originally going to put a door on the west wall of the bedroom. We have decided to put a window in that spot instead of a door.
- Instead of two doors to the bathroom we are only doing one. Instead of having a door from the bedroom to the bathroom as well as a door from the great room, we are just going to do the one door from the bedroom into the bathroom. That way once we do our addition and the current master bed turns into a guestroom it’ll have a private bathroom.
- Instead of doing wood on the ceiling we have decided it’ll look a lot better and more unique with corrugated metal that has been made to look rusted by using acid on the metal.
Now onto what we’ve been doing for the past 6 months. We have gotten all the windows framed and all the outside sheathing put up. I don’t know if it’s just that I am slow or what, but it felt like it took forever for me to get all the windows framed in. one of my favorite things to do was install the sheathing. It makes me feel as to if it’s a major step in getting the cabin finished. I loved standing inside the cabin afterwards and looking out the windows to see what my view will be like from each window. This first set of pictures will show the process of framing the windows as well the sheathing and Tyvek.


We found that little fella between the blackboard and the siding that use to be up.

As in any project, I was working late into the night to try to get it done before I had to leave to go back to work the next day.



This one is a view of the east wall. You can kinda see where all the windows are on this wall. Obviously the smallest one on the far right is the one to the bathroom.

Here is a good shot of the North and West walls.

Me in the 30 year old cherry picker that moves and sways more than it sits still. Lol

So along with getting all the windows framed and the exterior put up I started on wiring the place. As you could see on the north wall is where our meter is going to be. The breaker box will be inside right behind the meter in the bedroom.

Here is a shot of where the box is on the inside.

Here is a shot of the bedroom. So, some of you may look at this photo and see the French door leaning up against the wall with a 2x4 nailed in front it. You maybe thinking to yourself “ So why is the French door sitting there and not reinstalled” Well the reasoning for that is as follows:
We had taken the French door out while I was putting the Tyvek up so that I would get it wrapped around the 2x4 to keep moisture away from them. During this process we had the door leaned up against the wall in front of the window south of the door. Well, my youngest boy was playing in the room around the door while my father in law was working in the bedroom. Next thing you know there is a huge crash and my youngest was screaming his head off. Apparently he was walking and caught his foot on the bottom of the door and it fell over resulting in the hinges breaking off the jam and the jam breaking. Thank God my boy wasn’t hurt, and the actual door is perfectly fine. So that is why the door is against the wall with a brace. Its waiting to be fixed before I re-install it.

So you can get a visual as to how we are getting power to the cabin. The red line is the current power line on our property. The green line is going to be our actual powerline. Where the white line and the red line meet up is where our last pole is going to be placed and the white line is going to be all underground.

The next series of photos is just some pictures of the family at the cabin while we work, as well as photos of the immediate area of the cabin. Don’t mind all the trash and old stuff around the area. It’s all getting taken away except for the outhouse. It’s going to stay right where it is.

This is on the north side of the cabin. The plan is to slowly clear all the underbrush out so we have a good viewing area. I plan on clearing out all the under brush up to about 100-150 yards all the way around the cabin.

This is North- East of the cabin.

East , South-East of the cabin

South

South – West

West

My youngest boy counting some spent brass he found.

Our little Long-haired Dachshund.


One of many sunsets we will see from this place.


Homemade seesaw

When I finally finished the roof.

Adding art to the subfloor. Lol

They were laying on the floor listening to the rain on the metal roof.
Here is a little project that I started when I was home this last time. I got the idea for the table from Shanty 2 Chic. I kinda changed it up a little bit from what she did. But all in all it’s the same as hers.



That is where it is going to sit.



In closing:
Like I said a few days ago, we are way behind schedule. At the point I was hoping to have electrical all done minus installing fixtures, All the windows installed, and plumbing started.
The agenda for when im home in June is:
- Have all the electrical done minus fixtures installed
- Hopefully by then the power company will have ran the power to the meter.
- West and south wall windows installed
- French door repaird and installed
- Stairs to the loft built.
I hope everyone enjoys this update. Until then:
Kev out.

[wally]

Thanks for sharing your project, please keep us current . If you have any questions please ask as a lot of trades are here.

[shellymay]

Very educational and keeping the old cabin in the family is beyond words, your boys are getting a great education with hands on and how to, so many pictures and lots of comments I would like to say but I am just in AWE....lol

[solargeek]

Love the pics and narrative! I take it you live in a tick free area? We live in WI and if we walked around in anything but "bugsaway" clothing I would have 20 ticks+ a day on me.
Beautiful kids!

[Deleted]

Super impressed with your abilities and progress!

[here to stay]

I so enjoyed "watching" your progress. Your pictures and narrative almost made me feel I was there. Without my having to do the hard work!

Although I was sorry to see the siding with the natural edge go, it is exciting to see this transformation from a cabin to a family home. Thanks for pisting.

[Deleted]

wally , Thanks a lot. I'll be sure to come here with questions.

shellymay , lol. Thanks, Yea my boys love helping when i'm home working on it. Especially my youngest one. Hes the more hands on lets build type of kid.

solargeek , No we are by far in a tick free part of the world. I live in Arkansas so they are everywhere, we have found that if you keep the grass cut the ticks stay away. Our dogs on the other hand love go running in the woods and we pick ticks off them daily. Especially my big dog, she is a tick magnet. I'll find a picture of her and post on here. She is beautful.

@macmad , Thanks man, Im by far an expert. This is the first time ive ever done this. So, this is a huge learning experience.

here to stay, Thank you. We're just not feeling the live edge siding for some reason. So we decided to do a lapboard type siding out of 3/4 x 8" or 10" rough sawn cedar. We think itll look really nice that way. also I dont know if I said it in the post. We are doing a 16' wrap around porch that goes on the west, north, and east side of the cabin. why not the south? because we are eventually going to do an addition on the end of the cabin. That's why there is only 1 window on the south wall. its eventually going to be the opening to the hall for the addition.

[solargeek]

@kevin, cutting the grass and having a large yard to keep the ticks away just seems like an invite to them. We hope to get chickens, ducks and guineas next year. Can't wait to see the dog. Our Black lab is on Frontline 12 months a year and we use a towel to wipe her down (even on sunny days) before she steps foot in the door, no matter how many times she is in or out. That helped a lot.

[shellymay]

@kevin, living all the way out there you will want your own farm fresh eggs and chicken dinner, they are great for bugs as well

[Deleted]

Great thread @kevin, and I see you've got plenty of good help running around there in those young'uns. Big project, great motivation, executed well, job being more than well done. Congratulations.

[Deleted]

Heres a quick up-date. The wife called me yesterday and said the power line people were out cutting the right a way. So now all we are waiting on is the guys to come out to set the poles and run the line. They ended up putting the right away a little more south than we had anticipated. But oh well nothing we can do about it right? Lol



The white flag is where the last pole is going. From that point to the cabin the power is going to be ran under ground.



This is where the middle pole is going to be.



For some reason the right of way guys left these 2 trees. So the engineer marked them and they are going to come back and cut them down.



This is where the dog leg is going to be. As you can see to the right is the existing power line that we are going to be tied into. Also, a candid shot of one of our dogs lol. Our plans are to clear out down to the lake so that we can have a some what of a view of the lake.



The boys love it when contractors come out to do stuff. 95% of the time they are really good at explaining to them what they are doing and why, so they usually end up learning some stuff while they are here.



And one more of Sis. She is a stray that showed up. It took my wife a good 2 hours to get her to come close enough to her that she could pick her up and bring her in. She was extremely skinny so we got her fatten up and she’s stayed ever since. Her and my big dog Juno are inseparable. They have been like that since day one. We don’t know if the nights leading up to us finding her they had bonded or what. If she is outside good luck trying to get close to petting her because she is every skiddish. Once you get her inside shes a totally different dog, very loving and loves to play.



Here is a photo of juno and sis a few days after she showed up.

[Deleted]

solargeek, Ticks like tall grass. since they dont jump or fly its easier for them to attach to people and dogs when they are on tall grass. All of our dogs are on frontline as well, but for some reason my big dog still gets them. I posted a picture of her and sis in my last post.

shellymay, I totally agree, Currently we have 5 hens and 1 rooster, as well has 3 female and 1 male quail that we just got a few weeks ago. We plan on getting a lot more farm animals, we just have to get the cabin built first lol.

@deerjohn, Thanks bud, The boys love helping around the cabin. I hope when they get older it'll always be something special to them.

[wildhorseluvr]

Thanks for posting about your cabin project, I think it's awesome and look forward to seeing more photos. (You have some handsome sons too!) I also enjoyed the pics of Juno and Sis. 

I just had a crew here for 2 weeks removing trees, they were also great at explaining things to my 2 grandsons. Although the older grandson said he was very disappointed that they did not yell "Timber!" as the trees came down, "because that's what you're supposed to do, you know." 

[shellymay]

@kevin, A view of the lake (sweet) sounds so peaceful out there......Although your last two dogs are great and love the stray adoption story   I LOVE the Dachshund from your earlier pictures , yep big Dachshund lover here 
we are having power poles put in also, but we are not as happy as you...they are putting in my pastures and guide wires in pastures as well and its never in a good place in your pastures...LOL   I am happy to hear that more animals
are in your near future!!!

[Deleted]

wildhorseluvr Thanks a lot . Your grandson is completely right. They are suppose to say timber when the tree falls. I'm glad they were having fun with the tree guys. Kids soak it all in.

shellymay, the "lake" is actually a 17 acre pond, but we just call it a lake. There is no way you could ask them to move the power line? The power company was wanting to put our line where we grow the garden. But luckily they just ran fiber optic to our cabin. The power guy didn't want to deal with that so they decided to go in the woods. At first he offered to run it all under ground but it was $4 a foot and it had to go close to 500 ft. So we declined that. He did say he would go from the last pole to the house underground for free for us. We are pretty happy about that option.

[Deleted]

Wow @kevin, thank you so much for posting those pictures and sharing with us your journey. It was a real treat for me to watch the before and the progress into the after. So very cool! Have you considered making a YT video of it? A lot of people are into DIY now and looking into building their own homes. I look up those videos on YT a lot and one of the first videos I came across was of this older woman who got one of those home kits and built her own home out in the country. It became such a hit that she is making pretty big bucks off that one video now. She like you posted pictures of the process and was slammed with questions on tons of people wanting to do the same. Just a thought if you were interested Btw my favorite pic was of your boys on the make-shift seesaw, how absolutely precious!

[countrymom22]

Looks like you are making tons of progress. Thanks for sharing the journey!

[patty]

Love this thread!! What a talent and a strong back you have. You will be living in your own little paradise!

[greatgreenfarm]

Jun 8, 2016 20:05:23 GMT @rachelmcmurtrie said:

...first videos I came across was of this older woman who got one of those home kits and built her own home out in the country...

@rachelmcmurtrie, would you mind sharing the link or the woman's name for that video?  Sorry for the thread hijack!  Now back to the regularly scheduled discussion... 

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2016 1:33:32 GMT greatgreenfarm said:

Jun 8, 2016 20:05:23 GMT @rachelmcmurtrie said:

...first videos I came across was of this older woman who got one of those home kits and built her own home out in the country...

@rachelmcmurtrie , would you mind sharing the link or the woman's name for that video?  Sorry for the thread hijack!  Now back to the regularly scheduled discussion... 

I don't think this qualifies as a hijacking since we're still on the same topic as the OP Give me a bit to track it down? I tried a quick google/YT search the day I made that post and couldn't find it. I'm sure i'll be able to when I dig in deep. So let me get back to you on that!

[Deleted]

greatgreenfarm, hey just found it! This is the video I believe that started it all for her (700k+ views) and now she runs her business off of teaching newbies like me how to homestead lol. Her name is Becky and this is her channel www.youtube.com/user/scottpictures/featured

[greatgreenfarm]

Jun 21, 2016 5:24:51 GMT @rachelmcmurtrie said:

greatgreenfarm , hey just found it!  This is the video I believe that started it all for her (700k+ views) and now she runs her business off of teaching newbies like me how to homestead lol. Her name is Becky and this is her channel www.youtube.com/user/scottpictures/featured

Excellent @rachelmcmurtrie! Thanks for tracking that down for me.

[Deleted]

You're very welcome greatgreenfarm,!

[farmchix]

Cabin is looking great! One thing we can always count on is running behind schedule.

@rachelmcmurtrie, I've watched a few of her videos. There are a few of them that are quite interesting.

[Deleted]

Jun 24, 2016 10:24:44 GMT farmchix said:

@rachelmcmurtrie , I've watched a few of her videos. There are a few of them that are quite interesting.

Yeah for our family, her and John Suscovich (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoTGECeLvwA) were a beacon of light for us when we realized we could possibly achieve our dreams of owning our homestead without first earning 100,000k + a year. It planted the seed in our heads that if you can source land for cheap and build a home for cheap as well, not only do you now have your first homestead, but you can have payments low enough to rival what you pay in the city for rent.