Cabin Construction

The original floor plan had vaulted ceilings throughout, including the loft. We decided to add two dormers to the North and the South walls in the loft. Now that the main trusses were all up we could do the final framing and finish off the loft. We needed to add the North and South walls […]

With the hard part of lifting the trusses up to the loft done, we could now start installing roof trusses by hand. We started with the first truss on the loft. Having a stable floor to work on should make it easier. The first truss has outriggers to hold the fly rafter that hangs out […]

Now comes the time we were most dreading. Lifting up the Cabin Roof Trusses by Hand. Any normal person would hire a crane. Clearly we aren’t normal. We built the roof trusses before we put up the walls and moved them off to the side. They have sat there for months under tarps waiting for […]

With all of the main floor framing completed it was time to start building up, time for the cabin loft flooring. For the loft joists we used  2×10’s, 20 feet long. Over the vault area the plans called for the use of the same 2×10’s but doubled up and four feet apart to form beams. […]

Finally with all four exterior walls up, it was time to start the interior wall framing. Another nice day, and that is so much easier than working in the rain. We wanted the cabin to be as open as possible, so there aren’t a lot of interior walls. On the main level, we have the […]

It was a rainy day when we framed in the last exterior wall.  Just like the third wall we decided to raise it in two sections. A thirty foot wall in one section is just a little too unwieldy. This time we had no helpers, but with the wall jack it was easy enough to […]

We built the third wall in two sections, as it is thirty feet long. This made it much easier to lift. Fortunately the rain stopped and it was a dry day. Perfect for wall framing. Not like when we did the front section. Erik showed up to give us a hand. Erik figured it wouldn’t […]

After raising the first wall with help, and the second wall just Sharon and I, we knew we needed to figure out a better way. After doing some research it turns out there is a tool to help for situations just like this, go figure. It’s call a wall jack! This allows one person to […]

With the cabin framing started, it was finally beginning to look like a cabin. We had the first wall framed, when it went up mom thought Sharon and I could not have done it without help. Well, let’s see. Laying out the wall was easy enough. We just replicated what we did for the front […]

With all the roof trusses finished and moved out of the way, it was time to start the cabin framing. We started with the front wall. For the cabin framing we used  2×6 material, ten feet tall. This would give us extra headroom in the loft, even if it will be harder to get the […]