Alternating stairs

When building a cabin where room is always a premium the problem of stair placement always arises. I took a look on the Internet to see how other small structures accommodated this issue and found a unique design. Some call it the Jefferson staircase, Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to design such stairs.

You can see that with a steep stair you either have to have narrow steps or what you can do is notch out each alternating step to make room for your shin. This allows the same depth of stair. You have to be coordinated and always use the same foot when going up and down the stairs. It feels kind of awkward at first but you get used to it.

Heimey, where's the flood?

Getting water to the cabin was an interesting proposition. We initially were going to use a storage system and fill it with a garden hose. We knew that water was only 12-14 feet from the surface so instead we switched gears and decided to use a well point instead. A well point is simply a perforated pipe with screen that is attached to sections of pipe that is blasted into the ground until it hits water.

We started by using a sledge with mashed the pipe threads. We then switched to a post pounder which worked awesome but was exhausting work. After about 2 hours, I dropped a string and weight down the pipe and voila, water.

Now how do we get the water up the pipe into the house?


I hooked my old hand pump on the well but it was unable to draw the water all the way up the pipe. We may need to transition down to 1" PVC pipe.

Insulating the floor

Here's what the floor looked like on October 10th.

The problem is that we have been looking at the floor as if it has been finished. We needed to add insulation and fit it together a little tighter. I had to move all the stuff out of the living room and then I worked around the walls. Again, like all my projects counter normal.

Why do I have to wear gloves?

I tried to use some blow in insulation without gloves. Here is what my hand looks like after I tried to wash in gas and soak in water. I guess I will have to wait until the layer of skin peels off.

update

The door and window are now mounted. This has allowed the inside to be heated by the stove. I really wanted to finish the siding but it is not a priority as it is not necessary for the move in date.

The east gable end is now insulated and gyprocked. Now is the time for paint. The seams will get covered by some window trim.

I wired in a 3 way switch for the loft. This will allow a person to control the light from upstairs and downstairs. This process took a few days to complete because of my limited knowledge of 3 way switches.

Time to go back to work for a few days

South and West wall

Oval window

2nd Floor Deck

Here are pictures of the deck. The joists are 4x4 fir that extend 1/2 way into the house and create the floor for the 2nd floor bedroom. I decided to round off the deck. The "door" to the deck is a large window. I will likely make an outside ladder to the deck as well for guests who don't want to trapes through the bedroom.

North wall framed

Ceilings are all complete

On Saturday we completed the last of the ceilings. The porch ceiling was completed along with the 2nd floor (which is the ceiling to the entry of the main floor.

2nd Floor and window

Fireplace pad update

There is always an issue about having a combustable floor underneath a fireplace. Most people solve this problem by having a shield under the stove and protecting the floor with tile and cement board. As a result of building this project from scratch, I had decided to solve this problem from the ground up. We poured some cement piers that would support the heavier floor. We then put 3/4 inch plywood, 2 inches of rigid insulation and then 4 " of concrete. As we were mixing and pouring this floor, we strategically placed river rock into the wet cement. My son River and his friend Tyler helped me select the rocks from our local creek. We will still have to pour another layer of thin set and place a few more smaller rocks but the pad is really taking shape.

Pretty Roof/Ceiling