Decorating and Closing Up

With all the little wrap-up projects done, they only thing I had left to do was to clean up and the do a little decorating!  Above is pictured the kitchen area. The crock will be our drinking water storage until I eventually install a water system in the shabin. I plan to install a high efficiency chest style refrigerator underneath the counter in place of the cooler you see there now.



I laid out a rug in the living area.



And another one up in the loft.



I hung a rack for hanging jackets and other things, like our hiking equipment.



I hung some prints over the door.



What really makes the place are these five paintings, hung on both sides of the living area. They were all painted by my paternal grandmother, and they depict scenes from the summer vacation spots during my dad's child hood. My parents were very kind to give them to me last year, with the intention that they be hung in cabin. I am very grateful to have them, and I think they look fantastic and fit the place perfectly.



And with that, I closed up all the shutters, locked the place up, and said good bye. We will return later in the year, once things have warmed up. There will always be more projects to improve the place, but for now we have a great start on something to enjoy for many years.

Shabin Electrical Part 1

As mentioned in the last post, I was able to spend an entire weekend working on the shabin. I got enough done to warrant two posts. After finishing the loft railings, I got to work wiring the shabin for electric. My original plan was to wire the cabin for 12 volt DC power. The shabin will be off-grid, so the idea was to store power in large batteries, much like an RV.  As I got closer to actually doing the electrics, I switched to 110 volt AC. Technically, 12V power is more efficient for battery power, since the electricity is not converted. However, there are significant drawbacks. Because of the lower voltage, the current, measured in amperes, is higher. The higher current also larger energy loss over distance, which is dissipated as heat, not a good thing.  To alleviate that requires thicker and more expensive wiring.  Additionally, 12v fixtures, form switches to light bulbs, are specialized and more expensive. Finally, there is very little literature available on the best ways to wire 12v.

On the other hand, AC power is ubiquitous and all the necessary parts are cheap and plentiful commodities, and the knowledge on proper techniques is common and freely available.  AC is much more appropriate for moving power over longer distances than DC, which requires thicker and thicker wire as the distance increases. Therefore, AC allows me to move the batteries outside of the cabin.  The approach I took was to treat the shabin as one big AC appliance that I plug in. So, I ended up going with common household AC wiring



And here is the plug. This was the only unusual component I used, a 15-amp 110v AC inlet (inlet being the opposite of outlet, of course.) This was the one item I needed to order online. With this approach, I am free to use any power source, generator/solar/wind/grid, as long as it is converted to AC and has a power cord.



The rest of the electrics are standard, starting with the breaker box, which is where the power flows to first  from the inlet. I have done home wiring in the past, but this is the first time I had wired a breaker box. It was a bit daunting, but I read up on it and it turned out to be easy.  Typically, the most dangerous thing about the breaker box is the always-on high power line coming in from the grid. In my case, I was assuredly safe as long as I did not plug in the inlet while I worked.



Victory!  This was the first outlet I wired.  It is just below the breaker box. I plugged my gas generator into the inlet, and the circuit tester plugged in to the outlet lit up just as it should. That was a good feeling.



That good feeling was tempered when I nicked my finger with a knife shortly after this success. This would not be notable, expect that I forgot to pack the first aid kit. Lacking real band aids, I had to kludge together a paper towel and duct tape.



I continued to wire the rest of the cabin on Sunday. Since I want to insulate the walls, I ran the wires on the inside edge of the framing members.  This is done by snapping a two chalk lines one inch apart along all the studs of a wall.



I used my circular saw to cut 1/2 inch deep grooves at each chalk mark, and then used a chisel to create a notch in each stud. The wire is run and secured in the notches.



The wires are protected from penetration from future nails or screws which metal plates.



By the time I left on Sunday, I had wired in all the outlets, the bathroom light, and the loft lights as shown above. I had to stop when I ran out of wiring, so on the next trip I can finish the minor remaining tasks of wiring the kitchen overhead light and the living area ceiling fan.

Shabin Loft Railing

I went up to the shabin this past weekend by myself, while Lizz entertained an out of town guest. This afforded me two full days of work, and much was accomplished. The first thing I did Saturday morning was to finish the cable railings for the loft. As shown above, there are two railings.  Twelve cables run the width of the loft and protect the opening to the living area below.



Since the stairs run up through an opening in the loft floor, I wanted to prevent accidental falls into the stair well. For that, I ran cables perpendicular to the ceiling, which is set at 45 degrees. The cables also have the effect of eliminating the bounce originally present along the open end of the loft.



Here is the view down the stairs.  I think the railings turned out quite snazzy.

Loft Railing

We made a quick day trip up to the camp yesterday. The main purpose of the trip was to deliver our new sleeper sofa. When I designed the shabin, I used an IKEA sofa as a reference for the living area furniture. I assumed we would buy the Ektorp corner sofa with a pull out bed. A corner sofa would provide the maximum amount of seating in a small area. A pull out bed would give us the second sleeping area we needed. Given the small proportions of the shabin, and the tight tolerances for things like loft stairs, the exact size of the sofa became critical. I was quite dismayed when I recently went to order the sofa and learned it had been discontinued.



Craigslist came through, however. I found this beauty for sale less than a mile from home, and it only ran me $100. The left side pulls out into a full size bed, and the right side is an ultra comfortable chaise lounge. Lizz claims it is the most comfortable piece of furniture we own. The sofa is in pretty good condition. The fabric is a bit faded but sturdy and the pattern is not something we would not have chosen for ourselves. In other words, it is perfect for a cabin in the woods.



Here we see the tight tolerance between the couch and the loft stairs. While we were up there, I also started on safety railings for the loft. I decided to use steel cables for the railings. Cables would be strong and the least obtrusive with regards to light and air movement. I also figured that they would look pretty cool. I purchased most of the materials from E-Rigging, who I will say were extremely quick fulfilling my order and much cheaper than buying from Lowes.



The first step was to carefully measure all the mount points for the cables. That was a bit time consuming. Since everything up in the loft runs at an angle, I got to use my 9th grade geometry, go Pythagoras! I spaced the cables 3 1/2 inches apart, with the top cable 42 inches above the loft floor. For the cable mount points, I used #0 size lag screws with eyes as shown in the picture.



In order to maintain tension in the cables, I used large (3/8") turnbuckles rated at 2000 lbs. These have shackles on one end whose bolts are slipped through the lag screw eyes.



I used 1/8" uncoated steel cable rated at 2000 lbs. Each cable is looped through the eye end of a turnbuckle, and secured with two screw down clips.  The other end is secured in the same way on the matching eye screw. Once secured, the cable is tightened by adjusting the turnbuckle. I used galvanized steel for all the hardware, which should be perfectly fine for interior use, and is a huge savings over using stainless steel.



I think these are turning going to look great. This was just a quick day trip, so I did not have enough time to finish. I finished 8 of the 12 cables for the loft opening. I will also install a set of cables along the side of the stair opening to prevent falling in the hole from the other side.

Shabin Loft

We made it up to the camp again this weekend. This trip was marked by lots of progress in the sleeping loft. The first task was to install our air conditioner, which would make working up in the loft feasible in the 90+ degree heat. I purchased a portable air conditioner, the kind that sits in a room and vents out via a duct to a window. My idea was to use it instead install it as a tiny permanent air conditioning system up in the loft, from where the cold air would pour down into the rest of the shabin.



The first step was to cut hole through the rear wall of the loft. This was a bit daunting, given the implications of messing up, but I managed to cut the opening exactly the right size for the vent hose.



I sealed the vent hose to the sheathing with silicone sealant.



From the outside, the vent is unobtrusive.  This model of conditioner is designed to expel most or all of its moisture in the air venting to the outside.  It also has a water reservoir and a fitting for a hose to drain the excess if it falls behind.  For now, I will leave the drain alone and see if it becomes an issue.  If it does, I plan to put a pipe through the outside wall as well to continuously drain any water.



After installing the vent, it was simply a matter of plugging in the air conditioner to an extension cord running to our generator.  Ah, wonderful cold air!  At 10,000 BTU the conditioner does not have the capacity to cool the entire uninsulated structure.  It was enough to make the loft livable. Once the shabin is insulated, I expect it will be enough to take the edge off the hottest days.



Once the air conditioner was running, I got to work laying down a floor in the loft. As I described in my last post, I got a click together laminate floor. Not having to deal with glue or nails was nice. The flooring also came with a thin foam underlayment layer already attached. It turned out that the pieces did not really just click together easily, but were rather obstinate. However, after a few rows I worked out the right techniques to deal with them, and the floor went down a few hours.



Here you see the finished floor. The last part over by the edge was the slowest. I had to cut lots of irregular shapes to go around the opening for the stairs, as well as the small rail I screwed into the floor. That rail is important to the next project, which is to install safety railings along the open end of the loft and in front of the stairway opening.



My last project this weekend was to assemble a bed for the loft. I found this simple steel frame on Amazon. The frame does double duty substituting for a box spring. It also provides plenty of space underneath for an all important storage area, without raising the mattress up too high to the low ceiling.



Moving our mattress up to the loft exposed open space downstairs, which was largely taken up by the mattress on the floor. This makes room for the craigslist prize we will bring up on our next trip, a sectional  sofa with a fold out bed.



We made it down to the river on both days for much need cooling off.  Here are some pictures from our time down there.

Loft Stairs

As planned, we went up to our camp this weekend to recreate and put some more work in to the shabin. This week's project was to create easy access to the sleeping loft. My original plans where to have a simple ladder that could be hooked to the loft edge for access, then hung out of the way on a wall during the day. However, a ladder is not the safest or easiest way up and down. Also, since head room is an issue in the loft, I also wanted to come up near the center line. Putting a ladder in the middle of the room would really intrude on the area below, where we want to have a pull out bed.

My next plan was to install stairs. Given the space constraints, I wanted to put in alternating tread stairs. An example is pictured at above. They provide the same foot fall and riser height as normal stairs, but they require one to always alternate stepping up or down the same way, allowing them to take up roughly half the amount of space. In our case, the stairs would run from one side of the shabin up to the center line, where I would build a landing on the front of the loft. The stairs would hang over one end of the sofa we plan to put downstairs. After some thought, and staying in the shabin a couple of times, we decided we really needed something that would get out of the way. So, I changed my mind one last time and decided to go with the more conventional pull down attic stairs. Those are available as assembled kits from any home supply center. The typical ones are a bit flimsy, so I special ordered a set of heavy duty stairs.

To use the stairs, I needed somewhere to hang them as well as somewhere to land when you reach the top. I built an extension to the front of the existing loft, a little over two feet wide. On the left side I framed in an opening for the stairs, and on the right side I would add more floor. In the picture above you can see my framing for the extension, with the stair kit already hanging in its opening. The loft was originally half the total space, leaving eight feet open to the living area below. Now we have about six feet open. I think this also adds some critically useful space to the loft, enough to stand at the end of the bed and change clothes. The feeling of openness downstairs is largely the same, so I think this was a good compromise.

Here we see Lizz making the inaugural climb up the stairs. I guess she had some confidence in my construction abilities. I did hang the stairs using twenty 3" and 4" lag screws, so there is a pretty good chance it will hold up. At this point, I still need to trim a bit more off the bottom of the stairs, which is why they are a bit crooked. Still, they were perfectly functional and much easier than clambering up and down a ladder.

Here is a shot of the stairs running up to the new landing. I am hammering down the particle board flooring to create the landing. For our next trip up, I will lay down the cherry laminate floor and we will move our mattress upstairs. I plan to finish the loft with a set of safety cables to serve as a railing. I may wait until the walls are finished to install those, though.

It was not all work this weekend. Carleigh got some quality time in nature. Here she is teaching Buzz Lightyear about nature, showing him the leaf she found. We made it down to the river on both days. Carleigh loves to swim in the cold water, and I really appreciated cooling off in the water after working in the heat.

I should also share what everyone else was doing downstairs while I labored above. Note that Carleigh only eats the middle of Oreo cookies. It was great that we got to relax a bit, and the stairs were a fun project. All in all, it was a really great weekend.

Shabin Floor

Progress continued on the shabin, albeit slowly. We went on two separate week long beach vactions since my last post, so time has been short to either go up to the shabin or post about it. We made it up there once more in June and one weekend in July. Both weekends turned out to be 100+ degrees, and the good news was that camping was not so terrible in the hot weather. With a fan going in the shabin, I could work pretty comfortably. In truned out that Carleigh loves swimming in the river, so she and Lizz spent most of the days down there enjoying the cold mountain water. I also appreciated being able to cool off after a day's work in the heat.

I decided that the next project for the shabin would be a finished floor downstairs. This is the opposite of typical house construction, in which one usually does the floors last. My reasoning was that we wanted to use the shabin for camping as we went along. A floor makes it possible to put a real mattress down, and get a reasonably comfortable place to sleep and change clothes.  We tried tent camping with air mattresses, and that was simply not very comfortable and it took a lot of effort erecting and dissassembling the tent that could be better spent on finishing the shabin.

I found Lumber Liquidators to be a good source of inexpensive flooring. Choosing from their clearance section, I chose an engineered wood floor for the downstairs, and a laminate floor for the loft.  An engineered wood floor is basically thin plywood planks, with a finished hard wood top layer. I found a really nice one that has a hand scraped hickory finished layer. This should provide a nice, rustic feeling.  A laminate floor is also composed of wood, but with an aritficial top layer that looks like wood. I chose one that looks like Brazilian cherry.



The hickory floor is a snap together, floating floor, meaning that it does not require any adhesive or nails to install. It is a good idea to use an underlayment, as that provides a cushioning layer to improve the feeling and sound of the floor when one walks on it. I chose an underlayment that also adds some insulation as well as a vapor barrier.  The underlayment is simply rolled out and cut to length on the floor, and the seams taped. You can see my first two rows above.



Here you can see the underlayment almost complete. The niche in the back corner is going to be the closet for the toilet. The flooring is still in its boxes, stacked up where the kitchen will be.



Once the underlayment was down, I could start installing the floor. Since all I had to do was snap it together, the work was a matter of selecting random lengths of flooring to stagger the pieces, and cutting the last piece in each row to fit. As a floating floor, it requires room to expand due to temperature and moisture, so I mainted a gap between the floor and all walls using shims, which you can just see around the edges in the picture above. I am really happy with the way the floor looks.

Along with the floor, I also spent a good deal of time sealing up openings into the shabin using sealant and lumber. The outside door in the rear of the cabin is not air tight, but is just a basic shed door.  The closet itself was not sealed. This alows ants to find their way in, and in addition to working on the floor I found myself fighting their colonization efforts.  All in all, it took both weekends to get the floor laid, which amounted to about two full days of work. By the second weekend, however, we had a mattress down and spent our first night in the shabin.

We are planning to go back up this weekend. I will be starting the next project, which is to finish the loft. I plan to move our mattress up there as soon as the stairs are installed and the floor is laid. That will free up downstairs space, which is pretty crowded between the king sized mattress and all the tools.  Look for an update after the weekend.

Shabin Door

Our most recent, and somewhat daunting, project for the shabin was to install a sliding glass door behind the shed doors. The way I remembered it, such doors came disassembled in boxes roughly the height and width of one panel, but not anymore. The door came fully assembled, and cannot be laid horizontal. So the first challenge was to transport the door up to the land, which is well out of range of the nearest Lowe's delivery area.



To use our truck to transport the door, I made a couple of cradles out of three 2x4's. You can see them running about half way up the side of the door on each end. The door is packaged with a lumber frame, so I nailed the cradles to the door. I ran a couple of straps over the top of the door to add some more stability, and we were off at a cautious pace for the remaining 40 miles to the camp.



Miraculously, the door made it unscathed all the was to the camp. Even more amazingly, Lizz and I managed to get it off the truck and into the shabin without dropping it!.  The door is inside because my plan was to install the door backwards. Typically, the door is placed into its opening from outside the house and nailed to the outside of the jack studs. Because we want it to hang inside the opening for the shed doors, we need to nail it from the inside.



Since the door opening is already fully filled by the shed doors, and the glass door has a 1.5" overhang on its outside face, the first job was to install a secondary frame behind the original door frame. This also allowed me to size and plumb the opening just right for the new door.



After that, all we had to do was slide the door in place and screw it to the new frame.



Now we have a fully sealed structure, ready for luxury camping. This ended up as a single day project, inclusive of the time to drive up and back and buy all the materials; not too shabby.