The Roof is Finished!

The roof is finally done!  Now it really can snow.  Things are officially shut down for the winter. 

This picture is looking toward the back of our property.  The wood pile is on the right.  Notice anything missing?? 

The porta-potty!  That's right!  No more porta potty.  It's official, we have a potty inside the cabin.  We have to haul water in to flush it, but that's better than the outside one!

Insulation and Sheetrock

The insulation was completed last week and the sheetrock has been hung.  Monday the taping crew will begin.  By Thanksgiving we should have walls ready to paint - if I'm ready to paint!  They will probably wait until spring!

This is from the bottom of the stairs in the basement looking up the stairs to go to the main level.  It is weird to see it closed in after being able to see through the walls for a year!

This is looking under the stairs.  The grandkids liked to play under here already.  Now they will love the new room!

This is looking at the space above the bathooms in the bedrooms upstairs.  It will be a great place to store things - or kids!

Looking into the bathroom upstairs from the hallway.

This is the view from the front door on the main level looking upstairs.  You can still see the open chimney of the fireplace.  This will get wafer board and stone all around so you see stone from both the front and the back.

It is really looking like a place to live now and not just a log box with see through walls.  Bring on the Snow!

Painted Doors

We now have doors-front back sides. For those of you who voted on colors for the doors, stain won. It is great to be able to work inside and not have the wind blowing through!

Side door and color
But the most important thing that happened is the birth of Noah J. Webster

Lots of Progress

There have been lots of things happening all at once. It's a good thing because is has gotten REALLY cold up here!

The fireplace insert has been installed. Now the blower just needs to be hooked up. After the inspection we will be able to build a fire to keep warm.

The roofer has begun to install the metal roofing. It's hard to tell from this picture but it is a dark green color. The middle roof and both side of the back are finished. Then is snowed. Maybe this weekend when it warms back up he can get it finished.

Best news of all - the doors have arrived and are being installed. Justin, Cameron and Randy are fitting in the front door. Josh cut out the logs above the door so it would fit.

And here is the front door! I'm working on picking a color to stain it.

The Laundry room door is also in.

It was so nice to work without the wind blowing through the cabin.

Now just the dining room door to go and we'll be weather tight!

More Windows

After waiting for the second order of windows, and worrying that the cold weather was coming, we finally have all but one window in place.

We still had some challenges with the windows - they made some of them backwards, but we made it work and now we have just one window left to put in. We had to re-order one for the dining room because the one we picked up at the seconds place was warped and the window would not slide open.

Now we just have to pass the four way inspection so we can put in the doors. It is really nice to be able to work inside the cabin and be able to stand in some places and not feel the cold wind blowing!

We have windows!!

It has been a long time coming, but now we have windows!! It was great to be up there today and see it rain and the raindrops didn't come into the cabin because there were windows in place! It was a great day!
Here's Randy on the outside applying silicone to the first window we put in.

If you look at the cabin from this side, you'd think we were done!

This was the first window that went in. Randy and I got all the bedroom windows put in on Friday.

We had purchased some windows from a place that sold seconds to save a little money. Those were the bedroom ones that we got installed. We ordered the big ones and the triangle ones from another place to match. There were to be 22 windows in the order. When they were delivered only 10 of the windows were right. We got those 10 installed, but we will have to wait until they figure out what when wrong with the other 12 before we can finish installing them. Now we can focus on finishing the plumbing and electrical!

Before and After

Here is a picture before we applied the stain.


Here is a picture after we applied the stain.


I tried to get about the same angel and it may be a little bit difficult to tell the difference, but take my word for it - the stain looks great!! Next..... the metal roof!!

The Staining Begins

Finally the big day has arrived. I've been working hard all summer for this day! The stain is going on.
Cameron has his staining outfit on and is armed with the sprayer.

Running the thinner through the sprayer. Now the stain appears!

The first strokes of the stain going on.

Everything got a coat of stain - even the posts.

This was the best picture to show the difference before stain and after stain.

The logs were so dry that it really soaked this first coat in. One coat down three more to go - one more stain and two clear coat. Then it's on to the inside.

Moving Right Along

I thought I'd post this picture of the cabin as I left it Saturday night. The next picture I post will look alot different. We have finished the the insulation on the roof and are ready for the metal to be installed. The chinking on the outside is one full day away from being finished enough for the body of the cabin to be stained! The windows will be installed when that is complete. So there are some major changes coming in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait for them all!

We've been working - really!

We've been working alot and so I've put a few pictures in a slide show to show some of our progress. That's why I haven't updated the blog!!

There is still more ... the furnace is in, the plumbing is 90% finished, the staining should start this weekend and of course the chinking continues. We just have to remember where we were one year ago!

Inside Progress

The framing is coming right along. This is a picture from inside one of the bedrooms. You can see the doorway to the hall as well as part of the wall for the bathroom. Up on top of the wall is kind of a shelf, then another wall on top of that dividing the bedrooms. This "shelf" will be a great place to store things for each family - maybe even a few kids!

Randy has been busy chiseling out the logs for the electrical boxes. As we were stacking th logs, they drilled holes down to the basement in the first two logs for the electrical wire to run up from the basement. The second floor will be a little bit more tricky.

We have a flange in place for a toilet!!! This is exciting progress - although the actual toilet is still a long way out. At least I know it is on it's way!!

We even have a bathtub in place with the overflow and drain hooked up. Now all we need is hot water - and a shower curtain of course!

Chinketta

Randy has a new name for me - it is Chinketta! All I do now is put the chinking inbetween the logs and fill in all the spaces so cold air doesn't get in the cabin. The process is coming right along. The downstairs is one wall away from being complete. A picture of the chinking
Randy found this caulking rod to put in the bigger gaps so it doesn't take as much of the chinking to fill it up. Here I am up on the scaffolding 25 feet in the air getting ready to work on the great room walls. You notice that Randy is not up that high with me! His feet are firmly planted on the ground - well I guess someone has to be down there to throw me up stuff and move my scaffolding around.

More Helpers

It seemed like everyone was excited to help start work at the cabin again. The rainy weather kept us all inside looking for projects to do. The boards that were in the windows for the winter had a lot of nails in them, so we decided to pound out the nails so we could use the boards again if we needed to, or just have them for firewood.Kaylie working hard pulling out nails
Zac getting the nails pounded through to the other side

Isaac was happy to be using tools!

Ty loved playing in the mud - I mean he loved planting trees!

Zac helping to deliver a pine tree to the hole Grandpa dug.

Planting Trees

We want to get some trees growing on the property. We heard of a program through the State Forrest Service where you can order seedlings for a great price. We ordered them last fall. They were ready to pick up last week. Brancen is working on his Webelos Badge and one of the requirements for an award is to plant 20 trees. We had 100 seedlings to plant so his enthusiasm for scouts works in our favor! We took him and his friend Michael up to the property on Saturday so they could each plant 20 trees. It was a very rainy and muddy day.

Brancen and Michael ready to plant!

While they waited for the rain to let up, they played tennis in the basement.
Then they pulled nails out of boards.

We finally decided to plant in a slow drizzle to get them in. By the time we were finished with 50 trees, it was raining a lot harder. At least the trees got off to a wet start. Hopefully we can keep them growing all summer. It will be fun to watch them grow and remember how small they started out. Thanks Webelo Scouts Brancen and Michael!

Back to Work!!

The snow has all melted at Scofield and the yard work in Payson in just about done! We went up to the cabin on Friday to see how things fared during the winter. It didn't look like snow made it into the cabin, or if it did, it didn't cause any damage. Our window coverings held up pretty good! We took down all the boards and plastic covering the windows.

It was like opening a big present!
Now you can see out the windows again!
I found a bird's nest on the fireplace wall. There weren't any eggs in it, so it was probably a winter home for a bird family. We got excited to get back to work! The problem is now that the logs are stacked, where do we start now?! So many things to do!