All posts by bkrijger

Door traveling home

Okay, posting from a tent can be a bit error prone; I thought I had posted, but now find it was not posted yet.
So, yesterday, I finally brought my door home. Now there’s a sentence you don’t see every day…

The door has been in 3 different locations, but now finally is inches aways from it’s final destination.
All it needs is some Jambs, and heavy duty hinges, as the door is so heavy I can hardly lift it.
The color will match nicely; the wall you see below are unstained; they will be like the door is now.

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Can you be a little more concrete?

Or to be more precise; can you be 720 pounds (326 kg for those of us on metric) more concrete? That’s the weight of the concrete that will be poured to support the decks, not including the water. 

The concrete will support 4 cedar tree logs that will be the front of the deck. The deck will be 24 x 10 ft (7,3 x 3 meter) and continue on the sides at a 4 ft width. Altogether that’s a truckload of wood;


Driving that in from Mc Coys was a careful ride; the total weight probably exceeded 1500 pounds, almost half the weight of the truck. I definitely felt it making turns and going uphill. Even though I stayed on the right lane and pulled over where I could, I still made some new ‘friends’ that thought I should drive the allowed 55 instead of 45 mph. I preferred to be safe. 

Setting up base camp

Today I drove the Truck from Houston to the log home. I was glad to find it in good shape, no bent pine second floor and perfectly dry inside. It does look a little bit like a lumberyard ;

Most of the wood is the siding; what will be on the gable end and extension walls. 

I pitched the tent again, not against the rain but to keep any bugs out whilst sleeping;


This time it’s more comfortable, with my Coleman cot and sleeping bag. 

I picked up some 2×6 treated pine to start work on the side decks tomorrow 

Prepping for work

It’s weekend and I’m a Warrior, so what could be more appropriate than this;


Arrived but still waiting for my suitcase to make it here, which was taken off the plane as I was late due to understaffed check-in counters at United Airlines. So I might as well enjoy a beer. 

The home cooked meal was delicious;

(P)raise the roof

Ever since I bought the lot, Texas weather seems to have more extremes, like 16″ downpours in a single day. So it’s good to have a roof. The good news is that I now do; the metal roof was put on last week.

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First window

Although I’m no longer there, work continues. Today the first window was cut:

  
It’s a bit larger than it will be eventually, as two jambs on the side will support the cut logs. The rough opening will be 36×48″

Pine floor

Floors are not usually made from 2×6 solid boards. But I never said I was building a usual house ?

As the cedar floor joists are some distance apart, a standard floorboard would not be strong enough. So I ordered pine 2×6 boards and picked them up 

 
Although I couldn’t finish the floor, this is what it will look like; 

 
On this floor there will be 2 windows looking out to the east

 

Rough openings

In a log cabin, doors and windows are cut out from the walls after they’ve been put up. This envolves careful planning, some 2×4’s to support the logs cut, and one 2×4 thats acts as a guide for the chainsaw. Here’s Dave working on the door from cabin to add on.