Cabin Building - Day 76

Just a quick update -- we still haven't moved in yet :)

The trailer with all the sheathing and flooring on it was so heavy that it sank into the ground a little, then we got about 6 inches of snow which effectively froze the tires into the depression. Well, we used the jack to break the tires free, but the snow precluded the truck from getting enough traction to pull the trailer tires out of their little ice pockets. Of course, the chains for our truck were actually about 2" too short for our tires -- no help there! So we had to offload all the sheathing and T&G flooring and take it back to the cabin in small loads in the back of the truck... all while we were getting another 6 or so inches of snow.

An G had to rebuild the Kipor generator and we had to do the firewood thing during all that as well... never a dull moment.

So, anyway, today we hooked our winch up to the back of the empty trailer and pulled it out of the depression until we were able to hitch it up to the truck and drive over to Ken & Sarah's to finally load up some of our Lowe's order. Luckily it's mostly insulation which is big & bulky, but not very heavy so we shouldn;t have the sinking problem again although hauling a trailer through the woods on snowpack is really fun. We managed to get that first load down the trail only losing 3 bags of insulation along the way... as far as we can tell all the glass in the doors and windows is still intact and undamaged.

G-man ran back up to help Ken remove the transmission on his truck before we lost the remaining daylight, so we'll end up taking all this stuff down to the cabin and off-loading it tomorrow. Then back up to get (hopefully) the last load, unload all that at the cabin, and then take the trailer back to Ken & Sarah where it can spend the winter parked on a nice gravel driveway rather than in the tundra ROFL.  There's no way I'm even going to think about taking it into Fairbanks on our very late winter stocking run so we can get everthing in one trip. Nope, not with a 20' trailer and no chains! If G & Ken want to try that trick (Ken with trailer experience but minimal winter driving experience, G with winter driving experience but minimal trailer experience) they can do it without me... and since I'm the master at combat shopping, I doubt that's going to happen!! Looks like we either make multiple trips in Sonja, or we manage to help unload one of Ken's big box trailers and hook up his semi properly to get everything for both families all in one go with all the right safety gear and appropriately-sized vehicles for the job.  (You know my vote, right?!)

As for the cabin, we now have all the lumber down there, but I needed to make a modification to the rafter truss design after talking things out with Ken and doing a little more research online. No biggy, the new design may actually be a little simpler and use slightly less materials, with the added benefit of allowing us to raise the truss in half's and marry them with a gusset at the peak once they're up since we don't have a lot of room to work up there. That'll certainly be lighter than trying to lift the whole truss up at once. We also need to double-up two of the loft joists and cut out the one in between to add trimmers so that we have enough clearance for the flue pipe where it goes through the loft floor -- I swear the manual said 4" clearance, but it's actually 8" darnit!! So, hopefully, on Monday (after the final hauling tomorrow -- please please) we can fix those joists, sand down the top of the header beams so the rafter tails will sit flush & even, put the subfloor on the loft, and get the sheathing on downstairs.

If Ken helps, we may get all that done, plus the doors and windows installed (temporarily for the winter because it's too cold to seal and caulk them properly now) all on Monday. If we button up the downstairs, we can stop shoveling snow out of it all the time and can put our little kerosene heater in there so we (and the generator!) can warm up a bit while we're doing the rafters and roof. Then Tuesday I can construct and dry fit the first rafter truss so we know it actually works, and start cutting and assembling the pieces for the remaining 12 trusses so we can lift them and get the sheathing on (with Ken's help again, hopefully) on Wednesday.  If we have time on Wed, we can frame in the end walls, get them sheathed and install the windows. Otherwise we'll have to do that on Thursday. Of course, everything is subject to weather, injuries, illness, technical difficulties and mechanical failures LOL!

We can't do the porches until we go into Fairbanks to get the piers, but we need to go in to get the insulation blower and the stove hearth anyway... so that's not an extra trip or anything. When we get back, we can do the insulation and drywall, fire up the woodstove and see how things go, maybe get the front porch & stairs on at least. Then it's back into Fairbanks to get our kitchen cabinets and shelving. Once those are installed and the drywall has been taped and floated... THEN we can move :)