sunny day

Today the sun shone at last! We made great progress--nearly all of the trusses are up. Which means we will start putting up the siding tomorrow. Maybe roof this weekend. We are all tired but happy tonight.

Rainy Day

It rained all day! But we got the floor down, so walls can go up tomorrow. Here are pictures from today. You can see the floor and David's "tent" that kept us mostly out of the rain.

In the beginning . . .

There was LOTS of lumber on the ground. Anxious to get started, we found what we needed, and began construction on Saturday April 21 (Delivery Day) at about 5:30pm. We got one cross-piece attached, and felt pretty good about that. Sunday, we finished the cross-pieces and began attaching the floor joists. And, we learned about palm nailers--one of the coolest inventions ever! Monday, we had some technical difficulties, but still managed to get about 1/3 of the floor laid. Some pictures are attached of our progress to date.

Deliverance!

Or, more accurately, "Delivery!" The kit and all our windows and doors arrived on site today. With help from brothers Paul and David, a front end loader skilfully operated by John Carmichael of Wymore, Fred the truck driver and his brother Jim, everything is safely and neatly unloaded and ready for assembly. I was going to have pictures, but technical difficulties prevented that. I will post some of today's activities as soon as I can.

Treasure in an alley!

I was in Grand Island all this past week. Walking down an alley to lunch on Tuesday, I spied some sturdy looking pallets behind a tile store. I wanted some pallets to stack the cabin kit on when it gets here (tomorrow!! yikes!), but the local Menards wanted $5/each, and I hadn't ponied up the money. So I go into the tile store, ask about the pallets in the alley, and the manager says "take as many as you want." When I asked how much he wanted, he said "they're free." Whoa! That was like music to my ears, given that I am slightly over budget already. I went to stack them in my pickup the next day. When I tried to get the top one off the stack, I discovered it was much heavier than I anticipated. Turns out these pallets are made of oak!! Talk about sturdy. Which makes sense, because they are loaded with bricks and ceramic tile. There's a picture of my 12 FREE oak pallets in my truck. The other pictures posted today are of the food and other supplies for a week of cabin building and some of our tools awaiting transport tomorrow, after my cabin gets delivered. Hope the wind dies down some and it doesn't rain! More later.

We have a sure foundation

The sonotubes are in, plumb, level and square. We got the concrete poured, on a gorgeous April day. That night (April 2) the weather took a winter turn. Fortunately, we had two dry fairly warm days for the concrete to cure. The next several days were bitter cold. Easter Sunday was blustery but not miserable, so my brother Paul and I took the paper off the posts. It was a lot more work than I anticipated, so I was very glad for Paul's help. Yesterday, April 14, we hung a temporary power box. Aside from a few last minute purchases of material, we are ready for delivery of the cabin kit, scheduled for Saturday April 21, 2007. Stay tuned!!

I would not be even attempting this project without the total support of my wife, Alisanne, who has given up many evenings to my ordering tools, consulting construction books, talking to friends with expertise, and trying to get things lined up in order of need. Her brother Loren taught me how to weld so I could make rebar cages for the concrete tubes. Above is a picture of Loren and I welding cages in his garage. Alisanne's other brother Alan helped the manufacture of the cages by cutting umpteen pieces of rebar. My friend Craig Eley has been a huge source of ideas and guidance. Jeff Haase, Bruce Jones, Paul & Evan Ells, Tom Burke and Craig Zachariasen have all contributed hugely to the project to date. My friend Bill Hammond encouraged me and gave me enough confidence to even begin this project (I have never built anything more complicated than a model rocket), and is coming later this month for several days to help me actually assemble the kit. My daughters Stephanie and Carissa and their husbands Nathan and Scott have been great encouragers as well.

The folks at Deer Run Cabins, Cal and Deb Yeager, have answered a million dumb questions, and have been totally flexible and supportive when I went off the stock plans and asked for a custom kit. I totally recommend them!!

Today was concrete pouring day. I decided to use a pump truck, as the cement truck's ramp would not reach some of the tubes. It was a cool thing to watch. The pump truck driver had a wireless remote to control the pump. He walked along with my friend Zach, who carried the (quite heavy) hose and filled all the tubes. The driver could turn the flow of cement on and off, increase and decrease the volume and pressure and even the consistency of the cement. Once everything was all set, it only took about an hour to fill all the tubes and the form, and screed (scrape) them and finish the job. Here are some pictures of the process and the finished product. Now the concrete is curing and will be ready to set the cabin on top when the kit arrives April 21st!

No April Fool's joke--the day dawned sunny and windy! The main task for today was to cut the tubes so they were all level with each other. While not nearly as physically demanding as yesterday, the work was very exacting because we wanted the leveling to be as precise as yesterday's straight, square and plumb measurements. The laser level came in quite handy for the purpose. We (mostly my brother Paul and his son Evan, aided by their foster children Munif and Mohammed) also laid out and built a form for the landing for one set of steps, to be used if there was surplus concrete tomorrow. Here are pictures of Sunday's efforts. You can see a) it was a MUCH nicer day and b) the process took much consultation and head scratching. But, we got everything done that needed to be done for the next day, when the concrete was scheduled to arrive.

After 10 hours of pretty much non-stop work, we got all 18 holes dug and tubes in square, lined up and plumb. Because the forecast called for rain (it is springtime in Nebraska), we covered the tubes with garbage bags and secured them for the night. This is a picture of the result of a long day of labor Saturday March 31 2007. May not look like much, but we were all quite proud of the days' accomplishment!

The day we dug the holes was cold, wet and windy. My brother Paul and brothers in law Bruce, Loren, Alan and Tom helped immensely. My friend Craig was essentially the ramrod (meaning--he knew what he was doing) and helped us all do things correctly. These are pictures of the hole digging day--by far the most physically difficult day of the three day project!

Digging the holes for 18 posts that have to be at least 36 inches deep was a job for a machine. We used a Toro Dingo. This is me using the Dingo to dig the holes.

Here's what the cages look like in the cardboard tubes that are the forms for the concrete.

After much preparation, we got the foundation for our cabin laid this weekend. Because of our site--close to a lake, on mostly sand--we decided to use concrete posts for our foundation. The posts are 12 inches in diameter, with a rebar cage in the middle. Here's a picture of the cages.