This post includes a mish-mash of progress from several trips to Skookum. Progress has been good, with the completion of the underlayer of the floor the biggest milestone.
Tim and I had a great day when we nearly finished the underfloor. Tim is working on the frame (left photo) and we had all but two small patches done (right photo) by the end of the day. We quickly finished the underfloor during our next trip up.
I had not started the chainsaws all winter, and it took a long time and nice blister to finally get one started. The first thing we did was cut open the doorway (there’s a little left to do at the top). This may not look like much, but it is SOOO much nicer not having to duck every time we go into the cabin (although I still find myself ducking out of habit).
A massive amount of sawdust is generated by sawing open the windows and planing the gables. Therefore I moved all the tools and materials to the middle of the cabin and covered everything with tarps (left photo). It always amazing me how much time goes into just moving stuff around. Hans Courrier hauled up the shower stall for me. After organization, the laser level was used to mark the saw lines for the windows. All the windows are marked for the rough chainsaw cuts.
I fashioned some scaffolding using a couple step ladders, a couple boards, and some tie-down straps for stability (left photo). This worked fairly well and it didn’t take long to saw open the rear window in the cabin (right image). There’s a bit more to do, but this showed me that sawing open the windows shouldn’t take too long.
Opening the remaining windows involves dropping some good-sized logs that I didn’t want to do alone, so I switched over to some other tasks. I planed down the tops of the logs in the gables (left photo) so I can install 2 by 10 boards on top that will be the base of the gable framing. This was a nasty, dusty job and I’m glad to be done with it. I also started trimming support logs for the roof — to be safe, we cut them all a little long so they stick out from under the roof (and thus are directly exposed to weather) plus they would interfere with the metal fascia for the gable ends of the cabin. To make these cuts, I put a pallet onto the forks of the tractor, then raised the pallet to a height where I could trim the logs with a chainsaw (right photo). To make sure I didn’t saw into the SIP panels that rest on these logs, I finished with a hand saw, chisel, and crow bar. It takes a while, but I got 2 of the 10 logs trimmed.
The wind was howling last night, and it reminded me that I have unfinished business with the roof. In particular, at the lowest end of the roof there is about a 1-inch section of the metal roof that hangs over the drip edge. To get additional security, I made a 1-inch cut next to each raised seam, then folded the overhanging metal around the drip edge. (Poor picture of this in the left photo.) This eliminates the overhang (that could catch wind), better secures the roof, and eliminates the sharp edge at the end of the roof. It took me a while to figure out how to do this, and some of my crimps are not pretty, but after a while I was getting to where I could do this fairly quickly. (The custom tool Casey Dodge built for this really helped!) I only got about 20% of the roof done, but it’s no longer a mystery how to do it.
Gemma is with me this week. She didn’t much like the chainsaw or the generator, but she tolerated it and got back at me by laying in sawdust to spread in my truck and living room.