All Done!

I've finished up all that I can do on the cabin for 2010. I've arrived back home in California and I can't believe how the fall colors are just beginning to turn here. It was a wonderful summer, I feel so accomplished, and I learned so much. It did take longer than I expected, but by one measure, I finished early. Melanie says when building, everything will take twice as long and cost twice as much as expected. I thought maybe I could finish in three months, so the fact that it took me five months instead of six means I finished a whole month early!!! Wow, that's incredible! But Lynea isn't buying it. Oh well, she still seems to like me and I've agreed to not take any more trips that don't have an end date.

Since last post, I finished putting on the house wrap, installed all my windows and doors, and buttoned up all the final details.



Here are a bunch of photos I took since my last post.









Here are some interior photos








Here is a little mock-up of the kitchen cabinetry

Roof Is Done!!!!

Fiiiiinally, I've got my roof finished. All the shingles are on and I'm still in one piece despite a couple minor mishaps along the way. Of all the construction steps, installation of shingles was the one for which I most grossly underestimated the time required. Everyone told me framing would go quickly. It did. Everyone told me shingling would go quickly. It did NOT! Partly because it is very difficult to stand or walk on a roof as steep as mine, and partly because there were a lot of cuts to be made because of where the dormers transition into the main roof. Also, being so steep and having dormers makes for a very large roof area. I'm very happy to have this major step completed. I've been working almost every day for a couple weeks, with only 1.5 days lost to rain in freezing temperatures and snow. The last couple days have been sunny and warm (all the way up into the lower 40s!) and I had some really great help from Matthias for getting the roof done. Also, big shout-out to the Burns brothers, Paul and Nathan, who both gave me tips this week that literally took days off the shingling job.

Next up, I'll be wrapping the house with a Tyvek type material and hanging windows and doors. Then I'll clean up, return borrowed tools, move all my junk (cabinets, stove, dishes, etc.) into my cabin and head home for the winter. I'm taking my cue from the migrating birds and planning to head south. Luckily for me though, if I do get held up, there isn't an open season on Jon Wheelers.

Here it is, as it looked at the end of the workday today.


Matthias was called out of town unexpectedly, so I hired a guy through a Craigslist ad to help me for the day. He lives in Bagley, MN but when he saw my license plate he told me he's from California too. He grew up in a place north of San Francisco called Santa Rosa. And he used to live in Occidental. Weeeiird. He did a good job, and I have another new helper lined up for tomorrow who I hope will do great too. Here is a nice close up of the roof. The color looks a bit different in photograph than real life. Here the contrasting colors stand out more than in person, but I like both and you get a pretty good idea what it all looks like.

Here is that promised picture of my chimney. It stands about two and a half feet above the ridge line. I know it just looks like a pipe sticking up, but it was a lot of work and a couple buckets full of money. I'm really glad it's done now because I think retrofitting it later would have been nightmarish.

The snow didn't stick much, but it sure made for some intolerable working weather. Fortunately, I shingled the north side first and had it done before the snow came. A little snow stayed on the north side of my roof for a full day after the sun came out.

The other day I went to get a couple boards off a pile inside my house, and I found a very large family of these little guests. They look similar to ladybugs, but are multi-colored Asian lady beetles, introduced to the southeastern U.S. by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the early 1980s as a predator against aphids which were attacking pecan trees. Research by Michigan State University claims, "According to USDA scientists, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to establish the beetle. However, in 1988 an established population was discovered in Louisiana, near New Orleans. The multi-colored Asian lady beetle was first officially reported in Michigan in 1994," and presumably Minnesota around the same period. (http://www.ipm.msu.edu/beetleFAQ.htm) Here is my evidence that the USDA experiment was "successful."

Dig the progress on the octagon cabin!!! I hope to see all my leftover shingles on here soon. I went over today to drop off the roofing nail gun for the Harpers to borrow to do their roof. Seeing their progress, I was thinking, I should have built a cabin around this size; perfect for one or two people. But really, I'm going to be so pleased with having all the extras like a kitchen and bathroom, etc. And all my work will add lots of value personally and financially even though it will be a long time before I am totally done.



Anecdote for the day in standard "good news, bad news," format. First the bad news: A few days ago, I was installing tar paper on my roof in the rain. I was working on the north side with my head about level with the peak of the roof. I had my left foot on some tar paper on the dormer roof and my right foot on the edge of a 2x4 nailed to the main roof, my body straddling the valley (where the dormer roof meets the main roof). I had sheet metal nailed in the valley with no shingles on it. The metal is designed to shed water, so it was mighty slick when my right foot slipped off the 2x4 as I strained to one side to get some staples through the tar paper. The movement of my foot one inch was in the same instant my entire body rocketed down the surface of the roof with a squeak and a thud. So, the good news is I'm here to tell the tale. But it's even better news than that; my safety harness, rope, and anchor system all worked flawlessly! I slid about 8 feet before my fall was arrested, but that's only because I hadn't cinched my safety device all the way up. I was completely uninjured and also happy to find that my natural reflexes were functioning superbly. When I came to rest on my belly, I found that my left hand was instinctively clinched tightly to the rope in front of me and my right hand had grabbed onto a board nailed to the roof while simultaneously still clamping onto the stapler. Before returning to the task at hand, I rested for a few moments as I marveled at how my heart rate had gone from moderate to very fast and thumpy in an instant. Thanks Dad for the safety rope suggestion, it's good to be alive! Now I'll turn in for the night with high hopes of getting in a window or two tomorrow.

The Strangeset Thing I Ever Saw

This blog post has no photos. You're welcome. Yesterday I went to my cabin on my way into town to buy yet more supplies. In my doorway, I found a half-full (note my optimism) plastic bottle of Diet Coke. It was the 16 ounce kind with a lid about the size of a quarter. I noticed something was inside the bottle so I picked it up, wondering why someone would put trash in there with perfectly good soda pop.

I was equally revolted and amazed to see there were not one, but two dead mice in there! How incredible that they could climb up to the rim and squeeze down into their sweet demise without knocking the bottle over! I put the bottle down and went to town, not exactly sure how to dispose of such a thing; I only have one garbage can after all and I couldn't find the bottle cap to contain the fatal scene.

This next part will make you want to brush your teeth every time you drink soda pop. Can you believe when I came back today the soda pop had entirely dissolved the flesh of the little critters so all that was left was tiny rodent bones!??? If you'll buy that, I've got some ocean-front property in Arizona... But seriously, brush and floss daily, it's important.

Happy Duck Day

For Sarah's eighth birthday on Sunday, October tenth, she went on her annual super-special day with Dad birthday duck hunting trip. And how lucky was I to go along this year as the official trip photographer? Very lucky indeed. After a breakfast that was as yummy as it was early, we drove far far away (6 miles) to the mighty Mississippi River and put Paul's boat in before sunrise.

Sarah had hot chocolate to keep her warm, though I think it was better just as a tasty treat that day. It was unseasonably warm! We were all dressed up, but it was more to keep us camouflaged than warm.


Once the boat was in the water, we drove by flashlight down the winding narrow river for a little while. Paul found a good spot and we threw a bunch of plastic decoy ducks in the water to try to trick the real ducks into hanging out with their friends. One of the decoys even had motorized flappy wings. Then Paul rammed the boat up into some reeds which we then pulled over the boat to hide. Here is cousin Paul, waiting quietly.


The sunrise was very pretty and serene.

Here's Paul calling in the ducks.

The face net was doubly handy for hiding my skin color while keeping out the seventeen million mosquitoes.

Yesterday I was thinking about how I've been a little stressed that I'm not home yet. While sitting around having such sweet conversation with cousins, I realized my eyes have been looking to the future so often that I've nearly forgotten to enjoy what is right before me! I am so thankful to have so much time this summer with family who live so far away from me. After all, family is the first reason I decided to build a cabin here in the first place. Remember people, as we get wrapped up in everything that is happening around us and distracted by all that is yet to come, there is this moment right now to enjoy.

I emailed this photo to an organization Paul told me about called PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) and they told me this one looked delicious.

The morning light was so pretty reflecting the landscape off the water on the boat ride back.


What a grand adventure we three had!

Captain Ron (Paul) was an excellent navigator.


When you get up at 4:30 for a hunting trip, there is still enough time for a nap before church starts! It was a sleepy day, but I still had enough energy for pizza with the Burnses after the service. And then just to be sure I got enough in one day, I went shopping before driving 120 miles to buy some more shingles for an excellent price. It was a very good day.

Check Out My New Invisible Chimney!

Today Matthias Pemberton started helping me on my roof. After the weekend, we plan to work together for the duration of my stay here. I'm really happy to have help from another good neighbor. In fact, that's the only kind of neighbor I've met around here yet! Lucky me :-) Speaking of neighbors, I got a new one when Paul and Aubrey (Mathias's sister) had their second baby, a boy this time.

Here is Matthias up on the roof today. He told me this was not a job for anyone afraid of heights. It really is helpful that we tie ourselves to the roof with ropes since it is so steep up there. It's not possible to walk on without slipping unless you have a rope or a brace under your feet. I told Matthias at this point, he is the shingle most important person in my life...



This morning Matthias helped me build the framework for my wood stove chimney. We spent the better part of the morning installing the chimney and I think it looks so cool. It better, because oh my gosh, insulated stove pipe is expensive!!! Chimney pics will follow soon.

Once we were done fiddling with that, we made some good progress on my shingles. I still have a long way to go, but diligent work will pay off before long. We both agreed we don't want to make a living installing shingles, but I am having fun watching my own muti-colored progress.

When I dropped Matthias off at the end of the work day, I checked in on his brother in law, Nathan Harper. He is making excellent progress on his cabin too! I think the use of logs for rafters makes such a beautiful ceiling. And the fact that the trees for the beams came out of Cousin Paul's yard just makes it that much more fun :-) This one is going to turn out great!

(Window) Well Well Well

Last weekend my good neighbor Sid, who runs an egress window installation business, helped me install my egress window and build my window well! Yay! I had been a bit worried that I might not get that done before I head home. It turned out so nicely and felt so good to put the work into it and see instant progress. We worked Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to get the well done and the window installed. Then I spent a few more hours Sunday back-filling the area with dirt so the ground will slope away from the house to divert water. It took many wheel barrow loads to get the job done, but I felt great.

Here is the window well with the first few courses of timbers installed to keep the dirt away from the window.

Here is a vantage showing the pit around the window.

Sid was kind enough to snap a picture of me putting in the last two timbers.

Here is me installing my very first window.

Here I am in my basement, happy to have a new window :-)

Here it is after all of the literally dirty work. It came out so beautifully. It is terraced from the inside up to the top with two big steps. Each step is framed in with a 5 by 6 timber and each has an 8 inch by about 50 in area of dirt. I've purchased purple iris bulbs I plan to plant tomorrow so when I'm in the basement, I'll be able to look out at springtime flowers.

After finishing the window well, I was rewarded with a bald eagle sighting next to Diamond Lake on the short drive back to Paul's house.

Taste The Rainbow

Lots has happened since I last posted! Both dormers are completely constructed and the entire house is sheeted, walls and roof. Today we started putting shingles on the roof. I've been busy working on my house and keeping up with school as well.




Ryan framing up the south dormer




South side all framed and sheeted


Sheeting going up on the north side


North dormer frame interior


Ryan nailing the north dormer ridge beam into place


South dormer interior; note the large window size.


North dormer frame; note the smaller window size.


North dormer all framed up.


North side framed and sheeted.


Current progress marked by installation of shingles.


Notice the rainbow color scheme of the shingles. Did I choose to do it this way because I got a great deal on randomly colored shingles, or am I just that weird?? Hard to say...