Decking and Dormers

Once the rafters were up, we were in a little bit of a race against the rain to get the roof on. You don't want your well built house to get all wet and end up with warped, moldy, rotten wood.
You may not have notice, but the roof to our cabin is very high and steep. This can make roofing a little tricky. So, we were thankful to have some help in this difficult stage. The night before Jimmy was supposed to start the decking (the wood that goes on top of the rafters and under the shingles) we got a phone message from our friends, the Moores, asking if they could come out to the next morning to help us build. When we got their message Jimmy heartily proclaimed "Thank you God!" and then quickly called them back to say "Yes, please come help!". Jimmy and Matt completed the "easy" side of the roof. That is, the side without windows in it.

 Notice the wooden blocks nailed on top of the decking. Those are to prevent the ladders from sliding and my husband from falling to his death. Speaking of which, I need to brag a little. My husband claims that he is afraid of heights. And I believe him, because although I was thrilled to go cliff jumping on our honeymoon, the only thing that finally made him very shakily jump into the water was his pride and the 7 year old little girl that went before him. And unlike me, he sure didn't want to do it again. HOWEVER, as we have been working on this house, you wouldn't suspect his fear because he has been climbing all over things in all kinds of crazy positions with heavy materials and equipment way up high without letting it slow him down a bit. When we were putting up the rafters (in a strong wind) I was definitely nervous and shaking and he was acting like it was nothing. Just goes to show what a little bit of determination can do for you.

So, a few days after the Moore's help, Jimmy's brother Ben came back and helped him finish up the dormers (windows sticking out of the roof) and the decking on that side.

Some people might say that a construction place is no place for little children. We would reply that it is a great place for them to begin learning custodial skills :o) Abigail is our ever diligent cleaner.

Rafters and a Second Floor

Jimmy is a visual guy. He always has pictures in his head. (This is a little strange to me because I am more of an audio person who always has songs -never pictures- in their head, which of course is strange to him.) Anyways, Jimmy has been dreaming of this cabin with a picture of it in his brain for many years. The picture in his brain has always been of a cabin with a barn style roof and loft. The original plan was to have a loft covering the back end of the cabin with everything else open. However, being the practical dream spoiler that I am, when I saw how large the "loft" was going to be and how much empty space it left over the rest of the cabin I wondered aloud how difficult it would be to just build a second floor and turn lots of pretty, but wasted space into something useable. My wondering quickly turned into the end of Jimmy's dream of a cool loft and the pretty picture in his head. (It is really tough to be a dreamer with a practical wife.) In order to construct the second floor we added crossbeams to the other half of the cabin before putting on all of the rafters. It was really fun to watch the cabin develop through this stage. It was especially fun to look out at the great view of the sky and lake through the open rafters on the second floor.

Interior Walls, Exterior Plywood, Crossbeams

A few weekends ago we were really thankful to have some good friends, the Beckers, come and visit for the weekend. Keith helped Jimmy get a lot done in just 2 days. First the 2 interior walls went up, then they enclosed the cabin by putting plywood on the exterior walls, then they put on half of the cross beams for the loft/second floor.

Keith cutting plywood for the exterior walls.

A mock rafter, flooring, and walls

The first week of November was a little rainy and cold. Jimmy took the opportunity to work inside his Dad's shop and prep for his rafters. He was very proud of his first rafter raised on the ground floor, no matter that his wife made fun of him for putting up a rafter he was just going to take down. He had to see what it looked like.

Jimmy's brother Ben came to town to help him work on the cabin for a day. We were very thankful for his help. It took them back to the days of old when all 3 Burton brothers worked construction together. Ben helped Jimmy construct the rafters and put the floor down on top of the foundation.

Had to break in the new floor with a little bit of dancing. Abigail loved this.

Jimmy's wife helped him frame and put up the exterior walls. Here they go....

1 wall

2 walls

3 walls

 4 walls

We had to do something with the girls while Mommy and Daddy were both working...

October in Pictures

Jimmy's original hope was to actually cut down pine trees and mill them up into 2x4's, 2x6's, 2x10's, etc and use that wood to build the cabin. We spent some time the beginning of October attempting to locate pines that someone would led him cut down, cut them down, haul them, and cut them up. Here are pictures from one of the pines he cut. He worked very hard and cut down and up several trees, and learned a lot - however due to time constraints we were not able to get the wood we would need to frame the cabin this way. (We keep saying we'll have to do that for cabin number 2) Anyways, good thing there's always Home Depot.

Next came digging the 12 holes for the pier and beam foundation

Then running and leveling strings in order to build forms for the concrete. Unfortunately strings are somewhat inaccurate for leveling due to sagging. We found this out after pouring the first 3 forms. A hose filled with water (which finds its own level) is much more accurate. Thankfully we figured this out and were able to make adjustments before pouring the last 9 forms. After spending several days building these forms and getting them all leveled and in place Jimmy informed me that you can just buy this circular cardboard stuff that's made for concrete pier forms, but he doesn't like the "look" or cylindrical concrete piers, that's why he built his own rectangular ones. (Never mind that no one is going to be looking at the piers since they are UNDER the house!)

Between digging the holes and building and leveling the forms and getting ready to pour concrete it rained several times really hard. Guess who got to bail the water out of the holes for the piers - twice.

Then came the concrete - oh the concrete. My husband can be stubborn sometimes. Never mind that it would have been cheaper to have a concrete truck come pour the already mixed cement we needed into our holes for us. He decided to mix and pour all 100 bags of concrete himself- one wheelbarrow full at a time. (And when I say himself, I mean with the help of his loving wife who felt bad for him in the midst of his stubbornness.)

Once the piers were poured and dried it was time to lay the beams. In order to save money and do things differently Jimmy had come up with the idea of cutting up used railroad ties to make his beams out of.  Good idea, only problem was railroad ties destroy the blades on a sawmill really fast. (They are also REALLY heavy). So after buying and hauling and attempting to cut up railroad ties, we were once again thankful for Home Depot and their supply of pressure treated wood.

Abbi telling Daddy that he's the CHAMPION

Daddy agrees

It took a little finagling to get the beams level and square on the corner pier that we poured half and inch too short due to incorrect string leveling. All the others that we did correctly look really nice, I promise.

So, Daddy finished the foundation (sorry, I don't have a good picture) and then headed back to San Antonio for a couple weeks - his last stint of oilfield work. While he was there we went and played with my family up in Plano. (Oilfield work picture on left, Fun in Plano picture on right - wonder who got the better end of the deal?) 

And that brings us to the end of October. One month down, a couple of good but failed ideas, a foundation built, the whole cabin left to go.

Timber

Preparation for cabin building actually began this summer. Jimmy took a week off from the oilfield and with a couple very kind friends, cut down some large dead cedar trees out at our friends’ ranch, affectionately known as “Barneyville” (which is actually where Jimmy proposed to me and where we got married). Cutting down trees sounds really simple to me, but there is actually a lot involved. The job was made even more difficult by the fact that Jimmy’s nice big chainsaws got stolen right before we got back from Haiti, so he only had a small one to work with. So, if you want to cut down trees, you have to clear out the land around the trees, figure out angles and directions very carefully, actually cut the tree down, and cut off and haul away all the limbs. Then of course in order to get what you have worked so hard for, the bulk of the tree that is left where it fell on the ground, you have to move something VERY heavy. So, being that Jimmy does not have much lumberjacking experience and only had a little help, it took a full week to cut down 8 cedar trees to later be used for siding on the cabin.

Timber!

In mid-September Jimmy finished up oilfield work for the time, and we moved to Lakeside RV Park in Coolidge, Texas. Our move was made a little more exciting when we found out 3 days before moving that the trailer we had made plans to stay in had been given to someone else. As always, the Lord is perfect provider and he supplied another trailer through a friend of Jimmy’s parents.

Home Sweet Home

The end of September was spent getting moved into our new home, getting Jimmy’s sawmill running, seeing family, and doing a couple sawmilling jobs for friends. The only progress on the cabin was putting some more plans down onto paper, getting the spot to build it chosen, and getting the area marked off with stakes and string. Being the kind and encouraging wife that I am, when Jimmy excitedly showed me the spot of our future cabin he had marked off my first response was "Umm... isn't that kind of small? I mean will a bed even fit in there?". Poor husband. It turns out that a building looks much bigger from the inside once built, then when looking at a rectangular string lying on the ground. :o) It also turns out that RV life is a whole different kind of life that Jimmy and I knew nothing about. We had some things to learn those first few weeks....too bad I don't have space to write out the stories that were not so funny at the time but are pretty humorous looking back....Think sewage, ants, AC, mice, rain leaks... we've been learning it all by trial and error.

Haitian Teacher Farmer turned American Lumberjack Builder

I married a “Jack of all trades”. Although I usually just call him Jimmy.

We have been living in the US for 5 months now while the family we teach for in Haiti has been settling their daughter into college.  Since returning to the US we have added a beautiful daughter to our family and Jimmy has spent time working for his brothers in oilfield services. We are really thankful for him to have had an in-between job while we are here, but let’s just say that it was not the favorite trade of this Jack. Jimmy is now finished with oilfield work and embarking on 

The Great Cabin Building Adventure.

A little history on this adventure –

Since he was a young boy one of Jimmy’s favorite things in this world has been wood. He loves to grow it, chop it down, cut it up with a chainsaw, build with it, burn it, touch it, smell it, feel it, talk about it… you get the idea. He really loves wood.

When I married Jimmy I found out that “I” owned a sawmill. At the time I didn’t even know what a sawmill was. Turns out it is this really large machine that you use to cut trees up into boards. During his single days Jimmy had worked hard to get out of debt and then while waiting for God to bring him his wife, had saved up money for a wedding. Well, it was taking longer than he had expected for his wife to come along, so Jimmy decided to “invest” the wedding money he had saved into something that looked more promising, a sawmill. Thus, when I finally came along and we got married, he informed me that the sawmill was really mine and we could sell it if I wanted. Like I would really tell my husband who LOVES wood to sell his, I mean my, sawmill.

When we realized that we would be returning from Haiti for a number of months this year, we planned for Jimmy to build us a cabin (cutting as much of his own wood as possible) at his parent’s RV Park so we would have our own place to live while we were back. Well, plans changed, as plans do, and we will not be living in a cabin before returning to Haiti. However, we are still hoping to get it mostly built and possibly be able to rent it out when we return to Haiti and have here for future use. This is a really big and somewhat scary project for us. (What if we fail?) We are pretty limited on resources, help, experience, and time, BUT it’s something Jimmy has wanted to do for a long time and a chance to learn a lot. So, we’re attempting it anyways and hoping to chronicle a little bit of the adventure here on the blog this next month.