The trouble with going back in time like this, for a story on building a cabin, is that you lose much of the opportunity for the really interesting stories. Building alone means being innovative, and on occasion f-ing up and having to deal with the problem you created. There are a few of those stories, many involving putting a roof on this place, but I'll deal with those later.
Building the walls was relatively straight forward. We were using salvaged windows for the place, and once I figured out where to place them, and to double check the measurements for the rough openings it was a simple matter of laying out the walls, and building them on the floor. And it was an opportunity to learn from one of my early mistakes. It had been a while since I framed (like 18 years) and I screwed up a bit laying out the floor joists, and had to get a little creative to get the subfloor and soffit plywood in place and lined up. Lesson learned.
So to build the non-gable walls it was a matter of getting a bottom plate and top plate together, marking the location of the studs, the king studs (studs that go next to window headers – the framing over the window/door openings that carry the load where there are spaces), jack studs (studs that hold the headers up) and cripples (little studs above and below windows). Once marked you nail it all in place, square the wall, put the sheathing over that wall, then lift it into place. Before lifting it in to place I stapled the Tyvek (a protective barrier on the outside) as its easier when its laying flat rather than verticle.
Usually. Because the construction was paused in the winter, before anything was put over the Tyvek, the wind ripped off all the Tyvek and we had to reinstall it later anyway. A waste of time and material, but live and learn (or be more efficient and get it up quicker).
Eventually, once a wall is completed, I elicited some help, to raise the wall, plumb it and brace it in place, then on to the next wall. Essentially the same, but with a rough opening for the door.
The gable ends get a little more complicated, and I spent a great deal of time pondering how to place everything, and make it structurally sound. Once I figured out how the wall was to be build I snapped a chaulk line on the floor for the top plates and built the wall in place.
And this is the point that Leah asks where the porch is going. Umm porch?
So, I needed to plan a porch, figure out a plan for a floor and joists, and make it including an extension of the deck. The roof, I assumed, would be a bit more problematic. Well, not problematic, just challenging for me to figure out and execute. But, onwards and upwards as they say, I'll figure out that part later. Porch it was.
Once I figured out a size, and included nailers into the already built wall, to help attach the walls of the porch I proceeded to build joists for the floor. The walls, and the subfloor itself, would come next season, as I discovered.
Next up, the last wall of the cabin itself…
Narrator: "It would not be the last wall of the cabin itself."