On September 7th, having no additional clients booked, I began construction of our 4th Alaska cabin ... if you can call these cabins. I think they are more like miniature homes! This 4th Alaska cabin is quite a bit bigger than the other 3 cabins we constructed in 2008/2009. Those cabins have square footage that ranges from 730 to 924. This new 4th cabin comes in at 1330 square feet, has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, indoor laundry & hot water heater room & a small walk-in closet in the master bedroom. It's the same design as one of the other 3 cabins ... just "expanded".
I am a one-man team in this building project, so that slows things down a bit ... but I didn't do too bad in the first 7 weeks of construction, and I even had time for a little Silver Salmon fishing and quick trip back to Arizona! I began construction on September 7th. At the end of 7 weeks (October 30th), I had the cabin to the "dried-in" stage ... meaning it had all walls, roof, doors and windows in place ... completely protected from the elements and the critters.
I have placed these 11 photos in order, showing my progress over the 7 weeks.
Week #1 involved digging nine 5 foot deep "Sono-tube" holes (28 inches in diameter), placing the tubes in them, back-filling with dirt and then pouring them full of concrete. Thank heavens for a Concrete Boom Truck!!! It saved me!
Week #2 began with the arrival of 3 very long, very wide and very heavy glue-lam beams. Each was 40 feet in length and each was swung into place with the help of a massive crane. All I had to do was guide them into the 3 brackets that held each of them in place.
With the 3 beams in place, I could then lift, by hand and by myself, thirty 33 foot long, pre-fabricated BCI Floor Joists. I think each one weighed around 125 lbs. ... not too bad.
During the last half of Week #2 and part of week #3, I was able to put into place all floor insulation and tongue & groove flooring. Because of the frequent rain showers in September & October, I stapled down Tyvek paper to the floor. I also used Liquid Nail glue and glued the seams of the paper together, to lock out the moisture. Using this paper saved the floor!! It required frequent "broom-off's", sometimes twice daily, but it truly saved the wood flooring from becoming saturated with moisture.
With the floor down, it was time to start building walls! One of my favorite parts of building. I love walls because it really makes it look like you're "moving along" and progressing. At this stage, there was no more time for Salmon fishing in the Kenai, Kasiloff or any other river. All work and no play! Boo-Hoo!!
Building the walls on top of the floor (walls laying down) is easy for one man. Raising them into position, however, is all but impossible for one man. Raising a 40 foot long wall would usually require at least 4 men ... I didn't have that many guys ... just me. So I built the walls in 10-14 foot sections, then flew Craig Winquist (Irene's niece's husband, who also happens to work with me in the tax business) out for a week to help me lift and put those walls into place. He was a great helper ... and he saved me! By the time he left, we had all exterior and interior walls up and in place and completely covered in OSB siding and Tyvek paper. Sweet!!
At the end of week #4, I flew home with Craig and stayed for almost a week. Two of our newborn grand-daughters were being blessed and I didn't want to miss that. On the morning of our departure to Arizona, our local lumber company, Spenard Builders, delivered roof trusses for the cabin. They were laid on top of the walls and supported with lumber from underneath. And there they stayed until my return.
Back from Arizona, I began working on the trusses. Again, I did not have a crane to set them in place, so this is very difficult for one man to do. Not impossible, but difficult and time consuming. We have wonderful friends in Alaska, and Sonny Cook, who we salmon fish with and attend church with, is one of our best friends. When he heard I was about to begin lifting those trusses into place, he said, "Heap ... you wait for me! I'll be there in 30 minutes!" And good to his word, he was soon there to help me. It took the 2 of us 2 days to get all 32 trusses into position, and that included putting OSB siding & Tyvek paper on each of the gable ends! Not bad, for two "old guys"!!
This is a photo from the backside of the cabin. All trusses in place and you can see that the gable end has OSB siding and Tyvek paper on it. This will save a huge headache later. The backside of this cabin stands 6 feet off the ground, so by the time you put ladders up, to place that gable-end OSB on ... you'd be pretty high off the ground. Much easier to put that on while it's laying down and then just lift it into place!
Weeks #6 & #7, of construction, were consumed in doing the roof, electrical wiring and indoor plumbing. By October 30th, this is how I left the cabin. Not too bad for an old-guy, who doesn't build homes for a living.
Irene and I return to Alaska on January 12th, at which time I will resume construction. Lots more to do ... but I'm actually looking forward to it!
We love Alaska, the Burly Bear Bunkhouse operation, and the many clients and friends/family that come to visit us. We are truly blessed!!
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