|
| Author |
Message |
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 09:51 - Edited by: VTweekender
Reply
This week marks 3 years ago that I bought the land, and my daughter sent to my email some photos she took last summer on her iphone. They aren't great pictures, but I can finally show all the good folk here somewhat of what my project looks like in southern VT. I will try to put things in order with short stories of each project along with a few details. I accomplished this to date only on Sundays over the last 3 years, as its the only time I can get up there, not every Sunday but maybe every other Sunday I get there about 11am and work to dark. I live in Mass. about 1 1/2 hours drive away.
First photo is taken from the top of the road I blazed into my property up to where I cleared and flattened an area of about 40 x 70 ft for cabins and firepit etc..etc...In the photo you see the camp of my neighbor Mike down at the bottom of the road...my property was the last parcel at the very end of the dirt road that winds up the mountain side...I cut straight up the hill into my property from the very end of the existing access road..made my road approx. 150 ft. straight up the hill, then I made a 3 car wide parking area to the left which you can't see in the photo. Had to make a drainage ditch across the road at the bottom and build a bridge to drive over it, I used hefty Hemlock logs to make the bridge , flattened them on one side with chainsaw and faced the flat surface on the logs upward so to make a flat surface to drive over, works pretty well for a bridge...You can see to the right a little bit where the 40 x 70 cleared area is located, graded and grass seeded where the chairs are in the pic..Also blazed the road to wind around the back of the lot I cleared, but did not gravel that part, just dirt road after the parking area, total road length maybe about 250 ft. blazed with the 1962 Oliver Industrial Hoe/Loader you see in the other pic...cut all the trees down and dug up all stumps and rocks, then graded the dirt ready for gravel, gravel cost $325 a 18 yard load, all done with the old beast!! Bought it on craigies for 3K, put about a grand in parts along the way.
roadVT.jpg
| 
oliver770backhoe.jp.jpg
|  | |
|
|
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:15
Reply
Next, the cabins! I put 2 cabins up, this is the first cabin to go up....I was a bit impatient and saw a great deal at Jamaica Cottage Shop, maker of cabins and sheds located about 20 miles away from the property...I couldn't resist a middle of the winter sale and went ahead and bought this 10 x 14 post and beam cabin with board and batten and wooden barn sash functional windows with handmade pine door for 2K delivered free in the spring!!...
BUT...(always a BUT)...spring came around...they called me on a Tuesday and said they were ready to deliver and could put it on the trailer and deliver it today!...I said sure..go right ahead the road is ready, the spot is marked in string in the clearing etc..etc....I can't be there as I was working.....SO, the delivery driver calls my cell, says he is spinning as soon as he hits the gravel, as the gravel in newly done and loose, can't even start to get up the road with it, he can't bring it back or the re-delivery charge is hundreds of dollars if I go that route....ahhh shoot, just drop it at the bottom I told him, I will get it up there with my machine, have a good day and thanks!
WELL, my machine spun the the new gravel to, I in fact dug 2 foot deep ruts into my new road in the proccess and didn't even get 10 feet up the hill with it! This thing is built heafty and weighs 2 1/2 tons! ARRRHHHGGGGG!!
SO NOW WHAT, to the rescue comes my neighbor Mike, he sends me down to the lumber yard/Hardware to get 4 lengths of 4 inch heavy plastic pipe, 10 feet long......he gets out a winch and straps to the nearest tree heading up the road..we jack the building up with a car jack, place to 4 lengths of pipe evenly apart under it, and Inca Pyramid Style UP THE ROAD WE GO, INCH BY INCH!! LOL.....putting the roller pipes back under the front ans they roll out the rear......pic here is the cabin after I winched it into place on blocks about 2 ft high off the ground level.....I stoned around the base with stones I collected during building the road... you can see in the background in the pic that the 2nd cabin (A-frame)going together about 30 feet up on a knoll behind this cabin..
|
|
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:27
Reply
Now that I have that cabin in place and semi-functioning, I want put up another for the daughter as well....she recently was married and they have now my only grandchild! I think it will be nice for them to have their own cabin....I decide to build this time and decide on an A-Frame....10 x 12 with a small sleeping loft...The cleared area has a 10 ft high banking leading to a flat on top spot up behing the other cabin...perfect spot and the highest point on the property...I use 4 x 6 treated skids and 2x6 treated floor joists and Advantech 3/4 T&G subfloor for the base...it is sitting right on ledge poking up through the knoll....I used 16 ft. 2x6 rafters and nailed them right on top the deck over each floor joist...
|
|
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:38 - Edited by: VTweekender
Reply
I used 1 x 3 strapping every 2 ft. and put up a evergreen metal roof and roof cap....found a great deal on T&G pine at a local sawmill at 40 cents a foot and used it for siding on the front and rear 2x4 framed end walls....Door and windows are roadside finds..Treated front stairs I made....The roofing was a great deal from HD as they had to do a price match to a truckload sale price I found online at a nearby lumber yard and printed out..wound up $19 a sheet for green 8 ft. sheets.....this spring gots to get some green metal roofing trim to finish off the job neatly on the siding edges and get some poly on that siding.....but here is a pic as it sits.....daughter very happy!
Great view of the beautiful Vermont Green Mountains from the A-Frame!
|
|
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:53 - Edited by: VTweekender
Reply
Inside the A-Frame....nothing fancy...yet anyhow...will let my daughter finish the interior if she chooses too...if not thats OK as well.....at the same sawmill I scored the siding..I scored a 12 ft. long 2 inch thick pine slab 24 inches wide, plained real nice and smooth, and on the cheap as well....I had them cut it into 2 slabs so I could use a piece in both cabins for countertops....then cut one edge straight for the back edge to flush the wall and leave the other edge rough bark edge for the front.....looks cool! Piece for the A-Frame is 7 ft. wide, the other 5 ft. remaining piece went into the other cabin for a kitchen counter.....gots to get some coats of poly on them this year...you can see in the inside A-Frame pic here that this piece of countertop is cut so to fit perfectly across the back so it fits just under the sill of the double crank out window so I could put some chairs to it and use one end for small kitchen appliances...used some 12 inch shelf braces to hang the countertops in the cabins...total for countertop projects was $110......Found a perfectly good pullout bed loveseat roadside freebie and recliner to match!! those are in there and some freebie decor....The loft I used 2x6 and nailed them across the rafters with the bottom of them at 7 ft height ...came half way with the loft and left the other half vaulted....this gave me exactly 4 ft. wide by 6 ft. 8 inches deep up in the loft......can stand up in the middle of the loft if your 6 ft. tall or under...makes it nice if you want to change clothes or something to stand up. Windows that open on both ends of upper walls.....
Total cost this cabin...$1,400 !!!
|
|
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:12
Reply
And finally one of my little projects , a well I made from some Hemlock ...debarked them with a drawknife...used the slabs for roofing that I had from making the bridge at the bottom of the road.....used 10 inch Timberlocks to put this together...
I also made a generator shed to house the generator and placed it evenly distanced between the 2 cabins , about 20 feet from each cabin, and ran a cord to each cabin from the generator, fire it up and each cabin has juice at the same time...4000 watt genny....small solar system in 10x14 cabin as well.....down the access road and up the road a piece is a freebie Vermont State spring water pipe that runs nice fresh spring water year round...just bring the jugs!!.
Thats it to date folks!! Thank you all for the inspirations that got me to "get up there and do it", and all the great info and ideas that helped me so much!! My family and I are going to enjoy our little piece of heaven for years to come..
Kev
|
|
bldginsp
Member
|
# Posted: 18 Feb 2014 15:13
Reply
If its possible to have too much fun, you're having it
Very cool, I'm jealous.
|
|
VTweekender
Member
|
# Posted: 19 Feb 2014 14:49
Reply
Quoting: bldginsp If its possible to have too much fun, you're having it Very cool, I'm jealous.
Thank you! and yes, the most fun I have had in years!!!
|
|
|
vtbros
Member
|
# Posted: 26 Jun 2014 23:49
Reply
Nice little compound. Thanks for posting pics. We looked at Jamaica cottage a lot before our build. Somehow missed this last winter but glad it popped now. Enjoy the times there with family.
|
|
Wilbour
Member
|
# Posted: 27 Jun 2014 09:46 - Edited by: Wilbour
Reply
Looks like I am not the only one who has rediscovered his "fort building days" of childhood. Only this time "Girls are allowed"
|
|
neb
Member
|
# Posted: 27 Jun 2014 10:14
Reply
I like the A frame very much. Looks very cozy and a neat setup.
|
|
|
