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Small Cabin Forum / Member's Projects and Photos / Northwest log cabin 12X16
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old buddy
Member
# Posted: 1 Oct 2011 11:17
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TomChum
I absolutely love the aesthetic appearance of your cabin. I hope I don't upset too many people when I say I think it should be on the cover of a magazine entitled "Mountain Cabins!" It's the same size as ours but truly looks like what a cabin should look like...in my mind.
Now that our shell is up and roofed, we can concentrate on "prettying" it up. We want to add the wooded strips to give it the board and batten look and after sitting for a year, we'll either stain or paint it and add the front porch, with a roof running the opposite direction of the cabin roof. I think that is what gives it the "cabin look." Inside, after we insulate, I'm thinking of putting up tongue-and-groove pine. No need to get in a hurry...I've been listening to the raindrops at home for much of the past week. Ha.
As we have stated before, once the rain and cold weather sets in, getting to the cabin is a real problem with the steep grades on dirt (mud) roads. I haven't been up there in 7 days and I'm really MISSING IT. The most important job left is to put the plywood on the bottom of the froor to keep the pests out of it and also to keep the insulation from falling out. Anyway.....beautiful cabin you have.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 3 Oct 2011 00:10 - Edited by: TomChum
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Thanks. The "cabin look" was very important for me. I gave a lot of thought to how it would look coming down the driveway, the approach. I enjoy that first glimpse of "relaxation".

I like board and batten too. OldBuddy your cabin will look great with batts. I have an outhouse with T-111 on it, will put some batts to cover up the lines. Probably need to glue them down though, nails that short won't hold the batts straight for very long.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 27 Nov 2011 01:46 - Edited by: TomChum
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My wife makes the BEST apple pie. It was difficult to make it last 4 days. Every cabin should have a Pie shelf.



A photo looking in from outside the cabin, the trees and snow reflecting on the glass just before sunrise. The window frame is barely visible angling off the top of the photo. My little girl is reading a book on the dining table.



hattie
Member
# Posted: 27 Nov 2011 12:04
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Oh my!!!! That photo looking into the front window at your little girl reading at the table is beautiful!!!! Did you have to do something to the settings on your camera or the lighting inside the room to get that effect? You should submit that to a photo contest somewhere!! It will be one of those pictures that your family will pass down through the centuries.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 27 Nov 2011 13:03 - Edited by: TomChum
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No effects, "I was in the right place, but it musta beeen the RIGHT time!" Although having a child who will sit down to read a book before sunrise might be considered a special condition. We spent 4 nights at the cabin, just the two of us, it was wonderful.

fthurber
Member
# Posted: 27 Dec 2011 21:26
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Wow. The most perfect cabin imaginable! Nice job. Absolutely magical. I cannot imagine a better place but I have to correct you on the pies; my wife makes the BEST pies.

neb
Member
# Posted: 27 Dec 2011 22:14
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Very very nice.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 28 Dec 2011 12:39 - Edited by: TomChum
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Thanks guys + gals. I was lucky to have a teacher (the grandpa), who has since passed away. But also lucky to have two sweet girls and a pie-cookin wife. I would like to incite then participate in a pie-competition as tester. I prefer that over a "pie-eating contest" because a guy who calls himself SquidLips might have an unfair advantage! ;-)

Here are some photos (repeated) from other threads. Instructions and discussion here: (how to re-post a small-cabin image) )

Christmas at the cabin
Christmas at the cabin.

We cut a little tree and put solar/LED lights on it, and had some "gifts for the cabin".

Here is a project I did for my "12v LED lighting fixtures", electrifying some old kerosene lanterns.
http://www.small-cabin.com--LED lighting project (Electrifying Kerosene lanterns)

wakeslayer
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2011 15:29
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Tom,

Your cabin is wonderful. Love the Christmas photo, and the one of your daughter reading at the table, through the window.

Mike

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 30 Dec 2011 19:30 - Edited by: TomChum
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Thanks Mike, sounds like you have girls too.

Here's today.

Today we snowboarded the driveway which zigzags down the hill. To get back up we pioneered tow-boarding (snowmobile+snowboard and a long rope), which has never been done before ;-)



wakeslayer
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2011 10:46
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What a beautiful place, Tom. I love the PNW.

Two girls: I have my beautiful wife, and a 17 year old daughter. I also have a 19 year old son.

Did you get part of the 18 inches last night they were talking about?
We are headed out in 12 days and are hoping to get a lot of snow before then. Our driveway is ~2000 feet of the greatest sledding hill ever. We have to snowshoe back up though. No snowmobile.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2011 11:03 - Edited by: TomChum
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Hi Mike, and welcome to the forum. My girls are 9 & 11. Its funny how your North Idaho retreat is so similar to mine, gravity water, 2 miles from utilities, outdoor shower. I plan to build a guesthouse too because my cabin is so small. Minnesota sounds like too far away, but that makes it a genuine retreat! My drive is 2:35 though, and Im glad its not farther.

We got 8" ontop of 4" rotten snow yesterday. I have to drive out thru it, on new years day, 3 miles to the nearest plowed road. But its downhlll, 1000 v ft and I have chains on all four wheels. After this (assuming I do get my truck out) I"ll have to snowmobile (or hitch a ride, or walk) in. I have a 151hp mountain sled and a tame little 1998 jag340. Need the mountain sled to make 1st tracks then the little one is perfect for getting around & tow-boarding. I also tow a garden trailer that I have set the wheels into pockets on snowboards. This is good for the 3 miles trip back&forth to the car, or visitors.

wakeslayer
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2011 12:10
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Minnesota is too far away. It is 1300 miles. We want to move to the Moscow area in a few short years. Then our commute will be similar to yours. At that point I will get a mountain sled. I just cannot justify paying for one to use once a year and storing it. We have a close friend that has a cabin a bit up from us that has a 4 seat snowcat. He meets us and drives us up, or, if he is not going to be in town, he will pack it down for us and we snowshoe up. We have to drag sleds with groceries and beer. We keep an offroad Jeep out there that we use the rest of the time. It is terrible in snow though.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2011 13:23 - Edited by: TomChum
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Here's 2 seasons of the same meadow. A girl and I will set some little platforms around the woods to place the camera in exactly the same sport for seasonal photos. This will be fun to have over the years.

Lupines photo from June 2011 Here's the photo from June 2011.

Here's the same photo for December 2011
Lupine field buried in snow, Dec 2011
Lupine field buried in snow, Dec 2011


ErinsMom
Member
# Posted: 31 Dec 2011 13:33
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TomChum,
It looks like a picture postcard. Very beautiful.
Have a happy new year.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 19:32
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Tom Chum and Montanan, I love the looks of your log cabins. I like the "skip peel" look too. Montanan, interesting way you did the corners. I couldn't quite get a good picture to see up close. How is it done exactly?

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 21:39 - Edited by: TomChum
Reply 


Hi TMT, thanks, I'm glad you like it. Reading books about pioneer life I had a pretty good idea of the cabin/retreat that I wanted. But I thought that wasn't going to be possible. I expected to spend all on getting the land I wanted, then start with an 'ocean container' and go from there. Getting the land for substantially less than expected was a game-changer, leaving $$ to build the cabin I wanted. But its a very small cabin.

We just returned home from 5 days there, snowmobiling, snowboarding, snowshoeing, making cookies, and just relaxing.

PS: My project thread has pics from Montanan's cabin, but for questions about Montanan's cabin, I bet she prefers to discuss her cabin in her own thread too. Plus she is probably subscribed there and will get a forum-email if you post your question there ---> Montanan: "Our 22x26 family cabin"

oldbuddy
# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 22:01
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TomChum
Doesn't anyone use four-wheelers (ATV 4X4's) out there? I couldn't imagine that with really agressive tires, they couldn't get you to most places any other vehicle (except a snow-ski) could. I know you get scads of snow in the mountains out west, but I'm sure there is a time when you can't get to your places....but very limited for sure. I was just wondering...I never hear any of you talking about ATV's. Believe me, without our Honda Foreman, we wouldn't have been to our place for the past month. But with it...we can go anytime we want!

It was nice being in the woods cutting a tree down today, with a heavy coat of snow falling on the woods. It wasn't long enough to stick or pile-up, but it was nice in the woods in a "white-out."

In closing....as usual....your place is absolutely breath-taking!

Old Old Buddy

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 23:07 - Edited by: TomChum
Reply 


Hi OOB,

I have a 2002 Yamaha Grizzly 660. It has a locker, and fairly new tires, but it couldn't climb my driveway. It depends on the snow. If the snow is wet it just can't go anywhere. Last week I tried the ATV first before the snowmobile. Within 30 feet I had to put it away and get the snowmobile. Once the snowmobile packs the snow then the ATV works well.

EDIT: Due to evidence that titillating photos of machinery will cause a "Members Project thread" to go off-topic,,,,,
- and because remote cabins get snowed-in,,,,,
- and to provide an orderly forum experience for all ;-) ------> I've created a new thread called
How to you get to your cabin in the SNOW?

wakeslayer
Member
# Posted: 3 Jan 2012 10:47 - Edited by: wakeslayer
Reply 


Yep, you aren't getting anywhere in a quad in the snow in the Pacific NW. I posted a pic in Tom's thread about snow transportation of my friends Imp. He spent huge dough on a quad with tracks. Waste of money for his purpose. Still couldn't go anywhere. Then he got rid of that and bought a couple big mountain sleds, but those were problematic also. The way his driveway is laid out, the amount of snow, and hauling gear and groceries, he got them stuck more than not. Also, being he is in his late 60's, it ain't cool to be trying to dig out sleds with no phone signal, and no one around for miles. For less than what the two sleds cost, and just a little more than the track quad, he bought an old sno cat with a trailer. It is a Godsend. Now he can drive around in eight feet of snow in a Tshirt drinking a beer. I plan to buy it from him when he is done using it.
Quads are great in the summer and the mud, but they simply don't work in the snow worth a crap.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 18 Jan 2012 15:00 - Edited by: TomChum
Reply 


Hung my LED electrified lantern from it's intended location, the railing certerpiece. It only consumes 6.5Watts, and BRIGHT! Very nice light, (2900k) similar to halogen. The little "3W" lantern is in the background, and wiring is in the "rough stage". There is also a battery-powered LED puck light in the photo, that's coming down. It has that hospital-blue color LEDS, I don't use it.

It has a tiny 1/2watt "flame" that makes a nice nightlight. It's about half the light of an actual flame.
Electrified lantern, LED
Electrified lantern, LED


wakeslayer
Member
# Posted: 18 Jan 2012 15:41
Reply 


Nice.
I love that railing. That center branch is sweet.

Cabingirl
Member
# Posted: 19 Jan 2012 16:57
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Your place is beautiful, the picture of the Lipines blooming is breathtaking. It looks like a painting.

AlabamaDan
Member
# Posted: 19 Jan 2012 23:32
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Wow. Beautiful.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 2 Mar 2012 00:53 - Edited by: TomChum
Reply 


Thanks for the nice comments. I'm really missing the cabin now, and being up there, away from it all. Been super busy at work, so all I can do is dream. I can't complain too much, the family went in December, then again in Jan, then by myself in Feb for the battery drawer project.

Here are some pics of the kitchen counter that our dearly beloved 'grampa' built for / with me a year or so before he passed away. It's all douglas fir. I wish I could have had more time with him, and am real thankful that I did have a lot, learned a lot, built lots.

His original sketch.


The finished cabinets. Note that this is the sum total countertop space that I have in this little cabin (plus the "pie shelf" next to the window.)

The 2" thick countertop was one of the 2X10 (full dims) scaffold boards that the builders left behind.


Hardware is classical stuff, cast iron, and solid brass. We used a single drawer slide above and plastic glides in the corners; hidden as best as I could.


Montanagirl
Member
# Posted: 2 Mar 2012 10:44
Reply 


Looks GREAT! Grandpa's are the best! We too have drawings/sketches my grandpa did when he worked at our cabin low those many years ago. You can frame that and hang it in the kitchen

Malamute
Member
# Posted: 2 Mar 2012 13:06
Reply 


Nice cabinets.

It can be challenging working with very small counters. I'm thinking of adding some small extensions that can fold up or down as needed.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 2 Mar 2012 13:47
Reply 


The Grampa teased me often for always suggesting folding devices.......I'm trying to decide how I can do this and retain the 'old' appearance. It could be made with just hinges and a wooden support. Basically with counters this small it would get folded up to use and would never come down.

TomChum
Member
# Posted: 10 Mar 2012 16:42 - Edited by: TomChum
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My door; it's Grampa-built. Solid Fir, and 2X12s, (full 2").



Currently I only have a latch between the lower and upper. I have a deadbolt (modern style). It's held closed with a super strong, rare-earth magnet out of a computer harddrive. So if the deadbolt is not set, the door just pushes open. This is kind of handy. The new surfacemount latch will go on the lower door.

After a year and a half (no latch) I finally found the lockset I want to use. It was covered with latex paint, which was surprisingly easy to remove. The soap took the latex off, and left the original black paint nice and shiny.



Here's what dishwasher soap did to the painted lockset, soaking just 10 minutes in 50/50 dishwasher gel + water. Then scraping off the softened paint with my fingernail.Basically it has to clean your dishes by "just splashing". It's mean stuff, be careful with it. Don't use diswasher soap on your car!
Lockset painted
Lockset painted
Dishwasher Gel / Paint remover
Dishwasher Gel / Paint remover
Lockset stripped
Lockset stripped


hattie
Member
# Posted: 11 Mar 2012 00:22
Reply 


That door is beautiful and so is the latch. Nice job!!!

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