Mark Hofman
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Thought you guys might like to see what we worked on up in Alaska.
This is a photo of the cabin my sister and her husband are attempting to build in the hills near Montana Creek, up by Talkeetna. The original design was for a 16'x20' cabin with two lofts. But because the roads and trails getting into the property were so bad, they shrunk it to 12'x16' with one loft overhanging an 8-foot deck.
We hauled all of the materials in on an F-350 quad cab 4x4 equipped with a 3600-lb contractor's rack. Then we transferred the materials to a trailer towed by a Polaris 4-wheeler for the final leg into the property.
The foundation is a series of 6"x6" posts, set in concrete. Three 4"x8"x16-foot treated timber beams were set on top of the posts using leveling jacks (we pre-leveled the posts using a laser level, a tri-square and a chainsaw). When the beams were in place, we only had to adjust one jack about 1/16th of an inch to get the thing completely level. Then the floor joists and headers were set, squared and covered with sheets of tongue and groove plywood.
The deck and the end walls went up next. We used a Honda generator to run a circular saw and a drill. Those were our only electric power tools. With the end walls up and secured, Rachel and I flew back to St. Louis. My dad helped get the side walls and the two loft "kicker" walls up. That's as far as they got when this photo was taken. Besides putting up the plywood on the exterior walls, they have to cut and install the rafters. The roof will peak out at seventeen feet above the main floor. Then they'll cover it with roofing paper and a metal roof so that the snow can slide off easily. The exterior will get a rustic lapped-board siding. The interior will be paneling, and the whole thing will be insulated so that their cast-iron stove can be used to heat the cabin in the winter.
This was a kick in the pants project. My sister and her husband want to do a do-it-yourself webpage showing how this whole project was done and I've volunteered to help.
This is a photo of the cabin my sister and her husband are attempting to build in the hills near Montana Creek, up by Talkeetna. The original design was for a 16'x20' cabin with two lofts. But because the roads and trails getting into the property were so bad, they shrunk it to 12'x16' with one loft overhanging an 8-foot deck.
We hauled all of the materials in on an F-350 quad cab 4x4 equipped with a 3600-lb contractor's rack. Then we transferred the materials to a trailer towed by a Polaris 4-wheeler for the final leg into the property.
The foundation is a series of 6"x6" posts, set in concrete. Three 4"x8"x16-foot treated timber beams were set on top of the posts using leveling jacks (we pre-leveled the posts using a laser level, a tri-square and a chainsaw). When the beams were in place, we only had to adjust one jack about 1/16th of an inch to get the thing completely level. Then the floor joists and headers were set, squared and covered with sheets of tongue and groove plywood.
The deck and the end walls went up next. We used a Honda generator to run a circular saw and a drill. Those were our only electric power tools. With the end walls up and secured, Rachel and I flew back to St. Louis. My dad helped get the side walls and the two loft "kicker" walls up. That's as far as they got when this photo was taken. Besides putting up the plywood on the exterior walls, they have to cut and install the rafters. The roof will peak out at seventeen feet above the main floor. Then they'll cover it with roofing paper and a metal roof so that the snow can slide off easily. The exterior will get a rustic lapped-board siding. The interior will be paneling, and the whole thing will be insulated so that their cast-iron stove can be used to heat the cabin in the winter.
This was a kick in the pants project. My sister and her husband want to do a do-it-yourself webpage showing how this whole project was done and I've volunteered to help.
