When we started this project I was hoping to be moved in before Thanksgiving. That idea is laughable now. I’m crossing my fingers we’ll be moved in before next Thanksgiving! (Though I am currently hoping that we’ll be moved into a partially completed construction zone by late Spring/early Summer – fingers crossed!). It feels like we’ve been working on this project for the entire length of my memory. Like our whole lives. That’s silly though. It’s just been a really busy and exhausting year. And while we don’t yet have a floor to stand on, we do have doors and windows, and we’re no longer walking around in the dirt and mud.
When we first bought this property, it’s safe to say the old 1890’s Cabin was a disaster. The previous owners had owned it for a few years with intent to restore the Cabin and had gotten a new roof on her and underground power put in. But besides that, she was in shambles. The Cabin hadn’t been lived in for years, most of the windows were broken or missing. There were blackberries growing in from the outdoors. The bathroom floor had rotted clear through. There was a leak in the addition roof that let water down to sit on one log wall and rot it out. Her foundation was rocks that had sunk so far into the dirt the bottom logs were rotten from sitting in soil.
We started by gutting her upstairs and down. It took a long while. At this point it was still winter and we had no idea how bad the bottom logs were. We were thinking we’d be able to use the floor and once we got the addition removed, the logs cleaned up and the place dried in we could start the building process. Boy were we in for a treat!
Sad to lose the extra square footage (and the only water in the place), but happy to be rid of the rotting addition! We found more expansive rot underneath than we originally thought, so it was good to see we made the right decision in tearing it down. Our next step was to realize that we would need to put in a foundation, so we ended up removing the flooring and had to jack the whole place up to pour the foundation underneath. This was by far the scariest and most time consuming project to date!
When we finally got the foundation done, it felt like we had made it over a huge hurdle and would be barreling through the finish line in no time at all. (Totally a delusion). Every project we worked on was one step forward, three steps backward. But we keep chugging along with the dream that one day we’ll be done with RV living.
By the end of September we had relocated the water and power into the Cabin, put a french drain around the foundation, got the doors and the lower windows partially framed in. We even dug out the crawl space! While the Cabin was still completely open to the elements, she was beginning to take shape and was immensely sturdier. Then came the beautification.
We got all the logs stripped and stained in one weekend. It was getting late in the year and weather needed to be on our side. Then we started getting the windows in. The place turned around so quickly. Next we had to get the floor joists and beams in so that we would have somewhere to stand and lay down the doors while we were installing them.
Floor beams and joists were quick to install and only took a weekend. Then we got to put the doors in which was probably the biggest thing thus far to make it really look like home potential. Once we got those in, it was time to start chinking. Which was another weather dependent project. It got cold quickly, so even when the sun was shining it wasn’t much fun being out at the Cabin and working. Freezing fingers make it very difficult to chink.
We only got one wall done before the weather got too cold to continue. But man was it cool to not be able to see the light shining in through between the logs!! The chinking won’t set if you apply it under 40 degrees. Plus it needs to be dry (no rain) for 48 hours. If you live in the PNW, you know we got to the chinking project at exactly the wrong time of year. We’ll still be able to make progress inside. But it’s going to need to warm up and dry out before we can finish drying the Cabin in. I was really pushing to get that portion done before the weather turned, but we made it all the way to December before it did. So I guess I can’t complain too much! Here’s to hoping that a Year Two post can be focused more on the garden, or the chickens, or maybe even goats or pigs or cows!!
The Homestead Journey 