Ragnar's Eco-Cabin Weeb Site
	Build Log

2005 July The Fire

After The Fire, Mom and I decided to rebiuild her dream cabin, this is the story of how we rebuilt the cabin.

In August I got up there to see the damage and start cleaning the rubble.

2005 Autumn Clean-up & Foundation

Cleaning up the rubble took a long time, Demolition of the remains of the floor

I redesigned the cabin. Mostly the roof so it can be insulated properly. Also I changed the design of the foundation posts, this time there will be a post under every corner.

Once the design of the foundation was done and the building site cleared and cleaned up I dug holes right down to a shale and clay layer around four feet down and sunk all the foundation posts. To arrange them properly I used some 2X4 cut to the right lengths and angle nailed them to the top of the posts and then streched tension lines accross betwen the corners to ensure the spacing was right. Once sure the dimentions were corect I filled the holes around the posts and tamped them down well. when done we covered the posts with pails to keep them dry. The posts are lengths of tellephone poll treated to last a long time.

We dug up all but one of the rocks and leveled and smoothed out the ground so it would be easier to build this time. It was a lot of work but worth it. My sister Val started digging up a few of the bigger rocks and I decided that it would be even better to dig up the ground and level it too.

We looked to find a portable car garage to store the lumber I found with the first cabin we'd ordered only the building supplies we needed to build each stage of construction and then when we'd finish sooner than we thought we'd end up waiting a week or two for te next order of lumber . We had a lot of trouble finding a garage that was right for our needs, and by the end of this time had no garage.

Dug the holes for the kitchen posts too

2006 Spring More Clean-up & Preperation

The weather was not our friend

by the end of winter Mom found a garage tent thing that would work for our needs. We got one and had it up in a day. Then there was a storm a few days later, the garage was blown over the fence, smashed and torn. However the distributor kindly to repalced all the broken parts, we had to wait a long time to get them.

Changing the design of the new cabin. We're not following The Original Eco-Cabin Book at all this time, it works but there are too many things I didn't like. Also because the current building supplies are so different that it really calls for different building techniques. Abandoning the plywood hubs the Starplates was easy because I found that the hubs didn't hold the corners in triangle the walls were shaped like truncated triangles being hexagonal and throughing off the angles of the wall panels. the starplates made it all triangular and the framing is stronger now too.

Found some amazing tiles for around the stove and door. These tiles are made from white quartz died green and compressed at high temperature to form these really cool tiles.

sunk the posts for the corners of the kitchen, they will someday support the kitchen roof

We got the garage up in a diferent place and orientation and tied it to the ground, it has withstood the weather I hope it makes it through the winter.

2006 Autumn The Lumber, Floor & Framing

Sepember, we ordered all the lumber we'd need to build the floor, all the roof and just the basic wall struts.We got a lot of materials and got them into the garage were they'll be safer from the weather

October, first two weeks We got started with the building

we had only nine days of weather good enough to build, it was cold and rained a few times but we did very well, around the weather and Mom having to go we got most of the framing done

The Starplates made assembly of the frame much eaier than the last time. all the struts were cut to the smae length and angle, but the important part was that the holes were all the distance apart. the templates which came with the starplates were a big help too.

October 16, Construction had to stop before this day because Mom had plans with Val to go to Australia four weeks. I suspect that it'll be too cold to work on the cabin when she gets back in mid November.

2007 Spring Roof, Walls & Windows

Not happened yet but eagerly awaiting to get back to work on this new cabin :o)

2007 Autumn Interior, Stove & Exterior

Not happened yet

2008 Spring Interior & Exterior

Not happened yet

2008 Autumn

Not happened yet

Have a look at the original Eco-Cabin book, a little ajusted to show better on the Weeb.(If you are someone involved in making the original Eco-Cabin book or know someone please contact me.)

 

	© Ragnar Torfason 2006 May 8