With steel prices getting nuts here directly... I decided to put my roofs on first... before building on the cabins.

I.e. For the cost of a 26 gauge final roof (per square)... I stood up a plumb, level and square structural frame underneath (almost the same $ anyway).

I will build SIPs on a deckover trailer back home... deliver... and stand up between the steel. Steel is 4' grid (legs and girts). Legs are 17' and the ridge is 22' +/- (i.e. I am getting to damn old to set fugging ridge beams @ 22')

"Mama Bear" is a simple two story cabin. It will have a 10' x 20' first floor vestibule with HUGE barn doors and a 10' x 20' first floor front porch in front of the vestibule... It will also have a 10 x 20 2nd floor porch.





I don't really draw plan on simple stuff anymore... just a couple of notepad sketches so the guys helping... get the general idea.





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The overall madness bumping builds and cabins up the mountain to Laura's FINAL and PROPER home (NOT built of 12 gauge tube steel).



All pics (unsorted as of yet) in this link... https://photos.app.goo.gl/TNpvsyMkB83pGaYS6

A man with a plan. I like it.

"Baby Bear" is a tiny 12' x 12' cabin... same gig... 17' legs... First and second floor porches. It is smaller than "Mama Bear" because we had to cut a right hard stone bank.

Grade are kinda extreme (any concrete over 7.8 CY ends up on the road... and backing a truck up the mountain is not an option... hell, only one driver has the balls to even deliver to me). WV is NO JOKE on building chit!







Costs?

I hope to finish out Baby Bear for under $25k and Mama Bear for under $55k... Might end up $30k and $60k... time will tell.

Unsorted pics of Baby Bear... https://photos.app.goo.gl/L7PZ5Rq492ToUDHs6

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Unsorted pics from last fall of Metal Buildings, concrete work and closed cell foam...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/D3EVwsEsLJMVdgDz9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fWdU4H7FooPrhpwo9

Love it or hate it... don't really matter...

If I can stand up 5 for $200k... it will be a general accomplishment toward the final home.

Final home will be where the walnut, cherry, ambrosia maple (https://photos.app.goo.gl/cQyassR6qxpQzArj7) start to happen...

Are you planning to airbnb the cabins? Or are they for family?

Hopefully those sails don’t tear off the stilts in the wind.
That’s an awful lot of work to get electrical to the top of that mountain, but I can certainly see how it penciled out to do it that way.
Gotta admire a man with a plan.

Do not plan to rent...

Laura and I have had a fair bit of loss in the past couple of years... the are "Respite" cabins for folks that have gone thru similar loss (...talk to your God on top of a mountain kinda stuff). Also a place for me to stay while I build the final house... hunting cabins... backpacker/climber cabins... folks/friends fishing the native trout steams... etc. Nothing really complicated.

Once you start renting stuff... it gets kinda hard to turn down freak-show people.

Copy THAT...

The SIPs should lock her up pretty good once I get them installed.

As for work... I kinda like to build stuff... make the beer taste better.

Leonard, it is great to see that you are following through on this project, particularly with material prices as high as they are. I was wondering if the material pricing would back you down a bit. I’m sure the logistics of building in that area creates a challenge as well. Keep us posted on your progress.

A good thing that you are doing Cash!
Don't know exactly where in WV that you are but would love to day trip up some day and check it all out.

On the overnight rental, wife won't let just anyone stay at our Tenn house.

In 3-1/2 years we have one person that is on her 'never again' list.

Looks like it'll be a pain in the ass for the builder.

Jeremy bought a new super high end sawmill... his lumber is really accurate now. Computerized machine... very slick!

$1 BF on pine and $1.50 on oak.

He will also saw my logs at a very low rate. We will get the Final house lumber milled this summer. Walnut, cherry, white oak... and even a couple mantels of American chestsnut... One year per 4/4 on the air dry.

I also stockpiled a bunch of sheet goods back when prices were down... 5'x5' Russian plywood at $11.50 a sheet. Nothing I build will see OSB or OxBoard et al.

Thank for the encouragement...

Drop me a PM with an email... we will get y'all up once we make some headway...

About 45 minutes from Harrisonburg VA... up and over Shenandoah.

I'm looking forward to finished pictures. I'm about to build, or have built, my first barn.
Rick

SWEET!

Good stuff...

Best of luck to you...

Gonna be some great viewing from those 2nd story porches........good luck with the build.

Man if you had a warehouse full you could pay off the national debt! An older pal who who has a bad shoulder asked me to help him pick up to 2 -4x4 sheets of Baltic a while back and it was over $70 bucks per sheet. I'd be interested to hear about your plans for building the SIPs and how you attach them to the frame.

BTW This is a great project and I appreciate you posts.


Steve

I'd rather have had my own diesel/solar power plant.

Leonard I don't plan to move from where we're at but if we did I'd like for it to be a place like you're building. What fantastic views you'll have. I can envision sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee enjoying the peace and quiet and forgetting about some of the hard days in life if only for a little while. What a wonderful place you all are going to have and all the best to you in your endevors!

I built my shop the same way- - - -a 24 X 40 foot glorified carport on a 6" thick concrete slab, with 12 foot walls, erected by a crew of wetbacks in one day, and added walls. doors, and electricity as I could afford them. The walls are 12 foot tall aluminum siding rolled by a local sheet metal roof manufacturer. I've expanded it twice as the equipment inventory outgrew the available space.

Whut the heyall??

Tn Mafia, come one come all

😃

Raeford knows this is under Title 3 of The Covenant

I’ll be in Charleston WV tonight. I’m nationwide

Very cool. Looking to forward seeing it finished

Raeford ain't give a dam about no rules and don't akk like you do

Hear tell there's a good Rehab/Halfway house up in S. Charleston, how long you stayin?

Yours is a righteous mission, which certainly adds to your determination. No one is better suited to such a project, IMHO.

That lumber combination will prove to be some pretty stuff. I’m particularly interested to see how those chestnut mantles come out. I have cut quite a few mantles, but never any made of chestnut. I have a cousin that has a fully automated Woodmizer. It makes my manually run Cook saw look pretty antiquated.

Imma crash it
Love Wva !
We vacation 1/2 hour away from there every year.

Also Neighbor has 300 acres and cabin near Beilington, love the hunting (bear) and quiet !
Hopefully retirement moves me there.

A group of pollocks were standing around on a construction site..... during break one of them asked ......maybe we should call back and see what the boss says ..they called the boss and they asked if it was all right to build the house from the roof down or the bottom up .......the boss said the bottom up you dummies ..... the polish formen guy hung up the phone and said ......all right men take her down !

LOL... Tennessee Mafia.

Sure... drop me a PM for an addy.

Im halfway there boys

Rebab??

Aint been habbed to begin with