Up grading my off grid cabin to a 5 star rating

[cabinguy]

Working on a 4 x 8 out door shower currently we hang a shower bag in a sycamore tree using a pallet platform behind our cabin. I used some 4" x 6" x 8' pine dunage for post and pickets from home depot. Ill use 3-4" gravel for drainage and work on some kind of flooring. I'm thinking of utilizing a zodi extreme for the shower has anybody used one?

 

[baymule]

Snazzy shower!

 

[cabinguy]

Thank You Bay Snazzy makes me smile as its my 13 year old grand daughters favorite expression of the summer

 

[CrealCritter]

Awesome shower! Could you show us around (picture wise) of your cabin please. Your living my dream!

 

[cabinguy]

the cabin after I stained it
the bones post and beam

Its really just my off grid camp where I spend a couple w/e per month love to ride the hollers and ridge-tops in the SXS
No utilities no cell service for 5 miles 1 mile from black top road 1/2 mile from gravel rd.
Wish I had your sawmill Critter

 

[Chic Rustler]

I could hang there

 

[cabinguy]

CR I cant wait for camp weekends the best part is my DW loves it as much as I do. Its been a long journey to get it to the state that its currently at. Ive had the property for 10 years and had to get a road excavated into the bottom land that the cabin sits. I started with
restoring a 1963 Avon 23 ft camper ( looks like an Airstream but anodized aluminum ) and pulled it in, now its my tool shed. the cabin was built two years ago and im still working on it. I expect ill complete the shower this year I know its a slow but i like to play also and im not there full time. Next years project will be collecting water off the roof into a cistern ,a small creek runs around the cabin but it muddy from the red WV clay. Currently I need to haul 10 gallons of water for showers and dishes each trip and bottled water for drinking. After the cistern comes solar system I currently have a small portable fold able 60 w panel that connect to a small solar generator. It hard to balance work and play at the cabin cause the work is fun.

 

[CrealCritter]

View attachment 8011 the cabin after I stained it
View attachment 8012 the bones post and beam

Its really just my off grid camp where I spend a couple w/e per month love to ride the hollers and ridge-tops in the SXS
No utilities no cell service for 5 miles 1 mile from black top road 1/2 mile from gravel rd.
Wish I had your sawmill Critter

Your quite the crafstman. I always wanted to learn post and beam but never got an opportunity to learn from anyone. Is that a split tie truss or a lap joint?

 

[cabinguy]

Critter its a split tie. Thanks for the compliment but I live in a Old Order Amish community and had a kit made less expensive than a home depot shed kit of similar size. He milled the timber crafted all the mortise and tenons by hand and constructed the bones in his barn. The main beams are 8 x 8 the roof trusses are 4 x 6 pine and all the pegs are cherry. When he completed the bones were dissembled and i pulled it down to WV with the help of two Ex Amish we assembled it in two days. The Guy that made the cabin is not allowed to travel " Old Order Swartzentruber Amish" rules. Im sure you would love to meet him and visit his mill and workshop.

 

[CrealCritter]

Critter its a split tie. Thanks for the compliment but I live in a Old Order Amish community and had a kit made less expensive than a home depot shed kit of similar size. He milled the timber crafted all the mortise and tenons by hand and constructed the bones in his barn. The main beams are 8 x 8 the roof trusses are 4 x 6 pine and all the pegs are cherry. When he completed the bones were dissembled and i pulled it down to WV with the help of two Ex Amish we assembled it in two days. The Guy that made the cabin is not allowed to travel " Old Order Swartzentruber Amish" rules. Im sure you would love to meet him and visit his mill and workshop.

Interesting... My wife has befriended an Amish lady. She's such a sweetheart... I haven't gotten around to meeting her husband yet though.

A few years back I drew up my wife's dream cabin in CAD. This is the truss design I setteled in on. Split tie, pegged, M&T like yours is. However it was designed by me and to the best of my ability (I'm no structural engineer by any means) to meet the following specs.

(loblolly or eastern white) 8x12 pine timbers
32' free span
8/12 pitch
8' on center spacing
8x8" bearing (D style log wall)
3' 8" overhang
120 MPH wind shear (highest wind gust in past 50 years)
90" snow load (ground) - the house will built in southern IL - this is the maximum amount of snow for one year in the past 50 years.

I quickly found out in order to have the house insured. I would have to have everything verfifed by a cerrifed structural engineer and that is some BIG bucks! Not saying it can't be done by any means... Just us poor folk can't afford a structural engineer to verify every flipping pin in the house to satisfy an insurance company.