Week #1: Excavation and footings.

After the move was completed, and the camp was (somehow) set up, I could focus on the cabin:

The next tasks were to finish laying out the location of all the footings, finish the excavation and pour the footings (My girlfriend was over during the weekend, and helped me with all of these tasks).

Excavating the first feet was really hard as the surface is full of rocks that make using a shovel impossible. Once this first layer was removed, the soil is more sandy and excavation is not as hard. Unfortunately sand does not have a great bearing capacity, so the size of the footings was increased (from 14"x14" to "16"x16" - it does not sound like much, but this increases the capacity of the footing by almost 40%!)- I did not use the forms that I was planning to use, instead I just filled the bottom of the hole with concrete up to 6 inches from the bottom - Hopefully the extra concrete that I brought will be enough.

Each footing has two pieces of rebar with a 4 inch hook inside to footing. A 2x6 and nails was used to hold the two pieces of rebar in place while we poured the concrete.



Since the foundations are fairly simple and the amount of concrete is small, we did not use a concrete mixer, we used the old bucket and shovel method - Mixing concrete by hand under the sun at 30+ C is something that I don't recommend to anyone!!

By the time four of the footings had been poured, we were both exhausted, and had just enough time to clean up, go for a swim in the ocean and wait for the water taxi that would take us back to Vancouver... I'll be coming back next Wednesday and the target for next week is to have the foundations completely finished and maybe make some progress on the posts and main beams!!!

Succesful move...

After the last push to get everything (or at least as much as possible into the container), and get everything secured to prevent it from shifting during the trip, the date came to get the container over to the site.
Everything went smooth: The truck arrived onsite on time and the barge was waiting for us at the ramp. Once the Jeep and the truck were loaded we were on our way...

The original plan was to travel by barge to the fircom pier (40 minutes trip from Horseshoe bay). There is no real ramp at Fircom, to unload the barge just gets as close at possible to the beach (which is not that close unless the tide is really high), and the truck would have to drive on a loose sand an pebble beach for a few meters. In order to avoid the risk of having the truck stuck on the beach, the barge was taken to 'Long Bay'. This added an extra 15-20 minutes of travel time, but there is a concrete ramp and the first few meter of road are paved (good thing as this is one of the steepest pieces of road I've ever been on!!)



Unloading the truck of the barge and getting it up the hill was the scariest part! But the truck made it to the top with no problems; from there getting to the site and unloading the container took less then 20 minutes.

After opening the container I found that only one small box had moved around, and there was no damage at all!!

The first two days I spent setting up camp and re-organizing some of the contents of the container to make access to everything easier. I also installed and tested the water pump, and got to drink some fresh water from the well...

Cabin in a Box. (Some assembly requiered).

After several trips to/from Home Depot, I have almost all of the materials for the cabin in the container. I'm only missing the metal roof (corrugated galvalume) that should be delivered early next week, the concrete forms (I'm using Sonotube forms for all the piers, the concrete for the foundations and the 6x6 pressure treated posts.




My target date for shipping the container is Thursday next week. Hopefully my next posting will be from the Island...

Finally some real action!!

After a very enjoyable trip to Colombia, I'm back in Vancouver ready to get started with my project, and it got started on a hurry...

Yesterday I finally signed the documents for the rental/purchase of a 20' shipping container. I will use this container to consolidate ALL the building materials that will be required to complete the cabin - once the cabin is finished the container will be used as a storage 'shed' and as my workshop. I sourced the container from BigSteelBox. I did some research and found two other companies. One which offered better pricing on used containers ($2200 vs $2700). However I was unable to find a site to park the container that would provide constant access to the container. BigSteelBox has a large yard and they'll store the container for a few weeks and allow access to the container. The site is not close to home, but it will do - and there is a Home Depot less than 2 minutes away!!

BigSteelBox will also deliver the container to the site on a tilt bed truck. At 125$/hr is not cheap but I guess that's the extra cost of building on a difficult access site. The plan is to get the container on the truck, load the truck on a barge (around 150$/hr), get the barge across to an unload ramp on the other side, drive the truck to the site and unload the container - while the barge waits - and drive the truck back to the barge to be returned to the mainland. There are two sections of road that are fairly steep and one tight bend that the truck might not be able to do. That's why I'm setting the container as a rental initially: My plan B is to drop the container in the parking area, and once the cabin is finished, return the container (I'm hoping that I wont have to switch to plan B - as this would cost me between $1500 and $2500 extra!).

I ended up not getting a used container. What they sell as used, are really old containers that have been used and abused for years, and that cannot be used anymore for shipping. They are all battered on the outside so the doors need a lot of persuasion to open; they are also heavily rusted both inside and outside (they'd be an eyesore,and the container will be visible from the cabin). Since the price difference is not that significant, my container is brand new, it smells like fresh paint inside, and has brand new plywood floors on the inside.

Since I now have a container I made my first two trips to Home Depot and made two trips worth of dimensional lumber. I was able to use the roof rack on the truck to load the wood. I will need to make several more trips, but I should be able to get all the wood in a couple of days. I'm buying all the materials in reverse order: First all the materials for the roof, then all the materials for the walls, floor and the last I'll get will be the concrete for the foundations. This way the materials that I'll need first, will be the ones on top...

The Andersen Windows that I ordered before my trip are ready for pick up, and the doors will be ready by the end of the week.

I picked up the submersible pump that will provide me with fresh drinkable water out our well, It's amazing how small it is!

I've also done some research on composting toilets, I'm amazed of how dealing with urine and feces can be such an interesting subject!! I believe it deserves a full blog entry (coming soon...).

I'd keep writing but I have to head out to Home Depot to buy more 2x4s!

An end and a beginning....

Today was my last day at my 9-5 job. Not having a job will give me the freedom and time that this project will require. Anyway my original plan was to stay for only 6 months and I ended up staying for more than 2 years. It's hard to break the addiction to a pay-check! but it was harder the first time; once you've done something once, doing it again is way easier...

There is a lot of things that I'll miss! Somehow I'll miss the daily routine, the bus ride in the morning, a very decent meal for a more than decent price, all the things that you take for granted. But I know that what I'll miss the most is my people! After 8 hours a day for two years almost non stop, the people you spend your time with become part of your life and that chair and that desk become your home! I wish I could go over every once in a while and do my design work from 'my desk';

Unfortunately I was not enjoying my job anymore, and when you spend most of your day doing something that you don't enjoy, you are wasting your life, and I could not do that anymore...

Tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of my life, and the day that I'll start making my dream a reality...

Wish me luck!

Final Design (if there is such a thing!)

It's been a while since my last post and some things have changed since then...

We took a better look at the financial side of the project, and decided that at this point it does not make a lot of [financial] sense to spend 60K -80K or even more on a cabin. Smarter to build a smaller simpler cabin for 15K or so, and invest the rest o the money toward retirement...

So the whole project has been stripped down considerably and is now a simple 14x16 foot print with a small bathroom and a sleeping loft. For now we'll use a composting toilet (most likely a homemade system) as there won’t be a septic field for a while (the cost of the septic field alone was estimated at around 30k-35k!!!).

The Cabin will be built 'on site', but will be designed as a number of modules, so that the cabin can be esily moved to a different spot, when we decide to build a more permanent structure. Once moved it will be either used as a guest cabin, or as a workshop.

There are still some TBD's on the design:

We are still shopping for windows and doors - The original budget for windows was 7k, and has now been reduced to 3,500 -. The idea is still to have as much glass as possible in the south side to take advantage of the views, and a large opening that connects the cabin to the deck.

The finish material for the roof is also not decided yet: roll roofing will be economical and easy to install, but a metal roof would be more aligned with the 'modular design'.

I guess that I'll have to make a decision soon as I'll have to start buying all the materials soon!

On the 'start buying things' side of things we bought a 1988 Jeep Cherokee that we'll use in the city to purchase all the materials and will later be barged to the island...

Cabin Design.

Once we got the land, the next step was to design the cabin that will be built on it.

Design #1: Dream Big!!!

Post and Beam (with Exposed beams) Finished with Cedar Board and Batten and Cedar Shakes and a metal roof!!! Not too big (32' x22' footprint and total area of 1150 sqft)
In the lower Level a Laundry Room, Bathroom, Storage Room, a large kitchen with an Island, Dining room and Living Room; and in the upper level a Mezzanine open to below and two bedrooms.

Off course the south wall will be all windows to take full advantage of the views, and there will be a huge deck to enjoy barbecues and cold beers under the summer sun with all the friends that will come and visit.

After pricing the 'Straight Grain Douglas Fir' 10x6 beams and 6x6 posts and getting a quote for $10K+GST for just the materials for the frame (and that is before moving them on a barge to the island, and renting a crane and crew to install it!), it was not hard to realize that this is just another 'dream design'... back to the drawing board (aka AutoCAD).

Design #2: Variations on a Theme...

.. Or adaptations of an existing design... One of my existing designs is an open space on the main floor, with a bathroom, a compact kitchen and a small area for a couch, and a sleeping loft above. It would be really easy to adapt to the site: move the door to the front, move the kitchen from the back to the side… move the sleeping loft to the front and voila there is cabin design…

There is a ladder going up to a sleeping loft, which is now above a covered porch outside. And the footprint is 16’x 18’, and the total area is just over 450 sqft.

I like this design!! It is simple, it's more 'down to earth'... It should be cheaper to build, and it feels like 'I can build it'...

I like it so much that I draw a full set of plans, including a site plan, foundations plan, roof plan, 4 elevations and 2 sections. I’m now ready to get a building permit... except for a couple of concerns: What about that ladder? It's not 'to code' so can I actually get a building permit for this? I also want to have the framing exposed to the inside (because I'm planning to do a perfect job framing it and I want to show off!! ;o) ) So how do I insulate it?? (Or can I get a building permit for a non insulated building?)

I decided to print a set of plans and get on the Ferry to the sunshine coast and visit my local building inspector - Gambier Island is part of the sunshine coast so the 'Authority Having Jurisdiction' is the "SCRD (Sunshine Coast Regional District) Planning Department" located in Sechelt.

Not a bad visit, took a short hour to get (mostly) good answers from a very helpful Building Inspector:

A1: The stair is only required to comply with code if it provides access to 'living space'. If on the plan the is label as 'storage' then the code requirements are minimal (a ladder will do)... If you later decide to sleep in you storage space, that is up to you...

A2: The SCRD can relax the requirements for insulation for 'seasonal buildings'. I'd have to register a 'covenant' on title that states that the 'dwelling' is a seasonal building. (I'll keep this information just in case I need it in the future).
I also found out some additional information about the cost of a building permit, and the requirements for a septic field... (Not what I was expecting... for a building permit you must have a design for a septic field filed to the health authority. Also found that you can have a composting toilet... as long as you also have a toilet that is connected to a septic field or sewage system).