The Inspector Speaks

  The General Store and Post Office for the town of Index. 

 Kayaks along the wall of the Outdoor Adventure Center in Index.

This weekend there was no work done at The Drunken Bear. Our friends, Bob and Doug had moved back into the city of Seattle (from Tacoma) and had an open house. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share in their excitement and visit with friends. Besides, there was a poker game planned. With Steve and I having the extra expense of building this cabin we thought we could make some good money. Of course when you are playing poker for nickels, dimes and quarters, you are not going to walk away a big winner. Between the two of us, I think Steve and I made enough to buy 10 new square washers.

Square washers? Let me explain. This last week we had the inspector come by to check out our progress. On the plans we received at the time of purchase of our “2 year old Pan-Abode“, it showed round washers holding on the mudsill, so that is what we used. Well, times have changed and it has been proven that square washers are more effective and stronger than round washers. New regulations now state that square washers must be used. Steve says it will not be hard to correct this problem…except for those washers that are on bolts that lie under the floor joists. If you have read from the beginning, I said some of the bolts “were set in the concrete at different distances, with some placed more to the right side, some more to the left side, etc.” For those bolts set more towards the left side, or the outer side, we had to make cutouts on the floor joists to allow us to place the joist over the foundation bolts. To get at these bolts we will have to lift that section of the floor joists to replace the washers. Once this is done, we begin the squaring off again.

The inspector said everything else looked good and once we change the washers, we would be safe to move on.

Squaring Off

Steve beginning the blocking process. 

Clouds moving in on the mountains up river.

Wild currant (Ribes sanguineum).

Steve looking up river. 

The scene Steve is seeing. 

 Close-up of the peak in the previous photo.

Saturday was such a beautiful spring day, but unfortunately I had to work. Luckily I do get off rather early in the day and I immediately headed to The Drunken Bear. This weekend we hoped to finish the floor joists and make sure it was all squared off.

As I headed out of Sultan, a billboard was displaying the temperature at 79 degrees. Signs of spring were everywhere. This is one of my favorite times of year when all the shades of green can be seen in the new growth of plants. As I approached Index, I was greeted by the blooms of the wild currant (Ribes sanguineum), the Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) and salmonberry (Ribes spectabilis).

Steve had arrived a few hours before me. He had dropped by the lumber yard and picked up the extra pieces of wood we needed to finish the floor joists from last weekend…plus some plywood to start putting down the sub-flooring. He was tidying up the motor home and getting things organized. Since it was getting late in the afternoon, we decided to continue doing things around the property and tackle working on the cabin in the morning. We got the campfire going and started cleaning the area of winter’s fallen limbs and debris. Now is also an excellent time to tidy up and cut back the many sword ferns (Polystichum munitum) as their new fronds are still tight to the ground. Putting all the cut fronds on the campfire creates a smoke thick enough to send smoke signals…I wonder if this is what the native Americans used for sending their signals.

Steve prepared a great dinner for the night…baby back pork ribs. He puts ice on a large piece of tinfoil and lays the ribs, concave side facing down over the ice, pulls the tinfoil up to enclose it all and lays them on the grill over the fire. Once they cook, he adds the sauce and cooks some more. These ribs are mouth watering! After dinner, he had something new to share. His daughter, Heidi and her husband, Rick, had given Steve two round pudgy pie irons. Heidi had shown Steve how to use these cast iron contraptions to make a quick, easy, and tasty dessert. First you heat the irons, then you melt a little butter in each half, put a slice of white bread in each half, spoon in a heaping spoonful of pie filling onto one half, close the pie iron, scrape off the bread around the outside and put it the fire to bake. When you open the iron and the bread is toasty brown, remove it from the fire and open it up to remove the tasty treat. Put some sugar on a plate, remove the pastry and lightly coat each side with the sugar. Heidi, you have opened our eyes to a tasty, campfire treat…thank you!

It was a beautiful night to sit by the campfire. The moon looked as if someone had cut it exactly in half. The rest of the sky was filled with twinkling lights from distant stars, planets and galaxies.

The next morning we waited until around 8:30 a.m. before we started working on the cabin. We put in the extra boards to finish the floor joists and then it was time to do the squaring off. A measurement here and a measurement there…why aren’t they matching? Well, there were all kinds of different considerations we had to take into account and when we did that, we were not that far off. A few times of pushing here and pulling there got us all lined up. Steve got his framing hammer and started toe-nailing the joists onto the mudsill. Oh the luxuries of a power hammer! Next it was doing the blocking on the joists to keep them equal distance for the next step of putting down the sub-flooring. We were almost to the point of finishing the blocking when a neighbor came by to see how we were doing. We were glad he did, as he told us we were at a point where we needed to be inspected again. Had we gone ahead with the sub-flooring, we may have had to tear it all off. So, we finished what we were doing and called it quits for the weekend. We cleaned the area up, put the tools away, and headed to the campfire for a couple of drinks and a reflection of what we had accomplished. Steve will get in contact with the inspector. It will be a couple of weeks before we return, so hopefully the inspector will have given us the okay to proceed by then.

The change in the air let us know a storm was approaching. Watching the clouds move in and out around the mountains and then slowly creeping down lower to the valley were further indications. Steve prepared hamburgers on the grill over the campfire. Once we finished eating, we closed everything up and headed back to Seattle. We were not more than a few miles down the road when the skies opened up, dumping what Washington is so famous for…liquid sunshine.

Mudsill and More

Pictures: 1. We awoke to these snow covered mountains across the river from The Drunken Bear 2. Mountain peak located a little northwest of us 3. Mt. Index 4. Myself toasting a bagel at the fire pit 5. Myself measuring a floor joist...the extra length will be part of the blocking 6. Steve tightening a nut on the foundation bolt atop the mudsill 7. Foundation before the building process

This last weekend Steve and I headed to Index to start the construction process. It had been a beautiful week in Seattle, sunny most of the time, but cool. Friday morning as we were loading up the tools and equipment, we were greeted with a downpour. We were hoping it was temporary, but as we headed out of town it appeared we were following the storm into the Cascade Mountains. When we reached the town of Gold Bar we decided to stop at one of our favorite haunts, The Mountainview Diner, to have breakfast and hopefully wait out the storm. As usual, breakfast was good, but as for waiting out the storm...it didn't happen. At least the rain slowed down to a constant dribble...enough to get you wet, but not drenched.

When we arrived at the property, the lumber yard had already been there to drop off the material we needed. We raised the cover of the motor home and got settled in, then headed outside to begin the work. I have to keep adding how lucky I am to have Steve as my partner in this endeavor. To me it was a pile of different types and lengths of wood. To Steve it was the mudsill, the support beams, and the floor joists. The mudsill consisted of attaching pressure treated 2X4's to bolts sticking out of the foundation. Now this sounds quite easy, but the 2X4's don't come with the holes drilled out. It required drilling the holes at the exact same distance as the bolts (which were set in the concrete at different distances, with some placed more to the right side, some more to the left side, etc.). We would lay a 2X4 atop of the bolts, take a rubber hammer and pound hard enough to have the bolt make an impression in the wood, pull the 2X4 off, drill out the hole where the impression was made, put the 2X4 back on the bolts and hope the holes matched up and finally, secure them with a washer and a nut to each bolt. We accomplished all of this on Friday only having to retreat a few times due to downpours.

It was too wet that night to have a campfire, so we retreated to the motor home and fixed dinner, played a few games with dice (we call the game "greedy") and went to bed mighty early. You could hear the rain coming down on the roof of the motor home most of the night. When we awoke on Saturday it was foggy outside, but the rain had quit. Steve made the essential pot of coffee and we went outside. The mountains around us were dusted with a fresh blanket of snow and were quite a site to behold. The fog moving in and out of the area made an ever changing landscape.

A ritual we seem to have established at The Drunken Bear is having a morning campfire where we toast bagels over the open flames or hot coals. These bagels seem to taste so much better than ones that come out of a toaster! With that morning nourishment we were now inspired to tackle the post and beams. In the picture of the foundation you will see cement blocks in the middle. Atop these blocks we put pressure treated 4X4's and atop those 4X4's we added 4X10 beams to support the floor joists. At this point we discovered we were short a 4X4 beam. We were also short a few of the nuts from the mudsill the night before. Since Steve knew what to do, I went in to the lumberyard in Sultan to get the missing items. Sultan is only about 20miles away, thankfully, as I would end up going back two more times that morning. Steve had gotten quite a bit done while I was away, so I really hated admitting that I had stopped for a coffee mocha...well, almost hated admitting it. We worked throughout the day taking only a short break for lunch. By dusk we had completed almost all of the floor joists. We ended up being short a few boards to complete the project. We called it a night and retreated to a campfire and much deserved bottles of MGD. The air was cool but the heat from the fire kept us toasty. After a few brews, Mother Nature began to water her garden once again so we retreated to the motor home and our beds that were very welcoming. All night long you could hear the rain pounding on the roof. We were so thankful we had completed all we could on Saturday.

When it was time to rise and shine on Sunday, the rain was still coming down. Since we did not have anything more to do for this weekend, we loaded the truck for the return trip home and left The Drunken Bear with a feeling of accomplishment.

The Cabin

Picture: 1. Just an example of the "2 year old" cedar wood we have uncovered

Back in the early 50's my family bought some property where our extended family met for weekend camp outs and picnics. The land is about 35 miles northwest of Helena. My parents, and other relatives, poured a cement foundation and then cut trees to build the cabins. Being a youngster, my job was to help peel the bark off the trees...sometimes very fun...when the bark came off in long strips like a leather belt...and sometimes very tedious...when the bark would only come off in much smaller pieces. Back then, building a cabin out in the woods was quite easy. Well, I mean easy in respect to the bureaucracy you must now go through.

Times have changed and now you need a permit for this, then you need this to be inspected before you can do this, then once this is completed you need to be inspected again to make sure this was done properly...this, this, this...it's enough to make you want to pull your hair out. And when you build next to a river, oh my, there are a whole lot more of this, this, and this! The process seems to take forever, but we have endured all of the process and are now ready to build.

As for the cabin itself, we are building a 1007 square foot Pan-Abode. If interested, click on the link at the top of this blog. How we decided on this type of cabin came down to a friend seeing an ad for a Pan-Abode kit for sale in the newspaper and turning us on to it...thank you Mike U.! Steve and I met with the seller and he told us he had designed the house and had the kit made a "couple" of years ago, but decided to build something different. The "kit" was stacked in 5 piles covered by tarps. The seller pulled out a couple of pieces of the kit to show us the condition of the wood and it appeared fine. We had a good conversation with the man and told him we would get back to him. After we left, Steve and I discussed the prospects of the Pan-Abode and both of us agreed we thought it was a good deal. We paid the man cash up front including money to have the five stacks of Pan-Abode logs and pieces delivered. Steve's brother, Mike, and his wife Colleen...thank you both...were gratious enough to allow us to have the stacks delivered to their home in Monroe. We wanted it delivered there so we could open up the stacks and let them dry out. When we started opening these stacks we discovered that this "kit" was much older than "a couple of years" as we were finding pieces that were rotted and falling apart. If you looked at the Pan-Abode link, you saw that a Pan-Abode is made of red cedar and red cedar does not rot in "a couple of years". We resolved that it would cost us too much money to go after the seller and try to get any money back. We contacted Pan-Abode and they told us it would be no problem to replace the pieces we needed. Even with this added cost, we feel we are getting a cabin for a pretty good price.

We have the well in and the foundation has been poured. Our septic and drain fields are scheduled to be put in any day now. This weekend, Steve and I are hoping to get the floor joists put on the foundation. Both of us are so excited to finally get started on the cabin.

By the way, did I ever luck out having a friend like Steve with whom to build and share this cabin. Steve's family once owned a lumberyard in Monroe and Steve is very familiar with a lot of the terms, regulations, and know-how to take on this project. If it was me by myself, I would be totally lost. THANK YOU STEVE!!!!!!!