I've seen screws back completely out of metal roofs, then seen some that never have a problem.
I don't know the answer.

Looking great!

A lot done in the last few days. I am very fortunate to have a crack framing crew working on our little cabin. Not only are they all great guys, but great carpenters as well.

I grabbed my pencil and my saw and my screw gun this morning and laid-out the stairs, cut the stringers and tread and put them together. It's much better for the ladies to walk up stairs instead of the ladder.



Here's a wider angle shot of the whole side of the cabin...



Here's a shot looking out the bedroom door that opens out onto the second level deck...



Here's what the open stairwell looks like all framed in...

Very cool.

Awesome

You'll notice a few things changed about the plans over the course of the build so far.

1. I deleted quite a few windows for two reasons. They are pretty expensive and it was going to make it difficult to place furniture inside with so many windows. My wife wanted some fancy windows until the window places came back with prices in the $5600 to $7600 range for 13 windows! We ended up going back to my plan "A" which was to go to Lowe's and buy the cheap, insulated, vinyl windows.

2. I realized that I had room to make the decks wider from 8'-0" to 10'-0". Glad I did that.

3. I changed the size and the layout of the entrance at the last minute and we enlarged it and framed the stairs coming off at 90 degrees. This made the star landing at the bottom much more practical.

I would put a beam in on the porches to hang a good porch swing.

I was going to build a hanging bed on the lower deck for sleeping and lounging. I will need to put in some supports for it, because I can't hang it from the joists as there will be a tin roof under the joists.

For all those who are thinking about one day doing something like this I know you are interested in what this kind of thing costs, so... I just updated my spreadsheet this morning and total costs so far are:

Foundation: $3,700
Carpentry: $16,200

Since I met my goal of getting everything to this point for under $20k

That includes everyone on the job site a cash bonus and extra bonus payment we made to the contractors above the original "Not to exceed" price we agreed to, because Mrs. Irish and I felt they all deserved it and it was simply the right thing to do.

If anyone needs some good carpentry or foundation work done around Cherokee or DeKalb counties shoot me a PM and I can get you set-up with some good, reasonably priced guys.

After today, it will all be Mrs. Irish and I. I've got to get together a huge "things to do list..."

I heard an old man say he fussed at his wife for putting windows in the house. He asked her why would anyone want to cut a hole in a house for a window when the first thing they will do after moving in was to cover the darn things up. Made sense to me.

I cut the number of windows for my new house in half. We only have 10 and 3 of those are in the garage and the attic above it. Too much building costs then your gonna loose some energy which increases heating and cooling cost. Plus I told my wife the same thing. Why put in a window when the 1st thing she will do is cover them up with dark blinds and curtains. To each their own though

Looks good Irish. Keep the updates and pics coming.

The crew finally finished everything up yesterday. Did I mention what a great group of guys they were? Love those guys!

They finished the last bit of interior walls upstairs which had some complicated framing in them...



And they finished the roof over the front porch...



My plan for next weekend is to get the two lofts framed up and to get all the electrical boxes for the outlets and switches set in place...

Looks Great... Thanks for sharing...

Looking great and I love the view.

The view is amazing... The problem with it is once you sit out on that back deck with a cold one in your hand and start staring out at the distance it becomes extremely difficult to get anything else done...

I could get sorry as hell just sitting back there, so I have to keep reminding myself that it will always be there and I have a bunch of stuff to do.

Update for this week: Not a lot of sexy pictures of big stuff being built, because all the framing is done. I built some temporary handrail on the front steps so when elderly parents come to visit they won't bust their tails on the stairs...

I got matching bolt locks and security locks installed on all 5 exterior doors.

I finally, in my mind at least, got all the electrical circuits worked out...



And proceeded to install all of my gang boxes. I labeled each one with the circuit number and the purpose. Probably overkill on my part, but it helps me keep everything squared away in my mind...

I managed to pretty much get all the holes drilled in the studs to run the wiring. I completely wore out my Harbor Freight "heavy duty" drill and had to switch over to my trusty 20v cordless Porter-Cable drill driver... Man! Those Porter Cable 20v cordless tools are winners in my book. I have 4 batteries and never have to worry about running out of power.

Speaking of drilling, I have to hand it to residential electricians, that is some hard work. I will be perfectly happy if I never have to run another auger drill through a 2x4 for the rest of my life...



Of course after a hard days work a man has to have a place to chill out and have a cold one...

Man, that's going to be awesome.

Great looking build and awesome view. I am curious on the front porch roof, why slope it right to left against the cabin?

I'm sure there is a reason for it, but I would have thought in order to get water away from the house you need it sloped down away from the house? I'm no framer/roofer by any means, so just curious.

Good question!

It is sloping the same 15 degrees as the roof of the cabin and I sloped it the opposite direction for aesthetic reasons. I also wanted it as high as I could get it given the length of the 16' 6x6 posts for aesthetic reasons as well to sort of balance out the overall height of the cabin.

A far as water issues I will put a gutter along the bottom edge and route the downspout down the outer column into a smaller water tank/barrel as an extra water source to use for non-potable reasons around the cabin, watering plants, dousing campfires, etc...