Summer sleeping quarters

troybilt

Over 1,000 Posts
DTT SUPPORTER
DTT BOTM WINNER
Well, the Pics I'm about to post probably won't look like much. Hopefully over the next couple months I can change that. I have a 14x16 shed on my property. Never really knew what I was going to do with it until about a week ago. Plan is to move it down on my pond, and turn it into sleeping Quarters. There will be two sets of glass sliding doors opening up onto a 6x16 deck that overhangs the water. Inside will be rustic with rough sawn beams, walls and ceiling, the floor will be a little more refined. I have enough slate tile to finish it with. There will be two queen beds but no electricty Plan is to locate some gas lights that will run off a 20# propane bottle.
anyhow, The building is built around telephone poles like a pole building. The back side is at ground level while the front is about 3' in the air. The poles around the outside continue through the walls to the ceiling. Then 2x6 horizontal perlins are attached to the poles to make up the studding for the walls.
Plan is to sandwich treated 2x8s around the poles, at the base of the building, to make skids.
So, after the skids are attached, I'll cut the poles from underneath and lower the building down. Its going to be a little tricky. Once the building is skidded to it's new home it will rest on top of a series of 2x10" headers The headers will sit ontop of 2x6" poles concreted into the ground. The original 2x8 skids will act as headers.
So I've taken the first steps to make this happen. For about the past five days I've been working daylight to dark. The building was filled with trash from the previous owners and I'm guilty of filling the front of the building with my own Junk. When I first moved here I was desperate to store some things from my old garage and it never left that building until now. So far I've managed to take one full trailer load of good stuff to my garage. Its been sorted and put away. I've also managed to remove 2700#s of trash that was left there by the previous owners. After the initial trash was hauled away, There was also a bunch of drywall to remove. Someone had nailed pieces of random size drywall to the walls with 16d nails. Hiding in the walls, as I'd figured was a shit load of roaches, snakes, mice and rats and everything you can imagine chewed to make nests. I removed an entire wheel borrow load of rat feces(I kid you not), about 15 snake skins, a few thousand cock roaches and a bunch of nasty shit. I retired 5 pretty large black snakes and moved them to their new forever home. Its an abandoned barn a couple miles up the road. I thanked them for their service and wished them good luck.
I still need to clean out some scrap building materials stored outside in front of the shed and also a bunch of shit from under the shed. I'm not looking forward to the under part at all. there is still a bunch of extruded aluminum and all kinds of lumber and other trash under there. Since I have to crawl under there to first clean it out, then to build the skids and cut the poles, I'm hoping for a few days of freezing temps. I figure that will help slow down any creepy crawlies, that otherwise, I know can crawl faster than me ;D
On to the pic...
First up...The shed. I had a bunch of random building material stored on the lower side. much of it was rotten and got burnt.
anyhow, this is the side that will have the glass sliding doors facing the pond. The steel hangs over 6" (you can see where it is bent) so it will get trimmed all the way around the building so I can attach the skids.
DSC_0038.jpg

Side of the shed.
I've dug the back side enough (aprox 2.5' down) to get the skids attached and hopefully enough room to cut the poles. Then the plan is to slide long telephone poles under the skids to act as rollers.
(rat feces make a hot fire ;D)
DSC_0032-1.jpg



Lots of snake skins got burnt. I didn't start taking photos until most of the inside had been cleaned. This is only a small tail piece.
DSC_0030-1.jpg



I found these neat storage bins attached to the back wall. They're probably out of a general store or something because there is actually a tag, I can't remember selling what, 6 fer $. If the could only talk. The ten different colors of paint tells a story in itself. Anyhow, I didn't even know these were in there.
In the pic you can see some of the drywall behind the bins
DSC_0027.jpg





Some of the last pieces of drywall to come down with feces, and nests...No snakes behind this one though
DSC_0035.jpg



I've never seen the inside. Took a hell of a lot of work to reach this point.
DSC_0024.jpg




This is how I left it this evening
DSC_0043.jpg

I'm moving slow but hopefully much much more to come...
 
Troy, that's awesome that you are starting this project! I'm about to go to bed for the night, but remember: I have that MASSIVE window that I can't do anything with. If you want it just say the word.
 
Hmmmm... Might just have a place for that baby!
what were the dimensions again? Please keep you eye out for two glass sliding doors too if you will.
 
Very cool Troy. I like the way you can take junk and make something functional and nice out of it. I think that will be a great little place by the pond when you finish.
 
Will make a beautiful showroom for Willow :) I'd sleep in there any day.

It's a little mind blowing to think of having a 14 x 16 building on my property that I didn't know what to do with and had never been in :) My 'land' is 17 x 120 feet period and I'm lucky to have a 12 x 20 garage.

All these nice old / new buildings are going to make me want to move back to the countryside.
 
That's quite the undertaking, Troy! It sounds like it'll be a pretty darn cool spot when done though. Your guests will be in for a treat!
 
This is that monster of a window I was talking about:

photobucket-5046-1330104077219.jpg


It's 6' tall, 10' wide and the two "corner" windows slide in towards the center. Pm incoming.......
 
thanks guys. Its funny how my wife doesn't see it. I was almost a year and half into the barn conversion before she (and alot of others) could finally see it. She thought I was insane. However, that was part of the driving force that helped me finish a project where I was in way over my head ;D .
I had a lot of nay sayers on that project. This time though the wife has a little more confidence in my vision etc. and she's kinda letting me just go at it. I guess part of the difference is it's a much smaller project and she doesn't have to live in this one ;D .


Thnks Yogibear hopefully the hard work will pay off. It will keep me busy if nothing else ;D

I appreciate your confidence Maritime. Hopefully I won't let you down. You know you and your family are welcome here anytime. Thanks for the kind words!

Tim I hadn't thought about parking a bike in there. I'd just planned to use it as a guest cottage. but it would be a nice dry spot. Maybe a ramp is in order instead of steps...hmmmm...

Damn man 17' is not much room especially when you plant a home on it. Hope your neighbors likes motorcycles. The good side would be low maintenance ;D
Brother if you'd seen the inside of this building before I started you'd know why I never ventured in there :eek: . The photos were taken after a week of cleaning. Like I said it had 2,700# of rubbish and infested with rodents and snakes. In-fact, a while back I was real close to just having it bulldozed over. The floor is sagging in the middle and the roof is sagging on the back side as well. Not only are there no headers in the walls to hold the roof there is also only one top plate. However, its been standing for about 30 years and has never leaked. Its got good bones. I really think I can get it straightened out without too much trouble. New interior walls are needed anyway so it will get proper studded insulated walls with strong headers over doors and openings. The new foundation will be a double header system sitting on treated 6x6 posts cemented into the ground. If it doesn't turn out pretty at least it will be strong ;D

You know Ringo I see this as nothing compared to what Speedfiends doing or the work that's Kileys doing. This wil lbe fun though and hopefully like you said, give my guest a bit of a treat. I do know a few people though who would be insulted if I pointed and said, "that's where you'll be sleeping." ::) Oh well, they won't be on the guest list anyhow. ;D
I appreciate the kind wrds brother.


A tidbit of information:
I'm guessing the building's age based on the dates when of one of the previous owners lived here. He worked clearing power lines for utility companies and had access to utility poles. The telling tale though was what was inscribed on the back side of a piece of drywall. In black magic marker, "the world is full of queens and kings who blind your eyes and steal your dreams. It's heaven and hell."
 
So it looks like Rich has one of the main windows (the monster 6'x10') and he's trying to find a match for a 4x4 window that I already have. So if it works out there will be a total of 18' of glass across the front with an entrance door on the side.

I finally have the building and the area around it clean. It was a bear crawling under it and dragging out everything imaginable. There were old tires and lots of window frames with broken glass, etc, etc. Spent everybit of three days under there but was able to take 2k#s to the recycler.
DSC_0136.jpg

So it looks like I'll be using a fellow farmers 26' trailer. Plan is to pull the trailer underneath the building and cut it free from the post holding her up (not quite that easy :D ). Then drive it to the pond. I have a pair of ramps that we'll back the trailer on so the building will be higher than the header system. We'll then use my tractor to pull it off the trailer and onto the header system. Should be interesting :eek: .

anyhow, I got everything squared up, marked and staked out. I decided to go ahead and do the header that will hold the deck because there won't be room between the building and the pond once the building is in place.


Cut treated 6x6s to 4' lengths and loaded them, some concrete, and a bunch of stakes and braces into the bucket. Also finally removed the snow plow and put the auger on.
DSC_0150.jpg



All staked out:
(pond has been drained about 3' lower than normal to make work easier. It was tough to get the water down because we just experienced massive flooding (reason for the muddy water).
DSC_0152.jpg



Drillin holes and settin poles:
The first poles at the water's edge will have a header ontop for the deck. All the rows of poles behind that will be for the building. I set 9 poles today and have 8 more to go. Once the height of everything is established, the poles will get cut to matching height
DSC_0169.jpg
 
+1!

Wish I had the free time to head down and lend a hand or two. But we are picking up my in-laws this weekend so I'll be sure to ask what all is available.
 
So cool Troy. Mine work is winding down, so in a week or so I may be able to head south and lend a hand.
 
Ill help if i can and youll have me. i just found out im a pip what ever that is i dont think it contagious be cant be to carefull
 
Appreciate the offers fellas. I hope to have the building setting on a trailer by 7am tomorrow.We are close. My father and I have worked from daylight to dark the past three days and we've really knocked a bunch of stuff out. Trailer is coning at 6:30a and as far as I can tell we are ready to get the building set on it. The set back right now is we have to drive over my emergency spill way and it is far too low for the trailer to cross it. I spent about 3 hours moving dirt today and hardly made a dent. Hopefully I can find some soil closer to the spill way so things will go a little faster tomorrow. Another thing needing done is about 5 tree stumps need cut at ground height so the trailer can cross over them. We are expecting rain to start tomorrow around 1 so we'll be hustling.
At the very least the building should be on the trailer tomorrow then it can be moved once we have a few consecutive dry days.


anyhow, on to the pics:


Site is all ready. All the post are now 30" deep set with 80#s concrete. The post are notched so the headers sit in the notch (headers hanging on nails on the side is a pet peeve of mine ::) ). The post in front are for the deck and are yet to be trimmed.
DSC_0257.jpg


DSC_0263.jpg



hand dug under the building to make it level so the trailer and building will set level.
DSC_0287.jpg


All the metal on the outside hung down below the facia boards. besides being pretty beat up it was not very even along the bottom. Had to trim aprox 6" around the entire building. This is not pretty.
DSC_0285.jpg



metal blade in circular saw did a quick number. (normally I'd hand trim because heat causes the metal to lose it's coating and will cause premature rusting.) Since a little rust will probably add to the look I used the saw.
DSC_0322.jpg


Trimmed
DSC_0325.jpg


The metal on front of the building trimmed. Looks better already
DSC_0271.jpg



The front 2x10x20 skid/header in place. There is also one on the inside sandwiching the posts.
DSC_0299.jpg



The trailer and truck together are over 50' and since everything is on a pretty good slope, we had to create a level 'road'. Finished this up about midnight lastnight
DSC_0307.jpg



My dad jokes that the prevous builders spent little time and money building. Not only is the front of the building 8" wider than the back they also used what ever lumber they had laying around. Case and point: the outside ledger boards are all 6" except for a few places where they used 8" boards. Eight inches is not going to work so they all got trimmed to match the 6" boards
DSC_0328.jpg



We think some of the boards used for this building were from the old barn built in 1830. I know it's not possible but they seem to make a lot more dust when cut.
(The jagged metal on this side is being replaced from the metal removed from the front when we install the new windows. Right now it has a small homemade entrance door that's falling apart. That will get closed up and a proper door put in its place)
DSC_0333.jpg



The floors and ceilings had sags of 2 and 3" sometimes over as little as 6' spans (this is what happens when you hang crap off nails) so we jacked them as level as we could as we installed the new headers
DSC_0336.jpg



My father prying the new headers in place
DSC_0350.jpg



Time to start cutting posts
DSC_0348.jpg



jacks were put in place to remove some of the weight off th post so they could be cut. Luckly a couple post could be cut from outside
DSC_0357-1.jpg


Today we cut and removed 4 posts down the center. Also cut another 4 across the back side. We simply set the building back on the post stubs (hopefully they won't be like that very long). Now there's room under the building for the trailer
DSC_0362.jpg

A Telephone pole was used as the header down the middle (A small round pole on it's side is not strong so its now gone). It gets replaced by 2- 2x10x20' screwed together.
DSC_0360.jpg


Building's center is open and ready for the trailer. All the post have been cut except the 4 on the front. We will crib and block it in order to set it down on the trailer. This is how it sits this evening
DSC_0366.jpg

The hold up right now is I hit a nail with the chain saw. My father did a quick sharpen but the day was fading. Plan is to start cutting stumps at 5a then move on to finishing the land bridge across the spill way. Hopefully we can get it all knocked out before the trailer arrives at 6:30. Calling for rain at 1 so we've got our fingers crossed
DSC_0365.jpg
 
You are definitely cut from the same cloth as your pops, Troy.

I love this project. It is beautiful, my man.
 
Back
Top Bottom