Pictures of Concrete Evidence

24" wide continuous concrete footing

The concrete was poured during a couple mild days in January 2009.  The temperature dropped sharply again the day after the pour so the footing needed to be tarped and heated.  My father-in-law and I decided to go for a drive and take a look.  That’s him in the picture.  You can see the pony wall pieces piled up on the right side of the picture.  Clifton Trainor did the pour for us and did a great job.  I would recommend him for any construction work up in the Grand Beach to Victoria Beach area.  Very pleasant to deal with too.

Concrete Evidence of Progress

Well, it took a while, but progress has begun.  4 days ago my concrete guy built the forms and poured the concrete for the footing that the building will sit on.  Because the temperature up here has been extremely cold, he had to cover it and turn on some heat.  It should be cured tomorrow and then the mover can bring the building over at any time.  Unfortunately, I was not able to make it out to take any pictures yet, but I hope to get up there this weekend.  THe building might already be moved by then.  Exciting stuff!

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas…

Well, things are in the works, and as we wait for the foundation to be poured and the building to be moved, my mind is spinning with all sorts of ideas.  The internet is full of all sorts of cool examples.  My plan is to have a sort of rustic meets modern look to everything.  I would like much of the interior to be unconventional in nature.  Came across a picture of a bedroom that I really like and may use as an inspiration.  Since many ideas that are found on the internet and in design books can be cost prohibitive, I like to use what I call my toned down approach.  I look for examples of work that I really love and then figure out a way to achieve the look without spending nearly as much as they did on the original.  It usually works and we have done it with our house on a number of occasions.  I really like the wood only idea for a bedroom, but it could possibly be cost prohibitive depending on the material.  I found a guy on the net who used recycled cupboard doors to make some pretty neat wall panelling.  Years ago, I spent a short stint working at a local cabinet factory called Kitchen Kraft.  I remember they had a huge pile of doors outside that were garbage.  I may have to check into that.  I’d also like to use plywood for ceilings like in the picture.

Recycled cabinet doors used as paneling.

Preparing the Site

The lane into our property.

We’ve owned our property north of Victoria Beach for about 8 years.  It’s not right on the lake but you can see the lake from the end of our lane.  Our lot is called a half acre lot.  The soil is sandy and the main trees are poplar, birch, and spruce.  I really hate cutting down trees so I avoid it when I can.  Unfortunately, the lane that I originally cut is too narrow for the building to be moved through so I had to take out some more.  I tried to only take out the poplars and leave as many spruce as possible since they take so long to grow.  The drawback to bringing in a prefab or relcaimed building is that more trees need to be removed than if you were building on site.  Even still, the amount of lumber saved from using a reclaimed building will more than offset the loss of a few poplars.  The plan is to use some of the wood for building and decorative purposes, and the rest will be used for firewood. 

Me and my wood pile.

The thing about cutting firewood is that you want to split it right away.  If you saw it up into logs and let it sit, the logs will begin to rot from the inside out.   My father-in-law and I spent the weekend of October 25 and 26, 2008 cutting and splitting firewood.  Saturday was beautiful, but Sunday started to get very cool.  The wind bit and stung at us as we toiled away creating this huge pile of split wood.

The rural municipality of Victoria Beach has many codes and bylaws that restrict what you can do on your property with regards to building construction.  This can be somewhat frustrating, but is most likely the case no matter where you build these days.  Some of the codes have to do with sustainable development and environmental issues; both are issues that this project wishes to be sensative to anyway. 

 

Other codes include distancerequired between structures and distance from property lines.  We used part of our weekend to develop a site map for our property in order to make sure that we follow the guidelines of the municipality while at the same time making the best use of our space.  I’ll provide a copy our site map when I get it finalized and get a chance to scan it.  The next step is to get the septic tank dug in and the concrete footing poured.  The plan is to lower the building onto a pressure treated ponywall that will be sitting on the concrete footing. 

Plans of Metamorphisis: Mundane to Modern

The purpose of this blog is to document a rather large project that I have undertaken together with my father-in-law.  He and I have owned a half-acre piece of cottage property about 100 km north of Winnipeg for about 8 years now.  We’ve been camping on the property and have constructed a small bunkhouse.  We’ve decided to take the plunge and build ourselves a cabin; a reclaimed cabin.

This is the building that we are going to use.  It was once a dining hall for a camp that was run by the local school division.  It is a single story dwelling with a metal roof and rough cut poplar siding.  It is roughly a 1000 sq ft and about 25 years old.  It has some interesting features including a 200 amp service.  There is a small kitchen, two bathrooms, and another small room.  Half of the building is completely open from one end of the building to the other.  It needs some tlc and a complete rennovation plan.