Damn, it was a scorcher out there this weekend. I had a very ambitious list of things I wanted to accomplish this weekend, but alas, I didn't get most of it done. I did, however, add two things to the list, which didn't help the other things.

Total Construction Days: 18.5

I started off by rewiring a receptacle I had inadvertently wired to an existing box that was in the same stud bay where the outdoor shower plumbing will be. I deleted that box and ran new romex between the two new receptacles. I also wanted to get the shower completely plumbed, but it wasn't my highest priority, so I got the PEX lines run into the wall and connected to the kitchenette lines under the building (I forgot to take a pic under the building). Having plumbing in the same bay as electrical is where me using a spool of direct burial cable was beneficial.


I took a slight detour and decided to get a first coat of paint on part of the outside where there are things I need to install that need paint behind or around them, namely the air conditioner mounting bracket, exterior receptacle, and lights. To be truthful, I had wanted to finish wiring all the interior lights, which happen to be on the same circuit as the exterior lights seen here so I could have outside lights at night, but that did not happen. It gets REAL dark in the woods at night.

I went with a bulkhead light for the shower area.


Next up was to finish the western-facing wall to help fight the effects of afternoon sun on the interior temperature. First, I had to finish furring out the wall, which included having to extend the nailers on the abutting walls. My furring strips allowed me to correct the areas where the stud bays are not 16" all the way up. A taste of problems to come was having to spend almost an hour hammering down and pulling construction staples by hand out of the ceiling nailer. I think there are 10 more rafters I will have to do the same thing to.



One thing which really slowed me down was having to cut and fit rigid foam around the plumbing and electrical panel, as well as irregular areas of the wall. I forgot to get a pic of the insulated plumbing, but insulating around the drain line was a real PITA.


One thing I discovered when I removed the rest of the R13 insulation from this wall was the gable vent never got sealed - they just covered it with insulation, so any wind-blown rain just went into insulation and down the inside of the wall. Thankfully there wasn't significant damage or mold, but I did treat the area with Concrobium. I then put a bead of sealant around the inside of the gable vent and sealed it with 1" rigid foam before putting batt insulation over it. You can see the correction at the top center of the wall.


I had not initially planned to install sheetrock, but I decided to go ahead and try to make that push just for the psychological effect of being able to physically see progress, since I had ended up so far behind this weekend. I was going to put up the 4th piece of sheetrock, but it was 11:00 PM last night and I was tired and needed to head home early this morning. Finally having a (mostly) covered wall really makes it start feeling like a habitable space.


I probably won't be back out there for a month. My priorities will be:
- Finish insulating and sheetrocking the wall under the loft
- Wiring the main lights
- Wiring the loft lights
- Installing the "ceiling" under the loft

I was back out at the cabin this weekend, and damn, this heat needs to let up. It was 104 in the shade Saturday and my poor portable AC was losing the battle. Nonetheless, I made some great progress working the leftovers from my list for last month.

Total Construction Days: 20

I decided it was easier for me to remove the insulation from the rafter bays to run the overhead lighting. Cutting the insulation and tucking the romex was just too much of a PITA.



I got as far as I could get on the tongue & groove under the loft without my table saw. I have to cut the back of the tongue off the last two pieces and treat them like shiplap. I got stalled out on this last month because I was having a lot of trouble getting two pieces to go together by myself.


I finally reached the point where some walls were fully insulated again and could be sheetrocked. The great thing about having the walls closed up is I can put stuff against them instead of constantly doing the shuffle when I need to access those walls. I'll be happy to not have to haul the mini split boxes outside every time I work on the cabin.




I'm going back out Labor Day weekend, where my priorities will be plumbing the shower so I can sheetrock that wall and wiring the loft lights.

My plan was to be out at the cabin through Monday, but an emergency with the beagle cut things short and I had to get back home. Nonetheless, I did get two major things on my list completed.

First, I got the outdoor shower plumbed and that wall mostly insulated. I had sheetrocking it on my list, but Delta somehow failed to include a test cap in the box, so I could not pressure test the plumbing, even if I wanted to.



Next I needed to get the loft lighting installed. This was a super PITA because everything was basically upside down and behind me. Everything I did required abs for days. Wrestling the insulation into place was awful and I ended up with fiberglass all over my arms and face. One item of note is I should have not installed 3-way dimmers in both locations for the loft because it causes the lights to flicker. I will replace the lower dimmer with a standard 3-way switch.



The benefit of completing the loft lighting is I was able to power the overhead lighting and the exterior lights on the back of the building, although I think one of the wafer lights has a loose wire. It isn't working, but everything downstream of it is, so I'll troubleshoot it next time.



I was glad to get the exterior lighting working, because this would have been completely black:


I may try to get back out there next weekend, but I'm not sure right now. It depends on how things go with the beagle and my grad school workload.