Completed shed

I added a rock base for better drainage and hammered in rebar on the up hill side to attached to the shed.  This will help keep it in place while it settles.  This area has an extremely high snow load, so I want to make sure it doesn't go any where by next season.  I have never built a roof before, so the major lesson I learned is to build it on sight.  Even with a roof of about 5ft by 5ft, it was very heavy and tricky to lift up on the shed.  It was not hard to learn how to shingle the roof, so off side prep was not required.

View

Here is the view from what would be the deck:  Not very impressive from a picture, but you can see all the way to Arizona.

Shed Prep

Here I created steps using logs and lots of rocks.  The soil in this area almost has more rock than dirt, but I will find lots of uses for all the rock.  Once the pad was cut into the slope there was no easy way to get up above, so the temporary stairs will allow me easier access to the top of the lot and to the shed.  Oh, the outhouse I built is now a shed!  I realized that I couldn't put in an outhouse at all, so I changed it to a shed with a porta potty inside.  This will give me more storage once the cabin is build.

Steps and the dig area for the shed:

Dug

The dig work has been completed.  I just paid for a basic dig, so I still have lots of work to do to prepare the area.  I need to start building some type of retaining wall for the driveway area and the parking area in front of the cabin, haven't decided what type of retaining wall yet.  Not much left for this year, will let the soil settle over the winter so I can build it up next year, this way the ground is compacted as much as possible before I finish the ground work.

Before and After:

Outhouse (Privy)

Now that the excavation will be underway soon, I need to start planning what I should do next.  Once the dig is complete I will move my trailer to the new site.  The problem with the new site will be no facilities.

First things first, need a bathroom.  I will be putting up an outhouse for use until the cabin is completed.

The hard part about this outhouse design is situating it on a 32% slope.  Special consideration must go into the design.

Here are my initial drawings for the outhouse:

Once I decided on the basic construction, I put it into my design program to get a good visual:

Typical outhouses have the door on the high side to minimize the total height of the design.  In this case, I don't want the door up slope so I needed to create a design that would keep the door more accessible on the side of the slope.  This configuration minimizes the required excavation work needed to level the area around the outhouse.

I plan to build the outhouse at home in my garage, this way I can build in sections allowing me to test fit the walls and roof.  Then I will assemble the outhouse on site when the ground is prepared.  This would be much easier than building on site, were I would have limited access to power and tools (and a home depot).

Excavation

I decided to let someone else do the dig work.  I realized after the cost of renting an excavator and the time it would take me, a beginner, to complete the work it would cost just as much.  I got a great price from the company that has already been doing the work so far (survey, plans, septic tests, etc.).

I would recommend getting at least two or three quotes before you decide on a company.  Make sure you get the job details in writing, there are a lot of variables when it comes to digging on a slope.  They could run into rock and have difficulty removing tree stumps, so a flat rate quote helps prevent too many surprises.

I received quotes from a few thousand dollars up to fourteen thousand dollars, so be careful!

Tree Clearing

The trees have been cleared, now I can begin the dig work.  They will dig the driveway and pad and lower that 32% grade around the leach field area down to under 25% slope (per inspector).  It took me, and a friend for two days, 5 weeks (on weekends) total to clear about 20 trees.  Several of them were already dead so I don't feel so guilty killing trees, there was a beetle that came through many years ago and killed a lot of trees.  So, that was less than 40 hours total for clearing around 20 trees, not to bad!

Bare land

Picture of bare land - 32% slope

Severe Slope

Well... the survey was completed this last weekend.  I used the worksheet from my last post to double check the slope readings, looks like the slope of the lot is around 32%.  Yikes... according to Utah code, special consideration is needed for slopes over 25%.  This could require a horizontal cut into the mountain of up to 50ft, so that the septic's drainfield is setback from the slope.  This would be an overwhelming task for building a small cabin.

Looks like we have a lot of layout planning ahead to see if this project can move forward!

Slope measurement

Here is a handy tool I find online!  Once the survey is done in a couple of weeks I will take some slope measurements.  I think they will do that with the survey, but won't hurt to have them too!

In the mean time...

This is my home away from home while up in the mountain building the cabin.  It's small...but it does the job!

Shopping for quotes

Here is a form I used when gathering quotes for the services I needed, a good way to organize your quotes and see which companies can offer package pricing.  I also kept an excel spreadsheet with all there info and pricing, for comparison.  You can call your local inspector or log on to the county's website for a list of certified companies!  I went with a company that is doing all the services listed, with a package discount! 

Shell or no shell

Deciding between buying a cabin kit versus building a cabin from scratch was not easy. A cabin kit allows me to slap the shell up a lot faster, but does cost three to five times as much. Building a cabin from scratch allows me more control over the design and features.

In the end, through a lot of research, I found that a cabin kit still requires an extensive knowledge of building and labor. So to pay for the labor of someone else building the shell and then having to still do a lot of the labor myself didn't make much sense.

My grandfather encouraged me to just build it myself, with a lot of wisdom from his direction! He even convinced me to install the septic system myself...yikes! Good thing he has done this many times before in his day!

Cabin Plans - 1st Draft

Getting Started

After calling the local building inspector, permits department and health department I can begin to plan my project.  I found out that I need to install a complete septic system prior to getting building permits, something my grandfather didn't need to do 50 years ago.

I hired a local firm near the site that will complete the survey of the land, septic plans, septic tests and complete cabin plans.  Since the property is in a seasonal area, they cannot start on the survey until the beginning of June.

This property has no utility access...AT ALL!  So a lot of thought will go into how and what I will do to have water and power.

Side note:  I was lucky enough to not have to purchase the land first, my family has land that I am using.