On Saturday I went out to the cabin and put another coat of mud on the sheetrock. I was surprised to find the place overrun with cows. Part of our property is fenced but the part where the cabin is located has no fence separating it from the adjacent neighbor who apparently owns the cows. I’d guess there were about a hundred or so.

Last Fall/Winter we hung most of the drywall but were about four sheets shy of finishing. Last weekend I finished up the area under the stairs, one bathroom wall, and a few miscellaneous smaller pieces.

A few weeks ago I noticed the box for the living room fan didn’t have a wire in it so I was a little worried we had run it to the wrong spot but I was able to remove the box from the hanger bracket and find the wire and run it into the box.

The majority of two days of work was spent applying a first coat of joint compound to the walls and ceiling. There are a few skills I’m fairly terrible at and mudding is definitely one of them. I watched several instructional videos prior to starting and while they were somewhat helpful, my process and results differed significantly from the videos. With most skills proficiency increases with repetition but this is probably my fourth or fifth significant attempt at mudding and if I’m getting any better, I can’t see it. In any case, eventually I’ll get it done.

Saturday at the cabin was cold and windy again, making work outside unpleasant and progress slow. I primarily worked on the cedar trim for the front corners. The front corner trim is complicated by the presence of the porch which required some creative cutting to make the trim reasonably attractive and weatherproof.

I also added a soffit on the utility room roof overhang. For the soffit I used two cedar boards with a gap of about an inch for ventilation. I backed the soffit with some metal screen material to keep insects out.

Finally I started running some 8/3 wire from the loft down to the utility room which will be used for the solar panels on the opposite roof. I have to do some prep work for the solar panels prior to closing in the loft ceiling, mainly running the wire and adding mounting brackets so I can bolt them through the roof while I have access.

Saturday at the cabin was cold and windy again, making work outside unpleasant and progress slow. I primarily worked on the cedar trim for the front corners. The front corner trim is complicated by the presence of the porch which required some creative cutting to make the trim reasonably attractive and weatherproof.

I also added a soffit on the utility room roof overhang. For the soffit I used two cedar boards with a gap of about an inch for ventilation. I backed the soffit with some metal screen material to keep insects out.

Finally I started running some 8/3 wire from the loft down to the utility room which will be used for the solar panels on the opposite roof. I have to do some prep work for the solar panels prior to closing in the loft ceiling, mainly running the wire and adding mounting brackets so I can bolt them through the roof while I have access.

Last weekend was cold and windy with highs in the upper 40’s so I worked inside the cabin on Saturday where I could run the propane heater. I finished installing the 1” rigid foam insulation in the ceiling of the loft and used spray foam to seal all the cracks and gaps. Working with spray foam is messy. The rigid foam is just to supplement the fiberglass insulation that will go under the cabin roof because the fiberglass is about an inch thinner than the space available in the rafters.

Secondly, I installed 2x4 collar ties to provide a bit of flat ceiling in the loft and to keep the roof from splitting at the ridge during the next hurricane that passes through Utah. The collar ties give about three feet of flat ceiling width and are 8’ 3” above the floor.

After spending most of the day Saturday on the ladder, I took a rest on Sunday.

There wasn’t much to photograph so I included a picture of a chipmunk playing around in the truck bed.