Thunderhouse

Enlarge Image Image Gallery

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

We'd had some experience toying with home design, as our livelihood came from selling customized barn and shed plans (a business that was to quickly boom for both of us).

Eventually we became so busy that we needed a hideaway cabin to which we could flee during the cold winter months. Buying a secluded piece of Florida property and designing a functional, unique camp building to live in while planning a low-impact house became our focus. Pete built a scale model of a box tipped over on its edge, with one point up, one point down and poles supporting the other two. Everyone laughed when they saw the model sitting on our kitchen counter that fall (there were frequent comparisons to birdhouses), but their doubts disappeared as soon as they saw photos of the little camp we called "The Thunderhouse" that was taking form in the Florida woods.

The Thunderhouse had to meet several requirements: it had to be off the ground to allow for occasional flooding; it had to offer a view of the fishing herons, egrets, ibis and wood storks in the wetlands; it had to catch the breeze under the leafy canopy on hot days while offering protection from the tropical downpours on a Summer afternoon; and it had to distance us from the occasional snake, armadillo, wild boar, turkey, bobcat, skunk and raccoon.

With no electricity, limited funds and no one to help us build, the camp building began to take shape. Pete designed it so that the lion's share of the building materials were simple 2x4s. The comparatively few cuts needed could be made with a simple miterbox and handsaw. The cabin was completely assembled with our trusty, battery-operated 3/8" cordless driver drill; stainless steel sheet metal screws were driven with a 1/4" driver through Simpson mending plates.

Pete first sandwiched two 16-foot, pressure treated 2x8s together and put them on edge on top of three concrete piers to form the backbone of the building. He laid out a large square, using plywood (that would later be roofing) for a fixture table that would be used to construct the first truss, and then cut the first set of 2x4 framing members. When everything was square and diagonals were checked (very important), he screwed them to the plywood base. This section (which would, at the end, be unscrewed to become the last truss to go up) then became the pattern for the other eight trusses. Stops were fastened to this first truss member, thereby making it a nesting fixture.

The first truss was raised and braced against temporary vertical stops. Much to his wife's distress. Pete then used a 2x4 as a Pike pole to raise the subsequent trusses. My anguished pleas for a more sane process were soon heeded when the fourth truss slipped and almost crushed him. After checking for broken ribs and quieting my sobs, an alternative means by which to raise the remaining trusses (a pulley setup with a rope attached to the bumper of the car) saved the day.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print