Pallet Man-shed, One-man Build, Spring-time Lets Get This Live-able. Part Six

The winter is over, The doghouse survived perfectly, the deck remained perfectly level, lets do some finishing work.

48"x1/4"x1/4" firing strips

It was completely dry in the cabin after the entire winter. No sign of water what-so-ever and every time I visited the cabin over the winter, it was dry inside even without windows or doors. Even after snows, there was no snow in the cabin.

I was a bit surprised how much the 1x6 boards shrank over the winter. I ended up buying 48 firing strips from home depot. they were $0.16 each in a bundle of around 50 or so. the were cut to length and a screw and waterproof titlebond glue was used to put them to bridge the gap. I like the look from the inside.

I only measured and sized the doorframes and window frames about 4 or 5 dozen times, ( ;) ) so they fit exactly as designed: with a 1/2"-1" gap on all sides of the windows. Those gaps were closed after the window was put up and wood trim out of paint sticks and the firing wood added to make a pretty good seam.

So over the winter, someone was re-doing their basement and pulled up this tongue and groove floating floor. I think I gave him $30 for it but when he saw the project he was so thrilled with it, he was ready to give it to me and come over to install it just to see the doghouse.

I did the loft first figuring that since it would be covered mostly by the futon. It clicks together sorta, and I imagine if you had a solid floor with a real subflooring it would be perfect, but on a few pallets that flex and bow, the boards seem too pop up and down, so every few boards I put a deck screw right though the boards into a pallet to lock it all down. It looked pretty good to me.

The main floor was just a repeat. I just had to move the big stuff around as I did the sections. I started in the corner by the door and finished under the pot belly stove. The entire base of the doghouse is framed by 2x4's and I left the 2x4's at the door thresholds as well. this makes sweeping leaves and dirt out of the door, so I made a trap door.

Pretty straight forward here. The rails had a nice block of wood at the bottom from the sections I built over the winter, and they just bolted down to the deck. the corners were really secure, and the end by the doghouse was attached with a 1x2 to the the doghouse to keep that end from flexing. the other end was a bit wobbly, so the bench I built was attached firmly and then screwed into the deck to make stiffen things up. The middle of the 20' span really flexed alot, so a triangle support that sticks out from the deck was added like an outrigger to keep the rail from flexing. I only did one and that keeps it from wobbling reasonably although I'm sure OSHA would want it to be more secure.

After a year of screwing deck screws I can do it in my sleep. With that in my belt, The screens are held in place with 2 screws, and will call that done. Taking that into consideration. the procedure for taking the screens up and down is to use the screwdriver. Purchased a set from the $1 store and stuck them to a magnetic strip I have hanging on the wall. The sockets installed really well, and now we have 12V and 5V USB throughout the cabin.

Well that's about it, We'll see what's next. The first sleepover was great. The Aluminum roof had only one drawback: when the acorns fall on it at night, they sound like a bowling ball as they roll down the roof.