A friend owns 13 acres of land south of Nashville TN. He has developed the land to support a shooting habit he has. He likes to target shoot handguns, so he bought this property, brought in about 100 truckloads of dirt to build a burm to shoot into. Then he decided he wanted a rustic cabin to sleep in. As an added motivation, the land owner is also a movie producer, and so planned that the cabin should be built in a fashion to possibly be included in a frontier period movie, not that a movie is being planned for the site. There is no electricity or water on the land, and so the cabin is truly rustic. You can see the outhouse in the rear of the first picture, as well as the gas generator used to power the tools.
Construction began in March 2008 and took three weeks to build. The cabin started with twelve concrete piers anchored to the bedrock to support a 20’ x 22’ structure. The ground slopes from the back to the front so the front left corner is about 3 feet above the ground. Pressure treated 2x10’s were attached to brackets embedded in the concrete piers to form a platform floor for the cabin. The actual cabin is 20’ across and 16’ deep, with a 6’ porch in front.
Then the walls, framed with 2x6’s went up. The plan was to cover the walls with 5/4 x 8 rough sawn, air
dried, white oak boards, placed vertically over the framing. Over the gaps between the oak boards ½” x 2” battens, also rough sawn white oak, were placed to form an authentic board and batten exterior. To provide solid anchoring of the oak boards, horizontal 2x6’s were placed every 2 feet between the vertical 2x6’s placed 23 inches on center. Actual wall height was 100.5 inches. The plan also called for two large double hung windows flanking the front door.
Initially the owner wanted a loft area on the left side of the cabin. This required second floor framing with
2x10 rim joists and floor joists. After some discussion, it was decided to make a loft on both sides, with a 4’ gap between the two lofts, joined with a bridge. Access to the lofts would be with a fixed ladder stair. The man pictured walking across the porch is an anesthesiologist, my son-in-law, and the best helper a guy could want.
The loft area has a sloping ceiling created by roof rafters. The center ridge is 9’ tall and then slopes to 0” where the rafters meet the floor. The initial plan didn’t call for any windows in the loft, but after some discussion the owner was persuaded to install
two double hung windows in each gable. The roof angle is close to 45 degrees. Then over the porch the roof angle changes to about 10 degrees. A 25 year asphalt shingle was used to cover the roof deck. The rafter tails were purposely left exposed for authenticity.
The front of the cabin is finished with a cedar door, 5/4 x 6 pressure treated deck boards for the porch, and rough sawn white oak for the railing. The porch posts are 4 x 6 white oak timbers and incredibly heavy.
On the inside, it was decided to leave
the framing exposed on the main level, but to insulate the roof rafters and cover the insulation with luaun plywood. Then railings around the loft and bridge were constructed with rough sawn white oak. The structure was completed with a cast iron wood burning stove that works really well.
Construction began in March 2008 and took three weeks to build. The cabin started with twelve concrete piers anchored to the bedrock to support a 20’ x 22’ structure. The ground slopes from the back to the front so the front left corner is about 3 feet above the ground. Pressure treated 2x10’s were attached to brackets embedded in the concrete piers to form a platform floor for the cabin. The actual cabin is 20’ across and 16’ deep, with a 6’ porch in front.Then the walls, framed with 2x6’s went up. The plan was to cover the walls with 5/4 x 8 rough sawn, air
dried, white oak boards, placed vertically over the framing. Over the gaps between the oak boards ½” x 2” battens, also rough sawn white oak, were placed to form an authentic board and batten exterior. To provide solid anchoring of the oak boards, horizontal 2x6’s were placed every 2 feet between the vertical 2x6’s placed 23 inches on center. Actual wall height was 100.5 inches. The plan also called for two large double hung windows flanking the front door.Initially the owner wanted a loft area on the left side of the cabin. This required second floor framing with
2x10 rim joists and floor joists. After some discussion, it was decided to make a loft on both sides, with a 4’ gap between the two lofts, joined with a bridge. Access to the lofts would be with a fixed ladder stair. The man pictured walking across the porch is an anesthesiologist, my son-in-law, and the best helper a guy could want.The loft area has a sloping ceiling created by roof rafters. The center ridge is 9’ tall and then slopes to 0” where the rafters meet the floor. The initial plan didn’t call for any windows in the loft, but after some discussion the owner was persuaded to install
two double hung windows in each gable. The roof angle is close to 45 degrees. Then over the porch the roof angle changes to about 10 degrees. A 25 year asphalt shingle was used to cover the roof deck. The rafter tails were purposely left exposed for authenticity.The front of the cabin is finished with a cedar door, 5/4 x 6 pressure treated deck boards for the porch, and rough sawn white oak for the railing. The porch posts are 4 x 6 white oak timbers and incredibly heavy.
On the inside, it was decided to leave
the framing exposed on the main level, but to insulate the roof rafters and cover the insulation with luaun plywood. Then railings around the loft and bridge were constructed with rough sawn white oak. The structure was completed with a cast iron wood burning stove that works really well.
After a few months of use, the owner decided that the cabin needed more light on the lower level. with the lower level having only two windows located under the porch roof, there was little natural light actually entering the cabin. So in the fall of 2008, two large double hung windows were put into each end of the cabin. Now there is lots of natural light entering the cabin during the day. That resulted in this little structure having ten windows in all. As well, the main level walls were 
insulated and covered with luaun plywood. The windows and doors were trimmed out with cedar to give a finished look. The under side of the loft floors were left open to expose the 2x10 floor joists.
insulated and covered with luaun plywood. The windows and doors were trimmed out with cedar to give a finished look. The under side of the loft floors were left open to expose the 2x10 floor joists.The original plan also called for letting the white oak age to a beautiful silver color. Later it was decided to apply a high quality wood preserver to all the exposed wood. That turned the silvery white oak into this lovely golden brown.
As an added little fun thing, since the cabin is out in the country, we got to see lots of wildlife while working. Nothing was more interesting than seeing a wild turkey decide to follow me around the job site. "Turkey" seemed to be rather tame, which is stupid considering that turkey hunting season is in the spring. After taking this picture, we didn't see "Turkey" again. Wonder what 
happened to him?
happened to him?
