A bunch of miscellaneous progress...

The floor system is done, with the exception of the final finish floor. Having the floor system pretty much finished is great! The cabin seems to be noticeably better insulated overall, and the floor is solid and rigid. The acoustics are much improved, too.



Mainly, having the floor system complete makes the whole cabin feel much more finished...like there is now a clearly defined, real, interior space which is more or less separate from the outside world. Loose pieces of 1/2" plywood half-covering floor joists simply didn't do that.



Using a combination of an electric planer (running off a portable generator) and a 2.5" Barr slick, I leveled the tops of the loft floor joists. Several timbers in the cabin have warped, but none so much as a couple of these Ponderosa pine 4x7 loft joists. It took considerable effort to level these so that the loft floor would be flat and level.

After leveling, I sanded and oiled these loft joists and started applying the loft ceiling (the ceiling that you see when you stand below the loft). The loft ceiling is made from 1x6 tongue and groove Western Red Cedar. It has been coarsely sanded, with one coat of semi-gloss polyurethane (like I did with the pine tongue and groove ceiling for the main cabin).

In retrospect, I probably should have just used oil. Next time!



There are all sorts of challenges here, most of which you cannot see from the pictures. Namely, the 7x9 Douglas Fir tie beam in Bent 2 has twisted (warped), so it is no longer flat on the top nor is is the surface plumb. There will be all kinds of subtle planing and hidden shimming involved here.

The wood is probably not done moving, either. Yay, timber framing with green wood!



Below is a picture of the loft joists, looking up from the floor under the loft. You can see the beginning of the cedar loft ceiling falling into place. The effect is good. The cedar contrasts with the pine and the Douglas Fir tie beam.



Below: A closer look at the loft ceiling... You can see in the nearest pine loft joist dovetail that the joint is no longer flush at the bottom. That is caused by the tie beam twisting (warping).



I'll finish up the loft ceiling, and then I think I will install the Douglas Fir loft flooring next, followed by the railing posts and barn wood railing. The loft railing posts will obviously need to be level and plumb as it sits on the twisted tie beam.

Plane, chisel, and shims...