I've more-or-less finished one whole exterior wall! This wall faces the Northwest and gets the most weather. It took far, far more work than I expected, but I like how it turned out!



The patch of tyvek housewrap is covering the thimble hole for the wood stove chimney. The chimney will exit the wall at that point and then go up and mount to the exterior of the cabin. I preferred this solution to cutting a hole in ceiling/roof.

I used salvaged pine board and batten siding, most of which came from a dismantled granary in Potlatch, Idaho. I love the weathered look of that siding! Most of this pine siding is over 75-100 years old and still going strong!

After I finished the 2x4 stud frame, I cut out the rough window openings and installed the windows. I then installed all of the insulation (recyled Denim insulation from UltraTouch), followed by 1x4 horizontal pine nailers over the insulation. This was followed by a layer of tyvek over all of that, followed by the board and batten siding.

Much of the time involved with this wall had to do with scribing and cutting trim and siding (with a hand saw) around the window trim and exposed purlins and rafters. Much time was spent clipping into a climbing rope, climbing up the ladder, hauling up a piece of trim or siding, test fitting a piece of siding, climbing back down the ladder, cutting some more, clipping in and climbing up and screwing the boards and battens in place. I expect the eave walls to go much, much faster since it does not involve such heights/ladders/climbing harnesses.

Today I attached cedar fascia/bargeboard and I carefully caulked around all the windows and trim.

I've got a couple more hours of work to get the woodstove and chimney installed and then its on to framing and finishing the North eave wall.