Long-time readers know that the Secret Lair is cunningly equipped with a sleeping loft accessible only by climbing a vertical 10′ ladder. Which ladder started looking like a very bad idea on the evening of the day Uncle Joel fell down went boom and messed up his rotator cuff good and proper. Still trying to recover from that.
The bedroom addition, which previously had been one of those “someday maybe before I die” projects, suddenly started to look like a good idea. An idea, perhaps, whose time had come.
Being a 12X16 microcabin, the Lair is a single room with a vestpocket bathroom and is not copiously equipped with reconfigurable wall space. In fact there is exactly one place in the whole building you could put a door to another theoretical room…
And that’s right where the gun rack currently resides.
There’s 37 inches between the woodstove wall tiles and the window frame, which is five inches more than required by a narrow pre-hung door. It’ll need some re-framing, but what the hell. It wouldn’t be the first time. If I knew what I was doing, I’d have done it all right in one take.
Fortunately, that little chunk of wall happens to reside right where I always intended to put the bedroom anyway…
Okay, so picture an eight-foot lean-to on concrete piers right where the woodshed currently is. (sigh) Of course this means I have to move the woodshed again…
It’s eleven feet from the window frame to the rear corner of the cabin. Still haven’t decided if I’m going to use all that or just go the previously-intended eight feet, but it’s pretty much certain the front of the bedroom addition has to begin just to the right of the cabin’s west window. If I do use all the available space, and then come out eight feet wide, the path between the cabin and the drainage ditch starts to look pretty narrow but it does give me room for clothing storage. Eight by eight gets more nearly too small every time I think about it. A little easier to heat, though, and part of the plan is a room I can actually afford to heat at night when the temps get in the teens and below. Which I currently can’t safely do. So, small vented propane heater and an inner doorway with an actual door.
If moving the woodshed is looking like a recurring chore, perhaps wheels might be a worthwhile addition? Just a thought.
“There’s 37 inches between the woodstove wall tiles and the window frame, which is five inches more than required by a narrow pre-hung door.”
Then get a not-so-narrow door. The price is little different and you will eventually thank me. When it comes to doors, inches matter.
Also, that swinging door will take floor space either in your main space or your bedroom, and forever limit your options. Since you have to re-frame that wall anyhow, consider a pre-hung pocket door.
Joel, having built an office as a lean-to on my barn a few years ago, I made it 16X10 which allowed me to use full 2X6 by 12′ to do the rafters, leaving an overhang for sofitt and ventilation by placing formed foam plastic channels against the roof panels before shoving lots of insulation up there, then screwing strandboard up as a ceiling. I also insulated the walls to the max. It is ugly (the white paint helps but it still looks like strandboard – did it for lowest cost to usable results method..Going to be a shop/office/repair electrical stuff space.
The end result is that with a small convection heater set low, I keep the space in the upper 60’s even when it is zero outside. No AC yet, costs too much but I do have a dehumidifier for the summers. Needles to say I am not off the grid.
My recommendation, since you are going to lose almost 6″ of space on 3 sides when you set the walls, is to add a 10X10 space onto your lair.by floor measurement. And since you mention the whole abode is 12 x 16, that will give you a nice two sided alcove of 10 x 6 (wonder what the size of your wood shed is?)
This past summer I added a second lean to using the barn for one side and the office for another, this allowed me to put up one wall and one sliding barn door to make a storage shed for the yard machinery. It is not hard, done most by myself using ladders and leverage where necessary and some help to carry the roof panels, felt and shingles up there.
Time to set up a go fund Joel for the addition,
I am estimating your cost of materials to be on the order of 800 bucks. If there is a Menards or some other big box store near you, they usually have design it yourself kiosks that will spit out the complete materials list for free.
Would happily lend you a hand if the chance presents itself. Or if you give me the final dimensions you are settling on, I can do a quick sketch to code assuming code means anything where you are.
Don’t forget to plan the wiring, switch locations, outlets and 12 VDC runs too. Maybe some coax for your satellite TV and Cat 5 for the router……
When do we begin the fund project? And, do you NEED a door to the bedroom, or would a lovely hanging curtain do as well? I mean, you aren’t going for increasing the resale value, are you? Beads. You could use lovely little beads. 🙂 **
An alternative, of course, would be to run the new room flush with the FRONT of the cabin and use the window space as part of the doorway. This will allow you to make the door as big as you like, and I agree that bigger is better.
Just a thought.
“You could use lovely little beads. 🙂 **” Umm I don’t think so. As I understand it, Joel’s idea is to heat only the bedroom at night, presumably with propane. Small, sealed-up, presumably heavily insulated bedroom = fuel savings.
Well, if we are going whole hog, add a small cast iron water reservoir to the existing stove to heat water and then run some lines from there to a radiator in the bedroom and a small cistern mounted up where his current bed sits. That would allow natural convection water heating of the added space, no need for pumps or anything fancy. I for one am not a fan of flame heaters in a well sealed room. This is foolproof so long as the temps inside never go below freezing.
Just a size thing, I lived 8 years in the Montana mountains in a shack 8×8 on the outside, 7×7 on the inside. 2×6 walls and R-21 insulation. A bunk and a storage cabinet and a heater and enough room to stand, basically. Should be way plenty for sanity as a bedroom if you have the rest of the lair to retreat to in other times. Not so much if it your entire living area.
Edward, I presume you’re a long-time reader as well, so I’ll choose to think you just had a small mental hiccup. If it were myself, I’d call it a brain-fart, but I don’t know you, so I’m being polite. I do not wish to offend. That being said,
…”assuming code means anything where you are”? Pardon my unseemly guffaw.
I think that was part of the reason Joel is where he is, doing what he is–the idea that the government doesn’t get to tell him what to do with his abode, or much of anything else. It’s one reason I refuse to live within city limits.
So this is where it starts…
Some time ago I used to drive by this property on the way home where somebody had almost a full acre of covered ‘shed’ – with various types of corrugated material for roofing. They’d managed to do it about 30′ by 30′ at a time from what you could see as an overview while going around the curve. Never saw it from level ground so I don’t know what they had in terms of ‘walls’ – but from an elevated position it looked like a shantytown in the Philippines or a favela in Brazil – just smaller.
I always promised myself I’d never get that out-of-hand.
What if…..the existing Lair becomes the “addition” attached to a NEW ! IMPROVED !! Lair? I realize each square foot has a base cost, but….
12X16 (now) = 192 sq ft. 16X16 = 256 sq ft. Standalone “new” Lair connected to the old one with an unheated 6 ft gerbil tube, connecting to your 37 inch wall space. Doors at each end to conserve heat, hinging into the tube (door swings don’t consume higher value floor space), Allows construction of “addition” uncompromised by intruding into existing space so existing Lair is fully usable during construction.
Wanna go whole hog? Figure 20X20 new space, old Lair becomes storage. 20X20 is standard 2-car garage, there are plenty of packaged kits for that, only probable change might be saltbox roof to make more solar panel space. Think big, Joel, you’ve got a much bigger team than when the Lair was first built.
Build large, build once. Whatever size you’re thinking of,,,,go a little larger.
Going for the Taj MaJoel from all the input. Let us know when the money needs to start flowing.
Wow. Okay, that was more input than I expected.
First: No, we’re not abandoning the Lair. The Lair is perfect as it is, except in those particulars in which it is not perfect. I don’t want a bigger space, I certainly don’t want to go to the work and expense of building a bigger space. I just want to move the bedroom from “overhead” to “off to one side.”
I have considered kicking out the lean-to twelve feet so that the Lair acquires a permanent woodshed. May still do that, but there are difficulties: The front path to the chicken coop would essentially disappear, and it would mean no window on the west side of the bedroom. Still not sure that isn’t a price worth paying.
On the subject of paths to the chicken coop, I want an outside door on the rear of the addition … so that the cabin acquires a back door. Which in a flammable building heated with wood by an amateur, is something I have wished for.
On the subject of the Lair’s west window, I’m not willing to give that up. So the addition can be flush with the rear of the cabin, but not the front. Even though I agree that would make the interior door situation easier. Also I’d have to cut down my juniper grove, and I like my juniper grove.
A pocket door is an option I’ve considered. It would mean tearing out much of my wall tiling, but I could replace it with taller cement board and still feel good about life.
A couple of people have already promised to provide funding if I get my ass in gear, (a neighbor has promised to contribute a Real Bed,) so a TUAK fund raiser may not be necessary.
OK, understand. But if you “save” the west window your bedroom’s “front” wall will be right up against said window and the thickness of the wall will further reduce the actual door opening size. You could incorporate a window into the front wall of the new room and/or add one to the west wall, either one providing light and summer ventilation. I can see why you want a west window for the ability to observe activity in that direction.
I’m not sure that we are picturing the same thing but… A “Lean-to” has obvious advantages in ease of construction, economy and strength. Also, for a given floor size it has half the interior volume to heat and less surface area through which to lose heat. That said, a true lean-to has a shitload of unusable floor area because of the slanting wall/roof. Could I sell you on the idea of a modified lean-to with perhaps a four foot end wall supporting the slanted roof? That would give you space to put the bed right up against the wall, without adding much building material.
Have you considered a narrower window in the west wall of the Lair? This would still give you the light and ventilation you are looking for. A narrower window would also give you the space for the bedroom door and the front wall of your lean-to. As others have pointed out the wider any door you put in, the better. If your bedroom door swung up against the front wall of your bedroom that would use the least amount of wall/floor space. The other option could be a sliding door on the bedroom side like a shed/barn door. If you went with the sliding door you could hang your gun rack just inside the bedroom for easy access.
The one big advantage I can see to making the lean-to the entire length of the Lair would be to bring all of the food storage and seasonal clothing into the Lair the possibility of cutting down on rodent damage.
Ben, we’re not picturing the same thing. I plan for the bedroom to have a slightly slanting flat roof, coming off the eight-foot mark on the cabin but not slanting all the way to the ground or anything. There will definitely be a west wall that’s more than head-high. What I haven’t yet decided is whether to continue the roof another four feet beyond the western bedroom wall for a permanent woodshed.
Just out of curiosity, do you have termites out there? If so, it would probably not be a real good idea to snuggle a woodpile up against The Lair.
If this is not an issue, please ignore this comment.
🙂
That’s actually a pretty good point, Kentucky. We have some very aggressive ground termites here.
“do you have termites out there?” Precisely. Also it is possible that pallet wood could be infested with some rather exotic termites. Better that they not be stored long-term within the actual structure of your home.
Also, if rats find their way into your woodpile (a certainty I believe?), that would put them at least halfway into your home.
Another small point: Firewood is fuel. Fuel sometimes ignites at unexpected and inconvenient times. I have even been concerned that your present woodshed is too close to the Lair. (But I’m not the one who has to go out into the wet, cold and snow to fetch wood.)
“We have some very aggressive ground termites here.”
And that’s a really good reason we build structures up on concrete supports . . . to break the transition from earth to wood structure. It’s also not a bad idea to periodically check to be sure the little devils haven’t built “tubes” up the concrete to allow their passage to the wood . . . it is a common occurrence.