I think we going to fo LP smart side they have a new black color we love and it is far easier to cut than Hardie Plank we’ve used it on our last two houses and liked it

LP Smartside is a nice looking product. We had Hardiplank and them our next house was Smartside which was much easier to install.

I’m looking into Smartside, thank you! Is it very eco-friendly? Hard to find the perfect balance between environmentally friendly materials, durability, cost, etc.

Louisiana Pacific’s SmartSide Lap and Panel siding consists of a primer-coated resin-saturated paper overlay (MDO) on zinc-borate treated aspen wood oriented wafers saturated with Rubinate MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) adhesive. Its exposed edges are treated with 3 coats of sealer.

Installation methods are critical. Great care must be taken to prime and paint all cut edges with flashing placed behind plank joints. The surface paper is thin and delicate so nails must not be overdriven. Don't use staples. Use a minimum 0.113 inch smooth shank diameter, hot-dip galvanized nail. Store siding in a dry location off the ground. Don't finish with stain or vinyl acetate/PVA paint. Handle prefinished siding with "extreme care" and touch up any damaged paint. Seal all gaps at butt joints with a high-quality exterior sealant meeting ASTM C920, minimum Class 25 sealant.

Maintenance is important as with most claddings but Louisiana Pacific says Smartside should be painted every 3 to 5 years. I would not exceed the 5 year recommendation since remedy under the warranty is pro-rated and difficult to obtain.

This is what Smartside Abyss Black looks like:

Beautiful! we will go with factory pre-finished, which comes with a 15 year guarantee on the paint we are on year 11 with ours on our house, and it looks great!

So install is very tricky. We have hardie panels and planks and purposefully did not get it pre painted because it’s a challenge to install without chipping and needing new paint anyway. You also then get to choose any colour you want

Update on our project. Here is a simplified rendering of the cabin we plan to build this summer. We have settled on the following for the exterior:

- Black siding (combo of vertical metal, horizontal LP SmartSide, and shingles in the peaks)

- Sand Jeld Wen Windows

- Woodland Timber, Multi-Tone Matte Steel Roofing

My husband built a model (note, fireplace location has changed since he built this)

Here's what we're thinking for floorplan:

Would love your feedback!

Roofing Steel we are planning to use is a multi-tone product. Actual looks darker than this screenshot:

Are there walls surrounding the bunk beds with a small opening on one side and a smaller window on the other side?

Retreat Home · More Info

Something on the lines of this, but windows in both upper & lower bunks. Our ceiling will be cathedral, so I'm still working out how I want to finish the upper bunk. Interiors will be all/mostly reclaimed fir wood, so not this log look.

Here's another inspiration in a single bunk:

Great Bear · More Info

Bunks are fine! I assume this is a cabin type? If so good and fun.

Yes, cabin. Small square footage, so bunks will maximize heads on beds. You can see floorplan and elevations in my earlier post.

We have friends with a cabin that has a bunk house as a smaller side building and it’s basically wall to wall bunks and it’s perfect. Exactly what is needed. Super fun and easy

Are the full bunks going to sleep one person or two per bunk, usually?

I know someone who had this in a cabin, one room was raised captains beds rather than bunks.

Their opinion was that the upper full especially were a pain. You had to be On the upper bunks to get a fitted sheet off and on and to tuck in the top sheets, you couldn't reach across. And single top sheets and blankets fit better because there was not the excess against the back wall of the bunk, but if two people were in the bunk instead of one, a single sheet or blanket wasn't enough for two people. They never looked like the styled photos you see because no one could keep things tucked in like that. And looks aside, the sheets on the upper tended to pull off because of the difficulties of tucking things in. If you are using sleeping bags or something none of this might be a big deal, but the tidy beds in those photos are pretty unrealistic.

Very interesting project! I think a black house in a wooded lake area is going to be stunning.

I have some questions/comments:

• General--how many adults/children will be using the home at any one time? How long do you plan to spend in the home at each visit? Are you restricted to 1,000 square feet or is this your choice?
• Master bedroom--did you purposely leave out a closet? or are you not storing much, because it is a vacation home? I'd want windows on two walls for cross ventilation and light.
• Are you only planning on having children as guests? Wouldn't you want a guest bedroom for adult guests?
• Living Room--wouldn't you want to take advantage of the river view while seated on the sofas/chairs? Right now your sectional faces the interior of the house.
• Dining Area--I'm assuming that the booth is the seating for the dining area. There doesn't seem to be any room for a table and extra chairs.
• Kitchen--the wall with the refrigerator, sink and pantry looks cramped. There's not much work space on either side of the sink. The island looks small to have the cooktop and seating, which could be dangerous when frying or sauteeing, especially with gas.

Just some things to think about.

Just a note about your kitchen: our farmhouse is a 20' x 32' rectangle. Our galley kitchen is set up like yours, somewhat. (Reach in pantry is part of adjacent laundry room). You might think about eliminating the counter stools and deepening that range counter. Our range counter is about 39" deep. We have an induction range, so I often cover the top with a towel, which gives me more prep space.

We also have our sofa up against the view windows, but since we're almost always horizontal when on the couch, we're always facing the view. Do people sit on a sofa, lol?

One last suggestion. I wanted a windowed inglenook corner/windowseat corner for our woodstove. We use it constantly, winter and summer. In your space, instead of a sectional, there'd be a sofa facing the FP and a built-in seated area on the windowed wall in between. (Storage underneith the seat, 👍shelves on ends.)

The bunk beds will be a pain in the ass (architectural term) to make on a daily basis.

Many features are acceptable in a cottage or cabin, but are not in a house. Make sure what you build now fits into your long range plan.

If you have avocado appliances in your kitchen, it will throw off the date.

These are great observations. We anticipate 75% of the time, it will just be the two of us. 20% if the time another couple will join us. They can choose to sleep together in one bunk, or use two. We currently have 3 guest bedrooms in our primary home, 1 queen, 1 full, 1 with 2 twins twins. Surprisingly, the room with the full bed is most popular with our guests. 5% of the time, we anticipate one or both of our sons and/ or grandkids visiting (4 adults, 3 young kids) . So 9 people max. Top bunks are for kids. . There are a number of clever bed linen solutions for these types of bunks that RVers have used for years and we will employ.

Kitchen: Small yes. Intentionally. I don’t like to cook on vacation. I like to eat out. One requirement for our vacation home was access by boat and snowmobile to multiple restaurants. We can get to a dozen within 10 minutes! That said, the kitchen will work quite well. Sink area is tight, but should motivate us to not leave dirty dishes around. Far bigger than the kitchens in the highly popular Sprinter RV van we were also considering. No dishwasher. I never use mine at home, where I do cook. The stovetop will be induction and the pennisula two-leveled, which should help with splatters . I didn’t want the cooktop under the window as splattering oil on a window in -20 temps is horrible to clean. Using a combo convection/toaster/microwave oven installed in the pantry unit.

Yes, we will sit at the booth. With two chairs pulled up to the booth, and 4 at the pennisula, we can seat 10.

Size: Setback rules require 100’ back from the river. With river on 2 sides, we have a tight building footprint and wanted a house with no stairs. We also did not want to build/maintain rarely used space, so we really tried to include only what we absolutely needed.

Closets. There is a freestanding amoire in the master, and a storage loft over the bathrooms. Also a seperate garage on property. We won’t leave much at the cabin.

View. We find we rarely sit in our living room in our primary home (on a lake) much before the sun sets, so except for rainy days, this hopefully won’t be much of an issue. We also wanted the booth and sectional to be open to one another for those occassions when we have all 9 of us there. And lastly, Sun sets at 10pm during summer. These long evenings will be spent in the seperate screen house with firepit. Setback rules do not apply to auxillary buildings under 200 square feet!

Duration of Visits: Primarily 2-3 nights once or twice a month, year round.

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Well, @Tami, you certainly have thought this out--good luck with your new build!

I like the L shape! Yes there is a post, but not a deal breaker. Something to consider. Eliminates counter seating-but need for seating for 10 will be seldom.

It doesn't eliminate the seating because you could have a table, especially if the post could be moved somehow. And you could have a small table that expands or keep a big folding table for larger groups. It just makes things more flexible.

I believe you should be able to have no post in 14 ft. My house is 19 ft wide and has no load bearing walls on the interior. It depends upon the structure and your local requiremtns of course.

The post is to support the length of the 28’ king beam-so one is neccessary somewhere along the center of that room.

VOTES PLEASE!

We are considering an alternative kitchen layout (thanks to palimpsest!).

Weigh in on which you prefer: Galley-Style or L-Shape Kitchen.

Thank You!

L shape

Yes, just like the black window frames from the 80s

There is a ton of stuff that time stamps a home unless you keep it traditional.

I would see if the roof can be framed without the post.

That would work if we used truss rafters, where all load is diverted to the outside walls. We are going with a timber frame, using beams and rafters, instead of engineered trusses. This will give us the interior look we want, but the ridge must carry the downward load, which in turn must be supported by periodic posts.

But usually the king post ends terminates into a tie beam that transfers the load to the wall posts? Thats how barns are built with no interior posts?

Your living room/kitchen isn't so large that there are multiple ways to frame it without a post. Vaulted trusses are one option. The other is to size up the ridge beam so that it can span from the kitchen wall at the left all the way to the exterior wall at the right.

Since we are constructing this ourselves, the narrow width (14') and the open rafter roof, will allow us to build the roof using smaller, dimension lumber. Spanning the entire width (23') would require us to use a heavy laminated beam, which we can't lift. Same goes for truss rafters, which would require a crane or large crew. We also want to preserve an open ceiling so we want to avoid collar ties (which alone are not recommended to adequately carry the load, especially in our heavy, snow load area) or to use bottom chords.

Should look something like this:

Because of the high pitch and small size, we could possibly get by without the post, but we feel it is good insurance, and we don't mind it. Can be a nice design element, that in our situation, is completely authentic. Likely wouldn't go this chunky, and wouldn't use this hood, but would use a square, reclaimed post.

Here's another option for floorplan that increases area around the sink by eliminating a door.

L-shaped, and your comments on black exterior might help me fix the mistake my builder made with staining our house the wrong color. Black might be my answer!

Okay here's another option: span a beam across the width of the room at the location of the post and then post up from there to support both ridge beams . Essentially it become a built-in place truss. The post isn't the end of the world in the gallery kitchens, but it will tend to break up already cozy spaces. It feels more out of place in the L shaped kitchen.

I do like in the new plan in elimination of the living room door for another reason. If you can't make the living space a little longer and keep the door, I think this will improve the flexibility of arranging the living space and porch. Not sure if you have this 96"x40" sectional right now, but a sectional of that dimensions is going to tend be particularly cozy for 4 people, who will be sitting nearly on top of each other and sharing leg space in the corner. I'd like a little more space for an even slightly larger sectional or a pair of sofas for better sitting.

Do not have, nor am I married to a sectional. I am also strongly considering 4 comfy, swivel chairs surrounding a round ottoman. Or we could go with a traditional sofa and two chairs. But I do like structuring the room to keep my options open, and the sectional seems the most challenging to accommodate, so I always include it in my drawings.

Where is the fly tying station?

In the 1500 square foot wood shop my husband just completed next to our main residence.

If the wine cellar is in the wood shop too, the design decisions on the house are less important.

Actually, we'll only fly fish in inland creeks. The river we're on is 1200' wide and 50 miles long and leads to a 1700 square mile, deep water lake where we'll be mostly trolling for walleyes and muskies with downriggers. Or through the ice! You can also catch 60" sturgeon in the river - landing them's a workout. Very few trout here, though.

Wine cellar is located under our winery.

But the area under the controversial post is reserved for cabin wine.

My reason for wanting to change the post is not esthetic, it's functional...it lands in a spot that reduces the flexibility of a relatively small footprint. Fixing an island to a spot takes up a lot of room for a kitchen in a place you hope to not cook much.

I like the idea of four swivel chairs around an ottoman for this house. It definitely gives the most flexibility and is very inviting. I've done it for three clients and they all love it!

Hello! It's been a while, but save for a few pieces of trim we are waiting for, we are nearing completion on the exterior of our cabin! Here are some photos of how it's turning out so far, and a couple of the early build-including my husband hand framing the roof.

We did go with black, but after much debate, went with sand colored windows and mixed it up with two different sidings and used a weathered wood asphalt shingle. The fireplace will (eventually) get covered with stone. Exterior lights will be matte gold. Still debating on a door color to go with our Black & Tan cabin.

Tami, the black looks nice at that scale! Thanks for showing the final result. A two story house up the road was recently completed in all black, and at 5,000 sf or so, comes across as gloomy and oppressive.

Nice job. I would do front doors in a Knotty Alder wood. It will give a bit of warmth and draw the eye to the entrance.

What a lovely property!