8' x 16’ + 4' V nose "Take A Kid Outdoors" House Build

[Chad Holst]

Hopefully this can consolidate some other threads going with info for this build...or better said "questions" for this build.

The goal is to end up with an 8x12 +4' V nose wheel house for fishing in the SE area of MN, but may be used for a couple long haul trips upnorth each year.

Much of the material and construction is being done by sponsors, donors and our staff.

We are hoping to get advise as we go. Most if not all of the build plans so far have come from things i have found on this forum, so thank you for the help.

To be clear, i am stealing your ideas, things i have seen in your photos and a bit of what i have seen on commercial sites. The interior is being modeled after the amazing "solar powered guinness house" one poster did a build thread on here. (minus the guinness signs...the kids prefer something not so dark usually. More along the root styled beer) I was actually thinking of doing the exact same style and signage, but with "rootbeer" signs. (if you have not seen his house, do a search..its pretty sweet and within our build skill level. Gotta love tounge and groove)

Our "needs" are simple, but must be included: The house must drop very close to ice, no big gap from hole to ice. The plan so far should get us about 4 inches off the ice..not to bad.

house frame around door must be steel and allow for the door to swing OUT, not in. two reasons for this...so when it gets the "boot" from a would be thief, it wont break IN. more importantly we are working with getting kids from the Ronald McDonald House, and will be needing wheel chair ramps (when needed) and more friendly wheel chair room inside when door swings out.The plan will be to have slots in the bottom of the steel door frame to slide brackets for a ramp into.

Must have 3 beds.

Must have lights that run on propane and lights that run on battery/generator.

Even thought alot of the material has came from other sources than us having to buy it...this will be a MAJOR cost to our non-profit, so it must last. We would rather take extra time and do it with the right materials than have to buy/build a new one in a few years because it is falling apart.

And finally it MUST be built with the help of kids. I have a few of my own, and we already have a short line of other "helpers". But if your in the rochester area and have a kid that you would like to help us on a weekend or holiday feel free to message me and we will let you know when and where we are working on it. Please let them know that i have a terrible attitude, i smell a little and i often poke strangers with sharp sticks.

Anyway...here we go:

We have the Steel cut and ready to be picked up at McNeilus steel. They will also be providing the smooth black .04 aluminum sheeting and the aluminum dimaond plating for the 24" boarder around the entire bottom and also all corners, wheel wells and roof edges.

Heres a crude drawing of the frame:

We paln on boxing out the wheel wells with 1/4 2x2 angle iron. the box will be 3-4 feet high, we will messure this when we figure out the room needed after designing the wheel swivle system. We have enough steel to do 4 foot x 4 foot box that is 1 foot deep. (Will 1 FOOT be enough room to attach the wheel swivle system and the breaks/wheels and not have tire stick out past the side of the house?)

Before we can have the frame welded up, we need the wheel system set up and ready t ogo on the frame. Thats our main focus right now. Today I went to Northern tool and supply in Rochester. Here is the shopping list we came up with. I didnt purchase it today because i want to check prices and also see what you guys think...advice...suggestions...etc:

(All item numbers are from the NTS web site)

I doubt we will break the 3k weight mark, but just incase, we are putting breaks on it. Here are the breaks i looked at:

$114.99 10" electric

Item number 21507

Drums are $59.00 each $119.98 total for the 2

item Number 21506

Spindle $32.99 each. $65.98 total

Item 12198

Springs $29.99 Each $59.98 total

item # 125208

Break control box $64.99

item 637285

Wheels/tires $139.99 $280 total

Item #121223

Coupler $19.99

Item#605666

We also looked at winches and figured the 3,500 lb would be fine, as it only a few bucks more than the 2klb but the issue was they all have the handle on the same side...so i need to see where they make winches with right and left sided handles. i think they were $55 EACH

The biggest thing we need is help with the design to mount this. how do we hook the wheel to the 3x3 tube that will swivle up and down? What system do you guys suggest?

[Chad Holst]

picked up a 32" steel door today at menards. Couldnt beat the price, had a 3 inch scratch in it, that wont matter as we will be painting it anyway, $10! Also found a window in the dnet/scratch discount area that was brand new, just had the packaging ripped open, no price, so i asked the guy for a ticket, i suggested $10 for it, he agreed.

Debating on how to do the ceiling still. i loved the curved ceiling idea, anyone know how you frame that up? I know we are doing a rubber roof, but then what goes on it to make the "curve"? rather than tongue and groove on the ceiling i think we are just doing the sheeting...

[jsr426hemi]

When I started out I was hoping for 3500 lbs or less so I purchased everything for that weight. Someone also told me electric brakes were required if over 3500 lbs in iowa......well that was wrong! After making some design changes I knew it would be heavier so spindles and tires are rated for just over 5000 lbs combined. Probably should have went with 4 wheels instead of 2 but that would have took alot of work to change. Had my shack weighed with scales by a dot friend last week. The metal frame, the wood frame, the aluminum siding and the wheel setup weighed right at 3000 lbs which I was so relived not knowing what it truly weighed for some time. I have 2000 lbs left for the rubber roof, a little diamond plating, windows, doors and interior. I should be ok. Mine is 22 feet from front of the v to the rear. I know yours will be a little shorter but the intial weight adds up fast so it never hurts to go a little beefier. As far as the wheel system goes I used a 2" rod thru the trailer frame. I had cut a 3" tube with 1/2" wall welded to outside of frame and also one welded inside the arm that pivots. On the inside there is a bronze bushings and on the outside another bronze bushing then a clamp collar. To make sure it all stays on I have a 3/4" bolt and washer threaded into the end of the rod. I will post some pics of my setup when I have a little more time. I did incorporate a leaf spring to give it some flex. Initial road test looked good but we didn't even have a floor on when we took it for a spin. Instead of using winches I am trying 3 camper 3500 lb electric jacks. They did work well the first time I used them to lift the frame in order to place the scales underneath to weigh it. Had to take a battery around and raise each separately. They will be eventually wired to 2 batteries with three toggle switches to operate all three together. They are mounted on a 6"x6" piece of tubing with a plate welded on top and 3 bolts welded to the plate.

[Chad Holst]

Thanks for the info jsr, i appreciate the ideas and input. the wheel system is now on hold for a minute, as we went to the Ice show in Blain today and it sounds like one of the manufacturing companies want to build the frame for us and put on a wheel system, etc..! I wont say who it is until we get back to him this week. if this happens...wow. what a big chunk of time and money it will save us.

On that note, i cant begin to describe the caliber of people we have in this sport/industry. We have (just from todays show) 15+ business cards of people that want to help and have pledged to do something for TAKO. It made me very proud to be able to call some of these people my new friends. I know alot of companies do this to help image etc, but i know for alot of these guys that it goes beyond that, they truelly are great people and are looking to use their companies to allow us to do great things.

Like we did last year we will be running a page with Our Take A Kid Ice Fishing event, and Joe/Rick have agreed to run a banner on this site with a link to the info.

So, back to our build: We found a few options for heat. Im debating on a vented system or a hang on the wall non-vented heater. Pro's and Con's? (keep in mind price is a factor)

We have catch covers coming for the holes. (thanks guys, you know who you are. I'll be adding your info when we launch the event thread for the event)

We took many pictures today of the layouts of the houses at the show. I think we have a pretty good idea of how we are going to do the layout.

Can anyone suggest a propane lighting system? I find only 2 options when i do a search on the web. we are wiring it for 12v/110 but want to be able to light it with propane also, if we ever have batt/gen issues.

[jsr426hemi]

That is great that you have someone to build your frame and wheel system. To me that was the most difficult part. What a great project for the kids! I did initially buy a hang on the wall blue flame propane heater but after reading many posts I took it back three years later Luckily Menards took it back and received in-store credit and purchased a direct vent that was on sale. I like the idea of fresh air coming in and all the co2 going out. I don't want to pass out in the shack and not wake up I plan on rigging up a couple of computer fans in some sort of tube or in the corners to suck warm air from the ceiling and blow it out on the floor. I think the vented system is the way to go but it is pricey.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

We found a few options for heat. Im debating on a vented system or a hang on the wall non-vented heater.

I have no issue with someone putting their own safety in jeopardy by doing an un-vented blue flame heater. They work great, and are super cheap. Since this is for the kids, and they don't know any better, it's a bad idea to go that route. An extra $300 for a nice vented heater is money well spent.

[Chad Holst]

Well that makes that choice easy...so, what would you suggest for a direct vent heater? Brand, size per house foot? I see that alot of them say they do XX per square foot, but what does that mean if the walls are 6" high in one house and 8-9 in another. are they pretty accurate?

If we do infact get the frame made, it will be 4 feet longer than the one we build, so my needs would be for a 8x16 house with 4" V nose with 8 foot high ceilings. We will door off a bathroom area, but i imagine we would vent the top and bottom of that door to help keep it alittle warm in the potty. We are also insulating this house pretty well, so that would factor into the heater needed right? We are putting 2" foam on walls and ceiling with 1.5 inch between two layers of 1/2" treated plywood on floor. All R7 foam is being sealed with carpenters seal and then taped.

While typing this i did a few searches to see what they cost...what a huge difference from brand to brand... Can someone recommend a good valued brand. Like i said in the firt post, cost is an issue, but if it comes to the house lasting...or safety, we will simply wait till we can do it right.

[jsr426hemi]

I purchased a direct vent from menards on sale for $300. They are normally over $400. It's makes 18,000 btu's and heats 525 sq ft which will be plenty. Maybe u could explain your project to store manager and get one donated or at a good discount. If I find something cheaper I will let u know!

[jsr426hemi]

Northern tool has vented heaters on sale but still expensive. Here is something I found that might help u figure out the size or btu's u need.

To heat an area like an outbuilding or new building, you must calculate what size heater you need. Once you make your calculations, you can decide on the best choice for a type of heater and how many BTUs you need. Follow these steps to calculate heater size:

Measure the length, width and height of each room you want to heat. Multiply the length of a room by the width and the height to learn the total cubic feet of area. A room that is 12 feet long, 12 feet wide and 10 feet high would be have an area of 1440 cubic feet.

Estimate your desired temperature increase. Research the lowest area temperature. Subtract this from the temperature you want to maintain in order to calculate the desired temperature increase. For example, if area lows average 38 degrees, and you want to maintain a temperature of 68 degrees, you will need a temperature increase of 30 degrees.

Calculate the BTU's you need. First multiply by .133 the total cubic feet of area. Multiply that result by the temperature increase you calculated. The result, rounded off to the nearest thousand, is the total BTU's or heater size you need.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

If you decide to do direct vent, first question is forced air or not? That has been debated as many times on this site as Vex vs Marcum.

You'll want something around 20k btu's. I wouldn't go less than 18k or over 24k.

If you watch the big auction site you can find some really good deals. I saved over $500 on a brand new in the box heater.

[fsnrod]

Let me suggest talk to some of the big fish rental places on mille lacs or lake of the woods tell them who you are and what you're doing ask them what's best vented or non vented and the safest way to install.

[Chad Holst]

Fsnrod, thanks, i know that the vented it going to be safer...its vented. I know almost all of the houses they rent out use wall hang units that are unvented, but they are also built with "a few more currents of air" going through them. Dont get me wrong, im sure most of their houses are great, but they are not sealed up like the wheel houses, or atleast how this wheel house will be.

Lil ripper, O dont think we would use the forced air, as we already have a cheap yet effective way to circulate the air. Im guessing that is the advantage of the forced air? and im guessing thats more expensive?

JSR, thanks bud! thats perfect. thanks for the info.

I had a bear of a time finding them on that big auction site. Ill do some searching again today.

You guys all rock! thanks for the help. Cross your fingers, we find out today about the frame....hopefully we just ramped up building by a month! and ALOT less money.

BTW, i miss posted earlier and someone PM'ed it to me. The door we got was 36"...as it needs to be wide enough for wheel chairs, i think i posted it was 32". Good catch.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Lil ripper, O dont think we would use the forced air, as we already have a cheap yet effective way to circulate the air. Im guessing that is the advantage of the forced air? and im guessing thats more expensive?

I had a bear of a time finding them on that big auction site. Ill do some searching again today.

The forced air aren't more expensive. I really like them since the heat comes out at floor level. The drawback is power. You can easily run from Friday-Sunday, but if you get beyond 2-3 days you'll need a generator, or a big battery bank.

Once you narrow down your heater search to the model, you'll have much better luck finding deals. There are lots of them out there. Search things like rv surplus, rv scratch & dent, etc.

[fsnrod]

What I was talking about was wind deflector over the wall vent on the outside. I know a guy that had a very bad experience when wind blew the carbon monoxide back in the house one day on mille lacs his buddy found him just in time he laying on the floor almost passed out from the fumes .It was a new house one of the first times he used it. He told me the wind was blowing directly at the vent.

[Chad Holst]

Just a quick update. The house build research and planning continues...

We are now doing a 8x16 w/ 4' V nose. We didnt end up getting the frame done by the original company that offered to build us one, rather than just sell us the wheel system. HOWEVER, another company step-in and and is going to build us the frame. We are giving them the steel we had for the original 8x12, and they are doing a rolling frame. THANK YOU TEAM LODGE!!!

The guy that runs the operation there is top notch. He also runs a large kids event and offered not only to build this frame in a week, but is having it "ready to build on"..wheels, paint, etc.. AND he offered to bring out his large stage/trailer to use at the Take A Kid Ice Fishing event in Feb. Cant wait to meet these guys at the St.Paul show and shake their hands. Amazing.

So, we are looking at driving to SD next week-end to pick up the frame. We have the Door (wheel chair access size), 1 Window, 6 cabinet doors, 2 bed cusions, New boxes of rubber backed carpeting squares, 13 8x4 sheets of .063 Aluminum smooth sheet for siding sitting in the garage ready to go. We are able to pick up the Diamond plate that was cut and bent as soon as we have a trailer to go pick it up.

We found a guy parting out an RV, and picked up a nice stove/oven drop in with a vented/filtered hood, a 20k btu vented LP furnace, a small 2 bin stainless sink, 2 cusions for the fold down beds, 1 larger flip out matress and as many cabinet hinge/locking handles as we want...picked it all up for $200.

The guys at Midwest Custom concepts are installing all the wiring and lights (LED). just need to do a little shopping on that big action site.

We also found a painter that will be taking care of the painting. We are doing flat black siding with Red diamond plate, to match the companies colors, clothing, etc. We looked at a ice castle that was at the blain show that was flat black and orange diamond plate, it it looked very nice.

As soon as we hear from the large home improvment store, about the discount/donation for the roof, wood, etc...we will be in Build mode.

If anyone has a teenager in the rochester area that you think would be a good candidate to work with our carpenter, painter or light/audio guys, shoot me a PM and we will set up a time to have them come out and give us a hand. We have a few kids helping, but there is room for a few more.

If anyone has anything they think would be good for the house, that they would like to donate, please let us know here on the forum. Rattle reels, double paned windows, LP tanks (we are paining them, so used is no issue), cabinet materials, bench material, etc.

because we are going to have wheel chairs in the house at times, we plan to make the main area a pretty open floor plan, so i am thinking we will put flat boat pedistal seat mounts in the floor, and then be able to move seats around as needed. We recieved 3 mounts from a member here, that we were going to use in the boat, but we could use a few more if anyone has them in the garage.

I will start the pictures coming, as we get the actual build started.

BTW, the new logo, banners, HSOforum, email, is all being set up today, so i will have a link for anyone wanting moreinfo on donations, the events, bringing kids out, etc. HSO will also have a link up as soon as our new logo is done and the HSOforum is up.

We will be at the St.Paul Ice show (SATURDAY), at some of our sponsors booths. If you see any of the boardmembers walking around, (they will have special shirts on, with "Take A Kid Outdoors" on the front/back) be sure to shake their hand/hug them as these men and woman all volunteer their time to our organization. ALSO, each of our sponsors will have a plaque at their booth if they are a TAKO sponsor, be sure to thank them for their contribution to the kids.

[Chad Holst]

We picked up the RV heater, stove, mattresses, cabinet hinges/locks and the sink this weekend. Nice fellas. $200 for all of it.

I then spent the weekend learning how a vented furnace and propane stove work. The good news is after a couple trips to get the right hook-up, the right hose, regulator, etc...we did get the stove running.

The kids started on the stove, Alex and Aaron did a great job of using the heavy brush on an angle grinder to clean up the entire stove top, oven housing and the front door. No more rust, cleaned and smoothed out. We then hit it with 500 degree motor enamel from rustolium. Looks a brand new Stove/oven. (of course we also had to take it apart and clean out all of the mouse nests and dropping) but for $200 just for the stove/oven, it was worth it alone.

The pads/mattresses are being refabricated by the girls and a friends mom.

Then....there’s the furnace....Oh...the furnace. I worked on this alone, which is a good thing as i may have let out a few expletives as i dug deeper into this mouse trap. (figuratively and literally) Fan wouldn’t run, gas wouldn’t come on, basically a nice house for a mouse family and what i can only guess was a small country worth of very active wasps/bees.

After taking it out of the casing/housing, which took an hour, i found why the motor wasn’t running. One of the furry little critters must have pulled off the clip holding a power supply wire to the fan. Plugged it in, started right up. checked both 110 and 12v, both worked perfect. Ok, now we were getting somewhere.

After putting the furnace on its side, top, end, etc... i tried to hook up the gas and find that issue...NO ISSUE! it fired right up. yah, now we are really talking business. Then, i realized it was blowing hot out the exhaust, but not for the warm are output. Hmmm. with a light and after removing more screws i was able to peak into the "view hole" far enough to see that its not really burning right inside. There appears to be alot of "junk" in the burn chamber. I put a shop vac exhaust hose on the intake, to feed it air, cranked it up and it did make a lot of fire in the chamber. (hoped to burn out anything blocking the burners) no luck. it just doesn’t seam to heat up enough under regular operation. I patched the holes in the heat hose feeding from the intake to the burner. The fans run fine.

Does anyone know if there is some kind of "stuff" inside the burn chamber that could be old. With my finger i feel around inside and there is a hardish material in there... it breaks apart pretty easily but doesn’t burn up when the fires on. I'd really like to get this working if possible, for no other reason than i'm stubborn and have a vendetta against this thing...it wont beat me! blah!

I got some picks of the boys working and the stove after completing it. (PS, make sure you run a regulator on the stove BEFORE you put the tank on. i may have made that mistake, and i may have popped a seal, and i may have had to pull a knob system apart and fix that seal...maybe...)

Does anyone know if the furnace needs a low pressure or high pressure regulator? I am using the low pressure one from working on the stove. The regulator says for btu less than 75k, stoves, small heaters, etc.

It is a Duo-Therm 20,000 btu heater. Late 70's im guessing. Not sure of model number but it is a series 65 i think. I didnt want to pop anything by putting too high of pressure on it, but i cant figure out why it doesnt heat up more. It blows pretty hot out the exhaust pipe, but the actual burn chamber that the air passes around to get heated up doesn’t get too hot to even touch.

I'll just use a 18k vent free unit that i found that burns 99.99 % clean, so no issues with venting and all the added stuff, but i would like to use the vented furnace if it will work.

For the fold down beds, straps or chains? I see that Lodge uses straps, but most use chains to secure the front edge to the ceiling. What do you guys suggest?

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

You can do the bunks a couple ways. Chains or straps are one.

My top bunk is two pieces. The back piece is fixed in place, and framed with 2x4's.

The front folds up to hold the cushions and sleeping bags and pillows in place, and is framed with 2x2's, and folds down onto a 2x2 which is lag bolted into the studs. To hold it up I have a cheap little sliding lock on each side that slides into a hole in the tongue & groove.

[Chad Holst]

I finally have some pictures to post.

We have picked up most of the things we need to get started and have a rolling house.

I would like to thank LOWES, McNeilus steel, Team Lodge, and Scott Hanlon Construction for all there time, sponsorship and help. I will be making a full list of who helped with what, when we get closer to the end.

So, the beginning...

Here is a picture of what was going to be our frame, until Team lodge traded us the steel for a finished frame.

(PICTURE NOT LOADING)

Dropped off the steel and picking up the finished frame at Team Lodge in Brookings, SD. Dave is the MAN!!

He also helped us with Windows, Tank holder, A new Heater...and...and.. THANKS MUCH!!

(My Co-pilot, taking a break on the wheels, after the 5 hour drive to Brookings)

Heres a picture of the Team Lodge guys and Aaron (15)

Not sure who that fugly looking guy is in the middle.

Put the wheels on, when we got back to town, Thanks Midwest Concepts for the use of the shop.

When we got home, it was time to unload the frame, get the trailer ready for some materials for the build, get a bit oh sleep.

Sunday morning I headed over to McNeilus to pick up our bent and cut diamond plate. We are doing 24 inches around bootom, the inside of the wheel box-out and then 2 and 4 inch trim around doors, windows, corners and roof edge.

Once the Diamond plate was unloaded it was time to pick up Mike (board member) and head to LOWES.

The boys at lowes loading up some of our materials. Thanks Nic, Jeremy, Chris, Pat...and all the other guys that helped us pick through wood, find the right tools, and materials...answer a MILLION questions... You guys are GREAT!!

One more quick stop to pick a few things that Lowes didnt have, loaded up the trailer some more and headed home...

No pictures of the fun part...unloading..but i'm sure you can imagine the joy.

After getting some temp lights wired up on the frame, we hauled to the house for some "after work" time on the floor. dropped it down to the ground, closed the garage door and heated up the sunflower...

We used 3/4 treated plywood for the floor. We had planned on 1 1/2 poly sandwiched between 2 sheets of 1/2 plywood for the floor, but Dave at Team Lodge insisted that that was a bad idea and not to worry about the insulation in the floor. We still would have probably insulated it, but the issue was the 3" lag bolts on the trailer/frame. They wouldnt be long enough to bolt the walls in with the added material on the floor. So, we scratched the insulated floor plans.

Alex (14) Helping with some drilling and screwing plywood.

More of the floor and the lag bolts...

(its a bit of "fun" to get the bolt holes drilled in the sheet, and then get the seams tight all in a garage built for Papa Smurf)

But as of last night, we have 3/5 of the sheets cut and connected. We used 2 types of self taping screws. 1 5/8" are a bit too short when the board has a bow in it, but they are much stronger than the longer 2 inch self tappers. Both types we ended up pre drilling a 5/32 hole, even with the pre-drilled hole we snapped alot of the long screws if we didnt first screw in the shorter screws to "pre-drill" the hole. I dont know what type of steel they use, but we went through 3 titanium drill bits doing 3 sheets! Which is a pain in the back side, but i dont think i have to worry about the stength of the frame!

The plan will be to finish the floor over the next couple nights and get some tie-down anchors attached so we can use the frame to haul the materials for the wall/roof build this weekend. We should have a weather proof house up by sunday night, then we can plug away on the rest as we have time after work and on the weekends.

I'll attach a materials list, so people looking to do something like this have a working list to go from. I will add a post after the build on what extras we needed and what we had too much of.

[Chad Holst]

Our build list, to this point.

(1) Team Lodge 16x8 + 4" V Nose frame with alloy wheels, electric breaks and crank down system.

(3) 3,500lb double speed, double action winches.

(3) Emergency release, double paned windows.

(1) Double pained window

(1) Steel, insulated core, 36" door.

(54') 24" diamond plate for bottom of outside.

(40') 4" bent diamond plate for verticle corners

(54') 4" bent diamond plate for roof edge.

(50') 2" diamond plate, bent with a 1/2" lip to fit around windows/doors.

(2) 4'x4' Diamond plate for wheel wells.

(24') 1' wide diamond plate for depth of wheel wells.

(13) .063 smotth aluminum sheeting. 4x8. Exterior walls

(76) non-treated 2x2's (wall studs, top plate, misc framing)

(7) treated 2x2's (floor plate)

(5) 4x8 sheets of 3/4 inch treated plywood (floor)

(13) 4x8 OSB sheeting (outside walls)

(20) 2x4's (for corner studs, misc construction)

(600') 8" car siding. (one side flat, one side with a middle cut. Flat side will be for horizontal boards above counter top level in entire house, middle cut side will show on vertical boards from floor to 36" high )

(16) 2x8. (rafters, cut with a curve)

(5) 4x8 sheeting (roof)

(1) 20x10 black rubber roof roll

(1) 5 gallon rubber roof adhesive)

(18) 4x8 sheets of 1 1/2 inch foam board (insulation for walls and ceiling)

(3) 40' rolls of 3 1/2 R11 insulation (roof)

10 lbs sheeting screws

2 boxes self tapping screws (floor to frame)

when i get a few minutes, ill list more materials.

LIST TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chad Holst]

...continued

We decided on a 3 color interior for the house. We based our colors and some of the interior off of the build "princeton" did. We want to use the red/black look as it is our main sponsors colors and also the colors of Take A Kid Outdoors.

If you have not seen his thread, its a pretty impressive look. Heres a picture of the house he did...

Our plan is to do a railing, similar to what Princeton used, and do black on and below that ledge.

For the area that is stained green in his house, we will be doing red stain, then for the ceiling, doors, trim, table, we will be doing a natural cover over the pine then glossing it. We had this red stain custom made, as we didnt want it quite as "loud" as it is in the picture, but it will give you an idea of what it looks like. Just tamed down a bit.

Here are the 2 colors...

(the light colored stain on the LEFT is the one we are using, then going with a gloss over it.)

(2) gallons of wood conditioner, as the stain will blotch on the pine siding without it.

(2) gallons red stain

(2) gallons natral stain

(3) gallons black, as it will take a few coats to cover the siding. Also this area gets beat on more and 3 layers will help from scrapes/dings etc...were the light line would show easily on the black.

We have yet to get the lights, but the plan is:

All LED lighting.

(2) 16.25' LED cool light strips. 300 LED's per strip. (one strip for each length of house, for ceiling corner)

(1) 16.25' LED cool light strip. 300 LED's. (for bathroom, under cabinet and across the back of house)

(4) LED Cool white "area" lights. (1 for front, middle, back of house and 1 for the bathroom area.

(8) LED lights for each hole.

Misc extrerior lighting. We are doing all LED lighting outside. Including lights in each wheel well and one spot light for the hitch area. There will LED running lights across the top, side running lights on the sides and an LED flood light on each side of the house.

(tail lights..etc..LED also)

We have not purchased the interior shelves, cabinet, bed materials yet, however we plan on using a 2x4 or 2x6 frame to house the fold up beds, then hang them with piano hinges on the house and straps to the ceiling for the front edge. We will face these edges with 1x1 pine molding strips and paint them the same color as the wall bottom.(Black)The under side will be faced with car siding and stained red, so when they are folded up they match the upper half of the wall, and boardered with black.

The counter tops are going to be 3/4 inch board with black speckled laminet on the top and front edge.

The goal is to have 1 "charging station" set up a cabinet, where we can charge our flasher batteries, Cell phones, GPS, Radios, etc. But we are also going to run 12v acess to the holes, so that we can plug our flashers directly into the 12v source, rather than run them off the portable batteries, when fishing in the house. We are going to build swivle platforms that attach to the walls, that have flasher mount for our flasher screens. so we dont need the bag, or portable holder. just the screen and the transducer. under this unit would be the rattle reels.

(1) Forced Air 20,000 BTU furnace. (ordered, as the one we found on the list place didnt work well enough for what we wanted)THANK YOU DAVE @ Team Lodge

(8) boxes of 2'x2' rubber backed airport carpeting squares. (i realize this is enough to do 3 of these houses...so if anyone needs any, let me know)

(1) case of liquid nail, for attaching Airport carpet, foam to walls and other misc needed glue.

(1) case of black caulk for edge between Diamond plate and aluminum sheeting.

(1) 10" table saw

(1) 8 1/2' mitor table/saw

(1) Brad Nailer

(1) 5000 count brad nails

(1) portable 18V hammer drill

(1) portable 18V Drill

(1) Jig saw

(1) group of amazing kids and helpers

Random decorations, and pictures.

We are looking to do a either a spiderman wall or a superman wall...we are leaning towards superman, as the colors would work better for our colors. Anyone have any ideas on what would look cool for the kids? i am NOT an artist...so easy would be better... I was thinking of maybe using a projector and having the kids paint right on the black parts below the rail.

just got a call from Scott, the guy framing everything for us, he just got us another emergency window. He said this one is large, so i think we will be doing a large window on the end, between the table/bed and the fold down bed above it. One medium large window on each side and then the smaller window in the bathroom.

Time to pick up the little one...i'll post more info and pictures as things come together.

if anyone is looking for how we do any of the build, make sure you let me know and i'll do my best to take extra pictures of that step.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING. lets have a little contest... The first person, that is planning to come to the 2nd annual Take A Kid Outdoors event at Chester Woods on Feb 16th, that POSTS a picture here of their child helping make Thanksgiving dinner, will get a free 13 fishing rod/reel combo to keep and will get to fish out of my own Clam Hub or Clam 4 man house for the entire day of the event! (my ice houses ALWAYS catch the most fish...i have spent YEARS training them)

[landscaper]

Happy Thanksgiving! to you too!

Keep the pictures coming of the build!

[ZachD]

Happy Thanksgiving! to you too!

Keep the pictures coming of the build!

Agreed

[Chad Holst]

thanks guys.

We are still looking for a picture of a kid helping make Thanksgiving dinner. Its worth a free 13 fishing combo and a day in our clams at the Take A Kid Fishing Weekend at Chester Woods in SE MN in Feb.

[Chad Holst]

Finally got the frame decked. We then added some tie down spots on the edge of the frame so we can use the frame to haul the materials to the shop this weekend.

We should have alot of pictures durring the build from this weekend. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving and didnt go too crazy at the stores.

[Chad Holst]

Need some help...

So we have what they called size 10 (1/8 inch thick, maybe a bit less), diamond plate. and .063 aluminum sheeting. The plate is going to need to be cut a bit, in some areas.

I would be ripping a 4x8 sheet to fit the inside of our wheel wells, as the wheel system on the new frame is longer than we had planned when we ordered the diamond plate, so they gave me 2 extra 4x8 shets to cut what we needed. We will also have to cut the lengths to fit the windows and doors. These pieces have been cut to width and bent, but we need to cut them to length.

We will also need to cut the last sheet of aluminum sheeting, to fit the front.

I have looked up info on the web, but everyone seems to have a different answer. I DONT have a plasma cutter, so thats out. Some guys swear the best way is to simply use a circle saw, as the uluminum is thin and much softer than some hard woods...which makes sense. I just dont want to take a piece of my blade in the face. others have said to put a cut off wheel on our mitor saw or on a table saw. Others yet said to buy a $50 multi saw, which looks like a small circle saw, as they are made for this purpose. Even others said a jig saw with a metal cut blade, is the best.

I would like to not have to buy extra tools, as we are on a tight budget, but at the same time, if i have to, i will. If the circle saw will work...ill go with that. If i need a $10 blade..fine.

I have a circle saw, a table saw, a mitor saw with slide cut. and angle grinder and a jig saw.

Thanks for the advise.