Moon Lake Ice house blog

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Starting this about halfway through the house(hopefully!).  We tend to not spend as much time working in the summer(at the cabin) or during deer and duck season.  Its been a busy last few weeks but were getting closer.  Details on the house... My dad, brother and I are building a 8x 16 with a 4v.  So far we have the frame fully welded, galvanized, wheels and brakes on and it tows great.  Walls are up now, used 1x2 steel, and its starting to look like we'll be fishing this year.  We have a bunch of pictures of the build so far and I'll get some up this weekend.  Windows are waiting in the garage and next up were heading to get the door and sheeting for the outside this weekend.  Hoping to start sheeting it next weekend and we'll be putting on a one piece aluminum roof.  Already have someone lined up to sprayfoam the inside. Hoping to get to a heated shell by ice freeze.  We will have the one cabinet by the door built then for sure as that will house the furnace, converter and rv stereo.  Welcome anyone's input and look forward to getting out on the ice! 

[rustysetter]

Starting this about halfway through the house(hopefully!).  We tend to not spend as much time working in the summer(at the cabin) or during deer and duck season.  Its been a busy last few weeks but were getting closer.  Details on the house... My dad, brother and I are building a 8x 16 with a 4v.  So far we have the frame fully welded, galvanized, wheels and brakes on and it tows great.  Walls are up now, used 1x2 steel, and its starting to look like we'll be fishing this year.  We have a bunch of pictures of the build so far and I'll get some up this weekend.  Windows are waiting in the garage and next up were heading to get the door and sheeting for the outside this weekend.  Hoping to start sheeting it next weekend and we'll be putting on a one piece aluminum roof.  Already have someone lined up to sprayfoam the inside. Hoping to get to a heated shell by ice freeze.  We will have the one cabinet by the door built then for sure as that will house the furnace, converter and rv stereo.  Welcome anyone's input and look forward to getting out on the ice! 

MLR, make sure you have plenty of electric outlets and cabinet/storage space incorporated, is the 4' V for a bathroom area? A countertop is very useful.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

MLR, make sure you have plenty of electric outlets and cabinet/storage space incorporated, is the 4' V for a bathroom area? A countertop is very useful.

Sorry I'm behind on posting.  We are going through the wiring now and though myself dad doesn't think we need multiple breakers for outlets, I'm running two 120 breakers for multiple outlets.  I have two sets in my 34 foot camper and love them.  Will also have 1-2 12v lines run for outlets.  Will have lots of counter space and cabinets.  One of the cabinets above the wheel wells will be empty and will be eventually making a drop in live well for bait.  Also running a 12v pump under the sink for filling well and dishes.  V will have a bathroom with more cabinets in there(never enough room for TP!!). Will be set up similar to the miltona.  Counter and cabinets to the left inside the door.  Bathroom to the left.  Jack knife sofa strait inside the door with a bunk above it.  Back will have a dinette with a large bunk above it.  Storage under the couch and both sides of the dinette.  Will be filling every available inch with storage space.  We already downgraded the larger Windows to allow for room.

[bigwalleye30]

Not sure not sure how you are doing your wiring but outlets are like cabinets, you can never have too many.  Also don't forget about wiring for hole lights.  I'd suggest putting an outlet on the outside on the door side of the house in case you use it in the summer at all.  

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Not sure not sure how you are doing your wiring but outlets are like cabinets, you can never have too many.  Also don't forget about wiring for hole lights.  I'd suggest putting an outlet on the outside on the door side of the house in case you use it in the summer at all.  

We were just talking a little more on that this weekend.  Going to have 2-3 110 outlets and 2-3 12 outlets on each wall.  An additional 12v outlet at each seat in the house and separate outlets at the microwave, TV and underneath the main cabinet where the heater is.  Also running a 110 and 12v outlet outside and will have usb charging ports on the stereo.  Will have 3 lights in the ceiling and possibly a red light for night fishing.  Lights at each hole, bunk lights above each bed, a light above the stove and outside lights to include by the propane tank.  I'll be wiring in video somewhere central for a fish cam to route back to the TV.  Let me know if you can think of anything I'm missing.  Looking like we wont be completely finished this year with everything we're looking at putting in but we should be only a few weeks from a heated shell with lights.

Anyone have any thoughts on if s sink is needed?  I have heard both ways but a number of people have said a tub that can be stored can be better to store away to keep counter space?  But in my RV I have removable cutting boards that drop in to turn the sink into additional counter space so I'm not sure which way to go.  If we put one in it'll have a 12v water pump.

 

[rustysetter]

We were just talking a little more on that this weekend.  Going to have 2-3 110 outlets and 2-3 12 outlets on each wall.  An additional 12v outlet at each seat in the house and separate outlets at the microwave, TV and underneath the main cabinet where the heater is.  Also running a 110 and 12v outlet outside and will have usb charging ports on the stereo.  Will have 3 lights in the ceiling and possibly a red light for night fishing.  Lights at each hole, bunk lights above each bed, a light above the stove and outside lights to include by the propane tank.  I'll be wiring in video somewhere central for a fish cam to route back to the TV.  Let me know if you can think of anything I'm missing.  Looking like we wont be completely finished this year with everything we're looking at putting in but we should be only a few weeks from a heated shell with lights.

Anyone have any thoughts on if s sink is needed?  I have heard both ways but a number of people have said a tub that can be stored can be better to store away to keep counter space?  But in my RV I have removable cutting boards that drop in to turn the sink into additional counter space so I'm not sure which way to go.  If we put one in it'll have a 12v water pump.

 

MlR, I have had both one with a sink and one without and I definitely prefer having one.

 MLR, with steel studs you could get cold/frost transfer to the paneling inside, do you have a plan to prevent it. The RV windows I had in my house had major frost on them when it was really cold out. 

RS

[Moon Lake Refuge]

MlR, I have had both one with a sink and one without and I definitely prefer having one.

 MLR, with steel studs you could get cold/frost transfer to the paneling inside, do you have a plan to prevent it. The RV windows I had in my house had major frost on them when it was really cold out. 

RS

Thanks Rusty, I really like the idea of adding one in just for dishes and what not.  Seems much more convenient.  We are spraying closed cell insulation and then furring out 3/4 inch past the studs so we should be able to insulate over the inside of the studs to prevent frost.  Upgraded to windows rated for cold weather so hopefully that helps too.  We got the door without a window because we heard those were notorious for sweating.  Let me know if you have any other thoughts on it.

MLR

[Moon Lake Refuge]

And the little LED license plate lights in the wheel wells so that you can see what your doing when lifting the house at night. I put them on the same switch as the outside "porch light" since they draw little to no juice.

Make sure that you use heavy enough wire for your 12 volt outlets.... Speaking from experience

Thanks, definitely will have lights under there.  And I will be wiring all outlets plenty heavy as I want every run to be strong enough for the largest breaker/fuse possible even if we only end up using a 15 on some initially.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

And the little LED license plate lights in the wheel wells so that you can see what your doing when lifting the house at night. I put them on the same switch as the outside "porch light" since they draw little to no juice.

Make sure that you use heavy enough wire for your 12 volt outlets.... Speaking from experience

Hey RL- Just for reference, what size where did you find was undersized?  I think we're going to run two sizes.  Smaller for Lights and larger for furnace/ radio/ water pump.  Thinking 16 and 12 ga for each.

Thanks,

[Moon Lake Refuge]

I ran 16 ga for the lights, all of which were LED. Where I seemed to have an issue was with the 12 volt cigarette/power outlets. I ran 14 ga thinking that i would handle a 3-5 amp draw to run an inverter for the TV at the front of the house....Due to the 27 ft length and DC line loss, I was only pulling 10.8 volts when at the end of the circuit, which in return kicked out the inverter. I would use 10 ga on all your cig. outlets. You may want to drop down to 10 ga for the furnace depending on whether you are running a 20k BTU (~2.7 Amp) or 30k BTU (~3.8 Amp)

.........One additional thing that we did which works pretty cool - We wired an additional switched circuit from our wheel house battery to the clearance lights. That way if someone is meeting us out at the shack we can flip the switch so they can pick us out of the crowd.

Gotcha... We wont be running an inverter.  TV and Microwave will only be in use when we have the generator running.  12 should be good for our outlets.  I was thinking about 10 for the furnace too(3.1 amp) so maybe we'll go that route.  Appreciate the input!!

Maybe will add one extra outlet on 10Ga by the TV just in case we go that route.

Thanks again!

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Update.  Lots of delays with the holidays but we got it sheeted! Mostly.  We only have this week in the garage we are working and with the 3m tape we have to be done today to allow it to sit for 3 days to cure so I'm picking up the one piece roof today and hope to have it on tonight. Also have a door but when we got it home found it was scratched up so looking to go get a new one soon.  We may just throw some tyvek tape on the corners for the winter to seal it up and use it as a heated she'll the go back and put all the diamond plating in in the spring.

[perchking]

looks great, congrats...

[Moon Lake Refuge]

6 hours ago, perchking said:

looks great, congrats...

Thanks!  We're rolling the roof on now.  Rather than diamond plating the seams we are having an extra sheet cut and bent for each corner.  Wheel wells will also be sheeted the same.053 sheeting we got a deal on.  Hoping to pull all the plastic off and see it fully sheeted with the wheel wells and lights on by Saturday! 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Getting close, finished getting the sheets on.  We'll be bending and trimming the roof tonight, and possibly getting our lights on this weekend. After that we should be off to get spray foamed next week, then we will probably use it just as a shell to fish for the year.  We have all the pine planking for walls and ceiling but will be starting cabinets and dinette, couches and bunks first.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

30 minutes ago, rl_sd said:

Looking good! Are you planning on running anything (diamond plate, bed liner, etc.) on the bottom 12" and inside the wheel wells?

We are going to do 1-2 feet of diamond plate around the bottom in the spring but we are out of time in a heated garage now and taping it on we'll need warmer temps.  Not sure on the wheel wells yet.  We're talking about just throwing on some mud flaps.  Also have someone possibly lined up to do a wildlife painting along one of the sides of it but we'll see down the road. Also probably doing bedliner or textured deck paint on the floor inside of it.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Moon Lake Refuge

[Moon Lake Refuge]

House is fully sheeted and got the trim on the roof this weekend.  Finally got to tow it home before the game yesterday.  Looking to spray foam this week or next but first looking to see how everyone ran their trailer wires.  I'm just going to run them in the trailer but where the wires go through the sheeting how did you fish the wire through?  Just pop it through and silicone?  Wondering if I need to do anything to protect the wire from the edging of the sheet with a little plastic sleeve or anything?

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Way too much going on and haven't gotten a lot done lately, but the house just came back from getting sprayfoamed and has the trailer lights on it now.  They look to have done a pretty good job.  We have about 1.5 inches in the walls and ceiling and 2.5-3 in the floor.  They didn't clean up a ton but they did grind down the spots where it was over sprayed so shouldnt be much for prep work.  They also sprayed our hole covers.  Looking to take it out as is a couple times now this year with a big buddy heater.  Come end of winter we'll start in on all the interior wiring and cabinets/ furniture.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Looking good!  Are you doing horizontal or vertical furring strips?  

[Moon Lake Refuge]

3 minutes ago, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

Looking good!  Are you doing horizontal or vertical furring strips?  

We're running horizontal furring strips with vertical T & G planks from Mnrds.  Me and my dad both have quite a bit of wiring experience but I'm still a little worried about something happening back there.  I think we are going to run our t & g about 3 inches from the ceiling and will be putting a nice molding around the top boarder(this will only be nailed not glued).  This way we can run all our wiring up there and will have a relatively easy way to fish wires up or down the wall if we ever decide to add or fix anything, only need to pull out the molding and good to go.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Rough layout(somewhat) to scale of what were looking at.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Well, after almost no progress and months of changing minds and just not getting anything done we're back at it.  Dad is in summer vacation mode, I threatened to take the house to my place to get things moving and I think that started things up again.  He is looking to paint the inside studs this week with a latex paint then will be adding the furring strips.  After that I will be framing up the back bench.  We decided to move away from the dinette and are going with a homemade bench/futon that will span the back.  Seems like it will be more comfortable for fishing.  Can always set up a folding table if needed.  Appreciate any input on bench seating from others who have done it.  Ours will be enclosed on the bottom and a 4 foot wide mattress.  I'm also contemplating putting up all of the T&G on the walls PRIOR to wiring the house.  I've been rolling around the idea of keeping a channel of the wall always available and think thats what were doing.  The walls will end 3 inches from the ceiling where I will have all my wire run, then I will be covering that strip with some kind of decorative molding that can be removed for additions in the future if needed.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Moon Lake Refuge

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Long week of enjoying our vacation to much but got furring strips up and the back wall has t&g up now!  Need to run my 110 wire and license plate wire in the morning then hope to make some good progress on the rest of the walls tomorrow.  After getting one wall up I am very confident in wiring all the 12v lights and outlets after the walls are fully finished.  Starting to feel like we could be fishing this year!

[Boar]

that looks really good. Great job!!

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Got a little more work done this past week.  We decided to wait and wire it first so all wiring is now done.  We will still have the option to route wires after the inside is finished but wont have to do the whole thing.  I'm happy we went this route.  It would have been doable but very difficult.  Also got the whole ceiling done with T&G.  Between the ceiling and back wall we have about 1/2 pack of board that were bad.  Depending on what we have left after the walls these will probably be good enough pieces to cut down to use on cabinets.  Starting to look like a fish house.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Moving along!  Old man is away on vacation for the week so I stole the house.  Ceiling is completely done, back wall and one side done and I'm about 3/4 up the last wall.  Hope to frame out the wall for the bathroom this week, and then on to cabinets and furniture.  Few last minute wires added this weekend and we had to rethink the wall for the front couch as it was coming in at 5.5 feet and my brother and I are both 6 foot so it would be tight.  Got it up to about 5'10 so sleeping at a little angle there should be room, plus the back bed and back bunk will be 7+ feet.  Hope to be relatively fishable within the month then just trim work and cabinets from there.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Moon Lake Refuge