Katrina Cottage Plans

I purchased plans to build my lake house. It is designed by Eric Moser, and is provided by Lowes originally to provide affordable yet smart stylish housing in Katrina affected areas. But Lowes made the plans available nationally. I am modifying the plans to some degree, it calls for balloon framing and 2x6 studs, which is a bit over kill for my inland lake house. I am going to forgo the metal roof and go with traditional shingles. The materials sheets run the costs to be around $40,000 to build this. I am aiming to get the whole thing done for less than $10,000, which will be a hard feat to pull off, but so far I am about $365 into it and I have a sizable amount of materials.

Here are some images of the model home of the Katrina Cottage 697, which features A vaulted ceiling in the living room and sleeping loft define the open feeling of this plan.

High School Gym Floor makes great sheathing

I ran into a great deal on craigslist from a guy who redoes floors for school gyms, I picked up 90 7/16th inch OSB 4x8 panels, which will be enough to do all of my roofing, siding, and attic subfloors for $130, from Lowes with tax it would have been $564. This was a significant savings. These things weigh 44 lbs a piece or 3960 lbs total. Thus it was quite a job to load them into the trailer. Fortunately Skip, Judy, Janaya and David all helped me unload this monumental amount of lumber into the shed. Glad they had a pool too. It was hot