In this episode the crew continues building their Colorado cabin by first preparing the foundation: they install straps and wooden blocks on each pier to keep the concrete from sinking, then pour concrete quickly with a delivery truck, setting the base for the structure. After the concrete cures they discover that the required 4x10 pressure‑treated beams are unavailable locally, prompting a 32‑hour round‑trip across three states to Sacramento to pick up the beams. The team loads the beams onto a trailer, drives back to the site, and installs the first row of 14‑foot beams on the piers, cutting them to exact lengths and sealing the cut ends with wood preservative. The episode ends with a preview of the next steps: fastening all beams together, laying joists, and constructing the floor.
Chapters
So these, uh, are the straps.
They're going to get embedded into each of the piers up to here, and then this vertical piece will get nailed to the beam and then to the framing above.
And right now I'm gonna screw these blocks right here, and these will sit on top of the pier so that these don't sink down when the concrete's poured and should stay right where they need to be while the concrete cures.
I get in, I'll go like this, I'll unlock lock it.
Okay, so I stay and then—
yeah, you position it in when you tell me.
Get it over so this is about here.
Okay, so bring it over, tell me to go forward. Okay, you know, until we get it there.
Give me the stop, I'll lock it, that's when I'll jump out.
All right. Looks like you have her under control. Is it not too good for heaven?
Yeah, well, I still got to buy a property.
I'm looking at properties like up by Idaho Springs, like going up toward like Mammoth Hills.
So I just got, uh, all this concrete poured yesterday. Truck came right in, zip zip, got it done in a couple hours.
Super fast, easy, messy, but, um, got it done. Got these straps in right where I need them, so now everything's set to actually start building the cabin structure, which I'm super excited about. Did run into a rather unfortunate hiccup though. The beams that are going to sit on top of these piers are not available anywhere for probably 1,000 or 1,500 miles from here.
I've checked every place, called probably 50 places.
I need specialized beams, 4x10 pressure treated, and there's none of them anywhere nearby, and then a ton of them out on the West Coast—
California, Oregon, Washington. Washington.
So I'm gonna have to hit the road and do a probably 35-hour round-trip cross-country drive to pick up these beams.
Found some in Sacramento, so I'll be driving across 3 states to get them, but I'll bring you along, show you the sights along the way. It's probably a pretty sweet drive actually, and try to get that done in 3 days hopefully. And then get back and throw these beams on and can start going vertical from there.
So about, um, 8 hours in, another 8 to go. Halfway there, uh, to Sacramento where I'm picking up these beams for the cabin. Going to pick up a trailer first and then, uh, just drive down the road basically and pick up these beams. Drive's going well. I always like driving across country. It's just something kind of meditative about it.
So just loaded up the beams in the back here, picked up the trailer first, which will be great to have for hauling material as I get further along the project. And then zipped over to the lumber yard here in Sacramento, picked up the beams. They look great, straight.
It.
Exactly what I needed. So yeah, super excited to have these loaded up.
It was really easy, straightforward. Everyone's shocked that I had to drive all this way out just to pick up some wood, but here we are.
And now getting settled in for the 16-hour drive back to Colorado. I hope I make it today.
It's about 9:30 in the morning now. Uh, but yeah, super happy to have these on hand and loaded up. And, uh, yeah, and I can press on and get these up onto the piers and keep the project going.
So we got the, uh, first row of beams here.
These are the two 14-footers.
They're going to make one side of the base, uh, and got them cut to length, everything measured out perfectly.
So really stoked on that. I only get one shot on these since I brought these all the way from California, so it took a lot of time to make sure the cuts were super exact. But, uh, really pleased to see a bit of structure going on these piers.
It's like all coming together.
It's super cool. And then I use wood preservative to paint over the cut end so the whole thing is sealed all the way around.
So that's going to do it for this episode.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Coming up, we're going to finish up all the beams and fasten them all together and then start laying the joists on top of the beams and building the floor from there.
