I’ve been waiting for a couple of years to post the pictures of the boathouse at our cabin (it’s actually a “boat stuff” house, as it is too small for a boat. Some of you helped me figure out how to use green treated timbers for the framing, as the little house is too far from a road to haul concrete. Others explained how to use cobblestone pavers to make the floor. Plus a bunch of other stuff as we went along. It’s done (almost), and it is very special!! Just wanted to say THANKS for all the help you guys have given us over the years.

We are do-it-yourselfers. We bought a “shell cabin” 15 years ago, and it’s still not done, because we have done most of the work ourselves. We are not very good, but we enjoy it and are persistent. And, somehow the “fun” must have rubbed off on our kids, as they’ve grown up with building the cabin. The oldest two are now in the building trades.

We have you guys at Fine Homebuilding breaktime to thank for many pieces of advice with the cabin, and also the boat house. When we get stuck, my husband will say, “Why don’t you go online and ask the guys from Fine Homebuilding and see what they say.” And you always know!

Anyway, we are nearly done with the boat house that sits down at the water. We were going for the “retro” look – wanted the little boathouse to look like it had been there 50 years. The plan is an amalgamation of several shed plans from another magazine with the same initials. The rest we came up with on our own. We included Dutch doors, barn sash openable windows, king rafters, and soffit vents made of screening and lath strips to hold the screening in place. My indulgent husband waited for me to stain every board before it was nailed in place. I used 3 coordinating stains to give the place more definition.

It had it’s share of challenges, and we always learn a lot with every project. We had to figure out the rafter dimensions backwards, since the maximum height could only be 10 feet, and so we figured the rise and run from that height instead of the other way around. Our son in architecture studies did that over the phone with his fancy calculator. I personally found out that large rocks do not make secure footing for scaffolding.

We put on a cedar shake roof (I can safely say that is the last one I will ever put up in my lifetime), and landscaped the entry path, which is over a small bridge. We also added fishing pole lockers, since our 3 boys and their friends occasionally take a pole that isn’t theirs.) (We’re probably the only family with this problem. Also, didn’t want fishing poles and hooks hanging about inside the shed.

I was going to wait to post these pictures until we had removed some clutter, and had carved the fish that will hang from the front between the decorative posts, but that has been sitting on the workbench for ages and who knows when that gets done?

So, thanks again from the do-it-yourselfers at Berg Construction.
Our motto: We’re not very good, but we’re slow.