American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 126 The main structure of the wooden house is complete! (I'm sprinkling sugar on the main beam!)

(This chapter contains multiple images, each representing the structure of a different log cabin. Please only refer to the structure shown in the images, and do not substitute the actual style.)
Lin Yu'an and Cody immediately picked up the long-handled heavy-duty drilling machine and knelt on the newly laid second layer of logs, one on each side.

With a hissing sound, they drilled a deep hole from top to bottom, penetrating through the two layers of wood.

"Stan! Patton! Mount the screw!"

Stan and Patton worked together to insert the huge through-hole bolts into the holes, and then used an impact wrench to initially fix them in place.

One floor, two floors, three floors... the wall continued to grow upwards thanks to the efficient collaboration of the six people.

The entire construction site presented a scene with a strong sense of rhythm.

In the air, Patton's loader slowly moved, carrying huge logs.

On the wall, Hank and Cody were quickly laying sealing strips.

At the wood section, Lin Yu'an was intently using a chainsaw and a curved chisel to carve perfect saddle-shaped notches.

Each time a layer of wood was laid, Cody would pick up the drill, while the others would immediately prepare the screws and impact wrenches.

Every corner was meticulously hand-carved by Lin Yu-an into a perfect saddle-shaped notch.

Each log is tightly connected by sturdy through-bolts and sealing strips.

They stopped when the walls were stacked to the fifth layer, exceeding 1.2 meters in height, and then began to make the door and window openings.

A 15-centimeter "settlement space" was strictly reserved above the opening.

Finally, after a total of about five days, the main wall of the first floor of the wooden house, which is three meters high, was completely built!
A wooden frame wall, exuding a sense of solidity and security, stands majestically atop the forest.

When the first-floor wall was fully erected on the huge platform, the entire construction site erupted in cheers.

Old George pointed to the three-meter-high wall and shouted, "Alright, guys! Stop standing there like tourists! We're about to start working at height! Pay close attention!"

The next task is to build the second floor.

The first step was to hoist the main floor beam that spanned the entire building on the second floor.

This work was extremely challenging because the lifting height and the precision requirements were far greater than before.

Before the actual hoisting, Lin Yu'an and Old George carried out an extremely important preparatory work.

They used chainsaws and huge wood chisels to precisely cut several beam grooves into the logs on the top floor wall.

"What's this for, Lin?" David asked curiously, tilting his head back.

Lin Yu-an explained, "The two ends of the main beam can be embedded in the wall, rather than simply resting on it, so that a more stable interlocking structure can be formed."

After completing the construction work on the first floor, the six-person team's cooperation was already highly skilled.

Lin Yu'an operated the XCMG loader, lifting up the heavy square beams one by one.

Old George was in charge of directing and positioning from the top of the wall, while Hank, Stan, and Cody were on the ground, using guide ropes to control the beam's posture in the air, and Patton was on the wooden wall providing the final guidance.

“A little higher… Good! Shift to the right… Yes… Slowly lower it!” Old George’s voice was loud and steady.

Lin Yu'an's movements were precise, and he slowly placed the huge main beam into the two pre-prepared "beam slots" on the top of the wall.

In just one day, they had steadily installed all the main beams in the grooves at the top of the wooden wall.

Then, they installed all the secondary beams in an assembly line fashion.

Stan and Patton were responsible for installing the beam support brackets between the main beams, Lin Yu-an and Cody were responsible for processing the secondary beams with a band saw, and Hank operated the loader to lift the beams up in batches.

Finally, the tongue and tenon plywood is laid.

All six men went up to the second-floor beams and began their final sprint on this battlefield suspended three meters in the air.

Amidst the "bang! bang! bang!" of nail guns, a brand-new second-floor platform was suspended three meters in the air.

Standing on the second-floor platform, they did not stop for a moment and immediately began building the second-floor walls.

Because the second-floor wall only needs to be 2.4 meters high, their progress is very fast.

In just one and a half days, all the wall structures and the pre-reserved door and window openings were completed.

Next came the installation of the attic floor joists.

These massive wooden beams span the top of the second-floor walls, serving as both the second-floor ceiling and the future attic floor.

Once all the supporting beams of the attic were installed, the rectangular framework of the entire building was basically complete.

Holding the blueprints, Lin Yu'an said to everyone, "Now, we need to build two huge triangles, or gables, at the front and back ends of the house. They will be the ridges supporting our roof."

Building gable walls requires extremely precise calculations and cutting, because the length of each layer of logs stacked upwards must be precisely shortened according to a fixed diagonal.

At the same time, the cuts at both ends must be precisely angled to perfectly match the slope of the future roof.

This became the period when Lin Yu-an and George, the two engineering directors, exerted their full potential.

Old George was responsible for using a professional angle ruler to calculate the angle and length that each gable log needed to be cut.

Lin Yu'an, on the other hand, was making precise cuts with his Stilt chainsaw.

Others were responsible for using XCMG loaders to lift and stack these cut, increasingly shorter logs.

After two more days of intense work, two huge, perfectly triangular gables finally rose from the ground at both ends of the house!

At the top of the gable, they also left a sturdy V-shaped notch for placing the roof ridge beam.

Once the gable walls are completed, they will face the most challenging and ceremonial part of the entire construction process: hoisting the ridge beam.

Old George pointed to the tree king, which Lin Yu'an had already selected separately—a tree that was thirteen meters long and the thickest in diameter—and said to everyone, "Alright, my good lads! Today we will hold a 'coronation ceremony' for this house!"

During this hoisting operation, the height exceeded seven meters, making it impossible for the loader's robotic arm to reach directly.

They spent the entire morning studying the blueprints and building a scaffolding tower made of logs, as well as constructing a composite hoisting system consisting of multiple pulley blocks and winches.

In the afternoon, Lin Yu'an operated a loader to lift one end of the roof ridge beam and place it on the scaffolding.

Then, Stan and Cody operated two gasoline winches, using pulley systems, to slowly and synchronously lift the massive "keel" upwards.

George, Hank, and Patton were below, using three guide ropes to control its balance from different directions.

With the perfect coordination of the six people, the huge roof ridge beam drew a beautiful arc in the air and finally landed steadily on the V-shaped opening at the top of the gable walls with a "bang"!
"yeah--!!!"

Everyone erupted in a deafening cheer!

"Alright, guys, the main framework is done! Now, we're going to get to the 'face' of this house, making it look beautiful!"

The "face-making work" refers to the construction of a wide porch that runs through the front of the main house, the second-floor balcony, and all the doors and windows.

Lin Yu'an and Old George took out the blueprints and used the ink line to mark the precise landing points of the eight supporting columns on the solid platform.

They precisely erected eight massive log pillars on the platform.

Lin Yu'an had already made reservations for triple-glazed windows and solid wood insulated doors that meet the highest insulation standards in Alaska.

They first removed the temporary wooden frame used to secure the opening, revealing the pre-drilled opening with a "lock." Then they placed the window frame into the opening and used a spirit level and wooden wedges to adjust it to be perfectly vertical and horizontal.

Finally, they filled the recessed space at the top with highly elastic insulation cotton and sealed it with retractable decorative wooden strips.

It took them a whole day to install all sixteen windows and three doors in the house using this professional method.

Two days later, when the railings for the porch and balcony were also installed, the entire appearance of the wooden house perfectly matched the rendering for the first time!
It is no longer just a square wooden box, but a wooden house full of layers!

After the doors and windows are installed, and the porch and balcony are also built.

They began by laying down rafters at fixed angles, using the ridge beam as the center, to form a steep A-shaped roof frame.

Once the roof frame is completed, the final topping-out stage begins.

They first laid a thick layer of tenon-and-groove planks on all the rafters as the base of the roof.

Then, they began the work of insulating and waterproofing the entire roof.

They first carefully laid a layer of self-adhesive polymer waterproof membrane on all the tongue and groove wooden boards, and then used a hot air gun to weld all the seams together to form the first unbreakable waterproof layer.

Then, purlins were laid out to form small grids.

Next came the insulation process. Instead of using traditional foam boards or fiberglass wool, Lin Yu'an brought out a more professional set of equipment: a two-component closed-cell spray polyurethane foam system!

"What is this? A chemical weapon?"

David looked at the two huge pressure tanks filled with different colored liquids and a strangely shaped spray gun, and asked curiously.

"It's much more powerful than chemical weapons."

Lin Yu'an smiled, put on the full-body protective suit, and donned a professional full-face gas mask.

"This is the ultimate armor for the roof. Its insulation effect is more than twice that of foam board of the same thickness, and it can form a completely seamless sealing layer to prevent any cold air from penetrating."

He started the air compressor connected to the pressure tank, held the spray gun, and began spraying paint into the gaps between the rafters.

"hiss--"

With a slight hiss, the two liquids mixed at the muzzle, and a wonderful chemical reaction occurred the moment they were sprayed out.

The pale yellow liquid foam, like freshly whipped cream, expanded rapidly, increasing in volume twenty or thirty times within seconds, perfectly filling all the irregular gaps between the rafters.

Lin Yu'an covered the entire inner side of the roof with a layer of uniform, 15-centimeter-thick rigid foam, from one end to the other.

A few hours later, when the foam had completely solidified, the entire interior of the roof had become a seamless, pale yellow space.

Then, the group first fixed rows of wooden strips at precise intervals on the roof, which already had a waterproof and heat-insulating layer laid on it.

Then they began installing the dark gray corrugated metal roofing panels that had already been delivered.

This is also a high-altitude operation that requires great patience and precision.

Lin Yu-an and Hank were responsible for carefully sliding long metal plates down from the ridge of the roof to align them.

Cody and Barton were responsible for securing the equipment below.

They used specially made roof screws with EPDM waterproof sealing rings.

When the screw is tightened, the sealing ring is compressed, perfectly covering the screw hole and eliminating any possibility of leakage.

"Da da da……"

The crisp sound of the impact screwdriver echoed rhythmically across the roof.

They started from one side of the roof, one section overlapping the other, and moved forward in an orderly manner.

Finally, at the highest point of the roof, they installed a custom-made ridge cap, perfectly connecting the two roofs together!
When the last screw with the sealing ring was tightened, the main external structure of the entire log cabin was finally completely sealed!

Meanwhile, during the twenty-odd days of external construction, the internal "threading" work was also being carried out simultaneously.

Cody, a mechanic, became the team's chief hydroelectric engineer thanks to his expertise.

He was responsible for reserving and installing all the pipes between the walls and the floor.

When building each layer of the wall, they use special tools to drill hidden electrical wire channels into the logs.

Cody will immediately run PEX electrical conduit through it, from the distribution box to every place where sockets, switches and lights will need to be installed in the future.

Similarly, the hot and cold water PEX pipes connecting the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room, as well as the ABS sewage pipes leading to the septic tank, are all installed with a reasonable slope within the interlayer between the walls and the floor.

The most important heating system also had its corresponding pipes pre-installed. In particular, the location of the large fireplace was also planned spatially.

They even pre-embedded and fixed the bases of the bathtubs and toilets that would need to be installed in the future.

Once the main structure was completed, vertical transportation for the entire log cabin became a new challenge. Lin Yu-an decided to build a log staircase to replace the current simple wooden ladder.

He first used a band saw to split two huge, straight logs in half, forming the two semi-circular side beams of the main staircase.

Next, the grooves for placing the pedals were precisely cut out on the two huge side beams.

While he worked on the side beams, Stan, Barton, and others were responsible for processing the slightly thinner logs into rectangular pedals.

Once all the parts were manufactured, assembly began.

They embedded each pedal into the grooves of the side beam and secured them firmly from the outside with screws.

Soon, a huge log staircase was assembled in the reserved space between the first and second floors.

They then used the same method to create and install an even more ingenious "L"-shaped log staircase, connecting the second floor with the attic.

After both staircases were installed, for the first time, without the aid of any ladders, everyone stepped steadily up from the first floor to the second floor on the thick wooden treads, and then easily climbed up to the attic!
Ultimately, from platform construction to the completion of the wooden house's roof, the entire process took approximately twenty-nine days.

An empty wooden cabin with a solid foundation, thick walls, a magnificent roof, and all the core pipelines pre-installed has been built!

Old George looked at the masterpiece that embodied everyone's hard work and patted Lin Yu'an on the shoulder with satisfaction.

"Kid, we've done the hardest and heaviest work for you. What's left is the finer details of the renovation and filling. You'll have to take your time with that."

Looking at the building that was about to become his home, Lin Yu'an was filled with indescribable excitement and gratitude.

"Thank you, George, Stan, and everyone else."

He said sincerely, "I hope that if you ever need any help in the future, please call me! I will be there whenever you need me!"

After seeing off all his companions, Lin Yu'an stood alone in front of his wooden house, feeling as if in a dream.

He couldn't believe he had actually built his own cabin in Alaska!

Next, it will be his job alone.

He needed to fill the walls with sealant, build internal partition walls, and construct a fireplace chimney inside the house, a major undertaking that went through the roof.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

(The novel is sped up; please understand. In reality, building a log cabin takes at least two months.)
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(End of this chapter)