The cabin's looking great, RC and it's been fun watching the progress with you and your dad, and I'm pretty sure I've seen your mom in a few pictures as well. Priceless memories!
On the stove pipe, Spark's correct in that it needs to be 2' above the tallest part of the roof, for draw reasons as well as safety reasons.
Here's a good explanation pulled off the internet, as even my insurance info doesn't explain it very well:
Because a stove pipe is responsible for carrying hot air and deadly gases up and out of your home, it must extend far enough above the top of the roof to ensure that these emissions blow away instead of traveling back into your home. Building codes vary by region, but there is a standard minimum height for stove pipes above the peak of the roof.
The top of a chimney pipe must extend at least 2 feet above the peak of the roof, if the pipe is within 10 feet of the peak. If the pipe is farther than 10 feet from the roof peak, it must be 2 feet above the highest point of the roof within 10 feet. In other words, the highest point within a 10-foot circle of the pipe is the height that must be cleared by at least 2 feet. To determine this height, measure 10 feet horizontally toward the roof from the point 2 feet below the top of the pipe. The cap on top of the pipe should not be be included in the measurement. The line must not intersect the roof within 10 feet of the chimney.
So to recap, if your pipe is farther than 10' from the peak you'll want to measure a horizontal line from that 10' point to your pipe (using a level) and from there it needs to extend another 2' above that. If the pipe is within 10' of the peak, run a (level) horizontal line from the peak to your pipe and extend it 2' above that.
That's my understanding of how high the pipe should extend, if I understand this correctly, which is always questionable .
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