build a cozy cabin for $4000

8/2/2019 Build a Cozy Cabin for $4000

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Build This Co Cabin

Jne/Jl 2006

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-06-01/Build-this-Cozy-Cabin.aspx

B See Maell

Anyone with basic carpentry skills can construct this classic

one-room cabin for under $4,000.

LEN CHURCHILL

Rays of early-morning sunlight gently peek through the windows, easing you awake. Looking down from the

sleeping loft, you see everything you need: a pine table; a box piled with hardwood, split and ready for the

woodstove; and a compact kitchen in the corner. This is the cabin dream.

In this article, Ill show you how to build a 14-by-20-foot cabin featuring a sleeping loft over the porch for about

$4,000. Who can resist it?

My own cabin adventure began in 1986, when I built one as an inexpensive place to stay while constructing my

house thats when I began learning what makes cabin design and construction successful. (Ive always had a

debt-free approach to developing my property.) The four years I lived in this cabin were a good time in my life

perhaps one of the best. I fondly recall the simplicity of waking each morning with the sole purpose of building

my own house, working well into the evening.

What follows is a cabin plan with the hands-on know-how I wish I had 20 years ago. It wont replace the need

for basic carpentry skills, but it will alert you to the main challenges of framing a cabin and how to clear the most

important hurdles. And even if you never build a cabin of your own, these basic instructions will be useful anytime

you need to build a garage, shed or other outbuilding. (For more on the authors cabin experience, see Our Life

in a One-room Cabin, below.)

I believe in building for the long haul. When it comes to cabins (and everything else for that matter), this means

working to the same standards of durability and beauty that youd apply to a full-size house, even though the

style, size and soul of a good cabin are entirely different. Im sold on durability because it takes such small

amounts of extra care, materials and money to yield a huge increase in longevity. Although a cabin certainly can

be framed less stoutly than the design Ill show you here, Im convinced the wisest use of resources often means


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going beyond whats merely good enough.

A Firm Fondaion

Every well-built structure begins with the foundation. In regions where frost isnt an issue, site-poured, 6-by-16-

by-16-inch shallow-depth concrete pads work just fine. If this is similar to the approach used on new houses in

your area, then its OK for use under your cabin.

Cold climates are a different matter, and one of the best cabin foundations you can choose is established easily

with minimal tools and time. Concrete piers extending below the frost line, poured within round cardboard tubes,

are a time-proven approach to lightweight construction that offers a couple of advantages. Besides raising the

structure off the ground and isolating it from the annual freeze/thaw movements of the soil, concrete piers provide

good support around the perimeter of your cabin, without the need for full-scale forming and pouring.

In this cabin design, you need one pier at each corner of the cabin, one in the middle of each long side, three

piers spaced evenly on the front of the porch and one in the middle of the rear wall. In light soil, its reasonable to

dig the 10 holes you need for 8- to 12-inch-diameter pier forms using a long-handled shovel. Otherwise, call in a

neighbor or contractor with a tractor-mounted auger. You can use 8-inch concrete piers, but the larger size ismore forgiving if you dont get the alignment just right.

The best way to mark your foundation outline is with 12-inch spikes pushed into the earth and connected with

nylon string. (See Choose a Rock-solid Start, below, for layout tips.) Regardless of the foundation design you

choose, the main construction challenge is the same: leveling the top of the foundation pads or piers. A laser level

is easy to use and even allows a person working alone to level a foundation successfully. You dont need to buy

a laser level for this project, but its definitely worth borrowing if one is available from a friend or neighbor.

When setting concrete pier forms in the ground, dig the holes large enough to allow room for side-to-side

adjustment. The outside edges of the pier forms should extend a bit beyond the outer dimensions of yourbuilding. As inexpensive insurance against frost jacking of foundation piers (when the piers are pulled toward the

surface by seasonal freezing, even though they extend below the frost line), wrap the outside of each pier tube

with black polyethylene plastic before setting them into the holes and packing soil around them. While the

concrete is wet, vertically embed five-eighths-inch L-shaped threaded metal rod anchors, extending at least 7

inches above the concrete, short end down. Later on, these will hold down the base of the floor frame.

Bilding he Floor Frame

There are many ways to frame a cabin floor, but I favor the timber-rim approach for a couple of reasons.

Timber rim refers to a load-bearing frame of timbers that defines the perimeter of the floor area. Its better thana continuous foundation wall because it eliminates the need for lots of block work or a poured foundation, and it

offers great stability. For this project, it provides continuous support for a building thats held up at only 10

points around its perimeter. Another plus is that timber-rim construction is durable and simple for first-time cabin

builders.

Start by gathering rot-resistant 6-by-6 timbers for the outer rim. Timbers for the ends of the cabin and porch

should be long enough to do the job in one piece. If you need to splice two timbers together for the 20-foot

cabin sides, thats fine. Just locate the splices directly on top of your concrete pads or piers. (It is possible to get


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away with thinner pieces of wood here, but that would require adding more piers an option thats probably

less attractive than dealing with thicker timbers.) Be sure to make half-lap corner joints to connect the rim

timbers.

Measure, mark and drill 1-inch-diameter holes in your 6-by-6s for the five-eighths-inch threaded rod anchors

you embedded in your concrete piers, then settle the timbers in place over the rods.

Before bolting down the timbers, double-check that the top surfaces of the 6-by-6s are level to within one-eighth

inch of each other. Pouring concrete is coarse work, and its possible the foundation piers arent exactly the

same height now that theyve hardened. Nows the time to identify and correct any such errors. Install shims

underneath the uneven timbers to make them level; bolt them down tightly under 2-inch washers; then check one

last time with a level. You now have a sturdy timber rim on which to begin building the cabin. As long as the

bottom of the timber rim is at least several inches above the soil, natural ventilation should keep this structure

strong for many decades.

The timber rim you just installed supports floor joists and headers (the frame around the joists) that in turn form

the cabin and porch floor. By running joists across the 14-foot width of the building, youll have the stiffest

possible floor for a given width of joist, minimizing squeaks and ensuring long-term durability. As a rule of thumb,

2-by-10s spaced on 16-inch centers across the span of this cabin will give you a good floor. But because the

type of wood affects the total allowable span building codes may vary where you live double-check floor

joist sizes with your local authority. You might consider using 2-by-10 joists across the porch and 2-by-12s for

the main floor (but if you do, remember to use a 12-inch-wide header for the main floor, or your joists will be

taller than the floor frame). Using 2-by-12s raises the cabin floor slightly, creating a lip at the door that helps

repel water and snow.

Regardless of the floor framing wood you choose, use five 3 1/2-inch nails on each joint connecting the floor

joists to the headers. Make sure the edges of your floor frame are perfectly straight and use a string as a

reference to ensure that this happens as it should. Use 3 1/2-inch hot-dipped, galvanized nails driven at an angleto connect the floor frame to the timber rim. You also can use galvanized connector plates.

Nows the time to apply a floor surface to your joists, and that means you have a decision to make: If you want

flooring thats easy to build, inexpensive and requires no maintenance for a cabin that wont see much cold

weather, then three-fourths-inch softwood planks are the way to go. Even left completely unfinished, these form

a fine, rustic floor thats easy to sweep clean. Over time, bare wood like this also takes on a burnished beauty

thats as pleasant to look at as it is to live with.

Or do you want a better floor to keep out drafts and bugs, while retaining simplicity? Then consider shiplapped

floorboards. Theyre one step up from square-edged planks, offering all the same advantages as plain boards,while also preventing board-to-board gaps. The best floor option is five-eighths- or three-fourths-inch plywood,

though this makes sense only when youre planning to apply a finished floor material over the top. Plywood

keeps drafts out and adds an element of rigidity that dimensional lumber cant match, but it also looks

unattractive, especially in a cabin.

Wall Faming

With your rough floor in place, you can now build the walls. Stud-frame construction is still the most popular

approach for residential projects, and it makes sense for cabins, too. Although you can save money by framing


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with 2-by-4s, I recommend 2-by-6s instead, even if you wont be insulating. The extra 2 inches of frame depth is

stronger, looks better and offers greater storage opportunities for small items sitting on shelves between the

studs.

The illustration in the Image Gallery shows how stud-frame walls have three main parts: the plates (horizontal

members that form the top and bottom of the walls); studs (vertical frame members); and lintels (horizontal

members that span doors and windows).

Start by cutting one top and one bottom plate for the rear wall the one opposite the door. Make these plates

out of one 2-by-6 each, then temporarily screw them together so all sides are flush. Joining them together

ensures accuracy of the marks you make to show stud location. Make these plates 13 feet, 1 inch long. This way

the completed front and back walls will measure 14 feet wide when flanked by the two long walls that will go up

on each side of them.

With the pair of plates on edge, use a carpenters square to draw lines across the edges of the plates at the same

spot. Each pencil line shows where one side of each stud should be located. An X marks the side of the line

where the stud needs to sit. Studs measuring 92 1/2 inches long should be spaced 16 inches apart from center

point to center point, with extra studs where door and window openings will go later. Before you frame openings

for windows and doors, you need to know the sizes of the openings required for them. Make window openings

1 inch wider and 1 inch taller than the overall size of your window (1 inch wider and a half inch taller for a

prehung door, when you get that far).

Remove the screws that temporarily held the top and bottom plates together, separate these pieces about 8 feet

apart (with the bottom plate near its final place on the wall), and then position your wall studs between them.

Begin by nailing the plates to the ends of the full-length studs, then cut and add shorter studs to form the window

opening. Use three 3 1/2-inch nails per joint. If youre planning to build insulation into your floor, add a second

bottom plate to the wall to raise it up. Now gather some eager volunteers and get ready to heave the wall upright

and into position.

This is an exciting moment, but youll need a few tools to succeed. In addition to a framing hammer and some

31/2-inch nails, an 8- to 10-pound sledgehammer is helpful for jostling the wall into final position, and youll need

a 24- to 48-inch level to check and align its orientation. Raise the frame with a couple of helpers, then push, pull

and pound it into alignment with the edge of the floor frame. Use your level to help align the wall so its perfectly

vertical (plumb), and then drive two nails into each space between the studs on the bottom plate, extending down

into the floor boards and header.

Your wall is up and secure now, but its not yet strong. Brace it with some long pieces of lumber extending to the

ground (youll take them off later, so use the good stuff), then repeat the wall framing process for the twoneighboring side walls.

When youve framed the last wall (the one with the door) and raised it, check and adjust all walls so theyre

straight and plumb. This may take some time, but dont continue until youve correctly finished this detail. Use

taut strings (as you did when assembling the floor frame) to make sure the top edges of the walls are truly

straight. When youre satisfied, get ready to cut and apply another layer of 2-by-6s over the existing top plate.

Youll need to arrange these parts so they overlap the joints between wall segments (see Post Top Detail, at

the bottom left corner of the illustration), but theres another detail you need to address first.


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The illustration in the Image Gallery shows you how two 6-by-6s or log posts should be installed extending from

the top corners of the side walls to provide support for the porch roof. Begin by fastening two 6-by-6 vertical

posts to the front corners, then rest three horizontal 6-by-6s on top, extending to the porch posts temporarily

supported by props of lumber. When all this is in place, tie everything together with a second 2-by-6 top plate.

What you should have at this stage is the four walls of the cabin raised, with an additional 4-foot frame extension

from the cabins front wall, which will support the porch roof. The roof fits over the cabin walls and porch in

exactly the same way. Heres a tip: In general, you can use 12-inch spikes to hold together large framing posts,

such as the 6-by-6s described above, but you have to drive them into pilot holes. Although spikes arent strong

enough to resist shear loads, they do an excellent job holding one part in place over another.

For siding, I recommend wall planks because they look so much better from the inside of your cabin. If you are

looking for inexpensive siding, or you plan on insulating the walls interior and adding interior siding (covering the

2-by-6s from the inside), you can use plywood or oriented-strand board (OSB) wall siding panels.

Roof Faming

There are many ways to frame a roof, but when you want to create usable loft space, you need to address a fewdesign issues. The first is roof pitch. For both aesthetics and efficiency, the 12:12 pitch is best. This means that

for every 12 inches of horizontal run, the roof rises 12 inches. In other words, the slope is 45 degrees from

horizontal, with a 90 degree angle formed at the peak.

The parts of your cabin that form the slope of your roof are called rafters, and cutting them accurately will be the

most challenging part of building your cabin. That said, if you tackle the job with care checking for accuracy

early on youll succeed.

The first step is to take another look at the illustration in the Image Gallery. Fig. 1 shows a side view of the

rafters you need to build. Youll need 34 in all. This includes 30 that span the cabin itself, and two more pairsthat extend to create the overhangs at the porch and the rear wall. You could use 2-by-6 rafters, but if you plan

to insulate, youre better off using 2-by-8s spaced on 16-inch centers. Although it costs a bit more, the extra

wood actually makes it easier to create the required notches and angles because theres more wood with which

to work. As with the floor joists, check with local building authorities on exactly what size of wood is required

where you live.

Start by marking rafter locations where they will sit on the top of the side walls, ideally atop wall studs. Use the

same line-and-X marking scheme you used to lay out the top and bottom wall plates.

Next, measure the width of your building across the top of the side walls. It should be 14 feet. Chances are goodthat your cabin width across the front and back walls will match this measurement, but maybe not across the

middle. No problem. Take one or two spare planks, rest them across the top of the building and spike one end

of each in place. Get some help wrestling the walls inward or outward (whichever is needed to get a 14-foot

building width), then spike the second end of your brace planks down. These will come off later, when the rafters

and cross ties are added, so dont pound the nails all the way home. Also, make sure these temporary braces

are well away from the rafter locations you marked earlier. You dont want them to get in the way of the rafters.

Follow the pattern on the illustration in the Image Gallery (Fig. 1) and cut out a pair of rafters. Although they

should fit just right on your cabin, it always pays to double-check your cuts with a tape measure. Tack a piece of


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11/2-inch-thick scrap wood to the top end of one rafter (to simulate the ridge board that will be part of the

completed roof), then get some help temporarily hoisting the rafters up and leaning them against each other.

What youre looking for is a gap-free fit where the rafter meets the top of the walls, and where they come

together at the peak. While youre working, test the location of the rafter pairs at various places across the

building. If they fit in one place and not another, thats a sign the width of your cabin isnt consistent after all.

When youre satisfied with your pair of test rafters (and have adjusted their size if necessary), make the entire

batch of 34 rafters. Of these, you must add a special feature to 12 of them.

The illustration shows how you should cut 1 1/2-by-3 1/2-inch notches along the top edge of these 12 special

rafters to accept 2-by-4 braces. These support the outer pair of rafters on each end of the cabin, the ones that

create the overhang. The best way to cut these notches accurately and quickly is by temporarily clamping two

sets of six rafters together, marking each set as a group, then cutting the notches with multiple passes from a

hand-held circular saw. Its easy to knock out the slivers of remaining wood with a hammer and chisel.

Total length of the cabins ridge is 22 feet (20 feet across the building and porch plus 1 foot of overhang at each

end). This means the ridge board probably will have to be made in two lengths of 2-by-10s. Prepare these now,

arranging the joint between them so it lands in one of the spaces between rafter pairs. Next, lay the ridge boards

end-to-end on top of one wall plate and then transfer rafter locations onto these boards.

When it comes time to raise the rafters and ridge boards, do one half of the cabin at a time. Raise one pair of

rafters at the end of the cabin and another pair in the middle, near the place where the ridge board will end. Fill in

the spaces along the wall with more rafters, angling screws so they penetrate the ridge board and sink into the

ends of the rafters, then repeat the process for the second half of the roof. Add the 2-by-4 rafter supports, then

the four rafters that form the front and back eaves.

Concerned about the two-part ridge board? You shouldnt worry. The roof sheathing that comes next will join

these two halves together quite solidly. I strongly recommend using solid-wood planks that are three-fourths inchthick, not the more expedient option of plywood or OSB, unless you are building in a hurry. The underside of the

roof plays a large visual role in this cabin, and sheet woods never enhance the natural backwoods aesthetic. Just

remember to lap the roof planks across the area where the two ridge boards meet.

Youre now well on your way to finishing your cabin. Add the ceiling joists that tie the cabin together at the top

and form the floor of the sleeping loft. Shingle the roof, install doors and windows, and then apply your exterior

wall treatment.

Once your cozy, affordable little cabin has become part of your life, youll realize something that many folks

never understand: Small really is beautiful!

Co Eimae Fo Yo Cabin

The following includes the frame, rough floors and shingled roof, but not windows, doors and exterior siding. All

costs are rounded up to account for miscellaneous expenses.

Toal co: nde $4,000


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Floor assembl: $900

two 20 6 x 6 rot-resistant beams (timber rim, length sides)

two 14 6 x 6 rot-resistant beams (timber rim, width sides)

27 14 2 x 10 boards (blocking, joists and headers)

nine 5/8 plywood tongue-and-groove subfloor panels

Walls and porch frame: $1,000

50 8 2 x 6 studs (walls)

15 14 2 x 6 boards (wall plates)

five 8 6 x 6 rot-resistant wooden posts (porch)

one 14 6 x 6 rot-resistant beam (porch)

21 7/16 oriented-strand board wall siding panels (wall planks)

six 14 2 x 6 fascia boards (exterior wall trim)

Roof: $1,500

34 12 2 x 8 boards (rafters)

two 12 2 x 10 boards (ridge board)

17 14 2 x 6 boards (cross ties)

four 8 2 x 4 studs (rafter support)

two 20 2 x 8 boards (blocking)

17 3/4 spruce plywood panels (roof planks)

wooden shakes for 550 square feet of roof surface; roof liner, gutter apron

Hardware: $350

six 12 spikes (foundation markers)

10 10 Sonotubes (pier forms)

10 5/8 threaded rod anchors (foundation)

eight 1/2 x 6 carriage bolts (header anchors)

10 pounds of 3 1/2 ardox (spiral-shanked) nails (wall studs, floor joists)

10 pounds of 2 1/2 ardox nails (subfloor, roof planks)

eight 1/2 x 8 lag bolts (post tops)

15 pounds of 1 roofing nails

Choose a Rock-Solid Start

Right from the beginning, youll be faced with the challenge of creating an outline for your cabin that has truly

square corners. To deliver accuracy, a carpenters square just wont do it youll need to use geometry.

The overall width of the cabin is 168 inches, and the overall length (including porch) is 240 inches. According to

the Pythagorean Theorem (Remember high school geometry class?), the diagonal line connecting these two is:


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Length of diagonal = length of one side squared + length of the other side squared (then take the

square root of this sum). It works out to be 293 inches for the length of the diagonal side of the Pythagorean

triangle when the corner is square.

Start by laying out one side of your building, with a spike at both corners, and another spike at the porch corner

thats three spikes in a row, connected by a string. Next, grab two large tape measures and a couple of

people to help hold the tape ends on the spike heads: Youre about to mark the other side of the building so the

corners are perfectly square.

Hook one tape measure to each corner spike (youll need some help holding them there), and then extend both

tapes so the 168-inch mark on one tape intersects the 293-inch mark on the other. The spot at which this

happens is the place where one corner of the remaining cabin side should be located. Sink a 12-inch spike there.

Repeat the process for the other side, then double-check that the opposite sides are the same length.

If youre building on bedrock, lay out your cabin footprint and mark the corner points with a stout felt-tip

marker, then rent a hammer drill. Boring holes in the rock is the best way to establish key anchor points for the

strings to define the walls of your structure. Bore oversized holes, then tie a masons line to half-inch-wide, 6-

inch-long bolts and slip them in place. Bolt size isnt critical because they just drop into oversized holes bored

into the rock.

Eterior Options

The exterior wall treatment you choose for your cabin matters a great deal because it sets the tone for how the

place looks and how much maintenance youll be saddled with over the years. The exterior of your cabin can be

made of wooden shingles, boards and battens (see illustration), wooden panels or other materials. Research the

pros and cons of each material before choosing one for your cabin, and choose a material that wont burden you

with much maintenance.

Cedar shingles are a terrific option because they look great in a rural setting, last many decades and are

lightweight. They always live up to their reputation on roofs, and on walls, cedar shingles will satisfy those people

who insist on wood siding. Hand-split cedar shingles taken from your building site are ideal if youre lucky

enough to have them, but commercially sawed cedar shingles also work well.

Are you planning to install stone or brick yourself? Buy all the time you need to get the job done by installing

windlock asphalt shingles (see illustration) on walls. These interlock physically, allowing you to install them

vertically without the usual flapping youd get if you tried the same thing with regular shingles. They look pretty

good on their own, even if you never get around to the masonry.

For a low-cost approach to exterior siding, use either board and battens or 4-by-8 wooden panels. These two

options are easy to put up, and they look good for awhile. But in time they can look shabby unless youre diligent

about refinishing.

Our Life in a One-room Cabin


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In 1985, my wife, Mary, and I purchased 91 1/2 acres on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, and a year later, we built

a one-room, 200-square-foot cabin. We were homesteading beginners, and the job took us four 60-hour

workweeks and $550 to build what we now affectionately call The Shed. Neither Mary nor I had ever built a

structure before The Shed, so its smaller and built less stoutly than the cabin design here.

For the floor frame and roof rafters, I hewed logs from our forest; for most of the rest of the project, I bought the

least expensive locally sawed lumber I could find. I built The Shed with just a few tools: a broad axe, chain saw,

claw hammer and a carpenters handsaw, square and level.

For four years, every spring through fall, we lived in The Shed as we built our 2,500-square-foot, three-story

Victorian-style stone home (seephoto). By living in that little cabin, we saved thousands of dollars and boosted

our productivity by eliminating daily travel to the work site. We shared that space with mice, newborn livestock,

our golden retriever, King, and even a sick calf that had been abandoned by its mother.

Each winter until our hand-built home was ready, Mary and I grudgingly left The Shed and traveled back to the

city to overwinter and earn money. But doing so enabled us to live in that tiny rustic cabin for the rest of the year,

which was a crucial steppingstone to the rural life we now enjoy.

Starting out simply and debt-free in The Shed was very important for us, Mary recalls, but lets just say that

Steve liked it more than I did.

Whenever I tell people our story, they usually shake their heads and wonder how we succeeded. But the truth is

the cabin life was the lap of luxury for me at the time, because deep down inside, Ive always been a country

person who had the misfortune of growing up in a big city.

Getting Organied

The biggest blessing of cabin life is its simplicity. But you dont get that benefit just because youre living in a tinyspace. In fact, a cabin this size will drive you crazy if youre not ultraorganized. We installed hooks, nails, pegs

and shelves, and slept on folding cots all of which allowed us to live in the space comfortably. Whats more,

these space-saving devices doubled during the workday as room for tools and hardware, and space for

workshop tasks.

If you stay organized, the cabin lifestyle is wonderful for personal productivity. With no distractions from

entertainment, we happily worked 12 hours a day, six days a week on our home, quarrying stone by hand and

using it to build the 350 ton basement. In one season of cabin living, we built the three-story frame of our home

almost entirely by ourselves.

The Accommodations

Our kitchen appliances in The Shed consisted of a two-burner hot plate and a deep crockpot. We made toast in

an old-fashioned flip-down toaster and kept perishables in a 1951 Frigidaire that we acquired after hooking up

to the electricity grid. For access to water, we drilled a well and pumped water into a pressurized tank in a

corner of The Shed. We took baths every Saturday night in a steel-panned wheelbarrow, filled with water that

we heated a gallon at a time in the crockpot. We washed our work clothes with a scrub board in the same

wheelbarrow, and then dried the laundry on ropes tied across the inside of The Shed.


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Life was simple and good, but also strenuous and Spartan especially for Mary, who grew up in South

America in an area where camping and outdoor living were not a part of common culture. But to us, the benefits

of cabin life were, and still are, obvious. The cabin made it possible to cut costs, live efficiently and work

nonstop. More than ever, I now see that the ability to focus exclusively on your dream home for three seasons a

year while not leaving the property to earn money is a tremendous luxury indeed.

20/20 Hindigh

I look back on my days in The Shed with fondness, but I admit I couldnt live there now. Mary and I have four

children, and raising them with any degree of sanity requires more than 200 square feet of space. If I were 20

years younger and starting an adventure in the country again, Id still begin by building a cabin. The Shed served

me just fine, but I would design it a little differently, starting with the size.

Id make the cabin bigger, easier to heat and slightly more comfortable. I randomly chose The Sheds 10-by-20-

foot dimensions based on no building experience whatsoever. Now I know that making the cabin just 5 feet

wider would have greatly improved the amount of useful space. Also, I would spend more money to add

insulation, running hot water and a small sink with a drain. By doing so, I could have extended my home-building

season longer into the spring and fall. Furthermore, I would build the base on a deep foundation.

These days, The Shed is looking old and sits a little wonky as its base moves a little more with each years frost.

But I dont suppose our children would ever let us tear it down. For them, The Shed is a place of legend and a

tangible connection to the stories we tell them about how their family came to set down roots on the land theyll

inherit.

Yo Can Bild One, Too!

If you feel drawn to the simple cabin lifestyle, I say go for it. Someday, I look forward to experiencing the cabin

lifestyle again, even just as an occasional retreat. Something about the tiny size of a cabin puts me at ease. Someof my best cabin memories go back to cool fall evenings tucked into my sleeping bag, Im dog-tired as the

warmth of our antique woodstove wafts across my face. This lifestyle gives me the kind of deep-down

satisfaction and enjoyment that is only attainable when you mix hard work with a compelling dream and your

own piece of land.

Cabin Ki

Many people dream of building a cabin or cottage in the woods, beside a lake, along a bubbling brook or on topof a mountain with sweeping views. But cabins are not just for wilderness living. They also can offer cozy space

as a guest room, an artists retreat, a craft center or a small office.

The cabin kit manufacturers listed below are divided into three construction categories: log, frame and panel.

Most kits consist of the necessary materials for the exterior walls, interior wall studs, roof and floor, and include

windows, doors, fasteners, trim and construction manuals. The kits do not include foundations, insulation, or

electrical and plumbing packages. The base prices listed below do not include shipping costs.

To find the cabin that best fits your budget and construction experience, read each companys literature carefully


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and then ask lots of questions before you buy a kit.

Log Cabin Kits

Appalachian Log Homes

11312 Station West Drive

Knoxville, TN 37922

(800) 726-0708Yukon Trail II

$28,000

18 by 24 feet; 432 square feet

Conestoga Log Cabins

246 N. Lincoln Ave.

Lebanon, PA 17046

(717) 306-4490

Heritage

$24,59514 by 27 feet; 378 square feet

Countr Log Cabins

390 Swartz Road

Lewisburg, PA 17837

(877) 295-0085

Mahoning

$19,025


Merrimac Log Homes

32 Old Concord Road

Henniker, NH 03242

(866) 637-7462

Winnipesaukee

$13,695


Northeastern Log Homes

P.O. Box 46Kenduskeag, ME 04450

(800) 624-2797

Getaway

$17,570


Frame-wall Cabin Kits


12/13



Cabins.ca

30570 Great Northern Ave.

Abbotsford, BC V2T 6H4

(604) 504-1555

Algonquin

$29,004 ($32,485 Canadian)

20 by 24 feet; 864 square feet; two floors

Grestokes International

(a division of The Wilderness Cabin Co.)

230 Carion Road

Kelowna, BC V4V 2K5

(888) 891-3111

Okanagan

$19,750 ($23,150 Canadian)


Jamaica Cottage ShopP.O. Box 106

Jamaica, VT 05343

(877) 397-7433

Vermont Cottage

$12,999


Shelter-Kit Incorporated

22 W. Mill St.

Tilton, NH 03276(603) 286-7611

One unit several units can be connected

$9,535


Spirit Elements

6672 Gunpark Drive, #200

Boulder, CO 80301

(800) 511-1440

Yukon Custom

$22,198


Summerwood Products

735 Progress Ave.

Toronto, ON M1H 2W7

(866) 519-4634

Kepler Creek


13/13


$15,435 ($14,735 Canadian)


Panel-all Cabin Kits

Panel Concepts

331 North M-33

Mio, MI 48647(989) 826-6511

Knotty Pine #5

$23,214


Steve Maxwell is a Mother Earth Nes contributing editor who likes to build beautiful things stronger than

necessary. He lives and gardens with his wife and four children on a hand-built homestead on Manitoulin Island,

Ontario.

build a cozy cabin for $4000

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