Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cabin/House Build with Pics

Wabi warned to look out. I have finally learned to post pics.

I have thought about doing a thread on my house build for quite a while and had reservations. Reading Northern Dave's thread on his snow machine was so interesting and informative that I reconsidered. BTW Dave, fantastic thread. You have skills.

This could turn out to be a very long thread if I tell the whole story. It will have lots of pics but first a little about why here.

We found this land by accident while looking for years for a remote location with an old hunting camp. Ideally with no nearby neighbors. Happened across it on the way to somewhere else. We were not thinking about a lot of land, just a camp with some space. This turned out to be 100 acres and it was surrounded by National Forest on three sides. The existing "lane" only went part way. There was a big clearing where the lane stopped and a little shack of a cabin down in the bottom of the high mountain valley. It was February and the snow was deep so that's all we saw that day.

Called the owner who was in his mid-eighties, and he filled us in on the details. The land had been in his family for at least four generations. It had old gas wells still producing and a spring up above the old cabin. No electric but the lights, heat and old refrigerators ran on natural gas. The old map on the wall of the attorney's office was dated 1840 and his family name was on that plot on the map. A 90 year old farmer told me that cabin was the original homestead making it at least 160 years old at the time.

We could not afford to buy 100 acres and keep our house, but I recognized the potential. Long story short on this part was we listed the house and put a down payment with the owner. He had no realtor. That happened just before the housing crash and luckily we got our house sold to the only people to look at it after two years.

We moved into that old cabin. Rough does not begin to describe it. When the wind blew the curtains waved. The old frig was a carbon monoxide worry but that was not an issue as we were plenty ventilated. No insulation meant some mighty cold nights when temps dropped to minus 20's. The ceiling was loaded with beetles that came out with the warmer temps. Gravity delivered the water from the spring, and we ran it constantly through the winters to keep it from freezing. There is an add on section to the cabin that had a shower stall, commode and hot water tank. You have to go out the front door to go in the "bathroom". The wife was thrilled.

We both worked for the same company traveling the whole country. It was in the auto industry. With the near collapse of the whole country, we both lost our jobs as the company went broke. At least it was cheap living here. No income slowed the overall plan way down.

Looking forward to more installments !

Continuing on.

I bought an old dozer and started work on getting a road down the rest of the way to the old cabin. Dug shale out of the hillside and cut trees and dug out stumps. Cleared some space for fields and a site for a barn. Wife decided to try to breed Golden Retrievers for some cash flow. I fixed up an old out building and turned it into a kennel. Needed a place to shelter tools and equipment so built a 30 x 40 barn. Fenced in a garden to keep out the deer. Planted the big opening for the deer, turkeys and bears.

Lots of deer....and lots of bears and turkeys. Lots of bear stories.

Between my wife and I we made pretty good progress. No TV or internet to distract us. Long days and evenings sitting around the fire. Discussions mainly about grown kids and the next day's work.

We fixed up the old cabin enough to pass but it was past being a redo. It always leaned to one side and was a typical patch job by the previous owners with no skills. It was build or sell and I was staying no matter what.

As am I!!

Good stuff Diesel... PLEASE KEEP GOING!

As for pics... Wabi has good insight.

I did mine by making a BS Google email address and a Google Photos album (create an album and drop in pics and share a link)... like this... https://photos.app.goo.gl/D3EVwsEsLJMVdgDz9

NOT TRYING TO HIJACK your thread... just showing another way to skin a cat.

That last sentence just drips with sarcasm.

Well done, looking forward to this adventure!

I had a pretty bad 4wheeler flip and had to stay immobile for a month or so to heal. I took that tie to get serious about a house build. I had built a log house from scratch back in my twenties, cutting my own trees and skinning logs. Did all my own build and the stonework was a big component. So, I had some experience with that kind of thing.

My job and our leisure time had taken us to all 50 states and a lot of the national parks. We had stayed in some pretty cool places for work over the years. I was always fascinated on how the old craftsmen built the structures of the parks. Big logs and beams. Lots of stone and natural materials. Rustic but warm and inviting. I would check out old barns and all the different techniques on timber joinery. I wanted to build something that was simple, efficient and had the feeling of those places with the conveniences of today. I wanted to keep all the good aspects of living cheap in that old cabin too.

We talked for hours about everywhere we had lived and what was good and necessary from each experience. The house we had sold was near perfect, but we even improved on that layout. Eventually I got a plan we could agree on and I sketched it out. Even built a scale model so the wife could envision it.

Your story would be much more interesting with those pics.
Dozer, 4-wheeler, old cabin etc.

Take your time, post um, lots of um.

This should be a fifty dollar hard bound book!!

Tag.

I wanna see this place in person.

To be able to take advantage of the spring and the gravity flow to the house site the house could not be much higher up than the old cabin. I am sure the original builders of that cabin chose that spot was for that reason. Running water is really important necessity and the well we dug had terrible water.

I also wanted to orient the house to take advantage of the sun's track in the winter and summer. Catching the winter sun through the windows for warmth at the same time avoiding the harsh summer sun for coolness. No electric makes every little detail important. Drainage from summer storms and prevailing winds were in the mix. All these things and a layout that would give us 360 degree views chose the exact spot for us.

I was now in my sixties and not as spry as I used to be. My wife needed to understand that this was not going to be an off the shelf build with store bought materials. We would need to make all the pieces. It was going to take a while. She had no idea.

So Ok, now some pics.

I am getting impatient. I didn't help you learn to post pics for all those damn words.

I have to note that our lane is one mile back. This first pic shows the house last week from the spot we first saw the old cabin. That old cabin still stands behind the new house and will be torn this summer.



The second pic is coming down the lane further about 400 yards out. The spring is up the mountain behind the new house.

This is an awesome thread

Now we are getting there!

Keep the old place for a bed, and breakfast. Then skip the breakfast part.

It's coming to life!

Keep your pants on Paul, they are coming.

The next shot was taken a couple of years ago so these pics are not going to be in order.

Very nice!

Some interior shots for tonight. I will do it in more detail tomorrow.