I’m reading this series of articles by Lou Ureneck about him building a cabin in the woods of western Maine. In the one called “Building a Home for Another Life,” from December 10, he hasn’t finished the foundation and they have already had two snows.
I have wanted to build a cabin since I read Walden
I had sent for plans, read articles on it, even sent away for those brochures on buying cheap land in Montana from the back of magazines, all before I had graduated high school.
But, I never bought the land and never built the cabin.
I agree with him that you build a cabin for “the satisfaction of making something with your own hands and the joy of living simply and close to nature, even if it’s just on weekends.”
A few years a go I built a stone wall along our driveway. It took me weeks to do. From clearing away piles of dirt by hand with a wheelbarrow hauling crushed stone and fitting together the stones one by one to fit correctly. I enjoyed it very much. I especially liked figuring out how to make the squares and rectangles form a smooth curve as it neared the house, and building two stone steps. I stared at those stones and that imaginary curve for hours. Very pleasant.
He’s not the only one chronicling this kind of thing online. I found another site by Mark van Roojen. He’s a professor of philosophy at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He teaches metaethics, ethics and political philosophy. And he’s building a timber frame cabin in the Sierra Madres. (That’s his photo at the top.) I’ll bet he could tell me something about the Zen (or zen) of cabin building.
And Mark’s site directed me to Bob at wolfcreekcabin.blogspot.com who is beginning a timber frame cabin project in Montana and another in Idaho that is well on its way.
Everyone is building a cabin but me.
I can’t see me doing any chainsaw milling like these guys. In fact, the more I look online, the more complicated this gets.
There’s the Timber Framers Guild , and www.HouseBlogs.net, the more ambitious Housebuilding Illustrated, Cedar Ridge Farm, a Bungalow Blog and the Massie House Timberframe blog too.
I think all I really need is something like the little 16 x 24 Michigan Cabin below.
After all, I wanted this as a way to help simplify my life. You know, my weekend escape, not my retirement home.
My friend Steve says I need to think about a tipi and sends me a link to some that has tipi that look bigger inside than the first floor of my house!
Or maybe I should buy a yurt.
But I don’t want portable. I want permanent. I want to build it, not assemble it.
Back to Lou – he’s writing that series, From the Ground Up, for The New York Times. Not exactly Mother Earth News, so I’m guessing that there are a bunch of other armchair cabin builders out there.
What would Thoreau
Helen said,
January 3, 2009 at 5:01 pm
You’re right about other armchair cabin builders, but what is missing from your post and from all the links in it that I followed is any women building cabins. I can’t believe that I am the only one out there that wants to build one myself (not with a husband or boyfriend).
mark van roojen said,
January 12, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Thanks for talking about my site! I think the only thing I have to say by way of the zen of cabin building, is start small so that it doesn’t seem like too much all at once. I’m not sure how far you are from where you would want your cabin, but I also found it helpful to be able to make the frame at home and haul it to my site. I say these things to facilitate turning your desire for a project like this into actual action. Hope they’re of use!
best,
Mark
Locavore Nation « Weekends in Paradelle said,
January 31, 2009 at 1:30 pm
[...] the cabin blogs I wrote about earlier, I find that getting someone’s personal take on something like this really makes your [...]
More Armchair Cabin Building « Weekends in Paradelle said,
February 8, 2009 at 10:56 pm
[...] 8, 2009 at 10:41 pm (Do It, Read It) Tags: cabin, update If you read my earlier post on building a cabin, this is a quick [...]
Trini Sario said,
February 27, 2009 at 2:46 am
The Michigan Cabin is beautiful as always.
Patti said,
March 10, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Hi!
I just found your blog and I love it! My husband and I are in the beginning stages of building a cabin in Vermont. We’re blogging about it at http://www.newenglandcabin.blogspot.com.
I’d love to be on your blog roll!
mark van roojen said,
March 24, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Probably the land is the key bit and this might not be such a bad time to buy some if you can find a bit you can manage to afford. But if simplifying your life is the idea, make it close to home and build very small.
Mark van Roojen said,
May 27, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I’m just fropping a comment to say that the URL for my cabin linked in your kind entry has not changed to: http://www.mvr1.com/timberframing/timberframecabin.html
The old host is shutting down so I put it up under my own domain.
Ronk said,
May 27, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Mark
Farewell to Geocities! I lost 2 old sites that were there too – but it was time.
Link updated in the post.
It felt chilly in NJ this morning, but when I read your page and find that “given that there is still 6 feet of snow near the pass (as of May 23) and that crews have not yet started clearing the road over the pass,” it immediately warmed up to a summerish 65 degrees.
Mark van Roojen said,
May 27, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Thanks much for that.
I think that last week the air temp came close to that summerish 65 near the cabin. But the snow is too spotty down below to ski up, and yet the road to my road is not open to drive it either. And given that I want to haul in some supplies and equipment to work with this summer, I’m waiting for them to get it open before making the trip from out here in Nebraska. Soon though!
best,
Mark