One-room cabin for under $4,000

[NELSELGNE]

http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/2006_June_July/Build_this_Cozy_Cabin

[ailsaek]

Great article, thanks.  I can't comment on the technical aspects, as I haven't built anything yet, but it certainly made it all seem possible.

[FrankInWI(Guest)]

This is a great article.....makes me appreciate Mother Earth News again.  Boy...that pub has survived from way back in my hippie days.   Here I am 18 months from 60..... oh boy, that's another story.

I LIKE the step by step article he wrote.  I won't do it exactly his way, but it does shore up my courage to have some step by step instructions to help me convert my dream to the actual tool in hand work I will need to do.   I'd like to do it right the first time.   One time I was helping a real carpenter build a hip porch roof on a Habit For Humanity house and when I had to pull out nails to do something over he said "oh, remodeling already?".  Thought that was cute.  I remodel a LOT as I build!  

[Billy Bob]

I wonder if that's the same house featured in "Back Home" magazine? A young couple built a house in Western Maine using a whole lot of recycled/re-used material for about $4,000.  Haven't "digested" the whole article yet, but I'm impressed by the first skim through.  Very well documented.
The key seems to be some dedicated scrounging.  Also note that they say they discounted the cost of time and fuel for disassembling and transporting used buildings, etc.  Neverhteless, a great job for folks with more time than money, and a great contribution to sustainability!

[griff]

The dollar number really has no meaning.

If you bought everything new from Home Depot, then it might be a reproducable project, but when you scrounge and I scrounge we will never come up with the same list.

People make all sorts of sophisticated things out of "scrap" from their pile of scrap, bur piles are not the same!

dave

[MtnmanMikeM]

Good article from a good magazine.    But I have not read Mother Earth news for a few years now except once in a while from something someone posts on the internet.      This is from June 2006 and from what I remember this magazine was not as fancy, more hippie, simpler and  had articles about cheap living.      Maybe Mother Earth News is also going Mainstream??  

But I am maybe too extreme.   I began with Mike Oehlers great $50 and Up Underground House book in 1982, visited him in 1983 and worked for two months with him in 1986.   Cut a Lot of firewood and helped him build on his underground house.   He has several, I liked his underground greenhouse and underground sauna with woodstove.  

In 1987 I got my mtn place which I have told about in a couple other places in this good forum..... Never have spent more than a few hundred dollars building whatever buildings I have built, but I scrounge, salvage and try to be  thrifty...

[Chris(Guest)]

Greetings,

I also read the article on Mother Earth News.  

I was just wondering if $4000 was an accurate estimate if you were using all new materials?  I read over his materials list, and nothing seems to be missing.  I think John said that to build the 14x24 Little House would be about 10K.  So I'm just wondering why the descrepancy between the est. pricing of both plans.  Understanding that the Little House is only slightly larger doesn't seem to justify a $6000 difference.

As for me, I'm beginning to scour clearances at the "big box stores" and stockpiling for my building project, so I'm hoping to come in well under the 10k - hoping for more around 7500 - 8K.  

Chris

[Amanda_931]

No.  Not all store-bougt things involved with the Back Home house.  Not sure about Mother's.

No insulation in Mother's house in Canada.  

Also no bath.  No heat mentioned.  No idea what they did for electricity, but they did have it--heated bath-water in a crock-pot--for most of us, having water and power (and waste disposal) is part of our cost for the first "little cabin."  

And Mother's house is wearing badly.  In fact I rather think worse of the magazine for running the article.

The Back Home people seemed a lot more reasonable, don't remember what their water system is, but their solar system is very modest--probably not enough to run a crock-pot and jet-pump\pressure tank in the winter.

(by the way, that Coleman propane/rechargeable battery water heater works fine for laundry, if you keep the pump loads very low.  I'd hate to use it for a shower.  Probably just heat water in a five-gallon bucket, running the heated stuff back into the bucket (it's what I do for laundry), and then pour water over me with a small bowl.  But people who think that those plastic bag solar showers are perfectly wonderful will think it works fine--if you have the heater and the bucket at table height.  And the battery can be recharged via 12-volt if you are willing to do it while you drive the car)

Actually the independent lumberyards and hardware stores may have better serious bargains.  Back in what is called in my area, the bone-yard (in the case of windows they are indoors).  Special orders that they can't return (big box guys have a lot more leverage that way), samples, ditto.  

And for windows, try for the same kind of things at local window manufacturers.

[John Raabe]

I'm always very reluctant to quote prices or give estimates as there are SO... many ways to save and spend money.

Click HERE to open a window and see the step by step photos of the smaller (10'x14') cabin my two sons and I built. (We used only hand tools and a circular saw and worked on it part time over three weeks. The house was weather-tight in 11 days. We spent about $1,400 (or $10/SF) buying all construction materials new from our local lumberyard except for the used windows and doors. It has complete insulation, interior finished wood on the walls and ceiling, and a small wood stove and chimney.)

Now, building the Enchilada fully insulated version of the 14x24 Little House with plumbing and wiring would be considerably more. Here's a nice example.

[glenn kangiser]

I really enjoy hearing your cabin experiences, Mike.  

I think we still get Mother Earth News, but it is a pretty unimpressive advertising rag since the new publishers took over.  It was much better when the hippies had it.

[Sassy]

That is a really cute little cabin, John!  Didn't appreciate the step-by-step pics & explanations as much when I 1st started reading the forum, but now that I'm learning a little about building, makes it very interesting.  

[John Raabe]

Thanks Sassy.

The poor little place is used mostly for storage now as the kids have fled to the points of the compass.

Still keeps things dry and that simple low slope $50 roof is holding up very well. Never have gotten the siding on.  

[Sassy]

Join the club... we have a few things that aren't finished around here, too...  

[hunter63]

My 2 cents:
I read the article also, and I guess you have to ask the question, can you build ME one for that.
You can probably build a 747 with a hack saw and a nail file, but not everyone can do it.

Still was interesting, especially for new readers.