Introduction

[Knotty Haus]

Hello all of a kindred spirit that long for that quiet space in the country. Searching on line for small cabin ideas brought me to this forum and wow what a gold mine. We have owned a small property in southern Indiana for about twelve years now. We have always been planning to start a project but for any number of reasons have had to keep putting it off. Many improvements have been made and the site has been cleared with driveway, power, and water on site for several years. Utilities are available in a right of way across the front of the property including sewage.

Our land backs up to a state park so our attraction to it was being able to have a vacation/retirement place in the woods, only have to take care of 2+ acres and have access to 28000 acres of wilderness out the back door including an 8000 acre lake.

Like many others on the forum we are planning to build in stages. First would be a large two car garage with an apartment above. The garage would have the outside finish of a log cabin but primarily would be constructed of standard methods. Later closer to retirement in about 10-12 years we will build a full sized cabin (1100 sq ft) with a walkout basement. The plan is to have the garage paid for by that time and the house we currently live in would also be paid off. With the sale of the house we could pay off the cabin and hopefully bank a portion of the proceeds for our retired years.

We had our house built a few years ago where we currently reside so we are familiar with much of the process. We did probably 15% of the work on the house and 100% of the exterior improvements and landscaping ourselves.

With the cabin project we will probably flip those numbers over and do 75 to 80% of the garage apartment ourselves. Our level of satisfaction and success with the garage will dictate what level we will be involved with the cabin build.  I know it will be a slow go, but for us that's what makes you appreciate a project once it's complete.

I recognize the wealth of information that is already on the forum, not to mention all the great answers you folks are willing to provide when requested. In the mean time I will continue to search the forum, study and bookmark the most useful tips and ideas that are here. I look forward to getting to know folks here, if even from a distance. To put it in a phrase "you folks inspire me".

Chris