Looking back on the past year, it's kind of funny how crazy we must have been to think we could build the cabin we'd originally planned. We'd have gone into debt up to our eyeballs - all for counter-intuitive sake of pursuing leisure.
So we went the cheaper route, building ourselves a nice little 10X12 shack based on some shed plans we hacked, and now we have ourselves a starter cabin that serves our needs, and get us on the land.
It's still a work in progress, but it's cozy and comfortable, and because we decided that we weren't going to bother hiding the 2X4, plywood, and fiberglass construction materials, the whole thing cost us less than $15k - including some very expensive barge trips, a propane fridge, AND buying back our old Blazer (at twice the price) that we'd sold the previous year.
The build took a skilled friend and I about 10 days (long, back-breaking days), and we should be able to finish it up with a few more solid days of work this spring. It won't be insulated (at least not for a while), and it is electrical and plumbing free, but who needs that stuff anyway?
Next steps will be finishing the front deck, water collection/storage, outdoor kitchen, "landscaping", and hopefully a bunkie. I'd spent months trying to figure out whether or not we were going to build an outdoor fireplace, and settled on using a giant stainless steel wok for our firepit. Can't wait to try it out. Now, if the effing rain would just stop.
