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vandersysml
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# Posted: 2 Feb 2012 23:16
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Hi, I've been quietly observing all of your projects for awhile, now I finally got my cabin underway. Last year we bought 20 acres backing up to National Forest up in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Beautiful country. We're off the grid for now and will probably stay that way. The only reason we would even need a generator that I could see is for a small window unit in the summer. We also have to haul water now, but I'd like to drill a well and install a hand pump. Any suggestions about those ideas would be appreciated.
I ended up hiring a company that builds sheds and cabins on-site, comparable to a prefab shed, except made of 5/8 in plywood and studs on 16" centers instead of OSB or T-111. I would love to build it all myself, and admire everyone who has, but I'm active duty Air Force, and between deployments, crazy work schedules, and the fact that I have two young boys, it never would have happened.
We went with a 10 X 16 (mostly due to funding limitations). The builders put it together this past Friday and I convinced my dad to come up with me to spend the weekend installing a woodstove, building furniture and installing a kitchen. Of course, I forgot to get a piece of triple wall chimney pipe, so the first night we froze, but after that the stove worked amazingly well. It's a "Three Dog Stove" from the Four Dog Stove company, made for a tent. It's just about the right size for this cabin. Of course, once it's insulated I'm sure we'll be leaving the windows open. My only frustration so far is the foundation. You may be able to see in some of the pictures that the foundation is scary. Its on skids sitting on stacked concrete blocks. I'm planning on reinforcing it with a cinder block foundation unless someone here has a better idea.
Anyway, thanks for all the great ideas, you may recognize some of your design elements that have been infringed upon, I've gotten some really good ideas from this site, like the bunkbeds. Any ideas would be great. I'm only 25 and this is my first project like this, so I'm open to learning.
Contractors
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vandersysml
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# Posted: 2 Feb 2012 23:45
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More Pictures
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vandersysml
Member
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# Posted: 2 Feb 2012 23:49
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This will be a year round use cabin, but we mainly bought the land for hunting. Lots of deer, turkey, pigs and bears around.
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2012 00:09
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Hey...a warm welcome to you!!!!!!
I have to be honest with you...I am TOTALLY JEALOUS of the fact that you are only 25 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL!! Seriously :-) It is really cool that you have your cabin and land at such a young age!!!!
When we were your age we looked at a cabin on a lake about an hour from our home. The asking price was $25,000 and we walked away feeling like we just couldn't afford it................ARGH!!!!!! We still are kicking ourselves for that!!!!! At the time though we had a brand new house to pay for and 6 young mouths to feed. Now we have a house that is going to start needing major repairs and only 3 children's mouths to feed... but finally we have a cabin we are building! LOL!
Enjoy your beautiful land! Does that river run right through your property???
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2012 00:15
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Thanks for the welcome. No unfortunately that river doesn't run through my landbut it's only 2 mi away. We do have a small spring fed creek. Would like to make a pond from it someday.
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cabinbiscuits
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2012 10:27
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vandersysml- Welcome to the site, and thank you on behalf of myself and my family for your service to our country.
That's a beautiful place you have there. I'm jealous that your builders were able to put your shell up so fast for you. That's one of the things that those of us who are building for ourselves struggle with, it's usually a much slower process. If I could just buy a shed and have it delivered, I would love to go that route, but I can't.
Anyway, the cabin looks great, and you're off to a great start.
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hattie
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2012 15:04
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Welcome to the forum. Your place looks great! I would definitely do something about that foundation though. It would be a shame to have your building get ruined due to a bad foundation. Hopefully someone on this forum can give you some ideas. There are a lot of talented folk here who are very experienced with cabins.
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Bzzzzzt
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2012 21:51
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Hey Neighbor! My cabin is up north of Berryville/Eureka Springs. Your place looks really cool. I just love that area of the country, don't you?
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vandersysml
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# Posted: 3 Feb 2012 22:00
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Quoting: Bzzzzzt I just love that area of the country, don't you?
Absolutely! I live in Oklahoma but I get out to NW Arkansas as often as I can. It's a beautiful area and not as bitter cold as some of the mountain ranges up north. Plus it's pretty sparsely populated out in Madison County, and everyone does as they please, not too much interference (i.e. building permits? What building permits?). Do you live in AR full time Bzzzzzt?
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Bzzzzzt
Member
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# Posted: 4 Feb 2012 08:59
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Currently we live in Kansas City, MO but we plan to retire on our land in MW AR.
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vandersysml
Member
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# Posted: 20 Feb 2012 22:03
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Making progress. Brought the wife and my oldest son out to the cabin for the first time this weekend and they absolutely loved it. Almost finished painting the outside (forgot a ladder to finish the shutters on the higher window). Cut some firewood, ran a drain line for the sink. Mostly enjoyed ourselves, hiking and fishing. Found this cool brass monument marker. I've looked for it before, it's in our survey plat. It's the section corner marker placed by the USFS in 1936, right where our land borders national forest.
Also dug the hole for our outhouse. It's 3' deep, 2' diameter. Does that seem sufficient? I've never built an outhouse, so any advice there would be appreciated. Also, where I start using the outhouse, would it help to dump ridex in the hole like you would with a septic tank?
We also found this cool cemetery in national forest a couple hundred feet from our land. Most graves are just marked with a rock, but this one is a military headstone from a confederate vet. Someone has even been there to post a flag.
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vandersysml
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# Posted: 20 Feb 2012 22:08
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More pics
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Exploring a Cave
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oldbuddy
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# Posted: 20 Feb 2012 22:51
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I don't know anything about outhouse holes but I wouldn't want to worry about "out-growing it" too fast. If it were me, I'd make it at least three to four feet in diameter but......like I said.....I never dug one. I've seen a few...and they were all quite a bit bigger than yours. I guess it just depends on how much and how many people will be using it. I'd keep a five-gallon bucket full of lime handy!LOL
I'm not trying to be a wise guy but I'd hate to build a facility for that purpose and then have to tear part of it down, or all of it down because the hole needs to be widened. It's always been my motto to make it bigger, stronger, deeper, wider, higher, etc. than it really needs to be. That way, all you're out is a little money and time.
I plan on watching your progress. You are very fortunate to have your own place and be so young. I'm sure your family will have many happy memories there. My son and I have had many good times at our place just in the past year...and he's 36! He's Old Buddy and I go by Old Old Buddy...for obvious reasons.
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vandersysml
Member
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# Posted: 21 Feb 2012 20:55
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Good call oldbuddy. I'll probably dig a little deeper and wider before I put the outhouse in. My plan is to build it at home (4' x 4') and then just set it over the hole. when the hole gets close to full, fill it in and find a new spot. Anyone who knows of any reason this could be a bad idea please let me know before I do something I'll regret. I've noticed some outhouses on this site have holding tanks. Do you pump the tank out periodically? I'm not planning on using one, should I?
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 21 Feb 2012 22:41
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vandersysml
unless your outhouse is used continuously it should last a long time.i built mine 5 years ago with a 2 x 2 hole and i think it will last at least 5 more years more before i move it ..
my kind of place good job!!
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nicalisa
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# Posted: 21 Feb 2012 23:02 - Edited by: nicalisa
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I love your place!!!
We agree that 10x16 is the perfect size That is the same exact size as we have.
We built a loft in the far end....not that anything is very far in this space. It has been the best use of space that we have done so far. This allowed us to have a "room" for the kids, the space for a "room" for us under the loft, a galley kitchen and a dining area with built in seating next to the wood stove that serves as our wood storage under the seating benches. We opted for a composting toilet, but it is very similar to your idea....your place sure sounds great We started in our mid 30s and now are almost done in our early 40s. Slow and steady and all that
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oldbuddy
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# Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:50
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nicalisa
I enjoyed reading your story. Sounds like you guys had your hands full. I also noticed that you have been "off the air" for awhile. Your site is beautiful! You should be (and are of course) very proud of your cabin. Any new updates?
Old Old Buddy
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Bevis
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# Posted: 22 Feb 2012 13:35
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I know that foundation looks scary...but I've seen cabins, and even houses that were built in the early 1930s that had foundations like yours, and they are still standing.
You could place a stack of cinder block or one under the skids and level it with shims. Use an anchor (auger type drilled into ground) to anchor it down.
Nice views and land too.
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exsailor
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# Posted: 22 Feb 2012 13:54
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Good looking land and cabin, Looks like great hunting and the creek might even provide a micro-hydro possibility for the future. You have got the right idea to get your cabin young and have a place to share with your growing family. You're going to have a lot of good memories down the line. If I were to set a new out house I would get an empty metal drum. Cut out the bottom then coat it with a water proof coating inside and out. If you find a plastic barrel you can forget about coating it and it will never rust. Dig the hole slightly larger than the outside diameter of the barrel. Drop it in and collapse the sides or back fill around it. That will prevent a later collapse. It is then a small matter to build a structure up around the hole. Good Luck and keep a bucket of lime around for the smell.
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vandersysml
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# Posted: 22 Feb 2012 20:11
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Quoting: Bevis I've seen cabins, and even houses that were built in the early 1930s that had foundations like yours, and they are still standing.
I know what you mean. In fact, there's an old school house down the road from our cabin that was built in 1902 on a stacked rock foundation and it's still standing, but I think I'll do something like you described and reinforce it with cinder blocks.
nicalisa
We do love our cabin size. We have lofts too, but I didn't include any pics of them: one six foot with a king size camper mattress in it and a four foot on the other side that's for storage but could accommodate a twin air mattress if necessary.
Thanks for the encouragement!
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vandersysml
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# Posted: 22 Feb 2012 20:14
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Quoting: exsailor I would get an empty metal drum. Cut out the bottom then coat it with a water proof coating inside and out. If you find a plastic barrel you can forget about coating it and it will never rust.
Good idea, I think I'll do that! And yes, we're so glad we could do this in our 20s. We could have waited until we could afford something nicer, but that's not our style anyway Saving up combat pay we were able to do this and so far it's been a blast.
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nicalisa
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# Posted: 22 Feb 2012 22:29
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Quoting: oldbuddy nicalisa I enjoyed reading your story. Sounds like you guys had your hands full. I also noticed that you have been "off the air" for awhile. Your site is beautiful! You should be (and are of course) very proud of your cabin. Any new updates? Old Old Buddy
Hi there Old Old Buddy
We have been off the air for a while. Work for me has been a busy winter (I manage a surgical program in a hospital which is a job and a half for sure! and my husband works on contract and has been busy for over a year and a half, which in any economy is great)
We just went up last weekend (because the kids would not let up on wanting to go to the little house...and thank god someone has their priorities inline as the weekend away is just what the 4 of us needed).
The updates are in this thread
http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/1_1864_0.html
We finished the solar, composting toilet, built a dresser, and hauled in our new shelves for the lumber pile...and fished. lots of pics in the post!
vandersysml,
post some loft pics, can't wait to see more!
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 23 Feb 2012 10:07
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Quoting: vandersysml Brought the wife and my oldest son out to the cabin for the first time this weekend and they absolutely loved it
Awesome! It looks like a little boys paradise!!!! He is going to have very fond memories of going to the cabin! 
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travcojim
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# Posted: 18 Mar 2012 16:28
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Where are you in Madison County? I am out that way also, outside of Kingston about 7 miles down a dirt road. Your area looks familiar. Glad to see someone else from out in the area. I don't have anything built yet but have a rv on the land for those weekends I am there.
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vandersysml
Member
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# Posted: 19 Mar 2012 13:57
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I'm more towards Pettigrew a few miles off of HWY 16. Nice area. You originally from around there? We did the camper trailer thing for a little while but the quality of life has really improved with the cabin.
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travcojim
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# Posted: 23 Mar 2012 20:39
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I went to school down around Clarksville, but from Dallas, made the move up to NWA about 22 years ago. Before the boom hit. Have had my land out in Kingston for 5 years. I am thinking of doing something along the lines of a wee house. I like the style of them. A few changes, more of a shed style roof instead of a flat roof. Hope to start in the next year on getting something started.
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