Wilderness cabin?

[santaman2000]

Timber framed panel construction needn't take long at all to build, most of the work is done off site and the panels being delivered then fitted together on site.
Its still going to cost a bit to get the materials in if by aircraft but by boat it wouldn't be bad.
Its surprising just how quickly they go together so the crew needn't be there too long.

Usually in North America timber framed housing is the norm (even "brick" homes are timber framed and have the exterior bricked after the fact) Usually the only off site construction is the roof trusses and cabinetry. Everything else is assembled on site. But, as you say, It can be done in about a month or so if weather permits (and building crew scheduling is convenient)

The old settlers could raise a cabin in a day; but they had relatively large crews as neighbors gathered together to help with cabin or barn raisings.

 

[Tengu]

It would be much better to live in a country like Japan where the Wilderness is next door to the City.

 

[Retired Member southey]

It would be much better to live in a country like Japan where the Wilderness is next door to the City.

but you then have to deal with pram pushing Ronin on On meifumadō, it can ruin a lovely summers day picnic!

 

[blacktimberwolf]

There would be the language barrier too. & you would have to reply "watashi wa eigo dake o hanashimasu" or "watashi wa nihongo wa hanashimasen" when ever anyone spoke to you.......that's no way to integrate

 

[Retired Member southey]

watashi wa nihongo wo hanasemasu, anata wa nihongo wo hanasemasen and now my zoid will crush you!

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Muri da watashi wa , saikyō no otoko no sekai nite i masu shi .

 

[Retired Member southey]

No your not!

I would guess that the cabin and location means its only an option for the well endowed walleted, to me a big house lends it self to excesses any way so its not my cup of tea, but I do like the look from inside! have to agree though that i would want the outside not to make me think I was bimbling up to a suburban house, its all about the feel,

 

[blacktimberwolf]

............:sulkoff:

 

[santaman2000]

No your not!

I would guess that the cabin and location means its only an option for the well endowed walleted, to me a big house lends it self to excesses any way so its not my cup of tea...

1536 square feet's a big house?

 

[Retired Member southey]

its a big size for me,

 

[santaman2000]

LOL. Me too if living alone. Not so big though with a family and pet.

Gotta wonder though; is that cabin "lived in" full time, or is it a second home/vacation spot? That would make a difference too.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Definitely, would have to be a well ordered family to live there full time, but then i you were going to be there full time I suppose it would make the food situation easier to deal with, growing through the year, hunting to build up the stores, rather than shipping in stores every time you went there to stay.

 

[demographic]

Usually in North America timber framed housing is the norm (even "brick" homes are timber framed and have the exterior bricked after the fact) Usually the only off site construction is the roof trusses and cabinetry. Everything else is assembled on site. But, as you say, It can be done in about a month or so if weather permits (and building crew scheduling is convenient)

The old settlers could raise a cabin in a day; but they had relatively large crews as neighbors gathered together to help with cabin or barn raisings.

Where I'm currently working we make timber framed buildings, but they are mostly made in a workshop then the panels taken out onto site and erected there.

Some are clad in timber and some brick or even stone.
The roof is on before then so the other internal work can be done whilst the brickies do their bit as well. Its very fast and as the brickies have less to do there's a better chance that the walls are straight and plumb.

 

[santaman2000]

Where I'm currently working we make timber framed buildings, but they are mostly made in a workshop then the panels taken out onto site and erected there...

Where are you working? we do have "pre-fabs" here as well but they really aren't that common.

 

[santaman2000]

Where I'm currently working we make timber framed buildings, but they are mostly made in a workshop then the panels taken out onto site and erected there.

Some are clad in timber and some brick or even stone.
The roof is on before then so the other internal work can be done...

Yeah. When the construction (here) gets to the stage where the roof is on and the exterior walls are watertight it's called "dried in" and the pace can slack off since there's no longer a frenzie to beat the whims of weather.

 

[inthewilderness]

Hello Board,
Just stumbled across this thread. The wife and I are quite amused at some of the responses. There appear to be some smart, bush savvy people as well as some wilderness wannabes. We are the owners of the the house in question and I'd like to answer some of the questions that have been posed.

Not sure where to begin. This was virgin wilderness when we arrived. All trees are natural and my guess is 60-70 year old trees. We flew everything you see in. My wife and I built this place with a bit of nail pounding help from a brother. There was no "crew". Every tree in the garden and orchard were hand winched out. Tree by tree. Next time you look at our place, imagine the amount of work that was needed to fly stuff into here and create what you see. Without getting into details, the house is stick frame but quite unique in design. 10 inch walls and most thermal bridges have been eliminated. It takes very little to heat this place at -40. minus 20C is a typical high here.

Uncertain where we advertised as a wilderness "cabin". I don't think we did. Website says wilderness home. Nearest human might be 60 miles away. I'd say that's wilderness. We do live here generally year round. Shopping is done twice a year. Yes, float plane cost is brutal but so is costs of running a vehicle back and forth to work. Plus no traffic jams here.

The siding on the house is metal. That's for a reason. Anybody that's enjoyed being in the middle of a forest fire would appreciate this house. It's survived two direct hits by fire and been threatened in two other fires. No threats anymore. I survived in the boat and in the lake in my survival suit and watched the world on fire. You can't imagine how nice it was to find the house still standing. Sprinklers saved us but the fire got to within 90 feet of the house in both those fires.

Keep in mind, what you see for a house was designed with many design criteria in mind. Ease and cost of flying the stuff in, ease of construction for my wife and I and fire safety. We do have some modern conveniences of home since this is "home"

For anybody truly interested in further banter, we'd be happy to answer your questions. I've made a start on some of the things that were written here. We've been off grid since 1979 and have a lot of experience to share.

 

[Huon]

Hello Board,
Just stumbled across this thread. The wife and I are quite amused at some of the responses. There appear to be some smart, bush savvy people as well as some wilderness wannabes. We are the owners of the the house in question and I'd like to answer some of the questions that have been posed.

Not sure where to begin. This was virgin wilderness when we arrived. All trees are natural and my guess is 60-70 year old trees. We flew everything you see in. My wife and I built this place with a bit of nail pounding help from a brother. There was no "crew". Every tree in the garden and orchard were hand winched out. Tree by tree. Next time you look at our place, imagine the amount of work that was needed to fly stuff into here and create what you see. Without getting into details, the house is stick frame but quite unique in design. 10 inch walls and most thermal bridges have been eliminated. It takes very little to heat this place at -40. minus 20C is a typical high here.

Uncertain where we advertised as a wilderness "cabin". I don't think we did. Website says wilderness home. Nearest human might be 60 miles away. I'd say that's wilderness. We do live here generally year round. Shopping is done twice a year. Yes, float plane cost is brutal but so is costs of running a vehicle back and forth to work. Plus no traffic jams here.

The siding on the house is metal. That's for a reason. Anybody that's enjoyed being in the middle of a forest fire would appreciate this house. It's survived two direct hits by fire and been threatened in two other fires. No threats anymore. I survived in the boat and in the lake in my survival suit and watched the world on fire. You can't imagine how nice it was to find the house still standing. Sprinklers saved us but the fire got to within 90 feet of the house in both those fires.

Keep in mind, what you see for a house was designed with many design criteria in mind. Ease and cost of flying the stuff in, ease of construction for my wife and I and fire safety. We do have some modern conveniences of home since this is "home"

For anybody truly interested in further banter, we'd be happy to answer your questions. I've made a start on some of the things that were written here. We've been off grid since 1979 and have a lot of experience to share.

That is one hell of a first post.

Well done sir!

 

[demographic]

Hello Board,
Just stumbled across this thread. The wife and I are quite amused at some of the responses. There appear to be some smart, bush savvy people as well as some wilderness wannabes. We are the owners of the the house in question and I'd like to answer some of the questions that have been posed.

Not sure where to begin. This was virgin wilderness when we arrived. All trees are natural and my guess is 60-70 year old trees. We flew everything you see in. My wife and I built this place with a bit of nail pounding help from a brother. There was no "crew". Every tree in the garden and orchard were hand winched out. Tree by tree. Next time you look at our place, imagine the amount of work that was needed to fly stuff into here and create what you see. Without getting into details, the house is stick frame but quite unique in design. 10 inch walls and most thermal bridges have been eliminated. It takes very little to heat this place at -40. minus 20C is a typical high here.

Uncertain where we advertised as a wilderness "cabin". I don't think we did. Website says wilderness home. Nearest human might be 60 miles away. I'd say that's wilderness. We do live here generally year round. Shopping is done twice a year. Yes, float plane cost is brutal but so is costs of running a vehicle back and forth to work. Plus no traffic jams here.

The siding on the house is metal. That's for a reason. Anybody that's enjoyed being in the middle of a forest fire would appreciate this house. It's survived two direct hits by fire and been threatened in two other fires. No threats anymore. I survived in the boat and in the lake in my survival suit and watched the world on fire. You can't imagine how nice it was to find the house still standing. Sprinklers saved us but the fire got to within 90 feet of the house in both those fires.

Keep in mind, what you see for a house was designed with many design criteria in mind. Ease and cost of flying the stuff in, ease of construction for my wife and I and fire safety. We do have some modern conveniences of home since this is "home"

For anybody truly interested in further banter, we'd be happy to answer your questions. I've made a start on some of the things that were written here. We've been off grid since 1979 and have a lot of experience to share.

Thanks for your input and welcome to the forums here.
I'd be very interested to see any photos you might have of the construction of your home.

Don't take it hard that one or two of us are less than complimentary about your home as we have more than out fair share of yoghurt weavers here who want to live in a mud hut, as long as its got broadband connection, hot and cold water, sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health.
But apart from all that they would be happy with a mud hut.

Looks like you have quite a spread there, how do you get on for energy usage? Lighting and heating might be OK but things like washing machines use a lot of power and are pretty hard for the average person to give up. How do you get on about that?
What have been the main problems during the time you've been off grid?

 

[inthewilderness]

Demographic and Huon,
Thanks for the kind comments. We got quite a kick out of your response Demo. To be honest, it did grate us a little to see how far off some of the guessing was in the responses. We had no idea this was even being discussed so long ago. Anyway, I'll have to do some pondering and picture scanning in the next day or so and I'll come up with a post on the house construction.

For anybody who has no idea of what our place and this thread is about can see the house pictures at http://www.inthewilderness.net/ If you look at the downstairs pictures you will note an old fashioned wringer washer. We have always used a wringer washer. We believe it to be quite energy and water efficient. You can do several loads of wash with one water fill. Then drain the water, refill with clean and rinse your several loads. No need for a dryer. Run the clothes through the wringer and in warmer weather hang out to dry. In colder weather we use a wooden clothes rack made for the purpose.

We've lived off grid in both the United States and Canada. I've really had to do some head scratching to answer the question of what have been the main problems of living off grid. The biggest thing that comes to mind is energy. We have solar, wind and generator. Solar has always been trouble free. Fuel is flown in by the 45 gallon drum. Evidently there was some fine dirt that ruined the fuel pump of our generator. At the time I didn't know what the trouble was, so it needed to be flown out and back in. Now we have a fine micron filter and all is well. The generator is used only when the weather has long periods of clouds and lack of wind. There are times where I might not fire the generator for 6-8 weeks. Also depends on the season. We also had some trouble with the turbine controller. That needed to be flown out. One cannot justify a special flight in or out to get a part or get something fixed so it took a prolonged period of time to get things fixed. Like anything else, there are pros and cons to all situations. By far though, the pros of living out here are much greater than the cons. Thanks for the questions. I hope that helps. I just recently did a quick video for you tube that might supply a bit more info on things. Same pictures as the website but some commentary such as the water tank you see in the pictures is a thermosiphon loop that heats our hot water. For what it's worth...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFVGt3avuwA

 

[bb07]

Uncertain where we advertised as a wilderness "cabin". I don't think we did. Website says wilderness home.

First, imagine my surprise when checking in to see this old thread brought back to life. Since I started this thread I must admit that I was the one to originally call it a cabin. My choice of words, and as such it certainly did cause a bit of an uproar
In a way I'm surprised that it hasn't sold yet, and in another not surprised at all as it is a substantial amount, and in today's economy money is tight. And despite what some people think or say, not everyone wants to be so remote.

That's not to say I think you are asking too much -market value and demand determine that- because with the cost of airfare and the amount of back breaking work that goes into building and developing such a place in a remote area is incredible. It takes a good part of a persons life to do it, as well an even bigger chunk of money.
I for one would like to hear anything about your greenhouses and gardens that you would care to share.