When the snow fell….the plan was to skid the outhouse over to a new location. There was a tree hanging over the outhouse not wanting to fall it on the outhouse and destroy it, we were waiting for the snow, that way it could be skidded across the snow quite easily and onto the new hole that Scott had dug.
The old cabin floor had to be removed, we were almost certain that underneath the wood would be a dirt floor, but to our surprise there was a concrete floor under that dirty old particle board.
Whoever had put the floor in this cabin had built a frame raised floor and covered the concrete with particle board.
We would find out what we had to work with once the entire old floor was removed.
2025 Update: We have taken the wood stove out and put in a propane furnace. It’s wonderful and the cabin is now for our guests
The cabin is only 10 x 11 so there was no need to leave the big cast iron wood stove that was in there. A small wood stove will do the job we need it to do.
There are all kinds of small wood stoves out there, we are trying to recycle and use what we have so spending money was not part of the plan. We found a larger wood stove in the cabin, but the heat from it would have blown us out of there, so we decided to buy a cheaper wall tent stove.
The existing front door is damaged so we will be taking an exterior door from the addition to the main cabin and use it.
The additions will slowly get taken down and we will be re using whatever building supplies we can.
Installing a metal roof on this small cabin, the old roof has been torn off, now it will be prepped and ready to put the metal on.
Taking off the old roof was going to be fun, those darn packrats decided it was theirs as well, all the insulation in the roof had been packed down on the bottom and nothing left at the top.
So how to replace a roof? The first thing is to take the old one off. We ripped all the shingles off, tore off the plastic vapour barrier and pulled out all the old insulation.
It’s time to start working on the small log cabin if we are going to be able to have it done in time for snowmobiling out that way this winter.
So we begin, it’s time to collect firewood for the wood stove at home, so we start by cleaning up some of the dead trees that were in the way of the road way into the small log cabin or that may come down and finish off the cabin if we are not careful.
Now we have possession of our new 10 acre off grid home and it’s time for some more cleanup, the old vehicles are removed so now we can get out and start knocking the grass and weeds down.
When I first asked myself “What is a weed eater, and which one should I be using?” I thought any trimmer would do the job. But after tackling tall grass on our new off-grid property, I quickly learned that not all weed eaters are created equal.
Sept 2019 Update
Looking back on this post now 3 years later and it seems hard to believe that’s the little cabin we started out with. How things have changed, maybe not as quick as we wanted.
There were some hick ups along the way for sure, a wildfire and being evacuated from the property one whole summer and then work….darn work seems to get in the way sometimes, but here we were back then cleaning up the little cabin and now we are able to use it.
And so the project begins here is some of the progress we have made this far on our little cabin in the woods.
