Cabin progress

The very same evening I published the blog post about our plans to be Airbnb hosts of a tiny off-grid cabin atop our hillside we received a phone call from the men delivering our cabin kit letting us know they would be there the following morning (Monday). What? We thought we might have another week or two before it was delivered but that’s OK. The sooner, the better.

CountryBoy used the tractor to help offload the 4x4x18 foot crate from the truck. He then spent the afternoon doing inventory to make sure all the pieces were there.

Unfortunately, we were missing a few pieces. Thankfully, a rep had called about 30 minutes after delivery letting us know to call her if there were any problems. After he determined the missing pieces he called. She was shocked and said that they’ve never had a packing problem in all their eight years of manufacture. CountryBoy assured her it was no big deal as it was typical of our luck. She is sending the replacements as quickly as possible.

We decided to go ahead and start the cabin build while the pieces were enroute so we headed to Lowe’s Tuesday afternoon after I got home from work to pick up the materials we needed for the foundation.

We headed straight up the hillside to offload the truck that evening…

Of course, we stacked it right where the cabin was going. sigh. So, the next day we moved it again before marking out the cabin placement. I guess subconsciously we wanted extra exercise. pfft.

There it is. Now it’s time to set the deck blocks and start building the foundation.

It took us the entire day up ’til after 7 p.m. to frame out the foundation.

At the end of Day 1 we were sore and tired but pleased.

The second day of the cabin build started off with loading both the truck and tractor with the pieces we needed next then we headed up the hill and started bracing the foundation with cross beams and extra supports.

Once we finished that it was time for the fun stuff – laying out the first boards. Actually, once we got the first boards squared up THEN the fun began! It was round and round we went until we came to where the windows went then it was straight up on each of the back sides. Lickity split! By the end of Day 2 we had this…

Tired, hungry and sore we headed down the hillside to get cleaned up, take care of the farm chores and eat. We were in bed by 8:45!

Today, day 3, started out cool and crisp and was actually a perfect Fall day – in August!

We loaded up the truck with windows and wood stuffs…

and the tractor with more pieces and up we went.

We placed all the windows without too much ado then the day went downhill from there. As we were pondering our next step my stomach twinged and became cramped. I ran to the truck, flew down the hill and got to the bathroom just in time. Whew! I let LizzieBelle out to do her thing trying to give my stomach some time and to determine whether it was safe to head back up or not. By the time LizzieBelle was done with her business I thought it was safe. I headed back up. Not even ten minutes later I had a sudden cramp and knew that I was NOT going to make it back down the hill. I headed to the tree line just in time. Thankfully, I had a travel pack of Charmin (leftover from our mission trip days to Honduras & Nicaragua many years ago in our younger days!) in the glove box that came in might handy. (I’m sorry if you’ve pictured this event in your head, ha! Just keepin’ it real.)

Meanwhile, poor CountryBoy was trying to figure the drawings out while I flew down the hill two more times. sigh. Needless to say, I’m pretty much cleaned out!

After tweaking a few things (taking pieces out, switching some around) and getting a handle on where we were at we decided we could go no further until the missing pieces arrived. We were certainly disappointed but there are lots of other parts to the whole Airbnb experience we have planned that we can work on while we wait. Like maybe an outhouse for cryin’ out loud?!

Today we ended up only working half the day on the cabin build but you will get a good idea of what it will look like…

Lots of windows (yes the windows are in the window frames) so one can soak up the glorious view…

To the right of these windows will be a set of french doors so the view is as unobstructed as possible. CountryBoy and I are thinking we’ll move up to the cabin and rent out the farmhouse! Just kidding, but it sure is tempting.