u/PrideVisible1552

▲ 3 r/cabins

Looking for out of the box ideas for permitting! My family has 21 acres of land in Northern Mn. There’s an old log cabin plus a bunkhouse on the land currently. (And a couple of storage sheds).

The main log cabin hasn’t been used as a dwelling in over ten years. It’s no longer suitable for staying in, but we have over a hundred years of history in that cabin so we don’t want to tear it down.

I really want to build myself a small bunkhouse on the property since the main cabin isn’t usable and the existing bunkhouse belongs to another family member, but the county only allows one primary residential dwelling plus one bunkhouse. I understand the rule on smaller parcels, but seems a little silly when we have over 20 acres and not much of it is being used.

Anyone run into this before and found a solution to secure a building permit? Is it a thing to reclassify a residential dwelling unit into an accessory structure if it’s no longer habitable? The land is in a family trust so I’m not really interested in trying to split it into separate parcels or anything along those lines.

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u/PrideVisible1552 — 8 days ago
▲ 4 r/cabins

I'm in the planning stages for a 16x24 shed roof style self-build cabin in Northern MN, and having a hard time deciding on the best approach for the foundation. I've been reading about the havoc caused by frost heaving in clay soil, so I'm wondering if I should avoid digging piers and just lay down concrete blocks with adjustable brackets so it'll be easier to adjust and maintain over the years. Anyone have experience building a small cabin on heavy clay in cold climates?

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u/PrideVisible1552 — 17 days ago