I’m wondering how often they actually check if the owners of the cabin on the leased land live there full time. Does anyone live in a USFS cabin now? How many months out of the year do you actually live there? How will the rangers know if I live there full time? Going to look at a cabin this week (it’s the only thing in my budget- plus it’s adorable). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!!
So I recently purchased 40 acres of land with a small 20x16 camp that was built in the 80s, I’m looking to add a 12x16 bedroom and bathroom off the back problem is I was going to use sonotubes piers for the foundation but the original camp is on blocks. Should I worry about the different foundations shifting differently or just put the addition on blocks as well?
I’ve been working on this cabin in the woods of North Central Arkansas for nearly 4 years. I’m tired and ready to enjoy it instead of working on it. I hired some buddies I’ve worked with in the past to help finish up. This last week I had spray foam insulation applied and most of the walls. Then my buddies covered the walls and ceiling with the wood I had planed. I laid all the flooring a little while back.
Finally got my cottage closed in. Plan to power my cottage with Solar, Wind and a Back up generator. Looking at a new Bluetti battery power system when ready and applying metal siding to detour rodents from chewing through siding. Plans to build a separate garage eventually. Its a small lake that connects to 2 other small lakes.
We have both 12v and 120v in our off-grid cottage.
The fridge is 120v. Looking to add a dedicated freezer. While I know chest is the most efficient, I don't want to have to dig around.
So debating between something like this Unique freezer which it claims uses 532wh/day:
Or a 120v upright like this, which, dividing the energy star number by 365 days, uses 700wh/day PLUS inverter loss:
It basically comes down to how much extra energy will be used on my Victron inverter, AND is there an advantage that if the inverter goes down, I still can keep the freezer cool?
As stated, I want to build something on an island in southern SC. I own a 3/4 acre lot on this island. 200k people a year visit the island to rent golf carts and ride around for the day or they rent an Airbnb for the week because it is secluded from regular society.
Barge access is there and is 100% a must to get things over there. I already have a few vehicles over there and access to a few larger machines that might make things easier if I do some of the work myself.
I already have tree and topo survey. I have a soil survey. I have a septic engineer drawing for everything I need to get a toilet flushed.
My goal is to pay cash for each step for as long as I can before I need to take a loan out for the actual building of the structure. What can I actually do in increments to get this thing closer to a foundation and modular home? Land is paid off.
I’m eloping in Brighton in September and we’re looking to have a mini moon after.
Looking for a remote, no neighbours in site cabin anywhere in the UK. Peaceful settings, wildlife, fire pit and a hot tub all would be great but not necessity.
Originally was looking around east anglia but anywhere in the Uk would work.
Where have you been or seen?
Hi all,
We're looking at a small, mostly off-grid cabin. 14' by 32'-34'. I've made one floor plan, my wife made another. Both of them are early designs, we're trying to pick a direction. This is for a family of 4 to use as a cabin to go to on weekends, etc. Which do you think works best? Has the most logical flow.
- note in both cases there is a lake on the top end of the drawing
- in both cases we've drawn a deck, one has a deck on the right with decking texture, the other a deck out front with no texture.
- in both cases the deck will be screened in as we are in mosquito country.
I stumbled across this book after seeing it mentioned in a thread about long term blackouts. What made me actually take an interested in it was the fact that it’s written by a Venezuelan surgeon who had to keep treating patients after their healthcare system basically stopped functioning.
She wasn’t experimenting or theorizing. She was actively working in hospitals with no meds, no reliable electricity, and empty pharmacies. The book is a collection of the workarounds and protocols they developed just to keep people alive.
It covers everything from how to recognize a heart attack or stroke without machines, to what medications are still safe past expiration, to how they handled infections when antibiotics were scarce. A lot of it is stuff most of us have never had to think about because we assume help is always available.
I found it interesting not in a fear based way, but in a “this is what real-world medicine looks like when systems fail” way. It’s honestly more grounding than dramatic.
Posting here in case anyone else is interested in that kind of real, experience based knowledge rather than worst case hypotheticals. Definitely the most unique books I've read in the past few years. survivalhealthmanual.com is where I had to buy it because the author sells direct to consumer instead of through Amazon or other retailors.
Hi guys!
My name is Charley and I am building a cabin from scrap wood. Cabin is a strong word as it is tiny haha. I'm using minimal power tools to challenge myself. It's a nice thing to focus on and gives me a goal. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for me as this is my first build (so don't be mean)
Thank you,
Charley
Hi All,
I have an off-grid cabin that is perfect in nearly every way. Warm, dry, comfortable, remote. The only thing I lack is a working restroom.
I have an outhouse and it's fine for me. However, to keep the wife and daughter I really need to get some sort of working toilet in place. And I would really love to have a shower.
I'm already planning on putting in another room with a bathroom, but that is another year or two out. I'm going to need to get a well drilled and septic tank in first.
I have a water source - large refillable tanks. I could put in a septic tank with not much grief. I will need to do that anyway, and the expense isn't that large.
Are there any pre-built options for a restroom that I could put in temporarily? It would need to have a water heater and some way to provide pressure to the shower.
Anyone have any good ideas for a pre-built or a quickly buildable option?
I mean literally anyone. I am facing major burnout. I have a fall job lined up but an being cut loose in Late May/Early June and begin again Early September.
It would be me and another person. We are looking to be somewhere remote. Would literally be fine with nothing but a place to sleep, a fireplace, and an axe.
I live in Oregon, and my first plan was summer camping in national forest, but car issues make that difficult. New England or near Pennsylvania would be amazing, as well as anywhere in rural Oregon or Washington.
If you are not looking to rent, any advice on how to find these kinds of places? I am from rural Oregon and know a lot of older people in the community have these sort of cabins and are aging out of using them. Only problem is people in small towns talk, and I am trying to escape all of that.
I am really just looking for somewhere I will never run into another person accidentally. It doesn't have to be way out, just left alone. I am so unsure how to even start this process, but know that there are lots of people with Cabins they would like freshened up or maintained, and I willing to rent their unused space.
Any advice is appreciated
We are installing a batch composting toilet (family of 6!) for our off grid cottage. Previously we’ve always used Sam’s Club Member’s Mark septic safe 2-ply toilet paper. In your experience is this still a good option or do we need to switch over to single ply?
I've sent out several hundred resumes in the past 2 years and have only had 1 interview. I've taken some business classes while unemployed which I could add, but really struggling to think of what's so horrible about my resume.
Parmesan crusted butterflied chicken breast on the rocket stove for Easter dinner. My wife loves rocket stove chicken because it cook so hot you get a great crust.
So I'd like to get drinkable water down at the cabin. I have a wet line that runs across the field. It is wet most of the time and has willow and sycamore growing along it. I dug 3 feet down at what looked like the wettest spot (picture) last week. This week a couple of days after a rain a spring was coming out of the base of this oak 5 yards from the hole. The video shows it flowing . I'm not sure if I should keep digging at the original place or try driving a sand-point by the tree.
TL;DR Can I fill in the interior space (the crawl space) between concrete piers with tamped crushed gravel and then tamped soil on top of the gravel?
I am planning on building a single story straw bale house in a county with very few building codes (as of now), and am thinking about building it on a pier and beam foundation, as it will be less expensive and my partner and I can build the foundation ourselves.
Our property presents unique challenges. We need to spend significantly on excavations for sewer and water, so we’re looking to cut costs where possible. I also want to handle as much of the build as I can for the experience.
It seems like pier and beam houses always have an enclosed crawl space but we want an earthern floor…and don’t want pack rats and various creatures to become our downstairs neighbors. An earthern floor will also allow us to store heat from passive solar (lots of windows on the south side) and from a rocket mass heater I’m planning on building.
The soil here is rocky and there are no heaving issues; it does not hold water. We are about 75 ft from a small creek that floods every few years. We’re directly at the base of a mountain range and a monsoon rain on the mountain can quickly cause the creek to spread out over 100 ft wide for a few hours (about 2-4 inches deep).
So, I would like the piers to get the house at least 2 feet off the ground but I don’t want a floating foundation with a crawl space.
Can I stack/mortar river rock (which is plentiful) in-between the piers, and insulate behind the river rock walls and piers with a moisture-resistant rigid foam insulation board (I was advised to bury this about 6 inch in the ground to keep my pipes from freezing), and then tamp crushed gravel inside? And then tamp soil on top of the crushed gravel to create my earthen floor? Are there any major issues I need to consider with this plan?
Ultimately, my sill plates, that the straw bales will be stacked on, will be supported by the concrete piers, and a little bit by the river rock walls in-between the piers (but not much). Our roof will also be mostly be supported by concrete piers, instead of entirely “floating” on the straw bale walls.
I can’t find evidence of anyone “filling in” the interior space of a pier and beam foundation with gravel and soil. I guess I understand that it’s not necessary for most people that are choosing this foundation type. Maybe a stem wall would be better, but probably a lot more expensive.
I like the height the piers can provide, the cost effectiveness, and the ease of install (my partner and I can do it). Also, with an earthen floor, if there is some movement of the structure I think we could jack a post up, add a steel shim, and I can redo any section of affected earthen floor and reseal with linseed oil.
