Tiny House Blog

I’ve featured Paul McMullin’s work here a couple of times in the past. You can view the posts Little House on the Prairie, Paul’s Montana Cabin, and Paul’s Guesthouse. Paul has been busy again this winter and just shared his latest project with me. The quality of his work is something else. I’ll turn it over to Paul and let him tell you about his tiny log cabin.

Well, here in Montana, another winter is almost past. This one seemed to go on like the ever ready bunny. Around the middle of January I decided over a cup of coffer to build a small log home next to our office I share with my wife. Most of the things that I have built in my career have been stick built (dimensional lumber) so this was something new and stimulating for me.

Finished cabin

A friend in the next valley over did the log work and what a craftsman he is with his trade. We stacked the logs on a deck, lagging the first log into the six by six pressure treated plates We pinned all corners with sixty penny spikes, three quarter inch pipe through the logs in the field and used long log screws for the rafters. We insulated the roof, handmade the front door, installed double pane windows, chinked and trimmed it out. Continue Reading »

Though not a tiny house this is small by today’s standards and I think will give you some great ideas. Enjoy!

By: Estemerwalt Log Homes of Honesdale, PA

Photos:  http://www.estemerwalt.com/log-home-photos/exteriors/m-logcabin1.html
Photo Credit: Estemerwalt Log Homes/ www.estemerwalt.com

This Pennsylvania log cabin is a year-round rustic hunting and fishing retreat – the perfect outdoors getaway, and the very definition of aesthetic simplicity.  While not teeny-tiny, this little cabin is a marvel of simple efficiency.  The 1,200 square feet of living space relies on nooks to delineate space functionally; two small sleeping lofts meet at a spiral staircase, and there are three more beds on the main level.

Furnishings are sparse, as are amenities: this home is completely off the grid.  There is no running water – only an outside well and an outhouse. There is no power – the owner brings a generator with him when he’s there, and the log cabin is heated only by the woodstove and fireplace.  (The photographer brought a generator with him for this photo shoot, to light the cabin.) Continue Reading »

Don Richmond wrote me the other day about his cabin project and I wanted to share it with you. Here is Don’s story.

I was stunned by the similarity of the House of Fallen Timbers story to my own. I live in rural Southeast Lower Michigan, and my 2.25 acres has been ravaged by the ash borer problem. So last winter I had quite a few dead ash trees to cut down and clean up. Like David, I had plenty of burning wood, and I was afraid they would start falling down and causing (safety) problems, and I was also tired of how bad they looked, as well as having to clean up all the shed during windy conditions. But I got to looking at them, and at how many “straight” sections of log they had in them, and I thought “Hmmm…crazy idea, but I wonder if I could build a small log cabin from the straight pieces.” I also had seen Dick Proenneke’s PBS special, and was impressed that a single person could do that.

So on January 2nd of 2010, I started cutting down trees. A friend helped me, a guy who burns wood for heat, and I told him that if he helped me cut them down and cut them up, he could have all the crooked stuff to burn. It took a while, but we got them all cut down and stacked the straight ones in drying piles, and he got quite a few loads of excellent firewood out of the deal, which I helped him cut to burning size pieces and load onto his trailer. He was happy, and so was I.

Making a long story short, it’s 11 months later now, and I have ended up with an ash log cabin. The only thing I have left is to install the stove pipe so I can burn wood for heat in my Grandfather’s 1887 wood stove that I have in there.

The costs for building were minimal, as I attempted to (and took great pride in) using resources and materials I had already laying around or could recycle from other sources I could find. I did buy some things, like the USB sheets for the roof and floor, 3 insulation rolls to stuff between logs, hinges/handle for the door, but that’s about it. It was a great project, and I learned a lot, and gained great appreciation for the pioneers who did this type of thing for their families to provide them with shelter. I also pretty much did it solo. Besides the friend helping me cut down the trees and stack the logs, one other friend came one Saturday and did some odds and ends – peeling some logs, doing some notching, etc… – more because he was excited about what I was doing and wanted to learn how to do some of those things than out of necessity. Other than that, I did the rest myself, including the nut-busting-back-breaking moving around of VERY heavy hardwood logs. Luckily, I got through it without any big accidents, though not without some scary moments, particularly getting the real big logs up to higher and higher levels.

So I just wanted to share some thoughts and ideas on our projects. Congratulations on your own completions. I share and understand your efforts, and give you credit for all your work.

Sincerely,

Don Richmond
drichmond (at) altair.com

Montana Mobile Cabins was my first post over three years ago and I have been giving you occasional updates on their projects. Here is their latest cabin and some information about it.

We just finished up with our latest cabin and wanted to share with you the results. The cabin is in Philipsburg, Montana. and was built for a couple from New York as their retirement home. Following are the specs and some photos.

18×24 Cabin on full walk-out basement; 3/4 loft to be used as guest room/office, main floor: bedroom, bath, kitchen, great room. Sliding doors to bedroom and bath as a space saver. Basement unfinished – to be finished by owner at a later time.

Off grid; powered by remote start 10kw Eaton propane generator (small building to right of cabin); heated by propane stove in basement and wood burning stove on main floor. Appliances are propane. Oversize pressure tank to hold water so that the generator does not have to be run every time you want to use the water.
Continue Reading »

Jon Giswold sent me some pictures of his cabin being built by an Amish company called Cabins To Go in Wisconsin. Jeff Cline the owner of the company just contacted me and said the base price for the 12 x 20 cabin is $18,000. Jon added electrical, plumbing and furnishings which are not included in that quote. I will let Jon tell you more about its final destination.

My cabin was built by a modest Amish community in north central Wisconsin. I had it delivered June 2010 and it is finished as of Oct 1, 2010. I had septic installed and a well dug and all that goes with that. Electric had to be established and phone service.

This was a completely undeveloped piece of land on the lake I was raised.

Now I have my own version of my childhood dream. What I learned in this process is that if you want something bad enough, you will make it happen. I have this now for my future and for my soul.

The cabin is 12X20, the porch adds another 8′ to the front which I screened in, and the loft is about a third of the footprint. I am in love with it. Continue Reading »

Keith Stonebraker has recently developed an interesting take on a log cabin. I want him to share his design idea with you. I’ll turn it over to Keith.

I have always wanted a log cabin, just some little place to get away with my thoughts and relax. I had helped a friend with the building of his log cabin back in Michigan and found out how difficult it could be with the heavy logs to move around and get into position. This wasn’t anything that I wanted to attempt on my own.

After doing a lot of research on the web I soon found out that a simple log cabin wasn’t exactly what I call cheap and nothing was available locally if I wanted to do it myself.

When I saw the laminated log cabins, suddenly a light went off in my head and I wondered if it were possible to do that myself with ordinary lumber. The next day I put a few boards together to get a better idea of what it would look like and then my idea really took off. Continue Reading »

Way up a holler between a couple of prominent knobs, below Panther (pronounced “Painter”) Knob, we’re building a log cabin.

My tiny house is a log cabin. I’ve built bedroom additions, renovated spaces like a garage, and built a 2-story, 200 square footprint workshop that would make a very nice dwelling, if I didn’t make stuff downstairs and store things upstairs. But I’ve always wanted to build a log cabin. And I like projects. And hand tools.

You can read more about my motives and methods, this region, and its (the cabin’s) progress and eventual use on my blog, coldholler.blogspot.com. I love to receive comments or questions there! Continue Reading »