Kim one of our readers gave me a heads up on the Vermont Cottage from Jamaica Cottages. It is one of my favorite designs of their products. This is a 16′ x 20′ cottage including the front porch and has many possibilities. From a cabin getaway, guest house, artist studio, pool house, just use your imagination for this great little building.
You can learn more by watching the video below and by visiting the Jamaica Cottage Shop website.
I have been planning to purchase one of these kits from Jamaica Cottage Shop for a rustic getaway cabin on some mountain property I own.
What do you all think about this kit as a 3 (maybe 4) season Tiny House getaway? It is sold uninsulated, and I think insulating, house-wrapping, etc would be a challenge since the siding (board and batten) is applied directly onto the timber frame (ie no sheathing). Similarly, the metal roof is installed directly onto the roof frame as well, with no underlying plywood sheathing.
I live in a pretty temperate climate (Blue Ridge mountains of central Virginia), so I’m not sure how important insulation would be. I plan on heating with a woodstove in the winter, and cooling with open windows in summer.
I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. Thanks for any advice!
You could probably ask them to install housewrap or felt for you.
For the roof I would use spray foam directly on the underside of the metal roofing. If you want to do it yourself, one of the 600 board-feet kits would give you about 2 inches depth.
I’d be a bit hesitant to use the spray foam directly on the board and batten without some kind of wrap installed. Without wrap, it would be more difficult to replace a board if you had woodpecker or porcupine damage.
We just bought two of these for our land in central Ohio, and will put them on our little pond for a family camp.
Since it is a kit, we’ve been thinking about adding plywood sheathing, and definitely want to add insulation for winter use. I would think that you could add fiberglass insulation without having sheathing or house wrap?
Thanks for the replies. At the moment I plan to not install any sheathing or house-wrap. Does this sound reasonable? How important is the wrap?
I will probably go for fiberglass wall insulation, and will consider spray-on insulation for the roof as suggested above.
Wind will blow through the cracks in the b&b siding. Fibreglass insulation isn’t very effective at all if air is moving through it carrying the heat away. Wind can also force rain water into the insulation.
I’d go with either housewrap by itself (not that expensive and pretty easy to install), or one of housewrap/felt over sheathing.
We did end up ordering two of these to use as camping cottages. The kits arrive next Thursday, very exciting!
Mine arrived last Wednesday. Plan to start building on our land in the Blue Ridge mountains west of Charlottesville in the next couple weeks.
Zoeybu, I bet our kits were shipped out on the same flatbed. What kind of foundation are you planning to put yours on? I’m planning to put mine on a post-and-pier foundation.
Ours are being built on a pier foundation as well. And one of them is built now! I posted some picture on my website.
Still haven’t figured out what we’ll do for insulation.
Great looking cabin, Zoeybug. Wish mine was going up as quickly!
nice design.I live in the tropics and am thinking of building something similar. The question of proper insulation, for walls and roof obviously worries me. Any ideas please ?
Hi;
I too plan to build the Vermont cottage, I like the simplicity of the post and beam. Like many insulation is an issue for me. I plan to use foam sheet insulation with straping over that followed by the exterior siding. This will make for the post and beam with the original siding viewed from the inside and then the same (2nd) siding on the outside over the foam sheets. This is the same thing the first day cottage does. All electrical will be on the outside of the walls. I wanted to keep the post and beam look on the inside. The window frames, door frames will have to be adjusted for the additional wall width, the roof over hang will be reduced too. Other than that, no big alterations in design are needed.
I am interested in learning more about your house. I am interested in building in Vermont and have the cabin as a 4-season cabin. In the end what was your bottom line cost to winterize, elec., plumbing and foundation?
Boy I just love this design. My wife and I live in the Philippines most of the year. We bought a double lot and are thinking of building this on it. It might be to small for us though. We still have to children living with us, 19 and 23. No telling how long they will be with us. I’m thinking a loft with one child sleeping at each end. It just might work. My wife loves it to. Good chance we will build it out of cement blocks. Not at much charm but better for this climate. Thank you so much.