Progress Report – Building a Cabin

As you may or may not know, we are in the process of Building a Cabin, for our son and his soon-to-be wife. We are super excited about this endeavor as it’s a culmination of a lot of struggle, love and perseverance. We moved last spring in an attempt to escape the mountain “city life” and find a place to begin building our family homestead and we are now doing just that. Currently, our homestead has 20 chickens, two bunnies, and 12 people! Lol, soon there will a couple cows, a pig, a couple goats, mules and eventually we hope to work our way up to horses.

Building a Cabin – Some work is fun some is not!

Table of Contents

Building a Cabin: Construction is Education

But back to the topic of this post, the fact that we are building a cabin, and much like our home flipping, every single one of us in fully involved. In fact, it’s school for the summer. It’s great to be able to regurgitate facts, use huge words that no-one else understands, and use the pythagoreum theorum, but are you self-sufficient, can you do things for yourself? In a world that is heading into a recession, and the govt is printing money like it grows on trees, it’s becoming more and more apparent that hard times are a-coming … real world skills are going to help us survive.

Again, I digress, but this is how my brain works. I have serious ADHD and my writing definitely shows that! So, back on point. We have finished with the horrible, back breaking work of excavation, cement and brick and mortar and are now on to the actual framing of the cabin. Personally, I much prefer this work, my hands are ripped to pieces and I didn’t do even a fraction of the work the boys and Dan have put in. Personally, Maddy, Madison and I are very much looking forward to the interior design aspect of the project.

Where to Find More Information About our Cabin Build

If you are interested in the cost of the above finished work, be sure to read the short and sweet, first blog I wrote.

And, of course, we are keeping a video log of our process, be sure to watch that on Youtube.  In fact, let me insert one right below.

Random Facts

You know dad has to really believe in their abilities to leave them to lay the concrete while we were out of town for our anniversary. And they did great. They finished the 600+ sq ft foundation in two days. Mega respect the their insane work ethic! 

So, in the previous blog, I shared the materials and the cost for the foundation, up to the concrete blocks and mortar. We are at a respectable $2600, due in no small part to Dan and Brody’s research and money handling skills! Home Depot has never been our goto for materials, but in an era where all things construction are through the roof, the “don’t pay interest for 2 full years” deal was too hard to pass up, especially when we have a “Pay Off the Cabin in 18 Months” plan.

So without further ado, I’d like to post a few photos of the process and then layout the list of the most current materials and their cost.

Post Foundation Materials Used

Our most recent purchases are as follows:

  1. 2 – 5 Gallon Buckets from Tractor Supply @$4.98 each, for a total of $9.96
  2. 7 Sill Plates at $22.38 each for a total of $156.66
  3. 31 – 2×12’s at $51.68 each for a total of $1602.08
  4. 20 – 4×8 Sheathing (23/32″ x 4′ x 8′) at $57.48 each for a total of $1149.60
  5. 2 – 10″ Trowels at $13.98 each for a total of $27.96
  6. 1 – 48″ Level for $17.98
  7. 34 – 80 lb Bags Type S Mason Mix at $8.47 each for a total of $287.98
  8.  4 – R60 Blown-In Insulation at $13.48 each for a total of $53.92
  9. 3 – Sill Seal – 5.5″w x 50′ l at $8.98 each for a total of $26.94
  10. 1 -Joint Tool $9.98
  11. 31 – Anchor Bolts 5/8 x 10″ at $3.78 each for a total of $117.18
  12. 1 – 5 lb box of 3.5″ Screws $26.98

Grand Total of $3,487.22 including tax and delivery charges where applicable.

And I’ll leave you with the following video of our current status … it’s starting to look like a cabin!!

Our Current Status!

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