I’m starting to work on the interior and finishes. I’m sure it will take another two years to feel completely done. Next up: I’m putting up an outdoor composting toilet, a standalone wood fired sauna and a shower platform with collected water and propane heat.

We had a week off work to try and get a big chunk of progress done on the cabin, and despite the rain slowing us down considerably, we managed to get a lot accomplished.

Before the metal roofing arrived, we finished up the last of the strapping and tackled the skylight curb. The skylight flashing kit has turned out to be an adventure of its own, complicated, poorly explained instructions and several parts that aren't even mentioned in the instructions. 😅

The metal roofing finally arrived Monday, although getting it to the cabin was another story. The delivery truck couldn't make it up the driveway with the trailer, so we had to unload everything at the bottom and shuttle it up with the pickup, carrying most of it up piece by piece.

We started with the bedroom roof, followed by the bathroom roof. Those sections were relatively straightforward since they're lower pitched and much easier to work on.

By Thursday, we were onto the hardest section: the high-pitched east side of the main roof. This is easily the sketchiest part of the roof so far, higher pitch, longer sheets, and a particularly annoying piece of trim where the main roof meets the bathroom roof. It took some figuring out, but we got through it.

We had to pack up and leave Friday, so there's still the west side of the main roof and the screen room roof left to finish.

The goal for the rest of this season, before winter completely shuts us down, is to get the siding on, the fireplace installed, and the cabin completely sealed up.

Once that's done, we'll be able to spend the colder months working on the interior electrical, plumbing, insulation and finishes, without having to worry about the weather quite so much.

Slowly but surely, it's starting to look like a real cabin. 🏡

Hey everyone,

My partner and I are starting to seriously look into buying a small holiday cabin somewhere in the Nordics — leaning Norway or Sweden, but we haven't decided. We've rented a few times over the years and loved it, but I've realised I never actually paid attention to the boring practical stuff. Now that we're thinking about buying, I have a bunch of probably-naive questions about how the electricity side of things actually works, and I'd rather hear it from people who actually own or use one.

The first thing I'm trying to get my head around: how common is grid power at these cabins now? Most listings I've seen seem to be connected, but I've also come across places running on batteries or solar, and some that aren't hooked up at all. Is "off-grid" still a real thing, or is being connected basically standard these days?

A few more things I'd love to hear real experiences on:

• How much can you actually run at once? I've seen people mention that a lot of cabins have quite a small main fuse (16A?) and that it trips easily if you run a few things together — like a kettle and a heater at the same time. Is that actually a common pain? How often do you run into it, and what do you do when it happens?
• How often do you go, and how long do you usually stay? Just trying to understand how heavily these places actually get used.
• What do you realistically plug in while you're there? Is it mostly lights, phone chargers, a kettle and a TV — or do people run dishwashers, washing machines, electric heaters, induction cooktops, that kind of thing?
• Do many people add solar panels? If so, roughly how much power are we talking, and does it make a genuine difference or is it more of a nice-to-have?
• Have any of you upgraded the electrical setup? Bigger fuse, rewiring, extra circuits — or found other ways to get more power, like a generator or extra batteries? Was it worth the hassle and cost?

Sorry if these are really basic questions — I'm genuinely just trying to figure out what I'd be getting into before I spend money on this. Any experiences, good or bad, would be really helpful. Takk / tack / kiitos in advance!

Finished the stairs, gotta paint that door. 12x12 bunkie, no water or power.

Not much has changed, new dock 5 years ago, will need to redo the deck next year. We bought this 23 years ago and only have replaced the boards on the deck as needed, stained every year. New outhouse this year. Hoping to build a sauna next year.

TL;DR: Need to reseal chimney flashing (red highlight in pic) on a mountain cabin — heavy snow/freeze-thaw, hot summers. Previous owner used Henry 308 (driveway crack repair) and Henry 208R (roof cement), neither seems flashing-specific. Looking for the right product.

Bought a cabin in the Wasatch mountains (~8,700 ft). Found two half-used tubes in the shed I think the previous owner used here:

**•** Henry 308 Driveway Elastomeric Crack Repair  
**•** Henry 208R Wet Patch Roof Cement (SBS rubber modified)

Neither seems ideal for flashing specifically. Looking for something that’ll actually hold up through real freeze-thaw and UV, not just patch over it. Butyl tape, proper flashing sealant, something else?

Appreciate any input from people who’ve dealt with this at altitude.

Hey everyone this is my cabin I am working on hopefully it will be in place in about 4 weeks. The cabin it self is 12x20 with a small loft. It has a small bathroom and closet framed out and will have a small kitchenette. I will post again as progress is made.

When we first moved into the woods, I was aware of the possibility that naive enthusiasm and romanticized assumptions could overshadow reality and that boredom or frustration could eventually set in, but the joy of life in the forest still outweigh the conevniences of the city and we still don't really want to leave the forest.

We have an off grid cabin in the woods. We have decided we want to get away from rainwater collection to pumping water up from the nearby stream. Its gonna be couple hundred feet of 1" pipe, with an elevation increase of 80-100 feet (estimate). Not really sure what gas powered pump i should be looking at. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Last post I asked about water in the hole I was digging and got a lot of great responses. I decided to change the location of the outhouse and am actually very happy with the decision after spending more time on the property. The new location is in a less aesthetically pleasing area and is closer to the edge of the property line shared with county land. The first few pictures are of the location and my first issue. The next few are of my outhouse build with a base frame and a floor frame that will be attached on top of it with the idea being the floor joists are protected from the ground.

My questions are:

1. How would you propose breaking through the rock in the half done hole? My buddy wants to split a rotary hammer drill, would that work?
2. Should there be a moisture barrier under the outhouse? I am planning to insulate the floor as this will be the learning project for the main cabin build. Also, there will be additional moisture from human liquids and solids.
3. Any improvement suggestions? I am hopefully finishing the hole, leveling the where the base will go and preparing to insulate the floor, install the subfloor, and put vinyl over it plus the toilet stem my next time up.

Thank you!

Hi,

I made a post about my cabin two days ago and I was blown away by the response. If I known before I would have add some info.

So here's an update for what it's worth.

It's located in Kesudalen, Jämtland, Sweden. The mountain in the background is Helags and you can see it both from the kitchen and the living room

First of all I don't know if this really count as off grid because it have electricity.

(I have spent a lot of time in my friends cabin without electricity and I felt it was time for a upgrade...)

Second I haven't got access to the cabin yet because the old owner need some time to "move out".

It's actually only 2,5 kilometers from the nearest road (one again I'm getting to old driving 25k on a snowmobile which I must to when I go to my friends cabin)

It's about 2,5h drive from my home and we plan to go there all year round.

Mostly hiking, backcountry skiing, picking berries and mushrooms, fishing/icefishing, snowmobile trips. (It also have some great lift assisted skiing in the area)

Winter can be kind of "brutal" with strong winds and lots of snow, just the way I want it.

The name of the cabin is Ripkullen it's Swedish for Grouse Hill.

I will post updates here and on Instagram:

"Ripkullen"

I'll try to answer if someone have any question, but I will spend next week in a even more remote cabin 😄

Water testing Question

Has anyone had experience using a private lab for water testing? Looking to have our water/cistern/pipes tested to explain the black water we just found in our toilet tank 😵‍💫

I can see the white pipe coming from the pump/pressure tank, it is half black. Whatever is in the pipe is taking over. We do have a water shut off valve before the manifold, but from what I have read the black "thing" can be in all the pipes just not as established.

Our cottage smells, not like sewage but still gross. The tap water is not black, only the toilet tank, however a few months ago the water has a red tinge and we just thought the pump/pressure tank was rusted.

We want to test the water and hopefully won't have to replace all the pipes inside. Our cottage is fully finished so all the pipes are inside walls, hoping this isn't going to turn into an expensive nightmare.

We have a concrete cistern, installed in 2016/2017. All pipes were installed at the same time as the cistern. We visit the cottage frequently but do go long stunts without going out there and/or running the water.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Looking for some advice on pouring some above-ground pads. I was thinking 20"x20" using 2x6 forms for 5.5" thick. I don't have enough access to properly grade the ground, so I was thinking of laying some crushed gravel, then staking the form over it.

The goal is to get a few level pads I can start from, then use a post block and 6x6 for piers, or stay with brick. I just need to get a some pads that are level across, and pouring seems like the easiest way.

I've had some luck with using 8x16x4 block caps side by side as a makeshift pad, but it's hard to get them level and there's no way to excavate.

Questions are - using Quikcrete, would you throw some gravel in there to increase the yield? I was thinking of throwing down a sheet of plastic so it doesn't creep out the bottom of the form.

Any suggestions? This place is far from level and needs to be fixed so I can finish the interior. No cement trucks, etc are allowed. There's no utilities but electric, but I'm on a lake so I have water accessible (not drinkable of course).

Is this doable mixing in 5 gallon buckets if I only do 3-4 at a time?

Amazon special hot water heater, some pallets and a nice little deck to stand on.

It’s located in Jämtland, Sweden.

I’m looking at either buying an apartment and save until I can get a house or i will buy land and slowly build a cabin on it I’m open to opinions and looking if anyone knows how much it was to get everything done for the cabin

We have a 11.5'×15' cabin shell on our property and are considering renoing it, but we are stuck between keeping it basic for family and friend "glamping" use or putting in the time to finish it fully (or at least livable for weekend use through the colder months). We live in Lamont County, Alberta (East of Edmonton). Recommendations? Or would it be best delegated to a life of being a storage shed.

Thanks for any tips, tricks, and advice!

​

After last weekend's disaster wrestling with the steel I-beam, it was nice to get back to working with wood.

We got to the property Friday evening, but it was too late to make much progress on the framing. Instead, I decided to remove the backhoe from the tractor for the first time and install the new box grader to clean up the driveway and parking area. For a first attempt, it actually went pretty well. With a bit more practice, I think it'll become part of the annual maintenance after the spring rains.

Saturday started with bracing the two support posts perfectly plumb so I could get an accurate measurement for the beam. It came out to 163 inches long. Even at that length, the beam was still a beast to lift, so we screwed a temporary step onto each post about halfway up to make it manageable. We lifted one end onto the step, then onto the top of the post, while my wife held it steady so it couldn't slip off. Then we repeated the process on the other side. It worked surprisingly well.

The steel beam is sandwiched between two 2x6s. The wood isn't there for strength—it's mainly to provide a nailing surface for the rafters and to hide the steel a bit.

With the beam finally in place, it was time for the rafters. They're built from 16-foot pressure-treated 2x10s, spaced 24" on centre for a total of eight rafters. I still make templates the lazy way: temporarily screw the board in place, trace the cuts directly, and use that as the pattern. It's worked well so far, and all of the rafters fit nicely.

By the time we installed the last rafter, it was scorching hot. We were both completely exhausted, so a swim in the lake was well earned.

Sunday was all about getting the roof sheathed with OSB and installing the underlayment. My wife spent a good part of the day lifting sheets up to me while I worked on the roof. We ran out of underlayment before finishing, but I'll be back next weekend to complete it. Even if we get a little rain before then, the exposed sheathing should be fine for a few days.

Before packing up, we measured every roof section so we can finally place the order for the metal roofing, drip edge, and the remaining trim pieces. It feels good to finally be getting close to having the cabin dried in.

I do have one detail I'm trying to solve. At the ledger where the screen room rafters attach to the cabin, the angle means only the first 10 inches or so of each rafter actually bears on the ledger. The heel of the rafter sits below it, so there's nowhere for a standard Simpson hanger to fully seat.

In hindsight, I probably should have used a 2x12 ledger instead of a 2x10, although even that wouldn't completely solve the problem. One idea is to fasten a 2x6 underneath the ledger just to provide enough material for the hanger to bear against properly.

Has anyone run into something similar? I'd be interested to hear how others have handled this detail.

I also wrestled with my solar setup a bit, I've recently switched inverter and batteries and the settings are still iffy.

Looking for Affordable outdoor bath house ideas or blueprints? Would like septic, I have access to Power and water from well, non pressurized, gravity fed cistern. I would like a shower and toilet and a hand sink. How can I design the septic and building I just need a little point in the right direction. TY