I don't know if anyone is interested in this or not, but it seems like there are quite a few guys on here that do remodeling or construction and may offer opinions or advice and perhaps others that may want to build a lake cabin or hunting lodge or just a weekend getaway like me and might be interested in the whole process. So here goes...

A little background first... For sometime we have dreamed of a mountain cabin. We first started looking in Western North Carolina, because we love it there, but realized it was just too far away, then we started looking in North Georgia and just couldn't find anything we like. Then it occurred to us that we have always liked Little River Canyon and Lookout Mountain, but the property over on the west side near Mentone was just too pricey. After searching for about 2 years off and on we found 10 acres on the eastern brow looking out over Shinbone Valley and into Georgia. Most of the 10 acres is straight down, but fortunately I have about 3/4 of an acre that I can actually build something on.

We spent a few weekends just cleaning up downed trees and carving a little space out of the forest like pioneers. It was hard work, but fun and rewarding. Next I prefabricated the walls in my driveway for a small cabin and hauled it up there in my utility trailer pulled by my old Jeep Cherokee.



This tiny cabin is solar powered, with rain water collection for showers and dish washing. It uses an RV pump and a Eccotemp demand water heater.



After a year of looking at trees and wondering what our view would look like, we cut down a bunch of trees to open up the view...



So now we finally have enough money saved up to start building the first phase of the main cabin. Initially it will only be 20'x24' two stories with lofts, but eventually it will be added on to with a larger great room, a master suite and a garage workshop and we will retire up there. With the plan being to pay for everything with cash as we go along.

I have a pretty good bit of construction experience as a young man and I do design work now, so I drew up my own plans with simplicity, economy of materials and aesthetics as my primary goals. Here a few screen shots from my plans:

That's really cool

Quite impressive sir - and very well done.

I'm always impressed with you guys that can picture something in your mind, put it on paper and build it. I wish I had that talent.

Looks absolutely awesome, IG. Keep us updated on progress as the main cabin build begins!

So after months and months of planning, drawings up plans, fretting over every detail, and waffling back and forth about what kind of foundation to put in, post and pier or full basement or crawl space, I finally decided on putting in a stepped foundation that has a small 6'-8" square storm shelter/wine cellar/root cellar in one corner.

I was second guessing myself at the last minute and kicking myself for not going with a full basement, until the two guys that are laying my foundation ran into solid rock just about a foot deep on the southeast corner and the northwest corner. So I couldn't have gone any deeper without some dynamite... So the stepped turned out to be the right decision. It looks like the total for the foundation is going to be $3,500 and should be finished this week.




The guys doing my foundation are great guys. They are going to do my framing too and go ahead and get the thing blacked in and then me, Mrs. Irish and Irishguy Jr. are all going to do as much as we can to finish it all up. I may call in some help with it comes to plumbing and electrical.

This is where we were as of Friday afternoon.

I am not a builder or architect, but two thing my grandfather, who designed hundreds of them, always told people who were building a house they wanted to retire in where:

Don't put the bedroom on the second floor. (At the very least have a room on the main floor that can be coverted to a bedroom)

Have at least one entrance to the house that doesn't require you to go up steps.

Thanks! Good point! I have considered it and have a plan for it.

Take a look at the main floor plan and look over at the door leading out of the kitchen. We will be adding on to that side with a dog trot style great room with a big fire place and you will walk through that room and into a master bedroom suite... All on the main floor.

But for the next 10 years of so, what you see will be the main cabin, and then as we near retirement we will add on the rest.

Thanks!

It is cool to see a dream becoming a reality.

Thanks!

The planning, the dreaming, the learning process, the sweating over all the details is part of the fun for me...

I will be following up with pics, questions, lessons learned as I do this so, hopefully I can learn from others and others can learn from my experience as this thing comes to fruition... Stay tuned.

Looks good sir.

Impressive to say the least.

That's a good set of plans

That's nice. Will you have to run power to your main house? What about water? I've always wanted a cabin in the woods myself.

VERY nice, Irishguy! Do you have an estimate of what it will cost to build per square foot?

Thanks Al.