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: