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KevTheBugMan
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# Posted: 27 Jul 2011 05:41pm
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Hi there. I live in Columbia SC. I have been looking around the forum for ideas because I am wanting to set up a small cabin and am hoping to find some info on how to do it a certain way. I see that most of you are going off the grid which is great and I aplaud and envy you.
My wife however is not interested in going totally off the grid but agrees to live in a cabin home of about 400 sq ft...IF it has utilites hooked up. I found a builder that has a model with a shower, toilet, stove already set up. I would post a link to it but I haven't read the forum rules and don't want to risk spamming the site with a link to a commercial builder and get kicked out.
Anyway I am hoping someone has some info on the pros and cons of taking a cabin like that and putting it on a peice of land that already has a well and septic tank on it and hooking up to it? Maybe putting the cabin on a concrete foundation with a crawl space?
Anyone done this at all? Know of problems with this set up? Is it really expensive to do this?
I apologize for having so many questions. I just really want to downsize and stop paying so much to get by.
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caveman
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:43am
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welcome neighbor, is your cabin a prebuilt kit? Hope you can post the link, I'd like to see it
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KevTheBugMan
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 10:44am
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Hi Caveman and thank you.
Here is the link to the one I am looking at, it is a prebuilt kit. Their office is supposed to me call me back today with pricing. http://www.applog.com/floor-plans/cabins/
You may have to click on the floor plan near the bottom to see it, it's the fairlea model. Should be the first floor plan but they are small like thumbnail pics.
If the price on that one is too much than I am also looking at some unfinished cabins and getting it up to par for my wife a little at a time
http://www.shawneestructures.com/stock-camping.html
I like the Stock# M27
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caveman
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 12:37pm
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I know your pain with the wife, our cabin started as a camp site but quickly turned into a little house. It's well worth the work and sacrifice, if for nothing more than the kids building memories.
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KevTheBugMan
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 06:18pm
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I have two little ones myself and they are excited by the idea of cabin life. My wife is pretty understanding, she just doesn't have much faith in the off the grid set ups. She skims through some of the literature I show her for solar power and rain barrel systems etc, and it scares her, she does not feel they are reliable. I will have to meet her somewhere in the middle.
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KevTheBugMan
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:06pm
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so I finally heard back about the Fairlea model that they show a floorplan for. It starts out at 10k based on the materials you use and goes up to 25k for one that is dried in but they don't actually put in any appliances at all like they show in the floor plan. That is a seperate cost to me after the build it. I'll pass.
For all that I would rather just by one of the Shawnee cabins starting at 4k and upgrade one of those.
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naturelover66
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:56pm
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Well KevTheBugMan........... I am a woman who is 44 years old........ recently purchased a cabin on five acres in Northern Michigan..... is tired of barely making ends meet and sick of the "rat race". I purchased the cabin with the intention of moving up there in five years....... but, honestly.. i would move tomorrow . I live in the hellish burbs of Detroit...... i hate the traffic..... crime.... noise.... pollution.... neighbors.. and high cost of living. Im having a hard time convincing my husband of 25 years to move there. It has 400 sq ft...... electricity .. and a town/ hospital.... within 30 minutes. I feel my happiest there........its where i belong. .. it needs work... but we are working on it . Our kids are 19 and 21 ..... we raised them and now they are geting ready for lives of their own.
Take your wife there..... to the property......... make some memories there....... show her how happy you are there........ help her understand your dreams of a simplier life without all the stress. She will come around....... shes just scared.
After visiting our little piece of paradise a few times this summer....... my husband finally " gets it". He loves it there too....... it just took some time.
OH, the Shawnee cabins have potential.
Good Luck.....
Lisa
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nicalisa
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:21pm
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hey there kevthebugman,
funny how it is usually one person in the couple that has the cabin bug. i remember when i brought my husband to a plot of old growth BC forest in the middle of no where and told him this is where i wanted to retire....i think that his look (you know that look which is usually reserved for someone right out of their gourd) said it all. now 5 years later he gets cabin fever by the end of January and is getting our projects together for the spring. this year we were out in Feb which is a record for us (being on the ocean out here we don`t have snow to contend with, only the bad winter tides through the rapids as we have to boat out to our place) in the end my kiddies and hubby love it. so have hope, build it and ease the wife into off the grid. i love our solar etc. i feel like I am giving it to the `man`as we can have power and not pay a utility bill!!
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KevTheBugMan
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:58pm
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Thank you for insight Lisa. I relate to what you've said. I am already renting in a secluded rural area for the same reasons you've mentioned.
Nieghborhoods look like concentration camps to me these days and I have never had a nieghbor in all my life that wasn't nosey, strange or criminal.
Now that I've tasted life in a rural setting I love it. Time will tell how my wife adapts to the changes I have planned but I am optimistic.
Those Shawnee cabins look like a decent shell to work with. I'm curious as to the shipping cost though.
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KevTheBugMan
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jul 2011 01:31pm
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Nica, I know what you mean. The utility companies have pretty much declared war on us with their rates. I would love to have solar, rain barrels etc to break away from that nonsense. I think I'm gonna have to take small steps over time to get there though.
I need to find the right piece of land first, I want to try to get it all okay'd by the man first so I don't have any problems down the line.
It's funny, they have some legal green building projects that you can participate in but all they really are is energy saving appliances and the like. But they make things so hard for people who would really like to go green and be less of a burden on the elec grid and water demand. It's odd that the rule makers don't see it as a win win right off the bat.
It's like they don't want people getting off the grid and into affordable, sustainable situations.
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Erins#1Mom
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# Posted: 29 Jul 2011 06:28pm
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KevTheBugMan,
My husband's a city guy born and raised. I'm a hillbilly, grew up on 60 some acres on a one lane road off a dirt road. We had to pipe in sunshine.
That's where I'm most happy. I'm at peace. My husband understands that and is very encouraging of my dream for a small cabin. I don't know if I could ever get him to move there full time but once built, I will enjoy every minute we have there.
KEEP THE FAITH!
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