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I'm a single mother and want to build a log cabin.

2K views 22 replies 16 participants last post by  HonestAbe 
#1 ·
Good day all! I have been living rurally with my 5 children for the past 6 years. We have gotten accustomed to the lifestyle and we love it. We have 15 chickens, 3 geese, 3 cats and a dog. I would like to expand to cattle and or goats to help us become completely self reliant. Lately, I find that I am desiring to go deeper into the wilderness. My dream is to purchase 150-200 acres of unorganized land and build a 1,000 sq. ft. log cabin... or maybe buy a pre-fab and assemble? I will also need to construct a root cellar. I want to be realistic and take on something that we can handle. My oldest children are 18 and 17 and will be able to help with assembly or building. I am trying to figure out what would be the best way to go about this. Can anyone offer any guidance? I am looking to do this on a budget but I also want it to be my forever home. It doesn't need to be anything huge, as my eldest 2 are planning on getting their own tiny houses. How would you do it? Use a tent while building? Or purchase a trailer to stay in? I am also wanting to drill a well, set up solar panels and later on, a garden and fences, etc. Has anyone here done this before? Any pointers you can give me?
 
#9 ·
If I were starting a homestead from scratch on un-touched land, I would hire someone to cut a driveway, and lay down a stone base first, and foremost. The next thing I would want is to set in a 40' long high-cube CONEX shipping container to use for secure/dry storage (tools/supplies/feed/house goods). I would then clear a flat, open space for a cheap travel trailer which will already have a kitchen/bathroom set up inside.

I would probably build an open sided 20x40 roof over the camper using the conex as one side of it, to keep the mud at bay. You could also collect rain water off of the metal roof over the camper, and conex.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I should have explained that unorganized territory is significantly cheaper than organized. I can find 150 acres (or more) for 50,000 give or take. I have been looking at a property that has 137 acres plus a livable cabin for 129,000. It is also surrounded by crown land and is on a lake. The cabin is set up with solar, has a wood stove and also has propane appliances. It does not have a Well. There is no septic but it has an outhouse. The main cabin is near the road and there is a smaller one room log cabin with no hook ups at the back of the property beside the lake. SO I am thinking this might be the best route to go. We can stay in the cabin with hook ups while building our home at the back of the property on the lake. I like that it is surrounded by crown land because we will be very secluded and will not have neighbors. What do you all think of this plan?
 
#12 ·
Your proposal is doable, but could be difficult. As 101pigs said, solar won't provide year-round power, won't even provide 24-hour power unless you have a good battery system (and if you get a week of overcast, you're out of luck). Can you live for extended periods without electricity?

You'll need to be sure to have a lot of wood for heating, and factor in the cost of propane.

My biggest concern about that scenario is "no well". What would be your water source? Buckets by hand from the lake?

Not trying to be discouraging here. Just be sure to keep your eyes open to the downsides - if you're not fully prepared, going that far off-grid can be not only inconvenient, but dangerous.
 
#19 ·
When looking for land to build on the first thing you want to look at is the build site. Is there a clearing already established? If not, and it's in the middle of a grove of trees you can expect to spend $20k plus to clear an acre, remove the stumps, grade and a gravel road in. I say an acre because you'll want a fire safety barrier and open land for solar and growing.

Resources should be your second consideration. Land that has a well and/or septic is a big plus. Having to put those in yourself again will cost $10k-$30k each. So as you can see your infrastructure costs will be significant before you even get to home plans.

If you're looking to harvest trees off the land to build with they'll need at least a year to cure before use.

Where are you looking to buy?
 
#20 ·
 
#21 ·
If you are serious about doing this project, on a budget, then you need to start looking at some other forums for more specific information on this topic. I also read a lot at the Forestry Forum, as that is a wealth of knowledge for this topic. You may also consider buying yourself a portable sawmill, something equivalent to a Woodmizer LT15. With that, you can make your own lumber, and avoid the insane prices for lumber currently. Or you can square up logs and make the process easier for your cabin.

My wife and I have been wanting to get a piece of land in the forest and build a cabin for ourselves. I would ultimately like to move to our own land and be a lot more self supporting, leaving a much smaller carbon footprint. There are a bunch of different styles of log cabins, from dove tail to a full scribe. It just depends on what you want from the process for yourself, and from your home.

dave
 
#22 ·
I think it is very doable, depending on your skills and desire (and your budget dictates much of it) ...

Water from rainwater collection, or the lake, or even haul it in (as we do). Electricity from solar, battery bank/inverter/charger, propane generator, etc (we are off-grid). Septic system that you install yourself ($3k for us to do it ourselves), followed by humanure composting, greywater, etc. Firewood for heat (woodstoves, wood furnace, etc.)

Anything from a yurt to a conex might hold you until the homestead is built. It sounds like there has to be an intermediate stage of housing, in your case. As the kids might live there with you, then Tiny Homes might be the answer here, as they'll be re-usable for them when you get into the big house. Get all the sitework done, and then do the tiny homes and get onto the property, and then tackle the big house; or, any order of things that works for you (& budget).

It took us about 5 years to get "sitework" done ... sitework includes: septic, outbuildings to house utilities (solar, water, etc.), road-base roads (bought a tractor & grader blade), cut the roads in and prep foundation sites, etc. to get the first "big home" in. Most of our "big house" was done by then as well, but everything tracked parallel with the house, in our case (and we didn't build a log home). I was working full-time, so that probably extended time out to 5 years ... lots of weekends, no kids to help initially, so your time might be faster.

If you're "handy", or can get there with handyman skills, then go for it ... it's just learning, and doing ... oh, and that pesky money thing. Have to have some amount of that lying around to finance the stages of it ... but consider, half the cost of something is having someone else build it for you.
 
#23 ·
Why the Acreage ? Do you have a particular moneymaking plan for it or is it just a matter of privacy?

Don’t sweat the power thing
Go with multiple streams, solar cells ,small windmill and then a back up generator let them all feed into a battery bank Buy more as you can
When you have excess power use your heavy power users like washing machines. Power as much as you can directly from propane like stoves hot water heaters you could even power lights from propane.
 
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