Posted: 6/2/2007 12:21:16 PM EDT
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As you guys may recall, some 20 years ago my familly bought some property as a BOL. Slowly over the years starting with my 17' camper we have added to the property. The idea being a place to spend retirement time, recreation time, and for our immediate familly to gather during hard times. I did a thread on my brothers cabin a last year and thought you would like to see the finished product.  20x24 with loft and full basement. It features a full back deck with ramp on one side and steps on the other, full drive in basement, and front porch. It uses a septic and well system and sits behind a line of trees about 100 yards from the road on a commanding hill with longdistance view from 500-1,000 yards in any direction. Great view but SHTF not a place I would want to storm. Exterior is vinyl insulated log which is maintenance free. Heat/AC is a through wall heat pump with backup ceiling fans, kerosene stove, and oil lamps. Really spent the dough on insulation and the place heats up amazingly fast. It's very rural and with just the flooring to go total cost is $55,000 including the 5 acres it sits on. The main 3 bdr house has a 40X24 building and since we started the cabin we added a 18X24 full two story shell which will be my cabin. This is a convention vinyl sided structure with red stell roof with wood floor, cost put up was $12K. Its close enough to tap the main houses water, electricity, and best of all free natural gas. We talk about this stuff alot but just wanted you guys to know it can happen. All it takes is time, patience, and putting money into it when you have it. Tj |
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I'll have to upload a back pic and will post it later. Basically its a cut down to a double red barn door big enough to drive the tractor, Kubota, in. The deck is full length and double french doors to the cabin. In the meantime here's a pic of the loft area close to completion.  There will be two beds upstairs and two dressers. The wall is wired for a flat screen with both high and low plugs. Another small flatscreen will be downstairs. Since literally we have no plans for anyone living there permanently at this time, we have no plans for a dish etc. just an antenna and DVD players. This is truly a just in case, get away cabin at this point. My brother is living in the main house. We probably will not finish the new shell for a couple years or at least take our time at it since there are no immediate plans for anyone living in it either. We'll use it for storage at this point till either SHTF or looks like it. Plans are to wire/plumb/insulate then stop till needed. Tj |
Yes, there's a barbed wire fence within 200 feet on one side (a little close for defensive purposes but quite a bit of open space before reached), on the other side is a barbed wire fence about 200 yards with excellent visibility. To the rear is a brush line about 300 yards back at the top of a very steep almost not clmbable cliff which isn't real good but then in clear veiw, 500 yards, of the closet neighbor in that direction. The weak spot is to the front which about 100 yards to the road with just a treeline as cover. Eventually we plan to barbed wire fence the entire property line mainly for livestock. We may go with a more deocrative no maintenance fence in the front (new recycled plastic saw dust colored composit stuff). The basic idea of a fence is to keep livestock in, not limit visibility, and slow would be attackers making them an easy target or easily seen. From a defensive standpoint, our first (the main house) took none of this into consideration and is quite vulnerable both from crime and weather. Its way too close to the road, which I got out voted on that one. This cabin was our rectifcation of that by providing first a torando shelter in the basement and if needs be firing platform in the basement with firing slits cut into the block. This would be done as needed or if needed of course. On top of the hill, it has a commanding view of the entire valley including the road both dirctions coming in up to 1,000 yards or more. Below ground cover and a commanding view, it would be a hell of a place properly defended to try to take. Though not our highest priority by any means, we did discuss the cabin location kind of like a Vietnam era bunker location. The added benifit of course is a beautiful view from the place which makes it a very pleasent place to stay. My brothers weapon selections due to the availability of deer in the area has been large bore rifles capable of distance shooting. Our plans are to add a gun safe to the new building where I will stash some of my guns. Good idea that if you have to bugout to not have to try to bugout with an arsenal but only what you need to get there. Besides makes it easier for me when I go hunting there or shooting. We've put in a 50 yard range in the back and hope to have the shooting bench up this summer. This is a big hunting area and this will really be an ideal hunting cabin. Thoughts are if we need some extra cash, we may rent the place out as a hunting retreat during hunting season but no real plans yet. I can't overstress when doing this type thing, we have found it best to take your time and do what you can when you can. It was quite slow really until my parents retired and we had someone semi-permanently living there but has gone quite quickly since. We've found it best to not carry notes on anything so it does take time. Having a place for hard times and the bank holding a note isn't a good idea. Its now, two houses (includes the cabin), two very large outbuildings both with a little work suitable as living quarters, and of course my old 17' camper which was the original structure. Next structue under discussion now will be one of those large metal carport structures for parking the tractors etc. which with a little modification can become a livestock barn. As a temporary structure, they aren't subject to property taxes. We hope soon to buy the next adjoining five acres which already has a house. The neighbor's son just moved here to TN and they may be selling. We'd be pretty much done then. There's just my mom and I have one brother and one sister plus their famillies. The idea from day one has been to have a place come hard times we could all live and pull together and of course places to retire so we are all close by. It helps that the area is a major hunting and fishing area so if into the outdoor lifestyle which other than my sisters familly (actually BIL is a hunter so loves the area but has two girls raised in the city) we all are, its very good for us. Tj |
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This is a pic of the original main house. Since this pic, it now has new windows, new red steel roof, and the new plastic based full back deck half enclosed. The enclosed porch is heated via gas in winter. The first structure, an out building is to the side. The garage door is shown but there is a kind of mother inlaw small room you can't see for the trees in this pic. This started as a pole barn which we framed on the one side and put a floor in. The pole barn has been fantastic over the years with the only maintenance being haveing the roof coated. The main house has amazing backups with over five ways to heat it in winter and enough antique Alladin lamps to light up an office building. Kerosene is kept in two 55 gallon drums.  This was a double wide originally and honestly we consider now a mistake since almost none of the double wide is left after 20 years except the frame. The entire outside, siding, windows, and roof have been replaced. Front porch is concrete. This is my 17' camper directly behind the main house and the first real structure on the site. We used it as a get away and headquarters over the years as we built. This too is an old picture and now there are three bareing apple trees around the camper. This was the location I suggested for the main house but was out voted on that one. My parents wanted a bit more accessability to the road when it snowed. In retrospect that was a mistake too since the roads being so rural are impassable in a bad snow anyway.  I don't have a picture yet of the new two story building. It was just put up last month. Contracted and prefabbed off site, the builders put it up in less than four days. In all over the years, we have about $120,000 invested in the BOL, 10 acres almost all usable land, 2 houses, 2 outbuildings, 2 wells, and 2 septic systems which was paid out over 20 years as we could afford it. Plans are as long as one of us three original children are alive for it to remain in the family. The next generation is on board but can't speak for their children since they aren't born yet. We talk often of survival groups. There's no better place to start than your familly. One day I will do a thread on our original BOL which is the old familly homestead (grandparents farm). That one is so rural you have to double clutch lightening to get it to strike and over 400 acres. Tj |
We actually started by looking at kits. This gave us the basic floor layout per square footage and some idea of cost as well as design. Then when we compared the manufacture cost of a Home Depot assembled on your site barn size to size, we realized how expensive the kits were which led us to research raw materials. Now we had an idea of labor content. What we ended up doing is hiring a barn/outbuilding contractor who basically puts up the shell. We then subsituted sidings with us buying the new siding. For the contractor basically it was one of his barns with just more windows and doors than normal. Cost of the shell was $12K plus $4K for the siding. The basement we contractor through the digger who knew the block layer. Digging wwas the biggest pain since diggers don't like moving their equipment for such small jobs that can't be done in one trip. The new buidling, we took what we learned from the first one. We did zero digging and had it built on a concrete slab we had poured for a basketball court, 18X24. Conventional vinyl siding, metal roof, and full second floor, that shell went up for $12K. If you do some research you will find that's a hell of alot cheaper than the kits and assembled to boot. How do we do this? The contractor is one of the companies that make the outbuildings for companies like Home Depot etc. His work is very seasonal, summer and really looking for work in winter to keep his guys employed. They basically do most the fabrication in their shop. Then load everything on a truck and an entire construction crew shows up one day, bang its up. We then take our time doing the inside. My brother does alot of it but he also contracts some locals retired looking for some extra cash etc. The cabin has passed full inspections, which rural as it is was septic, water, and electrical. The minute you apply for the septic, you're in the system so to say. These people are PIA with God like powers and systems setup to favor both their buddies as well as force timing on you by permit expirations. Its only getting worse too so if I can advise anyone its get the septic out of the way now before it will one day cost more than most houses. The little cabin here has the same septic system as a 4 bedroom house in the middle of a suburb. Tj |
You can't tell it from the pic, but my brother kind of went a little extra on the French doors. There's a fantastic view from that deck and the way he has the cabin laid out is backwards. The living room is in front of the French doors not the front of the cabin. The one thing we would have done differently is have the stairs on one wall instead of the middle even though that would have meant giving up some space in the loft area. That loft area is really quite large with plenty of room for two queen size beds with a dresser in between. By having the stairs on one side, that would have made the entire downstairs an open area. As it is, the batroom is in front of the steps and under the steps will be a closet. It would have meant sacraficing the closet area but still a better use of space. Actually the cabin has been the easy part. The septic and water system was without a doubt the hardest due to government involvement. Permits, expiration of permits, and inspections set a whole time table in motion including the wiring. This of course changes county to county let alone state to state but something to watch for. Tj |
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Looks great TJ! I just finished the residing of the final wall of my cabin/summer home with two new windows and a door in Northern MN. The place is tight and easy to heat and is my BOL. Nothing like having a place like that and knowing it is available in case you need it. 
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