For the past five weeks, I’ve been trying to make this tiny cabin (320 square foot plus sleeping loft) into a full time home. The cabin was built in 1972, modeled after a miner’s cabin from the gold rush era. The previous owner refurbished it nicely during the Scamdemic, but because the cabin was a vacation rental, it wasn’t set up as well as it could be for full time use.
I was also downsizing from a 1500 square foot house with a garage and a basement, so I got rid of nearly of all of my furniture, gave away a dozen boxes of books, and gave away more boxes of stuff like kitchen utentsils and clothes. But I kept my seven foot grand piano, so I knew that creating space for living here would be challenging.
Here is a partial list of the things I’ve done so far:
Removed the built-in storage boxes in the tiny living room to make space for the piano. (I did this the day I arrived, after a 450 mile drive that morning.)
Made window screens for the four openable windows that didn't have screens. (The mosquitoes were pretty bad the day I arrived; I don’t know how anyone could live here in the spring without screens.)
Installed a magnetic screen door on the front door.
Installed two shelves in the cabinet next to the mini fridge.
Installed a shelf above the kitchen sink window.
Installed a metal hanging pot rack in the kitchen ceiling for hanging pots and pans.
Installed two shelves in the bathroom cabinet.
Installed two shelves below the bathroom cabinet.
Installed a second shelf above the toilet.
Installed shelves along the edge of the loft.
Made a corner bookcase for the piano room.
Cut down my homemade desk to fit, and cut down the dining table that came with the cabin so it could move to the kitchen area.
Installed a second phone line to the desk.
Fixed a broken casement window crank mechanism (today’s project).
Installed a 9x12 canvas tent on the deck (50 yards from the cabin), complete with full size bed and some furniture, for guests to use.
And the really big one: rebuilt the front porch roof, because carpenter bees had destroyed half of the beams and rafters. This took a week by itself.
I finally feel free to relax a little and enjoy living here. A couple of hours ago, I saw some butterflies flitting about on the tiger lilies that are blooming right now. That’s one of them in the picture above.
Wow!
And what a grand adventure! Thank you.
Congratulations, Mark! What an accomplishment. I'm trying to think of what I've done on my house with my own hands in that span of time. Knocked down the ubiquitous spider webs and battled the aphids on the plum tree. Wishing you my level of non-productivity next!