I’ve mentioned Lou Ureneck’s cabin project as one I’m following, and in his comments, someone asked a great question:  What is a cabin?

The comments there bring an interesting mix and  Lou writes:

It’s a good question, though not so easily answered. A cabin is not a house, though it may be a home. Some cabins are small and some are big. So, size won’t help us, though the bigger the structure the more likely we are to approach its claim on the title “cabin” with skepticism. The concept of cabin is closely connected to logs but clearly many cabins are not built from laid-up logs. Wood seems essential, however.

Dale Mulfinger, in The Cabin: Inspiration for the Classic American Getaway
writes:

We all have a cabin memory.  Or a cabin dream.  A little place whee the family vacationed when we were young,.  Tiny, cot filled cabins at summer camp.  The cabin we built when the kids were small, — or the cabin we want to build when the kids are grown.  We remember our own cabins, or recall some shared national memory like Lincoln’s or Thoreau’s cabin.

The truth is, in function, if not always in form– modern cabins are no different than those historical ones, expect that people today usually don’t live in their cabins full time; we escape to them instead.

Mulfinger goes on to describe the cabins in his book as well as cabins in general, limiting them to less than 1,200 square feet.

A cabin makes a great escape and a wonderful full time home.  For many, cabin implies a more primative or rustic level of finish detail, however, some cabins are sleek, refined, and polished.  In my own space and design, I’ve purposely left some edges and details ragged, to speed the process of developing a patina of a lived-in space.  To other tastes, it may appear to be ragged or unfinished.

Living small is not everyone’s dream, but it is mine.

The cabin at Two Mile Ranch could be considered a contradiction in that is is both large and small. It is built in the style of a dogtrot home and bisected with a 16 x 44 foot deck. If it were a rectangle and enclosed, the footprint would be 44 x 58 or 2500 square feet. But because of its design, the roofed area is only 14 x 24 on one side and 14 x 18 on the other. If you don’t count the central breezeway as enclosed space, the deck square footage is greater than the cabin square footage. Covered and heated living space is just 588 square feet.

Several architects and designers have made it a possible lifestyle for many. Visiting sites like Small House Style gives an overview of the wide variety of approaches to living in a smaller space.

The cabin at Two MIle Ranch has three origins for it’s design: It’s based loosley on an award winning design by Stephen Atkinson, and modified using plans from John Rabbe’s Country Plans. The third influence was my own design and innovation as a first-time builder.

As of this post, the cabin is 85% completed: I need to finish siding the east side, and put shakes on the north and south gables. The siding has been exposed to the weather to give it a little patina, I want to wash it and then seal/ stain it before winter. The last major project is insulating the ceiling and applying ceiling boards. A free standing heat stove and heater go in the big and little sides respectively, and then there is the final 5%: trim around all the windows, doors, and walls.

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There is potential to re-use shipping containers.  Not the boxes from your eBay purchase, but the metal cargo containers.  July’s Mpls StPaul Magazine includes a great find by Dale Mulfinger.

The showcase cabin in Mulfinger’s Cabin Fever column sits on 40 acres and includes two of the 8 by 20 foot containers in the design.

Slide show is here