Monday, September 8, 2014

Cabin Fever! A pretty cool company leading the charge in the small home movement...

I have always been interested in small homes, a simple, minimalist lifestyle. When I was 20 I bought 10 acres of land in  Schoharie County, NY in a very small town called Summit (just a one pump gas station that served as a "grocery store" as well). Anyway a long story short, I finally drew up some plans and built my own small home, one room, large terrace and open views to the West (along with deer, turkey, raspberries, apples etc). It was a simple cabin, one room, composting toilet and outdoor shower. I built it myself (with an occasional helper) with a hammer, circular saw and various other rented tools and hand tools. Believe me, I have a million funny stories of the process. Here's one: I framed up all the walls after finishing the pole foundation, sort of rushed it but we got it done with the help of our head lights.I came back the following week to put the roof trusses in place, what I found was all the framing lumber scattered like toothpicks all over the property! I thought some local tore it all up! I was later asked if I braced all the walls? Well no. Summit was called Summit as it was the highest point in the county, evidently winds reached 40-60 miles an hour and without the walls braced....lesson learned.

Any way it was really a blast building this little house and we had many awesome weekends, weeks spent in our little cabin. It still stands today and when I'm in the area I always drive over for a look. This is a beautiful part of the Northern Catskills though it is a 3.5 hour trek up there. A snapshot of old NY State.

                                 CABIN FEVER!

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