Why You Won't Regret Building Your Own Cabin

Written by John Hayes

 Our cabin sits on 80 acres that my grandparents bought in 1944. We spent two years bulldozing and trimming trees to prepare the property for our new home.

 My son and I stacked the 6x12 logs ourselves. After it was dried in, my wife, Tracie, and I did things like painting, staining and installing trim work to keep labor costs down.

I tell anyone thinking of building their own home that they will never regret it. Building with logs is like one-stop shopping. You can skip many of the components of conventional construction like framing and drywalling. It can be affordable with a practical design. During each phase of construction, I tried to keep my standards high and my spending low. I estimate that by doing a lot of the construction work ourselves, we built it for $75 per square foot.

The thing we like best about our cabin is its size. Besides being cozy and cost efficient, Tracie says she can clean it in less than an hour. I like the ease of maintenance for a smaller house.

For fun, we like to ride ATVs around the property. Tracie and I like to pick pecans, and we both enjoy landscaping. My grandmother knew the place so well, she could tell which pecans came from which trees. She had names for many of them.