Remote, Off Grid Cabin ...... start to finish

21 years ago my wife Brooke and I built our very first cabin on a small piece of property north of Fairbanks Alaska it wasn't a vacation home and it wasn't a getaway it was our house we built it because we didn't have much money and we had the material on the land to do it we lived in that tiny cabin for two and a half years until our daughter Belle was born in this video we're going to build a modern version of that same cabin design from 21 years ago on our remote off-grid property in the Upper Midwest so much has changed over the last 21 years but the dream the idea of having a cabin in the woods some place where you can get away from everything that's quiet and isolated in today's world that might mean more than it has ever meant so come along with me as we build a remote off-grid Cabin in the Woods start to finish my name is Dave Whipple and you're watching Bush radical [Music] thank you foreign [Music] for the better part of a year and a half looking for a cabin site that was conducive to this project I finally found this spot I can Envision the cabin sitting right in here not only that but it has a nice spruce tree right in the middle and our original cabin had a spruce tree that we built the deck around so this is the spot let's get to it [Music] foreign [Music] wood post foundation and I only need about six foot long posts but I bought 10 Footers so I could use the extra little chunk somewhere else I brought my Harbor Freight Sawmill up here and I'm going to set that up soon and I'll need those cut off pieces to set the mill on so I'll kill two birds with one stone cut the post for the cabin use the scrap for The Sawmill [Music] now the first thing you'll discover on a building project like this is you need to find some place to burn scrap I'm going to be trimming trees through this whole process trim and brush and dead branches and I need a fire pit not only that but once the cabin is complete nothing is better than a fire pit so that's one of the first things I'm going to tackle I need to take these two trees out of here and then I'll have a nice cleared area that I can establish a permanent fire pit ought to bring some rocks up because there's no rocks on this property but for now we're just going to get it down to sand then we can start burning up these dead branches that we're going to have to trim off of all the trees in this area just to clean this site up [Music] I'm not going to lie to you doing wood work out in the wilderness by yourself with beautiful weather it's pretty wonderful foreign [Music] it's hard to beat day one when you're building something in the woods trimming trees and cutting and burning brush you you really get the gist of how things are going to look and how things are going to feel you make a lot of progress in a short amount of time when you put a cabin in a place like this it's really no different than just a permanent campsite all I'm doing right now is just carving out a campsite foreign [Music] all afternoon long dialing in this site it's nice to listen to that fire crackle as you're working and when the wind shifts just a little bit you get a nice whiff of it burning Spruce on a cold late fall day my I can't think of anything better [Music] now over the years I've built several cabins and I always try to build them a little different just to try new stuff but this is the second cabin I'm building using this treated post Foundation because I really like it it's simple it's easy it's sturdy anybody can do it anybody can put this foundation in an afternoon which is really simple tools [Music] when you think about it I have a hammer and a tape measure and a level a shovel and then this iron bar for packing the dirt back in foreign full of nails that's about it [Music] this cabin is going to be 12 foot by 12 foot and then have an 8 foot deck so getting these two posts right the first two posts that means everything Spike this together I'm using a four inch galvanized ring shank nail in case you're wondering once those first two posts are in and they're nice and Plumb and they're at the right distance from each other the cabin layout is pretty much set in stone I can pull all my measurements off those first two posts [Music] foreign [Music] now it's pretty chilly out so while that saw warms up I'm going to install these Ledger boards this Ledger is kind of the interesting part of this Foundation system it splits the weight of the floor joists with that Rim joist and it also kind of cribs everything together makes a nice easy simple rigid Foundation foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] I'm going to drop in panels of plywood in between the floor joists and kind of make a false floor [Music] check out this guy hitching a ride come on get off my plywood cool [Music] [Music] dropping the floor in from the top is going to be so much more enjoyable than nailing it up to the floor from underneath a beautiful sunny day in the late fall can even make insulation seem enjoyable this drop-in floor is working out even better than I hoped it would I can stand in an empty cavity while I screw off the plywood and then insulate the cavity just in front of me sure is easy on you quite ergonomic that way [Music] foreign [Music] there's something therapeutic about nailing off plywood there's not a lot of thinking to it you just put it in place and then you slap the nails to it I like that kind of work [Music] foreign [Music] I'm not such a big fan of nailing off t11 because half of the nails go inside those grooves and then you have to re-nail them later on with a punch because you can't get your hammer down there so it feels like you're nailing everything twice not the end of the world it's a good trade-off really because the t11 siding all you really have to do is stain it put a good log oil on it anything like that and it's a finished siding that's a wonderful thing [Music] [Music] now here's a helpful tip for you if you're building window openings like this build them as a unit and then you can put that whole unit down on the floor into the wall then you don't have to nail sideways there's a million ways to do it but that's a good one foreign to make sure everything is flush and everything is nailed off good other than that I'm just enjoying the weather enjoying listening to the radio you never know what's going to happen tomorrow but today it's it's a nice fall day [Music] I think now's a pretty good time to put that stud right there that I completely forgot about I didn't even make a mark on the layout just miss the two foot stud y a lot of time it's spent just swapping Nails take the big ones out of the pouch put the small ones in the pouch [Music] it's getting late into the season and and the weather here could be anything there could be a fort of snow on the ground so far so good [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you today we're going to build a deck and what is better on a cabin than a deck every time I build a deck I'm just happy that I'm building a deck sitting on a deck never gets old now when Brooke and I built our very first cabin we had a spruce tree right in front of the cabin and we built the deck around the tree and it was always a joy always loved being out on the deck the fact that I have a spruce tree in a clearing that I want to put a cabin in I have to build a deck around it it just makes sense now because I want to wrap this deck around the spruce tree and we've got pretty good sized Roots you can actually see there's a root running out right to about where a poster need to be so I'm not going to dig posts for the deck what I'm going to do is I'm going to put down a pair of solid four inch concrete kind of block pavers and then a short section A six by six post I won't be damaging the tree roots because I want the tree to stay where it's at here you can see our original cabin with the deck in the same phase of construction propped up by two by fours temporarily [Music] foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I squared the frame and now the frame is square the distance from this Edge to the tree is it lands right in the middle of my layout so I've had to modify this layout this first Gap is 24 and then it's 41 and then I split the difference between these last three now if you're building with plywood your layout is really important you have to be 12 on Center 16 on Center or 24 on Center but I'm using deck boards that are 12 feet long and they're going all the way from one side of the deck to the other so the layout really doesn't make any difference the only thing that's really important is that I make room for my tree [Music] thank you [Music] foreign foreign [Music] thank you [Music] time to completely switch gears I need logs to build my loft with real close to the building site there is this nice standing dead white spruce tree it's perfect that's exactly what I need but I do need two of them and I don't see another [Music] now I love building with log but in this cabin The Only log I'm going to use is two logs for the loft but even just two logs are going to look fantastic that log accent is going to be a welcome addition I use the straightest two by four that I had just tacked it down to the log and I'm staying about a quarter of an inch away from it with the bar of the Chainsaw this is a quick simple and fairly accurate way to Mill a flat side on a log [Music] foreign after days and days of building with dimensional Lumber and plywood it's nice to work with something natural and abstract I wish my sister was here she always said she liked peeling logs I'd let her take the job it's not quite cold enough out to be doing this without sweating oh well I take just a breather for a second let's look at this log and see how straight that cut ended up this is the flat surface and I'd say that's good enough who needs Home Depot [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] in case you're wondering why I haven't sheet at that fourth wall well this is why I have to get that log up over top of the window headers and if I was to sheet that wall you'd never get it where I'm putting it [Music] that log is more important than you think at this point pretty soon I'm gonna have to start working on the roof and I need something right there in the middle to support a temporary scaffolding that I could work off of but in the meantime it's supposed to rain over the weekend the reason I need the tarp on this is because I've insulated this floor already I can't let the floor get wet but I don't have my roof metal yet and I don't have my roof built [Music] it's obvious that my tarp it did hold up but the support held the tarp up broke and now I have a swimming pool it's probably 40 gallons of water in there I need to get all that water out of there without it blowing up and soaking this floor not exactly sure how I'm going to deal with that foreign so what I came up with was a ladder a ratchet strap and a five gallon bucket and I have to say it's working pretty good I should have this thing empty pretty soon and there's really no other way to get at it than from above you couldn't dare cut that tarp from underneath it's liable to just explode foreign [Music] Ed up I can move on to making Rafters for the roof this roof is going to be an 11 12 hitch roof the reason I chose that is because it works out to be roughly a 10 foot rafter and I can buy metal that I don't have to cut or special order [Music] so this will be my purpose-built Square for this roof is to lay out my Rafters you can see in a minute foreign [Music] foreign side of the square is 22 inches long that's my 11 side the other side is 24 inches long that's my 12 inch side what I'm doing is I use this just as a giant speed square one side of it I use for the vertical marks and the other side I use for the horizontal marks here I'm cutting out the bird's mouth the bird's mouth has two cuts the face cut and the seat cut the face cut goes up against the sheeting on the side of the building the seat cut sits down flat on top of the wall foreign [Music] [Music] I've got some work to do before I can get up there and start building a roof and the first step is I've got to get this log spiked down so anything I set on top of this log then I'm going to eventually be standing on doesn't move [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign sure is nice to get to this point you always feel like you've accomplished something when you start building the roof and it's nice to be a pie and have a better View foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] putting up the rafters always makes you feel like you got something done but the truth of the matter is once the rafters are up which is kind of the easy part there's all kinds of little work that has to be done The Gables have to be filled in with Gable studs The Gables have to be sheeted there's all kinds of cuts to make then you've got to put all the two by four nailers on top of the roof and then the squirrel blocks in between and the bird blocks on the top of the wall I'm gonna put the gussets on the other side and pretty soon you realize even though you thought you were making real good progress yeah he's had a lot more to do than what you really admitted [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign I threw the green tarp over the whole thing again and then I ran for Windows and when I came back well this is what I came back to now I like to build roofs but putting on the metal well there's nothing fun about that and working in the snow there's nothing fun about that either so today I'm taking it real slow I'm being real careful because this really isn't my thing being on a roof when it's snowy and icy and that's why I'm using this 20 000 pound toe strap to slide down the roof because there's no way to walk down this roof and get on that ladder [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I gotta admit the snowfall kind of ruined my day been having wonderful weather up until now and seeing it snowy without the roof being finished was well it was depressing but now that the roof metal is on and the windows are on and we're in fantastic shape having the place dried in brings a whole new outlook on this job let us know Let it Rain everything inside is going to stay dry time to go cut that second Loft log [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you there's so many videos on YouTube about building the cabinet and they're really popular and I think one of the things that that people really love about the idea of building a cabin is just a day like this being out in the middle of the Wilderness by yourself peeling a log it's quiet being nice and toasty good simple work I think that's what a lot of people would really appreciate about an experience like this it's cold it's below freezing but when you're busy you know it's fine feels good that's a nice looking log now the first Loft log we put in is sitting on top of those window headers for the second one I'm gonna have to build supports and because I can set the log up on One support and then kind of fit in the pieces of the other support I could put this log in while the building is sided on that side the other one I couldn't do that fat dudes with asthma shouldn't be doing this sort of thing oh let's go have a fire I'd have a fire like this every night if I could it's nice that is nice I just keep trimming these trees up cleaning this site and whenever I have enough scrap and brush I have a nice bonfire wonderful so I think I'm gonna build a set of steps something I should have did the same day I built the deck but I figured I'd just procrastinate then after three weeks of jumping up and down off of this deck going in and out of the building well I figured it was about time I got this part of the job done [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] ER just died so far I've built this entire cabin on one gallon of gas in that generator so I think it's time I take a walk we'll go grab the gas can which is quarter mile that way I think you guys are gonna find this pretty interesting let me get over here this is kind of the end of the trail and we pop out through these trees and turn the corner and there's my cabin and that's how you get from one cabin site to the other why do I need two cabins in the first place I'd like to have other people up here I'd like to have people visit and just to have some place for other folks to go you know if Brooke and I are up and it's cold we're both going to be staying in this cabin but I'd like to have a guest cabin so people want to come fish the river or go up and Fish Lake Superior or some of the lakes that are around here be room for everybody take a minute make myself a late breakfast before I get back at it how's that you know this porch has become my favorite place to eat breakfast and that's my breakfast View and for dessert how about some cherry pie filling oh yeah who's got it figured out now take this stupid thing off right now so it works man I hate those stupid gas nozzles foreign I could stuff a few more screws in these treads and they're good to go I would have used the cordless drill but it's pretty much out of juice [Music] well with that snowfall I thought we were pretty much done for the season but things are warming back up and all the snow is going away which is fantastic time to put the chimney in because if I can get the chimney in I can heat the inside of this building and if I can heat the inside of this building I can work on the inside of this building no matter what the weather's like I've been installing this same type of a chimney System since the first cabin metal plate on the outside metal plate on the inside dead air space in between insulated pipe through the wall very simple safe affordable just works good foreign [Music] doesn't take much of a wood stove to heat a cabin this size [Music] now with any new wood stove you should set it up outdoors and put a good hot fire in it because that high temperature stove paint is going to burn off and it's going to bake on and cure and it smokes and it stinks [Music] I've been sitting here watching that stove cook for about 40 minutes now and just because the next thing is doing insulation and I just I don't really want to [Music] for a lot of my life my occupation has been finishing concrete which just goes to show I'm used to doing work nobody else wants to do but when it comes to insulation I just don't really have a soft spot for it I don't mind it but I would rather somebody else do it [Music] well you can see our stove over there it's doing better it's not just smoking and fuming everywhere you can see she's good and hot I haven't smelt it for a while either probably still stinks but at least it isn't smoking [Music] I've been looking forward to doing tongue and groove for quite a while now I actually bought this tongue and groove probably 10 days ago and it's been sitting here on the deck and I've been worrying about it rain and snow I just want to get it on the wall because I hand picked every piece of this and it wasn't easy finding 45 good pieces now Tongan Groove is a little expensive but you can't beat the benefits you get out of it it looks fantastic and it's not sheetrock it's a win-win the days around here are pretty much dictated by sunup and sundown if it's too dark to film or too dark to work well you're pretty much shut down foreign so today I'm going to keep putting up this tongue and groove and when I get up towards the top I'm going to install an LED light strip it'll just be temporary I'll probably move it somewhere a little nicer later on but to have light and if I can get the stove in to have indoor Heat wow that's a game changer so long as there's not three feet of snow out there in the trail I'll be able to drive in and out of here I can just keep working night and day foreign nice nice nice [Music] [Music] foreign is everything to see the lights on inside makes it look homey [Music] well tonight there's a winner weather advisory for this County we could get five inches of snow and the temperature is going to go from the mid 30s down to the high teens so today is probably gonna be my last day Thanksgiving was a week ago we're getting real close to December I've got to be done with this and I think the weather is going to make that decision for me so I'm going to make a Mad Dash today and get as much done as I can [Music] thank you honestly there's not a thing to complain about I've had about the best weather I could hope for this time of year shouldn't be too long here and I'll have the wood stove in and once the wood stove is in it's kind of a different ball game but even if I can heat this cabin doesn't mean I can drive in here once there's three feet of snow on the ground we'll just do a weekend with the time we have foreign [Music] that's really all any of us can do no matter what we're talking about just do the best we can with the time we have join the journey [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] lighten that first fire inside your cabin this is the moment you look forward to right from the very first hole You Dig or the first nail you drive sure is satisfying foreign [Music] [Music] with about an hour left of daylight cleaning up this mess is now my new priority it sure does make the place pop to get all the construction material and tools out of the way get everything swept up [Music] foreign [Music] have had a wonderful time on this building project and I'm so grateful for the weather it's been about as good as you could ask for not only that but I'm so far back here I haven't heard of vehicles since I started this project what a gift oh yeah oh yeah a remote off-grid Cabin in the Woods I hope you've all enjoyed this building project as much as I have if you want to see a deep dive on this cabin with nothing but commentary and details click the link on the right hand corner of your screen and if you want to check the playlist of all my other cabin building videos click the link on the left my name is Dave Whipple and you've been watching Bush radical and be radically see you soon

Channel: Bushradical

Views: 2,687,755

Keywords: Off grid cabin, cabin in the woods, tiny house, off grid

Id: XJXPoG9sT5Q

Length: 49min 46sec (2986 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 04 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/nickMakesDIY]

Love his videos, Dave is the man!