Now this design would not fit in nearly as well around the cabin as one of the grain silo homes that I have been posting recently but in Portland Oregon, it fits right in. They also would fit pretty well into Return of the Jedi as one of the Ewok huts as well.
See more of Wilkinson Residence here or check out the site of the architect, Robert Oshatz.
You can purchase this platform bed for $2000 or you could probably build your own using less exotic materials. Either way and you will have a fantastic looking bed.
He did get quite a bit better at it and his injuries were not life threatening.
Apartment Therapy has a list of suggestions for redecorating that don’t cost anything
For more great advice, check out the original post here.
Created by the architectural firm I-Beam, was initially conceived as a transitional shelter for the refugees returning to Kosovo after the war. These people needed an immediate alternative to the typical tent solution that could potentially transform into a new permanent home over time, even without access to sophisticated tools and materials.
From the website
This type of transitional housing bridges the gap between temporary tent shelter and permanent home. The Pallet House is made of wooden shipping pallets. Pallets are versatile, recyclable, sustainable, easily assembled and universally esthetically pleasing. They are readily available in most countries and their transportation cost and weight is negligible when used to carry shipments of clothing, food, medical supplies or other relief aid. A simple pallet structure evolves naturally from emergency shelter to permanent house with the addition of more stable indigenous materials like rubble, stone, earth, mud, plaster and concrete. The evolution of one 16' by 16' shelter into a permanent home requires approximately 100 pallets nailed or strapped together and lifted into place. Tarps draped over the basic structure or plastic corrugated sheets prevent water penetration until enough debris, stone, mud, earth, wood or any material from the immediate surroundings can be gathered to fill the wall cavities and cover the roof. Pallets may be pre-assembled with styrofoam insulation, vapor barrier, plywood or corrugated sheathing prior to shipping as well. As infrastructure is restored and cement or other materials become available the filled pallets can be covered with stucco, plaster, or roofing tiles transforming the makeshift shelter into a permanent home within a year or two. Consequently, the Pallet House adapts easily to almost every climate on Earth, and can be built under $3000 in less than a week.
A home made out of two grain silos.
It’s a little big for my preferences but it would look right at home along most prairie lakes.
Apartment Therapy has a post about the Two Story Camping Van brought to you by small space enthusiasts--the Japanese! Check out this camper that 3 friends built to help them realize a lifelong dream of driving cross country. There are a bunch more photos over at Apartment Therapy.
We are a family of book lovers and we spend a lot of time debating over the books that we want at the cabin. Here is my reading list for a summer at the lake. The books were chosen not only by us but for our friends who use the cabin as well. They sit on a couple of these Umbra invisible book shelves mounted around the cabin.
I have been having a discussion online with a couple of friends of friends who have some questions about fixing up an old cabin. The conversation revolved around how it is a process and not a cost that comes up front. Here is how we equipped the cabin and here is what it cost us so far.
When we decided to buy the cabin, we decided we were not going to go into debt to equip it. This has meant that we purchase things as we can afford them and ignore stuff that we can’t afford. That’s the advantage of creating something simple. It happens as it happens. We tend to shop at liquidation places and at thrift stores with some looking around online.
Now we did start with some furniture which we kept at the cabin. Three 3/4 beds, a sofa bed, kitchen table, chairs, and refrigerator. This is what we have added over the last year.
Related: Wendy previously posted 12 Essentials for Every Cabin
I saw this on materialicious this morning and thought they were quite cool. These are designed to be basically an insulated tent which offer warmth and stability in bad weather
The POD is designed to be comfortable - the roofing material is designed to cut down the noise of heavy rain. The window and lockable French doors are double glazed to reduce condensation and provide sound insulation. The wood used in the construction is a naturally 'warm' material but to provide extra winter warmth we have installed sheep's wool insulation inside the walls while a special foil layer under the roof helps keep summer temperatures in check. There is a small, high level window in the back wall this not only provide light but will help keep the living space well ventilated and aid 'through draft' on hot summer days.
Good Magazine has a great chart on how we can cut back on our water usage by making different choices in what we drink, eat, and consume.
We headed south to the cabin on a cold Friday afternoon after we took in the Draggins Rod and Custom Car Show. The wind was howling and cold and the cabin was only slightly above freezing. While a lot of snow had left over the last week, the lake was still frozen solid. We got the heaters going and unloaded the car. While the heaters never got the heat above 15 degrees Celsius on Friday night, we managed to survive.
The plan was to tear down some interior walls that had been put up well before we bought the cabin. The walls were really just privacy dividers that left about a foot above and below the walls. As proved by the fact that I used to be able to whisper Mark’s name from the master bedroom and he would answer me back they never did cut down on the sound. After reading Cabinology, there were some photos of cabins that had a wide open floor plan and had the beds in the corners or along the sides of the cabin. It’s kind of a studio apartment meets rustic cabin look.
We talked about it and decided to take down the walls and open the cabin up. We will pick up some privacy screens for Mark and Oliver at a later date and we still have a small bedroom for Wendy and I.
When we got up there, Mark asked me how we were going to take down the walls. I suggested we would use him as a human battering ram but he denied my offer. Later on he asked me again and I said, “Just run through it like a football player.” He never said anything but started to move things out of the way. The next thing I knew was Mark was running across the cabin and launching himself through the wall. All I could think of was that he was going to hit a rusty nail and we were going to have to take him to Regina for a Tetanus shot. Luckily he did not but we did manage to make a big mess in the process. While it’s easy to use hammers to demolish things, Mark’s karate kicks do the job as well. We almost broke a window but other than that it was a rather uneventful demolition. 
After we took the wall down and hauled out the wallboard and wood, we were impressed with how much more light was allowed into the cabin and the look and feel of the cabin. The next step will be replace the 3/4 beds with a couple of single day beds but that will come in time.
We buried Oliver and Mark under a bunch of covers, turned up the heaters and hoped for the best. Our thermometer said it dropped down to 12.8 degrees Celsius which was cold but it wasn’t as if we were going to die. Under the blankets it wasn’t that uncomfortable and while the wind howled outside, we all slept fine inside.
Here is Mark settling in for the night with our opened up interior. You will notice the Nintendo DS.
The next morning we started painting the inside the cabin. We had decided on a washed red color but sadly it was a Ralph Lauren color and unless you buy Ralph Lauren paint, the colors don’t tint well. 
So we chose a nice shade of green for our accent wall and picked up a much less expensive paint by Glidden at Home Depot. We also picked up some cherry stain from Minwax while we were at it so we could stain some shelves at the cabin.
The painting and staining went well. The shelves were a little tricky because I had pine and spruce to stain but after some fiddling, the stain looked the same. The weather warmed up substantially and it was nice enough to work without a jacket on (finally).
The Glidden paint did a good job of covering the existing paint and the wall looks pretty good.
Here is the first coat going on.
This is the finished look with two coats on (not dry yet). We need to put the shelves back on but I wanted to let them dry a little longer.
The last thing that we managed to get done while we were up there was putting my Saskatchewan Roughriders barbecue cover on. Our $10 BBQ cover got shredded by the cold and the wind. I went into Canadian Tire looking for a replacement and the decent ones were about $10 cheaper than this one, so I splurged and I don’t feel guilty about it at all.
It was pretty quiet up at the lake. All of our neighbors who live up there full time were away for the Easter weekend and I doubt there were 20 of us up there in total. Mark’s and mine walk along the lake turned into an hour long snowball fight and running conversation about life.
The next step is to paint the rest of the cabin a light yellow and hang the blinds. Sometime in April the plan is to bring up the gazebo and set it up as well. Later on this summer the plan is to build a small deck on the front of the cabin but we are still evaluating and debating the design of that.
This is a fun post about an Alaskan couple who built a log cabin by hand. Armed with only a book and no prior knowledge of log cabin building, they purchased five acres of land and began to build a log cabin by hand with trees from their property. via
We finally made it up to the lake. Jordon had some meetings and Oliver, Mark and I came along for the ride. After sending Jordon in first to make sure we hadn’t been overrun by raccoons, we started to move in.
I wanted to get the cabin deep cleaned but I also wanted to check out our new Noma Comfort Zone Heater. The temperature was slightly above freezing and after a short time of plugging in an turning on the heater, the cabin became toasty warm. We bought a $3 digital weather hub for the cabin and I had wished I had set it up when I came in so I had an accurate temperature. Within a short time we were at 19 degrees Celsius and that was in spite of all of us coming in and out with the doors open. Add to that, the cabin is not insulated and I was quite impressed.
I gave Jordon a Roughriders Road sign for Christmas. You can see where he hung it. Our cabin just became a resident of Riderville.
As you can see, we still had some snow at the lake. Not enough to wear boots for but more than enough to get your running shoes cold and wet. 
We had a rather modern looking clock up at the lake last year and it didn’t fit the look and feel at all. After looking for months, Jordon found this distressed and antique looking wall clock that fits a lot of better. It also doesn’t have a ticking second hand which disturbs the silence (well until the loons wake up in the morning).
Before we left, Jordon hung this, a place to hang the keys which is a bigger deal than it should be. Basically we live by lanyards. We have a lanyard for Jordon’s work keys, my work keys, the car keys, and sometimes my work keys. How many we have up at the lake depends on how fast we came up and where we came from.
I didn’t have a chair for Ollie at the cabin so I made on out of a recycling bin and some blankets. Maggi was there to make sure everything was okay.
The bigger news from the trip was after reading Cabinology and then debating about it, we decided to take out two of the three bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms were literally two seven by seven feet rooms divided by a couple of pieces of wood. Just big enough to put some beds in. We are taking that out and opening up the space. Mark’s bed will get a screen and until we add a loft in a couple of years, it will be good enough for them. Mark doesn’t like this space anyways as he prefers his tent or to hang out with us so it won’t be that big of an adjustment. Ollie on the other hand isn’t old enough to vote. So our small three bedroom cabin is becoming a more spacious one bedroom/studio cabin. I’ll post some photos next week.
I stumbled up the Cherokee Cabin Company the other day and was blown away by the great looking plans they have for small rustic cabins.
The Klondike design is a favorite but they have several other traditional looking plans with a contemporary twist all over the site.
And of course they have a design called the Saskatoon.
Great looking plans that are small but not Tumbleweed Tiny House Company small if you know what I mean.
Well tomorrow is the first trip to the cabin for 2009. We are taking the boys and Maggi to the cabin while Jordon has some meetings. Arlington Beach started as a party site in the early 1900s and then was bought a Bible camp and then later by the Free Methodist Church. While it is a hamlet today, the Free Methodist Church still uses it as a camp and it’s conference centre. A little bit of trivia is that Jordon’s grandfather, Rev. Gordon Jenner was one of the ones that made the decision to purchase the land around Arlington.
It will give us a chance to bring some stuff up to the cabin (a new heater, a Roughriders Road sign, coffee maker, some solar powered accent lights, assorted books, and some decorative touches for the cabin) and get things set up for the spring and summer. While it’s still cold out, the space heaters should keep us warm and if it doesn’t, we can wander over to the lodge and see what’s happening there.
Sadly for Maggi, Last Mountain Lake is still going to be frozen which means that despite her hopes, there will be no swimming for her. Maybe by the Victoria Day long weekend.
