Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Final Design (if there is such a thing!)

It's been a while since my last post and some things have changed since then...

We took a better look at the financial side of the project, and decided that at this point it does not make a lot of [financial] sense to spend 60K -80K or even more on a cabin. Smarter to build a smaller simpler cabin for 15K or so, and invest the rest o the money toward retirement...

So the whole project has been stripped down considerably and is now a simple 14x16 foot print with a small bathroom and a sleeping loft. For now we'll use a composting toilet (most likely a homemade system) as there won’t be a septic field for a while (the cost of the septic field alone was estimated at around 30k-35k!!!).

The Cabin will be built 'on site', but will be designed as a number of modules, so that the cabin can be esily moved to a different spot, when we decide to build a more permanent structure. Once moved it will be either used as a guest cabin, or as a workshop.

There are still some TBD's on the design:

We are still shopping for windows and doors - The original budget for windows was 7k, and has now been reduced to 3,500 -. The idea is still to have as much glass as possible in the south side to take advantage of the views, and a large opening that connects the cabin to the deck.

The finish material for the roof is also not decided yet: roll roofing will be economical and easy to install, but a metal roof would be more aligned with the 'modular design'.

I guess that I'll have to make a decision soon as I'll have to start buying all the materials soon!

On the 'start buying things' side of things we bought a 1988 Jeep Cherokee that we'll use in the city to purchase all the materials and will later be barged to the island...