Contractors in the middle of nowhere

One of the most frustrating things about this project has been the impossibility of finding contractors to work with us. We have had a couple of small projects done and everyone of them has been done wrong. We have looked for a grading contractor for over a year. last month I called 7 contractors and got one call back.

We did meet with the guy and it seems promising but we will have to wait and see if he will actually do the work for us. We are in a bind because we have ordered the units. We just don't have a place to put them!

Site Plan

After much much much playing around, this is our unit layout. We are going to join them with an open porch making a modified Dogtrot. This will provide much cross ventilation and light.

(Idea from the Cabin book!)

The bottom photos are examples of units with full wrap around porches. Nice Huh.

Cabin Inspirations

If you are thinking of building a cabin, this book is a must. The only way to describe it is as Cabin Porn. I was blown away by the stuff...and incredibly inspired.

I think I have dog eared every page in my copy...

Inside the Park Model

We opted to go with this company because they were the only ones to make 14' wide units. The standard is 12' wide. Now 2' may not sound like much, but it makes a big difference in feel.

Inside the trailer

Vintage Aluminum...

While we were trying to figure out what to put in the mountains, we decided to buy and rehab an 1972 AVION aluminium travel trailer for interim use. Way better than Airstream's! (Just teasing 'streamers)

I love it, but the hubby...not so much. In all honesty, the rehab turned out great, but we just need more room. I guess we are just not good campers. We are going to bring it down off the mountain to DC and sell it :-(.

Park Units

Park Units are small pre-fab units typically marketed to retirees in Fla and Ariz. They are not more than 400 SF. I don't know the exact reason why.. I have been told it is for tax purposes.
A few manufacturers are making them out of solid wood logs for the park and cabin market. We are going to start with two of them and trick them out for us......

Finally Underway..

We have some land in WV that we have been trying to build a summer house for 3 years. We finally have a solution and now need to find people to help us get the work done.

After 3 years we have accomplished: Not much. We have a fence and gate section and a shed. Ta Da!

I hope to monitor and track everything thru this blog and see how far we get. We are going with PreFab Park Model Log Cabin Units out if a small company in Indiana. We are customizing them for our needs and will go from there.