WE BUILT TWO CABINS...FOR $100 EACH

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After loading the truck each morning we'd deliver our cargo to the sawmill, spend three or four hours helping around the place, and leave at the end of the day with a truckload of fresh-cut lumber and slab (bark-covered boards).

We built our cabins' frames out of logs four to seven inches in diameter which were peeled and then notched together. For siding, we [A] nailed milled boards to the frame with three- to five-inch spaces between the planks, then [B] nailed down slabs over the gaps. This gave each building a distinctive and rustic appearance. For variety, we ran barkcovered slabs horizontally on one lodge and peeled slabs vertically on the other.

All told, we spent less than $20 (and most of that for gasoline) to obtain the 3,500 board feet of lumber used in our two homes. What really paid for the wood, of course, was our labor: four days spent hauling logs to the sawmill, and another two weeks of afternoons in labor at the mill.

Our only other cash expenses in building the two dwellings were for [1] nails, [2] all-weather roofing materials, and [3] tongue-and-groove flooring. Total money cost for both cabins: under $200.

You might say we've been able to fabricate our own homes in the country for less than a month's rent used to cost us in town. And we figure that ain't a bad deal at all!

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