Adventures in Building a Log Cabin

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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
This log cabin was built for $100.

How to move two families from city apartments to country cabins for less than a month’s rent.

Not long ago, “home” to us was an apartment overlooking one of Toronto’s busiest thruways. It’s hard for us to believe now, but we actually paid $200 per month to live there, listen to the constant roar of cars and trucks, and breathe their noxious exhaust fumes!

Today our families live on 20 wooded acres near a river in Nova Scotia. Our dwellings-a couple of 1-1/2-story cabins that we went 50-50 on–cost us less than $100 each to build. We have everything in the way of conveniences we want … and as far as we’re concerned, the cabins are more aesthetic than any apartment building could ever be.

How did we manage to build our homes for so little out-of-pocket money? There’s no “trick” involved. All we did was harvest our construction materials directly from nature and perform 100% of the work ourselves.

Before we built our lodges, we carefully surveyed our future homestead. And we came to the conclusion that most–if not all–of our lumber needs would be met if we could [1] utilize numerous blowdowns (trees that’d been laid on their sides by strong winds), and [2] thin some of the timber on the thickly wooded land. We probably wouldn’t have to cut any really “good” trees at all!

  • Published on Sep 1, 1976
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