On December 21st, 2018, I
went outside, took a shovel from the shed, and started digging. I
wanted to dig the perimeter of my future cabin, 20' x 20', then work my way through the middle. The hole
had to be 18 inches deep. The ground was so rocky that after two
whole hours of hard work, I'd barely made a dent in it. I
could barely fit my foot, or rather my boot, in the hole I'd created,
and it was only eight inches deep. I grabbed my phone, took a picture
of it, and went back inside to take a shower. As the hot water was
soothing my sore muscles, I decided to create a blog and document
every step of what seemed to be a long, and painful, process. I set
up the blog and wrote my first post. Then I proofread it. As I was
reading it a second time, I realized my words depicted the
disappointment I felt with the inadequate outcome of such hard work.
I didn't want the blog to convey a negative experience and I definitely didn't
want to feel discouraged by my own words, but I still wanted to
document the progress of the work, so I chose to include only
pictures showing the advancement. There was no other way for me to stay
completely objective and maintain a positive attitude at the same
time. https://newstudioproject.blogspot.com/
I hadn't shared my plan to build a new
cabin with anyone, except a neighbor who'd claimed he had done a lot
of construction work in the past. I'd asked him to come over and make
sure the space I'd chosen for the cabin was acceptable. It was the
only place in my half-acre land where I'd only have to cut down one
tree, and, in this case, the tree was sick and had to be cut anyway. I thought it would be a good spot, with minimum damage to the environment. He'd tried to discourage me, saying it was going to be hard work, it
wouldn't be something I could do, and the material was going to cost
a lot. I'd thanked him. Then I'd sat down and written the reasons it
had to be done, just to make sure I wanted to go through with it.
This is what I'd written that day:
Current Cabin: Current Problems
12/13/18
foundation
There is none. The cabin is sitting on
broken pieces of cinder blocks and rotten pieces of wood.
bathroom:
The shower is too small. I can't even
lift both my arms at the same time to wash my hair.
There is no sink. I have to use the
hand-held shower head to wash my hands and face and to brush my teeth.
kitchen:
There is not enough counter space. The
cabinets are a waste of space because they occupy the whole area
under the counter, and there are no shelves installed. I tried to put
shelves and little drawers to organize non perishable grocery
items in that space, but the cabinet doors are too narrow, and
nothing fits through them.
The kitchen sink is ridiculously small.
Anything I wash makes the water splash all over the counter. If the
counter were empty, it would be easy to wipe it. It is not, though.
My toaster oven, coffee maker, instant pot, range, and refrigerator
are on the counter. Wiping the whole counter every time I wash a
plate is super annoying and a definite waste of time.
other:
There are smaller issues, too. For
instance, most of the electric outlets are located in places that
can't be reached. No matter which way I put my bed, it
covers three of the four outlets in the room. Another example is the
toilet. Both the bowl and the tank have problems, so the toilet
needs to be replaced completely. These could be fixed, but
considering there are too many things to repair at a high cost and
fixing all the little things would end up costing a considerable
amount of money, it wouldn't make sense to spend any money on the
current cabin. It would be like the painting the walls of a place
that is about to fall down, a complete waste.
All of these combined with the fact
that I need a little more space for a desk and a comfortable chair
and the fact that I've always loved fireplaces convinced me that I
needed a new cabin, one that would be designed and built exactly the
way I want.
That's why about one week later, on December 21st,
2018, I went outside, took a shovel from the shed, and started
digging. It took me five months to dig and one month to clean up the hole and even the sides. Then I had to measure everything and
prepare the ground for the slabs I was about to build. Everything had
to be level. I also had to make forms for the slabs.
Once all the measuring was done and
everything was marked, I used gravel to level the ground in the areas
where it was not level. Then I started making the slabs one by one
when I could afford the concrete for each slab and when the
weather allowed me to work. I couldn't work when it rained or even when it
was too humid, and with all the rain that
comes down in this area and the high cost of concrete, making the
slabs took about six months.
Today marks one year since I made the
decision to build a new cabin. After my first day of digging, on
December 21st, 2018, I told myself I'm lucky if I finish
just digging the hole and making the slabs by this time next year.
I'm happy that I've managed to finish that part of the process within
my own time limit. It hasn't been easy, and I still have a very long
way to go, but I'm feeling proud that I've come this far and
motivated to continue.
The next steps are laying three rows of
blocks to elevate the cabin, getting the plumbing and electric work
ready, and pouring the concrete, and my deadline is March 19.
