Today is November 20th. I
have exactly one month – a self-imposed deadline, really – to
finish the cabin. I started building the cabin from scratch on
December 21st, 2018, and on that day, I told myself this
will be a three-year project.
The four walls, the roof, the doors,
and the windows are all in place. The cabin is one big room, like a
studio, divided into four parts: an office on my right and a kitchen
on my left as I walk in the main door, and a bedroom and a bathroom,
respectively on the right and left, in the back.
The bedroom is done. The bathroom is almost completed. The kitchen cabinets and my bookshelves are all just planks of wood sitting on blocks. I've built myself a desk. The only piece of furniture I have bought for this cabin is a desk chair, and I just got that today because its price was finally lowered, probably for black Friday, and my back desperately needed something more comfortable than the blocks I was sitting on.
I still have a lot to do, mostly little tasks, but I'm also making a sunroom in front of the cabin, and that's a rather big project. The floor is done. I still have to make the walls and the roof for it. I'm doing my best, and I still hope I can make it by the end of fall... if the weather allows it.
I love that I can say I've built this by myself. Of course, I've hired people to help with the tasks I didn't feel safe doing myself – like the wiring and the roof – but, still, I designed everything myself, and I've been living in it since February of this year so that I could work on little things around the house without having to leave the dogs alone. During the last three years, I've learned a great deal about construction work and developed muscles I didn't know I had. It's been an interesting journey.