Bon Appetit!

our building site in 2012

This summer wasn't to start in the manner it did, but a simple thought of mine turned into a major project for my husband, Bucky. More often than not, my "thoughts" are poo pooed as being impossible. Imagine my great surprise when the thought I'm about to detail, was accepted. Bucky is a man who thrives on staying busy. His hands are rarely idle. He has a large building project ahead of him this summer which I'll be sure to document, but at present had nothing to do. I assume it was for this reason that he accepted my idea.

The summer of 2012 was a summer of construction. We milled the timbers for our cabin from trees harvested on our land, used a few logs from neighbors and we were able to have our base cabin completed by summer's end.

We were ecstatic with what we had accomplished within a short period of time. My only unhappiness was the location of the kitchen. Due to the spacing of certain timbers, the position of the door and the placement of the ladder to access the loft, the kitchen could not be located on the front wall as planned, but took shape on the rear wall.

In 2013, Bucky added a small workshop and pantry/storage room off the main cabin.

In 2017, he created a rain catch water system and plumbed the sink for "running" water. He also constructed an awesome outdoor shower.

                                                                                           the 2013 addition

workshop in the front

pantry/storage in the rear

Fast forward to our arrival this summer at the end of June. As I sat in our kitchen/living room, I once again bemoaned the fact that we had no table to eat at and really nowhere to locate a couch for comfy seating. Much of our entertaining has our guests eating off their laps while seated on log stumps or folding chairs. These are wonderful seating options if one doesn't want company to linger long! Suddenly, I had a thought! Why not move the kitchen into the storage room!! We had previously discussed making this space into a downstairs bedroom, but its failure to be large enough to accommodate a queen size bed put an end to that. We had also talked about expanding the main cabin, but I was resistant to changing the original cabin in any way. It had been a labor of love and each timber told a tale. I mentioned my present thought to Bucky.........he bit and so our summer began.

first a window was added, note the outdoor shower

the additional natural light was an unforeseen bonus

                                                          the old kitchen cupboards and sink were dismantled

and reassembled in the new space

The chest freezer has been moved to the little cabin making room for the refrigerator to the left of the sink. Bucky has rerouted his plumbing and has moved our propane generated hot water heater to a position on the exterior wall nearer to the sink. We were able to purchase a used gas stove so we'll replace our apartment sized electric range with a full size gas range. Bucky is presently working on the gas hook up. All in all, it's a small kitchen, but feels good to those who have used it. The benefit is, now our folding chairs will be used by the fire pit and our guests will eventually have "real" furniture to sit on. Perhaps we've created a situation in which folks feel free to linger! I sure hope so!

It's finished. Bucky made a small but useful butcher block to the left of the stove to fill some empty counter space.