David Lottes is the builder behind one of the cooler, more character-driven tiny log cabins, or tiny houses I've seen for awhile, and for those of you who haven't seen his lil' creation, nor checked out his blog, I invited him to give you a guest blog overview. His log cabin is also featured (alongside 40+ other cabins) in the color photo insert section of the new version of my book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks". AND....#13, in our "Sixty Shack Sketches In Sixty Days" pen-spree is below as well. Man, this ain't easy! FORTY SEVEN more new sketches to go! Yikes! Anyway, I'll leave things to David....
The House of Fallen Timbers blog started out as an online journal of my attempt to build a small log cabin from fallen trees and found materials for as little money as possible. Intended to be a sort of brag book to share with family and friends who were not able to visit the cabin and see the work I had done it eventually became much more.
I live on about four acres of wooded land that had not been maintained for many decades. Very little effort had been made to manage the forest. Long dead trees were scattered around the property. It was dangerous to walk in parts of the woods and the dead trees were damaging the live ones.
At first the goal was to clean up the woods and make it safer. After a quick survey it became clear that I had a huge job ahead of me.
We do have a fire pit we use for the occasional cookout but there was no way we would burn anywhere near this amount of wood before it turned to mud. I have always been interested in frontier and pioneer life so without a clue of what I was getting myself into I decided to try building a cabin.
I honestly didn’t believe I would end up with anything but a woodpile in the end so I didn’t want to spend much money on it. I scavenged most of the materials I couldn’t make myself. In the end I spent roughly $200.00 mostly on foam insulation, gas and blades for my eight year old chainsaw.
I spent hours online looking for instructions about everything from how to drop a leaning tree to notching a log. I found hundreds of terrific examples, tutorials, and forums from all over the world. As my bookmarks grew I began to wish I had a single link to all the information. This was the beginning of the blog.
Soon I was linked into a community of like minded enthusiasts with a wide range of interests. Folks into forest management, simple living, log construction, quiet spaces, re-purposing, junkers, sheddies, tiny housers, and even manly skills enthusiasts began to network with me online. The blog has now been featured on several other blogs and the cabin was awarded third place in the United Kingdom’s - Shed Blog - International Shed of the Year competition!
Most recently Deek honored me with the inclusion of my cabin in his soon to be published “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts: And Whatever the Heck Else We Could Squeeze in Here – New Triple-Caffeinated Expanded Edition!” Thanks Deek!
I hope you enjoy the blog. Please understand that it is not meant to be a how-to kind of thing. I’m very lucky I didn’t hurt myself considering how clueless I was when I started. Mostly I hope it inspires you and helps you locate resources to accomplish whatever you need doing. Have fun and be safe! – David A. Lottes (AKA – Fallen Timbers)
http://houseoffallentimbers.blogspot.com/2010/05/welcome-to-house-of-fallen-timbers.html
-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen
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| A freehand sketch of an idea for a free form ferrocement tiny dome house, or a cob/earth-bag small home/dwelling- by Derek "Deek" Diedricksen |
