When we moved here in 2014 there was a dilapidated 26 foot camper at the back of our property. We always thought it was a nice spot for a little cabin. We contacted Schrocks Portable Buildings in Wildersville, TN about building us a cabin shell.
Our property is heavily wooded, so I asked if Joseph Schrock, the owner, would come out and look over our place to tell me if he thought it was possible to get a building back here. Joseph said it was doable and told me which trees needed to be felled. About 16 trees had to be cut down. Some of them were too close to the cabin and others were too close to the driveway leading back to the building site. Felling and processing all those trees seemed like a tall order for me to do by myself given our time window to get the cabin shell here. After several tree service estimates, we ended up hiring Tree Amigos to come in and fell the trees and chip all the tops for mulch. They left quite a lot for firewood, and many larger diameter logs for us to mill into lumber.
The cabin floor rests on four 4 x 6 inch treated runners that span the length of the building. I needed to build concrete pads every 8 feet aligning with the 4 runners to support the weight of the building.
After a previous visit by Joseph’s boys to check that the site prep looked good, the day finally came to deliver the cabin.
There are several things that make this a ‘cabin shell’ verses a shed build that we see commonly sold around here. All of the framing is 16 inches on center for the floor, walls and roof. The floor joists are all pressure treated 2 x 6. The flooring is 3/4 inch Advantech, just like you’d find in a house. All the doors and windows are framed out like a house, with headers, king studs and jack studs. The wall height is 95 inches, unlike shed walls which are typically shorter. The gable ends are framed for nailing in our wall and ceiling covering. The roof ridge and soffits are vented to allow airflow in-between which keeps moisture problems to a minimum and allows the roof to ‘breathe’.
We have plans on our computer for the layout of the interior, which is how we knew window size and placement for Schrocks. Now the process begins for framing the interior walls, running water lines, electrical, insulation, etc. We already purchased another Morso 1410 wood stove to put in because we are so pleased with our first one. Since this is an off grid home, we have a solar system with quite a lot of battery storage ready to install as soon as possible, which will also be used to power all the tools and lighting needed to make this cabin ready to live in.