History Channel’s Alone series season 4, contestants of the husband and wife team, Dave Whipple, builds a simple tiny little off grid cabin in the woods out of commercial lumber. It’s a great little cabin, built simply with just the bare essentials. Nothing fancy, except maybe the tongue-and-groove wall paneling, and a nice little front porch that runs the length of the entire cabin. You could just sit out there and enjoy nature and the peace and quiet anytime you wanted.
It’s a great little cabin build from start to finish. Dave is a good carpenter and you can tell he’s been doing this work a while just by the way he’s putting it together, you can tell he’s done this stuff before.
Watch the video here:
I like the video of the build and the detail showing how simple the whole process was to built it. If you have a team of maybe 2-3 people you could build something like this in a single day fairly easily. Dave has a little trouble with the front wall, a bit too heavy to raise by himself, but he improvises and cuts our the window areas and that lessens the weight for the wall so he can raise it into place with a little strain, but he got it done.
He was not happy with himself for that little blunder because he was on a remote piece of property, with a chance of heavier snow coming in, and there was only one way in and out. If he had slipped or that wall had fallen on him while he was trying to raise it, it could have injured him, broke a leg, or crushed a rib or some other injury and it would immediately have become a survival scenario to get out from under the wall, and then to safety. I’m happy Dave was able to get it done safely.
He said himself it wasn’t a wise thing to do to try to lift it himself like that. Lessen learned.
The ease of which he built the cabin is inspiring. It’s a simple process. Starting with picking a location on the property for the cabin, clearing out some timber and branches of surrounding trees to open up the view, laying out the basic outline of the cabin foundation, on 6×6 pillars set deep into the hard packed earth (about 3-4 feet).
Then layout out and nailing in the outer frame, floor joists, supports, underlayment plywood to keep the birds and squirrels out of the bottom of the cabin and from them stealing insulation for their nests.
The the floor insulation, treated plywood floor, which appeared to be tongue and groove, I’m not sure about. that one. Then he added the back wall, which was much easier as it was shorter and much less lumber meaning it was easier to build and raise into place without much effort.
Once the front deck was built, posts installed, and deck boards laid, which took almost no time at all, the rest was pretty much fit and finish.
He made the rafters, installed them, insulated the roof, closed it in with tongue an groove on the inside, and added some white paneling on the inside end walls.
He installed a small wood stove and a chimney which went in fairly easily, a rug, and cleaned off the front porch. An added touch was a string of LED lights power but a portable battery pack that just gave the cabin some great ambience and an aesthetic that was really nice, and on the cheap.
He used power tools, circular saws, hand saw, chain saw, hammer and your basic carpentry tools. Tools that everyone should have in their toolbox for maintaining a cabin.
All in all it was a simple build and it shows that if you have the knowledge, the skill will come over time, and it becomes easier as you go along. This is an easy cabin build and why I’m posting it here. People want inexpensive little cabins and this shows what can be done on a limited budget. I wasn’t able to find out the cost of build materials (yet) but I’m guessing $10k-$15k.
I know places I can get the lumber and materials for quite a bit cheaper, and could save even more money if you find some scraps…or better yet, build your own lumbermill and cut your own boards and planks. It’s how the old timers did it.
This to me is the perfect simple little cabin to escape the rat race for a little while and relax in the woods, read a book, and take a break from all the work stuff, get back to nature.
The best part is he makes it look so simple, because honestly, it is a simple cabin. Anyone can build something like this in the spare time on weekends within a few weeks or months. And if you and a few of your friends do it, you can make it a weekend cabin build camping party.
A few days of work with a few of your friends and now you have a nice little survival cabin or weekend getaway cabin.
Or if you’re the entrepreneurial type, you could build one of these on a small property and rent it out on AirBNB for a hefty little profit annually that could easily cover the cost of the parcel of land, permits and the cabin. It might take some time to recoup your initial land purchase and building material investment, but I think with the right marketing and a nice cabin, one could turn it into a very nice business that pays for itself in a few years.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: If it’s remote enough you can build a simple “safe-house” bug-out cabin at this location for use in a SHTF survival scenario. It’s likely inexpensive to build and land prices on remote property are still relatively low. I wrote an article on buying off grid land and why I think there’s about to be a run on vacant remote land, and why I think off gridders and homesteaders should seriously considering buying remote off grid land now while prices are still semi-reasonable. The real estate market may crash, but with how things have been going, I’m not sure it’s the bubble that most people think it is. If anything, inflation will cause the collapse, not the real estate market itself. But don’t take my advice on it, I’, no expert, just giving my opinion of how the market will react to the increased demand when more and more people start moving off grid.
I really like this build because it shows what you can do, how building a cabin doesn’t have to be this big complex job you think it is. Anyone can cam something like this with the proper tools, materials and determination to get it done. Just duplicate his techniques and modify them for your own cabin to make it yours and unique to your off grid dreams.
This is a great little off grid cabin build and I wanted to share it with you guys to maybe help inspire you to build your own cabin in the woods.
This is the off grid way.
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Subscribe to Dave’s YouTube channel here: BushRadical
All images/screenshots credit to Dave’s video above.