One Year Living in My 10x20 Off-Grid Cabin | Frugal Off Grid

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I notice a lot of content creators will deep clean or something like that before they show a lived-in space. And I think the reality of it is that sometimes people make pizza and don't clean it up immediately. Or they might have some flies and put fly paper on their water filter. Or maybe they haltered the horse and needed to hang up the halter. One of my very most viewed videos is of my it says uh could you live in a 10x20 cabin? And that was shortly after I built this cabin and it it did really well and I've been in here for just over a year now. So, we're going to update that video. There's kitties out there playing. Hey, buddy. Hi, honey. Stay there, buddy. All right. So, if you watched my last Saturday video, these are kind of documentary style videos I've been doing. Just a little slower, a little more ambient noise, you know, farm noise and sounds, a little less talking and a little longer. But, you might know, I I injured my back pretty good not too long ago, moving railroad ties again. So, I think I'm going to go ahead and stop moving railroad ties and I'll hire help and when I can get help, they'll get moved and when I can't, they won't. And I'll let my back fully recover now. Thankfully, I can move a little bit better now. It was pretty bad. And I'm grateful I can move around. And sitting here inside the cabin the

last few days recovering made me think, you know, I've been in here for just over a year now and that video did well and I've had so many questions about the cabin and now I can tell you guys exactly what I got right and what I got wrong. And that's part of why I wanted to show you the cabin lived in because one of the number one things that could be improved upon is well I have a window upstairs and downstairs that um well you could climb out of in an emergency. And I never did put I never did put weather stripping around them. And those are the main cause that there's quite a bit of dust that gets in here. And so I have to dust often. And I've always known that, you know, down the road I'll seal those off. And in fact, there's a few little gaps that need caulked. And so that's one of the I guess one of the things I did wrong or that I just never completely got around to. And that's I guess that's something that happens often is there are little things that you notice that you just don't get around to for quite some time. And uh like the foam, the foam in the corners, that foam served a really strong purpose. Uh I didn't clean it up yet. I've always planned to eventually just pull everything out of here, deep clean, scrape all the corners so the excess is scraped out. Then I can

spray the interior with boiled linseed oil to help treat the wood on the inside and and it'll look great and then I can move on from that. But it just hasn't been a priority. And so that's something else that I'll do. I've got a I've got a big old box of caulk on the way. Uh so I'll be able to to caulk any little gaps here and there and then I'll I'll order some weather stripping for those two windows. Something I feel like I definitely did right was to build the entire cabin myself. I designed the cabin. I hired an engineer to make sure that it would pass code and all that. But I saved a lot of money by using second grade lumber. You know when you go to Home Depot and there's the stack of messed up, crooked lumber? That's second grade. And I built the entire cabin out of that kind of wood and that saved me money. Building my own windows saved me a lot of money. I just had them cut windows. But something I did wrong was I I had never done it and I made them just a little too tight. And so, uh, three of my windows, I think, cracked under pressure eventually, and they're fine, but it doesn't look as cool as if they weren't broken. Okay, [clears throat and cough] we're going to go feed the animals. And I figured I'd tell you guys, I have so many questions to answer. I've had so many

questions over this last year. So, I've got a lot of questions I'll answer throughout the video. Stay. Okay. Come here. That'll pump water over to the horses. I have five new baby chickens in here. By by making a bunch of different little piles, I keep the bigger hens from stealing all the chicken food. I still have to feed the horses. But one of the main questions I get is why is the building the height that it is? And that's cuz that's what that was allowed by the county for where I have it on my land. I started with 20 footers there below the frost line. And [sighs] if I went, you know, if I went any taller with the deck or any higher with the cabin, then it would have been too tall. But I previously made it tall enough that I can stand up in the cabin and put my clothes on in the morning comfortably, and I don't need to do anything in the bedroom much other than sleep. Sometimes Sage asks me why I never why I didn't build an Earth home. And that's mostly because well, I wanted eventually to get an occupancy permit for the cabin so I don't have any trouble down the road. And I could have built an Earth home, but it would have been more complex. It would have been a lot more money, a lot more work. And you, you know, sometimes, especially with a frugal homestead, you work within your means. And so that

meant buying second grade lumber, you know, uh, building something. This was pretty well the cheapest, most efficient way I could think of to build myself a home that would pass code and get an occupancy permit. Huh, buddy? Ginger Snap likes to have her own little pile. Here you go, Snappy. She'll get to it. So, the cabin is pretty well built out of posts, beams, and 2 by8s. Um, the posts and the beams I couldn't get second grade. I had to just buy all new. So, that wasn't cheap. But, uh, [sighs] all of the 2 by8s, 100% of the 2x8s were second grade, so they got more bends and cracks and stains and things on them. But that didn't really matter to me that much. There's funny parts on the deck that, you know, if you if you build a deck, you want it to be nice and clean and throw perfect boards down. Well, I didn't have perfect boards. I had real crooked ones. So, there's there's spots where the Here, I'll show you where it don't look perfect, but I don't it doesn't bother me at all. You see how I cut this piece thin to fit in between? And the same it goes all the way down. It's like only 2 in wide down there. But what I was more concerned with was that the rafters and whatnot. So I used my straightest pieces where they really needed to be straight and then any crooked stuff it didn't matter. I've lived out here

6 years and I was in about 5 years before I built the cabin. So I saw where the water was and where the sun rised, you know, where the sun rose and set and which ways the wind blew usually. And I always wanted to build right there because it floods the least right there. It floods heavy over here, but with the swells and everything dug out deeper eventually, I should be able to redirect 100% of the water. Never, that area never floods. Uh, and it's about 9 in above grade. Um, there shouldn't be any issues with that. The way that the sun rises, you see, is the sun rises over here. So, sun hits that window a little bit and then be by the time it gets hot, there's no windows on that side except for one in the bedroom. So, it just stays nice and shady and cool in there all day long. You know, I thought about all that stuff. Um, for most of the day, the sun is on this side of the cabin, and that's where the solar panels are. My initial uh intention was to do batten board and batten and I just didn't get there. It was a lot of work and a lot of money to get, you know, that wood and complicated to rip it all down and I just didn't get there because, well, just like a lot of things, it's it's fine the way it is for now. A large part of the underneath is

kind of blocked in, you know, and you could, you know, I could easily just build this up with dirt or whatnot, but something beneficial is the cats when it's real cold, they can retreat underneath the cabin, and there's a there's a full pallet of concrete for a slab underneath the fireplace and that entire block warms up during the summer I or during the winter. I'm burning a fire almost constantly and so it's just nice and warm and toasty underneath the cabin for the cats and clearly you would be able to deduce that there wouldn't be any mice or rattlesnakes under there. Everywhere that there's a footer, a footing, [snorts] it the beam goes all the way up to that first roof there. And on the inside, it goes all the way to the top of the inner roof. So, where there's a footing, that post goes all the way up to the top. While I haven't sprayed the inside with boiled linseed yet, every six months I've come around out here and put used motor oil mixed with diesel and just sprayed the whole thing and that seems to be holding up nicely. The hinges I just I bought metal from a scrapard and then I used the forge over there to just bend the pieces so that they would fit around Jbolts like you hang gates on. And that's how I did the the hinges for these big heavy doors. And these doors are just the cabin wall, the way that it was built,

and then just cut out. And you can see the reflectix. So there's siding, then there's reflectix, then there's rain barrier, and then there's the 2x8 paneling on the inside. A lot of people assume because they see raw wood on the outside and inside that it's not insulated. And while it's only reflectix, [clears throat] it is insulated and it's perfectly comfortable. And I'm going to make a long video about that. I think the next video will cover the the insulation alone. So this is rain barrier and then on top of that is the reflectix insulation and then on top of that is metal roofing and that's how the roof is done. So you see this is the roof itself. There's gaps in it and that's just fine. I guess one last thing I should mention is the the 4 foot deck. This wraparound deck, it just makes it, you know, [snorts] feel like a lot more space. I've got a dryer back here and I've got an air conditioning unit back here and the chest freezer back here. Just gives you somewhere to walk around and sit in the shade or in the sun if you want. When I first moved out here, I had the shop and a camper van and I made a carport and parked under the shade. And it made it about 10 degrees cooler. And that's the biggest reason why I have the wraparound deck is because I know how much weather proofing that adds. You know, having a large shaded

area on the cabin reduces the temperature and then and the need for the air conditioning or for the heat to keep up. So, it does get dusty in here and I do usually have several dogs in here. So, it it gets it can get dirty fast. But one of the benefits to having such a small cabin is that you can clean it really fast, too. And I clean it every day. [snorts] You can see the posts and the beams. So, the cabin itself is only 10x 20, but you can see those posts that come up the walls to the ceiling. Those are the same posts that go all the way into the cement that's underneath the cabin. And then there's beams that run across those. So the posts are 4x6 and the beams are 4x8. And that's per the engineer to make sure that everything holds the right amount of weight. You can see the beam at the top there and the beam in the middle. And then all the rafters are attached to that top beam. So the middle you can see the HVAC unit attached to a beam and then you can see how I ran rafters across to the beam and or joist I guess you'd call them at that level and and that's how I did the floor for the upper loft on both sides of the cabin. [snorts] So, this would be the living room, I guess. I built this couch here out of the same material. So, the same

the same material I built the whole cabin out of is what this couch is made out of. And then I just ordered these uh cushions. And then I actually had to cut them down to fit cushion covers. And that's how I made my couch. Just it just would. And it slides out. Actually, if you want to slide, you can grab this piece and slide it out and move the cushions down. And then it's close to a queen-siz bed. And uh well that's handy for visitors or I've used it when I felt um well like you know if I feel sick or something or anything happens and I feel like I want to just stay down here I could. I have before. I have some really nice viewers. And a woman made this and sent it in. And another woman made the quilt on my bed upstairs and sent it in. And I I really value the blankets. It's funny, huh? But I've always said I had my grandma had a friend that made quilts and I saw how much work went into it. And I basically deduced that if somebody makes a quilt for you, they love you. Is I used to say that all the time is, yeah, if someone makes a quilt for you, they probably love you. And that might not be true, but they certainly put in a lot of time and effort. I have several dogs and what I do in the morning as you saw. Well, okay. So, first

of all, I've got a dog bed over here. Helga stays there and then Malas is massive and there's just there aren't many dog beds big enough for him, period. And then then they would be really expensive. And what I found are these gym mats. And so these were pretty cheap. I don't remember how much, but you see, I I clean, I sweep, and then I put at least the one down during the day, so they'll come in and they'll hang out and whatever. And then toward bedtime, I've got another one, another mat just like that. And so, a large part of the living room turns into dog bed, you know. Oops. And [clears throat] uh and then I just use these for now for my coffee table. [snorts] These are chairs. And I've got two I've got two of these tractor seat chairs over here. And then these two. So I could have four people sit at my table. And the table here folds up. So this area has become the dinner table, the office, and you know, I could move it up and it could be more of a gym area or any anything I need space for. And for quite some time, I've thought about throwing a dart board on the bottom, just for fun of it, you know. [snorts] In addition to eating dinner here, I run my small business here. And this is where I've done my lectures and whatnot. See? So, I do live Q&As's here. Right now, I'm doing

it about once a month. And this is where I wrote my book. And I do all the printing for my book right here. Instead of selling it through a large publisher, I just do small batch author printed versions. And so I I got good heavyweight paper for the cover and then nice quality interior page paper and I just designed it so it would print nicely just like a normal book. And then I print them myself. If you're interested in off-grid living, you can pick up the frugal off-grid path between now and June 20th. And that'll give you the book. It'll give you my other books. Uh it'll give you my entire workshop series. It's about eight hours of video if you want it. And then it'll also give you a recorded version of my new workshop in addition to access to the live Q&A on June 20th. And that way I can help you walk through your specific situation together. I've always enjoyed reading and I like music. So I've been collecting some records. That way there's always something to listen to. A large part of this collection was sent in by viewers, which is really cool. I haven't read them all yet, but I I have been reading. Annie Duke, which I didn't really like. [laughter] It wasn't really my style, but I'm sure I picked up a thing or two from it. Oh, I read uh Tony Robbins Awake the Giant Within. I read The Psychology of Money by Morgan Hel. I read

Oh, where is it? I read Oh, there it is. The Almanac of Naval Ravakant. That's a good one. And I read The Effortless Business by Graham Cochran. Of course, I read my own book. This is really a really good book, guys. more more than just off-grid living. You know, I grew up in foster and proctor care and I was homeless and had struggles and it that book will help anybody uh straighten their life out, make a better run of it. And this is one I read this book a long time ago. It kind of applies to, you know, off-grid living in a oops in a in a wild situation like uh Fallout or something and I'll probably read it again. I mostly like non-fiction, but for a fiction book, it's a good one. All that being said, one of the things that I absolutely got right was to build a full-size set of stairs. A lot of people in tiny homes or small cabins and whatnot, they make small sets of stairs. And you know, uh, one of the number one complaints about my place is that it has stairs. I couldn't live there. It has stairs. Well, you don't have to live here. I like it. I imagine that I'll be able to walk up and downstairs till I'm 75 probably. And if I can't, there's storage up there. And I could also build an entirely other cabin down the road that's a Rambler. But this worked for me now. And the dogs can

go up and down it easily. I can go up and down it easily. And uh you know, I can always sleep down here if I have to, but having the full size set of stairs is nice. And then I just used some of the posts that were left over, the shorter ones that I cut. I used those for the rail. And then I took I went to the scrapard and got little scraps of metal and then some tubing and and made a handrail for it as well. Talked about the masonry heater a little bit earlier. This was another big project. Honest to God, it cost about half of what the cabin cost. By the way, the cabin cost me 13,000 roughly. And this, you know, this was about $7,000, I think. Uh there's quite a bit of brick there. The, you know, this front door was probably, I think that was about $400. And I think that door was about the same. And, you know, all the different pieces of cast iron and the chimney pipe and everything. It wasn't cheap, but Oh, and then that's an entire pallet of concrete for the footing. So that goes all the way down to the ground level and that way it can support, you know, an entire pallet of brick on top of it. And what I got wrong with this is, you know, I didn't fully understand the value of the refractory cement versus the other cement. And while the firebox inside is completely refractory cement,

there's a few areas that, you know, like around the edge of this door cracked a little bit and a couple places on the top cracked. And what I need to do is just go back in and put in more fire brick on the roof with refractory cement. And then from the top down, pour in more refractory cement. And same around the edge. That'll seal all that off. And and then the upstairs there's an elbow that goes out. And you know the main thing I've never had a fireplace and I bought wood and apparently it wasn't really thoroughly dried. So it was caking up this chimney every 30 days. And I think the main thing is is I have to just get better dried wood first of all. But second of all, I think I need to make this chimney easier to clean. And so I'm going to make some kind of an entry point that's easier to get to right here. so I can clean up and down. And I'll probably make another access from outside and then that way if I do need to clean that elbow, it'll be a lot easier. But otherwise, I ran this thing all winter long and it's pretty phenomenal how well it works. Also, this firebox or I'm sorry, this oven, it doesn't get extremely hot and it's perfect for slow cooking or baking. And I mean, you can get it to be hotter, but then you got to keep the whole cabin really hot. And so, just

something I learned along the way. Now, if you wanted this oven to be a lot hotter, all you'd have to do is leave an opening to the chimney and all that smoke would actually just go straight out the chimney, but because of the access to the heat, it would heat up a lot quicker. That's something I learned. And but I do love it. I made Thanksgiving dinner in here. I just cooked the turkey overnight in it. Perfect. Um, you can throw pie in here, right? And go out and do chores and stuff and forget about it for a couple hours and it's not going to burn. And so it's pretty great for me. And then I've learned also to just cook. I bake on top of a propane all the time in in uh pans and whatnot. Something you might notice about the layout is by having a loft and then a little loft over the door here, there's this massive open area and it's, you know, 14 ft to the top of the roof there. And you know, most of the time is spent here in a nice open area, big windows. It gives this little tiny place the feeling of being pretty large. And I've never once felt like I was jammed into a space. In fact, I spend most of my time out on the homestead. And after 6 years roughly living in the RV, being able to stand upright is pretty phenomenal. Anyway, it doesn't have to be perfect, But after

living in the camper van for so long, it's been it's been pretty great to have a place where I can stand upright and stretch and I can actually cook. I've got a little fridge in here. I bake. I have a little uh metal box that can go on the propane side here if I want to use it as an oven. I've gotten creative and use I use deep skillets all the time. I'll bake pizza in a skillet. But I'll just put a lid on it and uh you know and then I've got the oven here for the winter time. I just have a really simple little gray water system. So it's just there's just clean water underneath the sink and I just use a hand pump faucet pump water up. The water goes drains into this little bucket here and then I can drain that bucket into a gray water area. And as far as grease goes, I just use paper towels to clean grease up and they just go into the dump and get they get hauled off to the dump. So there's not a black water issue or anything like that. I don't have a standard septic system. I have a pel privy composting system which has been inspected and approved by the health department. And so uh it's pretty simple system really. So, if you tune in my video this coming Wednesday, that would that should be about the insulation of the cabin. And then the following Saturday, by then, maybe I'll

have another load of 2x8s so I can continue extending the fence out around the perimeter. And maybe by then I'll be putting that gasket into the farm truck.