Rustic living requires unconventional vision and preparation

This is the next installment in a semiregular series of yarns about living off the grid, even if for just a weekend.

In my nightmare, I walk into someone’s dream home and see acres of drywall.

Yeah, the stuff reduces fire risk and produces what some people describe as a “clean” wall. It’s what homeowners have come to know, which is what they tend to replicate.

Personally, I like my walls a little on the trashy side. Give me knotholes and wood grain. The bigger the imperfection in the wood, the more I want it on my walls.

The cabin or man cave or tree house is the perfect place to get reacquainted with the common board. The best venue to acquire said material is to visit my friend Craig, who has a rather handy list.

Getting started

The beauty of creating your own space is that you get to imagine and design on the fly.

Sometimes you don’t even know the building material you want until you stumble on someone trying to sell it.

I was dead set on putting slate tile in my cabin’s kitchen until I found a local contractor who was selling 60 polished-granite tiles that were leftovers from four different jobs. How many tiles did I need? Yeah, karma.

The searching can also take on a life of itself. I often consider buying full units of discounted lumber under the question: What can I build with that?

Then you wonder where you will store the wood. You consider the cost and how you would haul that much lumber in the first place. You tend to go back to your lunch and check the next post for 1-by-6 cedar, tongue-and-groove.

Also, don’t forget to check the “free” postings.

While the pickings are decidedly slim, sometimes folks don’t know what they have. Other times, posters think the 1-inch-wide limbs off their backyard maple tree are firewood.

Some posters will also offer to take labor for trade. I’ve seen wonderful cedar boards available to those willing to demolish a deck.

The searching is just part of the fun.

Focus the plan

While a pleasure, the search also lets you know what material is available and the cost. You can then determine how much you can afford. Your bank account or budget will set the parameters of how big a structure or shed or castle you will build.

When I designed the cabin addition, I first went shopping for windows. Big windows.

I needed to find the windows before I could design the walls. If not, you are then left hoping to find used windows, or leftovers from big job sites, that fit your plan. That significantly reduces your chance of finding the windows you need.

You also have to be willing to make mistakes. It’s the best way to learn.

I once purchased 55 10-foot 1-by-12s, thinking they would be perfect for interior walls. They would have covered a huge area per board, which makes the job go quicker.

However, the boards were cupped. I thought I could straighten them by stacking them correctly. Wrong. I eventually found a use for them, but only after I ripped them into 1-by-4s.

When making a mistake, try to remember a couple of axioms my contractor friend, Mark, imparted on me: “There is never a mistake too big that you can’t fix” and, “If it looks straight, it is.”

Once you focus in on the material you need, such as steel roofing, wait for a sale. If you want to build it, they will come.

Dealers feed their families, too, and nothing gets a do-it-yourselfer warmed up more than a materials sale.

Be ready to pounce

The key to keeping a project rolling is to have the materials you need before you move onto the next phase.

If you wait to find roofing until after you frame up your walls, then you will be forced to pay retail versus holding out for a sale.

In that vein, I knew I wanted to eventually put flooring on the exposed wooden floor on the upstairs of my cabin.

I then saw a posting for 150-square feet of finished-hardwood flooring for only $50. I responded immediately.

When I arrived, I learned that the guy thought hemlock was hardwood. But the flooring was in excellent condition. I gladly paid $50 for what became a beautiful floor that installed in one weekend.

It was the best $50 I spent on materials for the cabin.

Years ago, I also saw a post for a guy in Spokane Valley who had pallets of quarter-inch-thick cedar in 4-foot lengths. Intrigued, I inquired and picked through piles until I found 400 pieces that weren’t cracked or busted.

I ended up paying $90, or 25 cents per board. This stuff was amazing. I used it to panel the upstairs walls of my cabin. I used it as window trim. I used it to build my custom cedar cabinets in my cabin kitchen.

Had I known, I would have purchased pallets of the stuff.

Just go

Personally, the biggest hurdle of building anything was the fear of the unknown. I learned how to frame a wall in 10 minutes on the Internet.

The first wall I built took a day to complete. The last wall I built took 30 minutes.

The more you try, the more comfortable you become.

During construction, I go through the lumber and find pieces with huge knotholes or cool-looking wood grain. I hold those pieces out in a special place and make sure to install them where I can always see them.

The so-called “imperfections” in the wood will then remind you of the journey it took to get there.

Remember, what you build today can bring you joy for decades and even generations.

The cabin or man cave is the perfect place to make mistakes and learn skills that can then translate to higher-end home improvement.

Use those skills to find something that keeps you young before you grow too old to enjoy it.