On Building a Cabin in the Woods

Twenty years ago my wife and I bought a place on a small lake near Dorset, Ontario. It had everything going against it, which is exactly what made it affordable: It was on a small lake. (People want big ones for water skiing.) It was water-access only. (People don't want a seasonal cabin; they want a road.) And it was an 18' diameter geodesic dome.

In the years since, we have added on behind the dome to get a little more space and eventually demolished the dome, which had rotted beyond repair then replaced it with new living space. Some of it I designed well I'm a lisenced architect by training); some I wish I could tear down and do over. In all of it, there were difficult choices to be made and alternatives to be considered, particularly when money is tight, labour expensive, and everything had to come over in a 14' aluminum boat.

A power line runs through the middle of the property, and these were installed in the days when the government-owned utility promoted the use of electricity, so I did not have to pay anything for a new electrical service; they even brought in a new pole by helicopter. Today, I would probably have to pay ten thousand dollars for the work they did for free, and I would probably invest it in solar and wind and stay off the grid. However, every other choice--from the windows to the toilets to the flooring--was made in the interest of having the lowest possible impact on the land, and the refusal to chop a single important tree or blast a single rock out of the way.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to write a series of post about the material and design decision I've made over the years. I hope you enjoy the tour!