In 2000 I bought this little fishing shack on Bear Creek near Rose Lodge, OR. Over the next year I gutted it down to the studs and rebuilt it. It had to be leveled and didn’t have a foundation. One corner was even built over a large stump. I had to dig it out and remove it to allow me to put a foundation under it. Luckily it was on the back where the land slopped down to the creek, so once I had it dug out I was able to roll it down the hill into the creek. I’ve always wondered where it ended up because the winter and springs rains washed it down steam.

After it was removed I was able to pour a footing and install a cinder block foundation. After all the rotted wood was removed I added 4 feet to the front,, installed a new subfloor, rearranged the interior walls to a new layout, and put in all new plumbing and electrical. The roof was supported by trusses, but I wanted to change the ceiling of the living room area into a vaulted ceiling. The McMinnville livestock auction was being torn down, so we stopped by on a weekend and salvaged some of the posts from the livestock pen area. I then cut out the bottom of the trusses in the living room used these posts to create an open beam ceiling. When I hired the sheet rockers I told them I wanted the beam lefts as is so the wrapped them in plastic and installed the sheet rock around them. They said it was very time consuming because every sheet of drywall had to be cut to fit between the beams. They did a great job. The posts still look like they did when they were in the auction yard, including manure and gate hinges.

I found a company in Scappoose selling maple flooring that was salvaged from school gymnasiums, so used that for the flooring. I bought maple cabinets for the kitchen from home Depot and had a granite countertop installed. Because the cabin is so small I found a used 24″ electric range for the kitchen, and we used the same porcelain sink in the bathroom that was there originally. I installed an electric furnace in the attic with the heat ducts in the ceiling. The cabin is only 650 sq. ft. so it only takes a couple minutes to bring the temperature up when we arrive.

I’ll update this more later but I wanted to get something on my new blog for now. Here is the cabin when it was all done, but before the front patio was installed.