How Did We End Up Living In A Storage Building?
When I think of a storage building, the first thing that comes to my mind is a place to store tools for yard work. In my experience, they are not warm and fuzzy places to spend time in! They are usually dusty or dirty, smelly and a magnet for insects and spider webs.
One of the first decisions we made after buying our land was to build a storage building. The land was raw and basically a blank canvas. We worked hard cutting trees and clearing land for a home site. My husband bought “cull lumber” for a ridiculously cheap price at Lowe’s. With help from family, storage building sections were assembled offsite. It could then be assembled on our land at the appropriate time. It would be a very simple A-frame design with open rafters and nothing fancy.
We brought the storage building pieces to the property to eventually be assembled over the course of several months. It was just what we needed to store all my husband’s tools. As we made weekend trips back and forth, it was a tremendous help and time saver to have everything we needed right at our fingertips. The closest hotel to us was 45 minutes away and about $115 a night. We would spend our days working on the land and then head back at night to stay in the hotel. However, this was just too costly but also an inefficient use of our time.
Our Perfect Solution
It was at this point that the light bulb came on and we had the perfect solution. My husband could tweak the building just enough to allow us to actually stay in it on weekends. After all, how hard could it be to spend just a couple of nights here? We looked at this new adventure as kicked-up camping!
As you can imagine, our tweaking turned into some pretty big hurdles to get over! The biggest offender was the fact that this tiny 12 x 12 had no indoor plumbing or electricity! The other obstacle we had to resolve was where would we sleep. Our most pressing issue was a bathroom! There are lots of great camping devices out there to get you by in a pinch. We knew we needed something a little more long-term for the many weekends we would be here working.
Problems Solved
I love being married to my Ambitious Feller for his unbelievable skill and ability to solve problems. His ingenious designs got us running water in the building, off-grid electricity and an elevated sleeping bunk. For a bathroom, there was really only one solution, an outhouse! Actually, it was more like an outdoor potty. We didn’t build a structure around it. I didn’t like the idea of a snake, other animals or insects getting trapped inside with me! Because we are remote, we felt comfortable with it being open in the landscape. I have never been without indoor plumbing, so for me, this was a very strange experience and took some getting used to. Honestly, it certainly has its advantages and disadvantages, but the view of the adjacent mountain cannot be beat!
There was no stopping us spending the weekend in our building. These simple additions made all the difference in the world. Each trip we improved things just a bit more to add that extra layer of comfort. I really loved not having to rent that hotel room anymore!
We Call It Home
How does a storage building become home? From the beginning, there was never a thought or an intention to live in our storage building. Had we considered that, we would have made it a little larger! This is a very rural area and our search for a home to rent was futile. There just was nothing available that we would have been comfortable living in while we built our home. It just made sense to work with what we already had, our little storage building! We felt confident after spending many weekends here, we could actually pull this off and live here. To help prevent cabin fever, we installed double doors and a front porch. We have a beautiful view of the mountains and this allowed us to take full advantage of that.
We have learned that home for us is being together somewhere we truly want to live. Our love for this rural area, the beautiful landscape and this more gentle way of life puts the minor inconveniences and sacrifices in to perspective. Our little building, which we now call our “cabin”, is still a work in progress. Once the weather warms, painting and a few other details will complete the cabin.
We are living proof that, YES, you actually can live in a storage building and call it home!
Now, do you think you could live in a storage building? Let me know your thoughts!
All the best!
~Lover Darlin’~
