Cabins: A Guide to Building Your Own Nature Retreat Paperback – March 3, 2001

There are a million books about cabins, and many take similar approaches. Here are some awesome cabins and the story behind them, enjoy.This book literally walks you through - in detail - how to build a cabin, offering exceptional hand-made diagrams and a surprisingly easy to read text.I cannot recommend this book enough. I'm no carpenter, but the book is absolutely perfect for someone who doesn't know how to get started on/finish a cabin, and also good for a person with skills who wants something better than searching forever online.Buy this book...you'll be glad you did.

If you are looking for a great book to get ideas from for your cabin look no further. This book will you give you plenty of ideas to build upon and things that you will want to implement into your plans. A cabin in my mind is meant to be personal and represent you in a way, so I would never recommend taking a pre-made cabin floor plan and building it. Instead take your time do your research and take ideas from this book and several others until you have your own personal cabin designed to your tastes. Make your cabin to fit your dreams and when its done do not worry what others say because as long as you enjoy it that is all that matters. "There are elements of intrinsic beauty in the simplification of a house built on the log cabin idea." ~Gustav Stickley

Very enjoyable light reading about building a small cabin. The authors are full of great advice and wisdom. Although it was written a good 25 years ago (IIRC), it's all relevant and I actually think that it's nice to read from 25 year old perspective. Now-a-days it's all about "tiny homes" on trailers, but IMO that's not sustainable and, if you don't own the land, you don't get half as much pleasure.I won't give away all his secrets (could be a copyright violation!) but for example, they show you how to survey the land yourself with a cheap laser pen and some pieces of wood, what to look for when choosing land to buy, how to buy and get the best price, how to determine what kind of foundation you want, what you need to know for a septic system and utilities and what not. I especially like the plans for a log staircase, the log furniture and the stone fireplace.Of course, virtually everything in the book needs to be expanded on but it's this way for a reason. It's an excellent overview of the entire cabin building process, like a 101 course, but for every little detail you'll need to do more research on. Roof framing, electrical, plumbing, concrete pouring, road building, etc - this book points you in the right direction for what you need to you but lengthy details on each topic are intentionally left out. So if you're serious about building your own cabin as I am, then you'll need to buy several other books, but this book is a great one to start with and is a fun read that will keep your imagination and excitement going strong.The reason for the 4 stars, not 5, is because I think there could be more floor plans and types of cabins covered.

A wealth of information on building methods, even the more uncommon ones, including foundations and furnishings. Doesn't go into great depth of detail on anything, but definitely enough to get the job done.

This book was very inspiring to me. Actually this is a great book if you want to build the cabins yourself. It gives many instructions on how to do. That's not my case. I'm starting the process of building a cottage by a Brazilian mountain (yes, Brazil has many mountains also!) and although I had bought many books, the final click about the floor plan came from this book.

So much great information if you are building a shed/cabin/house. Best information all around in the 4 different books I bought for information on building my own little house, this one's, by far my favorite. Got something for everyone, plus some history : )

See "Compact Cabins " review this is one step above . + Better paper , bigger format - 237 pages only 7 pages of actual pictures+ 4 blank pages for your " notes ", speaking for myself, I never make notes in a book I'm reading .

The book was well put together with good explanations and well done pictures.