Hello! We just acquired an off grid camp in southern MS. It smells awful, like musty/mildew. We go there maybe once a month in the summer for a weekend but the smell is killing me. People from the area (spouse included) are telling me in the south that’s just the way it is.. it’s so humid you can’t avoid this smell without running AC 24/7. We run a generator with a window AC while we’re there. We can’t find any water leaks or anything causing the odor. We don’t have real power to keep an AC or dehumidifier running while we’re away. Any advice, tips, reassurance etc would be must appreciated.

A year ago today we were putting down the first beam, it's been slow progress this year but still a massive achievement for 12 months of my wife and I building this solo. So far, no part of the build has been hired out and I don't foresee any coming soon.

Where we left off

Last fall we wrapped up with:

• Most of the doors and windows installed (the few that hadn't arrived were boarded over).
• The roof underlayment and strapping completed.
• Framing inspection passed for everything except the screened room.

Bathroom bump-out

The first major project this spring was the bathroom addition on the east side of the cabin.

That meant pouring three new sonotubes for the bathroom, along with the sonotubes for the east side of the wraparound porch. We decided to frame that section of porch now since it'll give us a solid platform for ladders once we start roofing.

The bathroom floor is supported by a beam spanning the three sonotubes, with the opposite ends of the joists bearing directly on the main cabin beam, so there was no need for ledgers or joist hangers.

The finished space is roughly 5.5' x 14' and will include:

• Full tub/shower surround
• 48" vanity
• Composting toilet (still deciding which model)
• Battery and inverter room

I also installed two comically small windows high on the wall for extra ventilation. The roof ties into the main cabin by attaching the rafters to a ledger mounted just below the bedroom window, keeping the roofline and pitch consistent with the bedroom.

Solar and electrical

During Prime Day I upgraded the power system with:

• 2 × Eco-Worthy 5 kWh server rack batteries
• 5 kW all-in-one inverter/charger

The system is currently running from the sea can and powering the RV along with all my tool battery chargers.

Getting it working wasn't as straightforward as I expected. I completely missed that the inverter's minimum PV input is 120V. I originally had four 30V panels in series, which meant it would only charge under absolutely perfect conditions. As soon as panel voltage dropped even slightly, charging stopped.

Adding a fifth panel to the string brought the voltage comfortably above the minimum, and after switching the inverter to PV Priority instead of the mixed charging mode, it's been performing much better.

Screen room redesign

The screened room is now the last major framing task before we can finally start installing the metal roof.

Originally I had planned to support the roof with a triple 2x12 beam spanning the 14-foot opening on 6x6 posts. During inspection I was told it wouldn't pass because the beam wasn't built from full-length members. Fair enough—that one was on me.

There were a couple of other issues as well:

• The roof pitch would have only been about 1/12 because the rafters started on top of the wall.
• The bottom of the beam would have been only about 6 feet off the deck, which isn't ideal when the beam sits about 9 feet from the cabin wall rather than at the outside edge.

The revised design uses a 6-inch steel I-beam sandwiched between 2x6s to hide the steel while giving me a much stronger beam. The top of the beam will now sit around 8 feet, with roughly 7'6" of clearance underneath.

To improve the roof pitch, the screened room rafters will attach to a ledger fastened to the house rafters just above the second row of roof strapping. That increases the pitch to roughly 12° (about 2.5/12), matching the bedroom and bathroom roofs and giving the whole structure a much cleaner look.

Side projects

I've also been picking up a few tractor attachments while watching for sales. I found a box grader at a good price and I'm still hunting for a 3-point snowblower so I can keep working well into the winter.

What's next

The big goal for the rest of the warm season is to get the screen room finished, the metal roof installed, and the siding on.

If we can also get the wood stove installed before winter, we should finally be able to move out of the RV and into the cabin. Once we're inside, we can spend the colder months working on insulation, electrical, plumbing, and interior finishes while staying warm and dry.

It feels like we're finally reaching the point where the project starts looking more like a cabin than a construction site.

Well, like most projects, I was hoping to be further along. My last update was a year ago and I got the windows installed and the house wrap and Rockwool exterior insulation applied. There has been a lot of progress since then, but the most dramatic and crazy thing was a fire the ripped through the area, starting in the early morning of July 4th. The combination of an unusually dry winter plus high winds lead to one of the most aggressive fires the area has seen in a while.

I am one of the extremely lucky people who didn't lose their structure. Many people lost their houses and both of my immediate neighbors lost their cabins, which has been awful. I have been racking my brain trying to think about why my structure survived and there's didn't. While I believe my use of class A fire rated materials helped, the truth is I was just damn lucky.

So, this isn't to deter people from chasing their dream, but fires are a real part of living in the wilderness. If you decide to go off grid and build yourself a cabin in the woods, make sure to take all of the necessary steps to mitigate fire danger, but know that even that might not be enough.

Now it's on to repairs. I have to replace a few windows due to the heat causing the glass to crack. There are also a few places where I will have to remove the Rockwool and replace the house wrap due to it melting (see picture). I lost some equipment and a number of materials stacked outside that were consumed by the fire. But, all things considered, I got off easy.

i am trying to find a good quality, 1 room building that’s insulated and weather proof, not gonna be living in it but i home brew alcohol and, assuming i stay with the hobby long enough, would like an outside space to store everything and have brewing stations so im not having to do everything in my shoebox of a closet. i plan on getting an unit and space heaters for when necessary, im not against a prebuild or a build it yourself kits, would rather a build it yourself for more budget friendly options, and it sounds fun too. i dont exactly have a budget right now, as this project is likely going to land a couple years from now, but the less expensive the better as long as it has good quality to it and so bugs and possible rodents or something doesnt get in. any recommendations would be great

Im planning on building a cabin and I'm having a legit mental war where I settle on a smaller size and then my brain says "well, if you're going to build that, you might as well just build this".

Im going between 12x16 and 14x18 and admittedly it's not that much bigger, but the 12x16 keeps everything nice and neat with 4x8 sheathing, drywall, etc. Its going to be on a slab so it will also be cheaper on the concrete pour.

The cabin will have a sleeping loft (12/12 pitch roof) and feature a very small kitchen and then whatever living space I get creative with.

Im building this myself and im not a builder but decent enough diy and I've been studying all things construction for about 18 months in preparation.

Someone settle my brain! I'll never regret a bigger cabin vs cost is the bigger factor in getting started?

Thanks all.

watched whole channel can anyone suggest more channels like him

Two years of weekends finally paid off. 14x12 cabin on 40 acres in West Central New Mexico. Still have a punchlist to complete and a wood burning stove to install.

For those of you who with off grid cabins, how did you transport furniture to your cabin? Professional mover? By yourself in the back of a pickup? Rental van?
Thanks

I thought I was just buying one rack battery for a simple garage backup setup, but once I started thinking about a second one later, the choice got less obvious. What kept bugging me was whether the next battery would feel like it belonged in the same setup. I do not want to mix screen, app, comms, and firmware stuff if I can avoid it. Eco-Worthy seems to make more sense if you care about the communications side and the certification story. Vatrer Power felt simpler if I just wanted something easy to live with. That was really the whole debate for me.

I found that Vatrer has also updated a 48v with wifi and communication, but it seems that there is not much information for evaluation at present.

The funny part is that this is the kind of thing that only sounds small until you actually plan the second battery.

I’m thinking about putting up a solar-powered outdoor camera mostly to catch animals and random activity around the cabin.

I’d prefer something that records to an SD card. I still have an unused 256GB card sitting around, thank god, because those things somehow cost way more now than when I bought it. I’d probably only pull the card and check footage every few weeks or maybe once a month.

Main thing I’m unsure about is the solar part. For people using solar cameras in cabin/off grid setups, do they still hold up during cloudy stretches, or do you end up having to take them down and charge them anyway?

Posting initial and on-going progress here for accountability purposes. I had to build up some infrastructure first, I’m but excited to finally to get to work on 1.5 story 12x12 cabin in the coming months. This ADK property has been in the family for 40 years but has never been developed. It’s finally my turn with it and hope to get it to a comfy spot for my dad to enjoy his retirement

Still have to finish up the outhouse amongst other things on an infinite to-do list but our progress thus far feels great nonetheless

hello all. it's within my plans at some point to live off the land & build my own shelter. I'm just curious if anyone has ever gotten into developing a home with indigenous inspired architecture. the native americans were masters of this land for thousands of years.

all the different tribes seemed to have it common that they were really into living in balance & harmony with the land & their architecture was built to withstand their environment.

I haven't ever built anything before so it'd be a first & I'm not sure how challenging it'd be to build some of these structures, but with how complicated building codes & everything today are I'd say these are more simplistic & discreet.

depending on where I go, a few of the shelters that give me inspiration for an idea out of this picture I attached that I could see myself building would be the pit-house, plank house, hogan, barabara, plank house, pit-house the wickiup & grass house might have some inspiration too but I'm interested in something more sturdy.

please bear in mind this isn't some attempt at cultural appropriation, like I saw some woman on the native americans subreddit build a tippi for some BS clout reason & then ask the users of that sub if it's ok that she builds tippis or whatever, I'm looking at different indigenous architecture for inspiration because of the architectural ingenuity that native tribes had with the land.

if there's any posts, blogs, or webpages that has explored this idea in more depfh & possibly even executed it made by someone with building experience I'd be very grateful if any of you shared it ITT. thank you all.

I want to build a cabin in the woods, a small one just for me and no one else, is there any advice or books or videos or anything at all yall can point me towards to do such a thing?

Hey all, I'm looking for a dry cabin in the USA (not picky as to where) to isolate in for roughly 1-2 months. No water, no power. Just a small little box with a wood burning stove. Farrr away from civilization. Anyone have any connections? Ideas? Anything.

EG4 Solar Air Conditioner Heat Pump. Has anyone used one of these? What was your experience with it? I am considering trying one.

Been building an off grid spot for the last few years and am getting down to just needing to trim out the sheeting before I call it good enough for who its for.