Build sequence · 2025–2027
Building our home in northern woods
When we first bought the land about five years ago, we had a lot of different ideas. We knew that we liked camping, we’d grown up with that in our lives. We knew that we liked the woods and we had a lot of ideas from our own life experiences and plenty of YouTube.
We knew that we wanted a place to be able to call home in the middle of the forest, but we didn’t know when we would build this nor did we know what it would look like.
After years of prep work, we’re hitting the ground running. We’re building our cabin and we’re getting it ready to live in full time. This page is going to talk about what we’re building and how we got here.
Jump to a build phase
2020–2025
Before the build
Five years of buying the land, learning it, and making it liveable enough to build on.
"What if we bought a forest?" started as a half-joke during lockdown, then became a spreadsheet ranking size, water, distance, taxes, and utilities. The lot we bought was never on the list. It was raining, the driveway was overgrown, and it felt right anyway.
We bought a tractor before we built anything. A few weekends of shovelling the steep, bedrock-pinched driveway made the hand-tool plan look very silly, very fast. A contractor came to quote the job and sold us his Kubota BX23S instead.
Deliveries only reached the edge of the property. The tractor could move it all a few hundred metres of rough road at a time, but slowly. The Kubota RTV X1100C hauls what the tractor loads and dumps it where it is needed.
One winter morning I woke up cold and assumed the generator had run out of gas. It had caught fire overnight. My brother saw the glow, got the extinguisher, and stopped it there. That morning is a large part of why solar started looking so good.
A Victron system with LiFePO4 batteries, 400 W panels, a charge controller, and a 24 V layout we could maintain ourselves. Starlink, lights, tools, and the well pump now run without firing up the generator. The generator noise doesn't have to bother us anymore.
A camper needs somewhere for the water to go. A Class 2 greywater system was the simple option, until the required capacity came out around 21,000 litres and the digging hit the Canadian Shield. Dig, hit rock, adjust, build upward, backfill, repeat, for three months.
2020–May 2026
Imagining a home
From tents and a camper to plans for a full-time home in the woods. These posts look back at how the idea took shape.
A look back to what we had at first. The lot was vacant when we got it: an overgrown driveway and a well unused since the 80s. Tents, then insulated ice-fishing shelters, then an RV. Now a house for full-time living.
After tents came the camper. The driveway had a bedrock hump right before a tight 90˚ turn, so the tractor got promoted: a three-point hitch adapter let us raise, lower, and ease the camper over the rock. Overnight the property had a place to arrive, sleep, cook, and leave things between visits.
A photorealistic render of the finished house, built from the architectural drawings: Canadian cedar siding, a green tin roof matching the other buildings, and white trim throughout.
Cabin construction sequence
A house built by hand. The sequence below includes the work still ahead.
Illustrated sequence · includes planned work
- Open the groundThe tractor comes in. The bucket cuts into the soil and lifts it clear.
- Set the footingsFootings go down onto the prepared ground. Pier forms stand above them.
- Pour by handConcrete comes in a hand cart, tipped into the forms a load at a time.
- Build the floorBeams bridge the piers. Joists and the floor deck make a platform.
- Raise the wallsWall frames pivot upright, one section after another.
- Close in the roofTrusses rise into place, then the roof closes over them.
- Make it a homeSiding, windows, a door. The structure becomes a place to live.
May 2026
Clearing trees
Clearing what blocked the build, and anything that would lean toward the house once it stood.
Tree felling is a dangerous art, so a tree this size in the middle of the build came down with professionals. It will heat the place this winter.
Digging out the pier area. The piers embed directly into the bedrock of the Canadian Shield, so every stump has to come out whole — no plant matter between concrete and rock.
Multiple hands, a 4,500 lb winch on the RTV, and the tractor before this stump finally relented. Hard not to pause with each tree that comes down.
The site is nearly down to raw earth, roots, and bedrock. Every stump and pocket of soil says a little more about what the house will sit on.
May–September 2026
Foundation
Footings meet the Canadian Shield. Digging, forming, and pouring took far longer than we planned.
Machines do most of the work but lack the dexterity to finish a hole. Each pier gets hand-dug the rest of the way so the footing can be pinned to bedrock with rebar.
Measuring depth to grade across the site to work out how much sonotube, gravel, and dirt the foundation needs. Level here decides everything above it.
Work does not always stop when the sun goes down; in the heat you take the afternoon off and finish in the evening. Holes are dug and the forms are next. We all agree digging is the worst part of the build.
Drilling into the bedrock for rebar, which ties the concrete to the rock and protects against frost.
Scribing each form to the bedrock underneath it, then bracing it so nothing moves when the concrete arrives.
Roots and rock in the spring woods, one careful bucket at a time. The ground gives up only what it has to.
Lowering a footing box into its hole in light rain, then a plumb bob to mark centre. That is where we found the corner still needed digging — more lifting rocks than lifting dirt.
Ready for the first inspection, minus a handful of braces. A wild ride to get here, and the concrete pour is next.
A handful of piers ready for concrete. The inspector came out today; from the vibe, we passed.
Formally passed. Next week we pour concrete and build the real base of the house.
Pouring week. Incredible to see the foundation take permanent shape, and a full-body workout is an understatement.
20,000 lb of concrete delivered in the morning, then a flash flood. A quick trip to Home Hardware for a pump kept the newly cured piers out of standing water.
The last footing and pier poured and stripped. Next: trenching between the footings, then gravel, geotextile fabric, drainage pipe, and sealing.
Drainage, insulation, and waterproofing nearly complete, with the final foundation inspection and backfill next.
The foundation drainage is in and has had plenty of rain to test it. Everything flows through without pooling, aside from the exit that still needs digging.
Second inspection passed: the poured concrete, the drainage plan, and the insulation and waterproofing around the footings.
After months of digging it out, time to fill it back in. Two thirds of what came out was rock, which cannot go back: rock moves in the freeze-thaw cycle and puts tremendous pressure on concrete. That's why we need "clean fill".
The foundation is done. A final layer of geotextile fabric and gravel seals in and protects the base. Next we build up the floor.
September 2026 – ongoing
Framing
Floors and walls rise one section at a time. After the foundation, everything moves quickly.
Half way through laminating the centre beam. This LVL beam carries the weight of the house.
Beams are up and we are ready for flooring. With the foundation done, it is coming together quickly.
The floor is nearly done. After months of digging and concrete we are making quick work of it. Walls this week.
The floor is done and the walls are underway. Windows and doors are delivered and stored in the shipping container for now.
The last exterior wall has risen and the house starts to take shape.
The walls are up and ready for sheathing. Then an enclosed house and a deck off the front, interior walls, and the roof trusses.
Exterior sheathing and the front porch framing has been built. Up next we’ll finish the deck and build the interior walls to making raising the roof easier
Finishing the deck to spec. Each board was carefully laid in our pre-set picture frame border and brings us one step closer to finishing up for the season before winter comes
The interior walls have risen! Captured after a hard day’s work, these walls will see sound proofing and a mix of wood and drywall in the coming year. With these walls up, we are close to being able to close the roof in
Let’s raise the roof 🙌 we are one step closer to being closed in for the winter
Each truss is placed with care, secured in spot, and will be laterally braced soon
We’ve raised all of the trusses, levelled, and attached them. The front porch deck is also done
The trusses are up
All the roof trusses are raised, levelled, and attached, and the front porch deck is done. The next challenge is closing in the roof before winter.
As of
Next · October 2026 – March 2027
Winter break
We winterize the build and step away while the depths of the Canadian winter take hold, then start again when the winds warm.
Next · 2027
Interior finishes
Kitchen, bathroom, flooring, trim, electrical, plumbing, and insulation, slowly plugged away at.
The solar energy experiment covers the system already powering the site. For the finished house, we’re planning a solar extension with a permanent array and a new battery system.
Our vision for the property
- This is a tentative plan we’ve been working on over the years. Much of it is already in place, some is in progress. The gardening areas, fruit trees, and cellar are yet to come.
- The cabin sits off the main driveway, where desire paths have been carved into our roads.
- We have two big pines that aren’t in our way. We’ve decided to keep them, and will monitor their health to ensure they don’t pose any risk to our buildings.
- The implements attach to our tractor and RTV. They include a bush hog for clearing brush, a box blade for flattening, plows, and snow blowers.
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