Chapter III: Part 3

The most interesting feature, and one which should please everybody, is a separate suite of sleeping quarters, one at each end of the cabin, for each family. Two bunk rooms, holding either a double bed or a double-deck bunk, with necessary closet space, will accommodate four or eight persons in each suite. The bunk rooms open on a short hall connecting with the bathroom.

An interesting way to finish such a cabin would be to leave the rafters and beams exposed in the main living room, where a truly rustic atmosphere is most desirable. If these timbers are given a hewn surface and stained brown, they make a pleasing contrast to walls of natural-color knotty pine. The floor should be made of broad planks, to be in scale with the size of the room.

a CABIN on FOUR LEVELS

1^ST Floor
2^ND Floor

In a vacation area where life is maintained on a more or less civilized plane, this vacation home, with its very modern lines, would be quite attractive. By “civilized,” we mean that you could hardly imagine anyone loafing on the terrace in dirty old canvas slacks and a week’s set of whiskers.

The plan is intended for a sloping site, with floors on four levels beginning with the garage at the highest point. The roof is flat and may be transformed into a sun deck. Foundations are concrete, with wood frame covered with flush siding above. Inside, the walls may be covered with wall board, left natural color except in kitchen and baths.

The living room is two stories high, with a balcony occupied by two double bunks. The master’s bedroom and private bath, as well as a guest bath, are on this balcony level also.

Down a short flight of stairs from the living room is a dining alcove and the kitchen. The dining alcove opens on a spacious terrace.

This same plan, with a few minor changes such as the addition of a shower at the first floor entry, would make a fine beach house.

SIMPLICITY is the KEYNOTE

This quaint little cottage, with its low roof and wide porches, is another good example of what can be done with the simplest of floor plans. It really consists of just one big square room, with partitions jutting out to form the bathroom and kitchen. Anyone can go that far without the guidance of an architect or builder, but the added touches of an experienced hand, as evidenced in the porch rail, the little martin house on the roof and the stepped-back patio wall, are what give this cabin its distinctive charm.

As shown here, the walls are of board and batten, with hand-split shakes laid on the roof in an irregular pattern. The bird house is an attractive note frequently used on old-world houses. The quaint line of the chimney is achieved by extending the tile flues above the masonry and curving the concrete fill up against them.

Since this cabin has such inviting porches, we have shown only one double bunk inside. Most families will prefer to sleep outside, and since the porch is protected by the overhang of the roof on two sides, several beds could be put there and screened from view by sliding curtains. As a convenience for those who do sleep out, an outer door to the bathroom has been included.

The kitchen is unusually roomy for a place of this size. It has ample work room and a door opening on the patio for convenience when serving meals out of doors.

Another charming feature of this little cabin is the unusual treatment of the bathroom window. It is screened by small lattices.

SHELTER for TWO in high COUNTRY

For the man who likes to go back to his favorite trout stream or hunting country each year, yet who doesn’t want to go to the trouble and expense of a permanent cabin, this little log and stone shelter is just about perfect. Two men can build the whole thing in a few days, using only materials that can be picked up right on the spot. Even the roof shakes can be home-made.

Since a hunting lodge is used in cold weather, it would be wise to have the floor raised off the earth a few inches, either with an all-around stone foundation as shown here, or with a series of flat boulders. The latter, however, do not keep out much of the cold.

Hunters don’t demand many luxuries when they’re out in the wilds, so only the barest comforts have been provided here. By installing an iron grill in the fireplace, most of the cooking could be done over the coals, thus saving the space occupied by the oil stove.

There is just room enough for two single bunks or folding cots. To save the trouble of packing in a lot of bedding, it would be a good idea to use sleeping bags and air-mattresses.

for VACATIONS by the SEA

Proper construction is a most important point in a beach house such as the one above, because unless the house is well built, your vacation by the sea can be a pretty miserable affair. Cold damp winds have a way of finding chinks in the walls and sand _will_ blow under the windows unless they’re properly fitted.

The board and batten walls of this beach house are as satisfactory as any you can select. Moisture-laden atmosphere is not as likely to affect this kind of material, especially if it is well painted. Incidentally, when buying paint for your beach house, be sure to get the best, because salt air is very hard on paint. Pay a little more at first and save the work of a paint job next season.

A shake roof would look nice on such a house, and would be satisfactory if the shakes were stained. Composition shingles, perhaps, would be a good idea, too, but they do not make such an interesting roof.

The interior plan of this house makes it a good one either for week-ends or for semi-permanent use. Indeed, if you like to commute, it could be occupied all year ’round, since it has all the comforts of a modern city home. There’s one master bedroom, connected directly with the bath, and a large bunk room for guests. If bunks are used here, be sure to build them along the lines of a ship’s berth, just for a nautical atmosphere.

As a matter of fact, a beach house is just the place where lots of imagination can be used. Door knobs and other hardware of bright brass, a colored ship’s lamp over the front door, and perhaps a couple of real portholes instead of the small windows in the bunk room and the bath, would lend a very salty air. Such items can be bought at any ship chandler’s. The living room, for example, might have a “deck” of scoured oak, with linoleum in the other rooms inlaid with anchors and other seagoing devices. Lengths of fish net, complete with leads and corks, make fine window drapes—and above all, get a small ship’s bell to call all hands to meals.

FIVE ROOMS in a ONE ROOM CABIN

The amazing things that can be done in a limited space with a curtain or two and some careful planning with furniture, are nowhere better demonstrated than in this one-room cabin. The designer started with nothing but an 18 × 20-foot rectangle for a floor plan, yet he has evolved a comfortable week-end cabin for at least four persons.

The exterior walls of this cabin have been treated in an unusual manner which makes something quite unique out of what might have been just another cabin. The end walls, chimney and porch are constructed of rough-hewn stone, while the front and rear walls are board and batten. The roof could be shakes, shingles or slates. Of course, this same cabin could be built any one of a number of ways, using logs or shingles instead of the stone and wood combination. The front door, to carry out the atmosphere of simplicity, should be of planks.

The cabin, which was the inspiration for the one illustrated here, had an interior of cedar panels, uncolored except for a treatment with hot oil. This makes a good wall finish, although if you prefer them, plywood or wall board would be appropriate and not costly. Because of its limited size, perhaps a light interior of natural or tinted wall board would be most satisfactory.

Just inside the front door, at the left, is a kitchenette with two built-in seats and a drop-table to form a dinette such as many apartments have. Additional seats may be built on the other side of the kitchenette if desired.

At the far end of the room is a space for two double beds or bunks. The latter would be more pleasing, since they offer attractive lounging places during the day. Between the bunks is a washroom and two closets which form a partition and divide the space into two bedrooms. A sliding curtain conceals the bedroom end when desired.

Because this is intended simply as a week-end cabin, no provision is made for an inside toilet. However, it would be entirely feasible to add an adjoining room at the rear for a complete bathroom.

CABIN CONVENIENCES

Make your vacation home as comfortable as you can for the amount of money you have to spend. Remember that the four major comforts in any house are light, heat, water, and cooking facilities.

Proper lighting is one of the most important comforts. You can get water from a stream and boil it, if you have to; you can cook and warm yourself with a fireplace, but you will find it harmful to your eyes to depend entirely upon candles or ordinary kerosene lamps for light. If you are building within range of power lines, by all means install electric lights, even if it costs a little more than you had planned to spend. If you want primitive effects, you can get them very effectively by a proper choice of fixtures without sacrificing good lighting.

Next best to public utility power is your own private electric plant, operated by a gasoline engine. Such an installation, consisting of engine, generator and storage battery, may be had for as little as $75.00, not including wiring the cabin itself. This minimum-priced outfit will light a small cabin and operate an electric iron and toaster. You can go as much higher as you want up to a $1500 installation, which will supply almost enough power for a small summer resort.

If you must get along without electricity, the best portable devices are gasoline lamps and lanterns. You should have several of them. They burn with a mantle like old-fashioned gas but give an intense white light and use ordinary gasoline. Be sure, though, not to use gasoline treated with tetra-ethyl lead. These lights are satisfactory for reading, and you can take a gasoline lantern out in a storm without danger of its blowing out.

In most cases, if you use your cabin only in summer, the fireplace will provide sufficient heat, especially if you have the air circulating kind so located that the warm air can be utilized in adjoining rooms. If more heat is required, and it will be if you use the cabin in winter, investigate the oil-burning heaters that combine directed heat with heat circulation and heat radiation. Portable oil or electric heaters are also handy at any time of the year. Central heating is generally not necessary unless your cabin is to be used as a year-round home.

If you are going in for real cabin comfort, you will naturally have running water in the kitchen and bath. The next step in comfort is an adequate supply of hot water. Electric, gas- or oil-burning equipment will give you all the hot water you want.

With an insulated storage tank you can have automatic hot water with an electric heater. The cost will depend on your power rate and you must decide if it fits your purse. If you have one of the so-called “bottled gas” installations, you can use this fuel for your hot water. An oil burning water heater will provide an adequate supply of hot water at reasonable cost.

Water-heating coils in the back of the fireplace or in a wood burning stove provide inexpensive hot water, but not always timely or in adequate amounts. It is possible to connect these coils with a storage tank that is also heated by oil or gas appliances, so that you only use this fuel when the fireplace or stove does not supply enough hot water.

Probably one of the most neglected comforts in the average cabin is the kitchen in general and the cook stove in particular. If the cook is to have as good a time as the rest of the family, the cabin kitchen should be modern and conveniently arranged. A wood burning cook stove does not add to the pleasures of feeding the family and guests. But a possible point to consider: a kitchen range is an excellent added heater in a cabin that is to be used in cold weather.

Today’s cabinet type oil range, with burners and fuel reservoir concealed, is as attractive in appearance as the modern gas or electric range. Burners are quick in performance and adjustable to any degree of heat desired. “Bottled gas” installations are also practical if your cabin is located where it can be serviced by the sales representative. The gas, compressed to liquid form in a steel cylinder, is piped to your stove like ordinary city gas. However, burners must be especially adjusted for it, or if you are buying a new stove, get one made for this fuel.

Refrigeration adds to the comforts of cabin life as much as to city life. If you have electricity, you can use the conventional electric refrigerator. Also available are mechanical refrigerators that use gas. Modern oil burning refrigerators also give effective performance and are usable anywhere, requiring no outside connections. There are two types—one having a continuous flame and the other requiring the burners to be lit about two hours a day, the burners going out automatically when the required quantity of oil has been consumed.

While the space may of necessity be smaller, the kitchen of the vacation home deserves as much thought in planning as that in the city house. Apply the same principles of convenience and workable arrangement and provide plenty of storage space, for the family on vacation does not ordinarily go food shopping every day. On the following pages you will find a number of kitchen conveniences that with a little planning can be incorporated into your cabin kitchen.

TO FAUCET
KITCHEN STOVE
TANK
HEATER
FIREPLACE
INTAKE

CABIN MISCELLANY

Native Stone Lends Charm and Ruggedness to Cabin
Fireplaces and Barbecues

Native stone, gathered from near the site, seems to be the most popular material for the cabin fireplace or barbecue. Skillfully handled, it may be adapted to a variety of artistic treatments, and it lends to the cabin, inside and out, the atmosphere of ruggedness sought after by most cabin builders. Sometimes the stones are gathered one by one over a wide area for their appearance, beauty and other characteristics, so the fireplace itself becomes almost a collector’s item to those who have gathered far and wide the material for its construction. Where stones of the proper size are not available, they are frequently blasted from larger boulders.

The various ideas for indoor and outdoor fireplaces and barbecues shown here have been sketched from photographs of fireplaces actually built in Western cabins. They show some of the wide possibilities of design and of decorative treatment. Among them, or from a combination of their various features, you should be able to find the design of your ideal fireplace.

Outdoor Cooking Awakens Primitive Impulses and Sharpens Vacation
Appetites

All the world likes to return to the primitive at times. In most cases this return takes the form of cooking and eating a meal outdoors. There is something about a fire outdoors that awakens impulses lost in us ages ago. And a well cooked outdoor meal makes hearty vacation appetites even keener.

Since the purpose of your vacation home is to get closer to nature, you should plan to get the most out of it by providing facilities for cooking and eating at least some of your meals in the open. On the other hand, you will want to arrange to have greater convenience than the open fire on the surface of the ground that served your ancestors long ago. The outdoor grill, or an outdoor fireplace with a grill built in, provides the comfort and facilities that the modern generation demands.

Outdoor grills range from the simplest form U-shaped brick cooking place, covered with a heavy steel screening, to huge affairs of brick or stone with chimneys and dampers, Dutch ovens built into the sides, warming places for plates, and perhaps a roaring separate fireplace to soften the chill of the evening air. All of them are relatively easy to build and reasonably inexpensive. However, you must keep the fire hazards in mind, and in the National Forests, before you begin to build, have your forest officer approve your plan and location.

Construction of the outdoor fireplace is much the same as that of an indoor one except that the chimney and flue are not carried to such a height. Nor does the footing need to be as thick unless your fireplace is very heavy. A concrete base eight inches thick with four inches of this above ground is usually ample. You may use the chimney of your cabin fireplace for your outdoor fireplace or grill but be sure to provide a separate flue.

There are several methods of adapting the outdoor fireplace to cooking. The simplest is to provide yourself with a pair of rather high andirons and a grill to lay over the top of them. The grill may also be hinged to rear of the fireplace or you may install sliding adjustable grill as illustrated. A pot and crane adds to the appearance as well as the utility of the outdoor fireplace.

The design of the barbecue grill or outdoor stove is a matter for your own taste. For comfort’s sake you will want to have the grill top about the height of your kitchen stove. Build up the firebox so that when the coals are glowing, they will be about eight inches below the grill, which should be made of ³/₁₆-inch steel rods spaced about one inch apart in a metal frame. A groove or seat for the grill may be made in the masonry, or you may provide supports by imbedding projecting pieces of iron in the firebox walls. A piece of sheet steel laid over the grill will provide a fry plate when one is needed.

A chimney is a good addition to a grill of this type. It not only adds some architectural character but it will draw off fumes and give a better draft to your fire. And if you want even more efficiency, you can include some sort of damper arrangement to control the draught.

Your Vacation Home Deserves the Right Kind of Furnishings

Many vacation homes are so obviously furnished with discarded town house furniture—odds and ends from different rooms—and with misfit draperies and scraps of old carpet. After a few seasons they are likely to look like a cross between a second-hand store and a rummage sale. Rooms containing such odds and ends can scarcely be called restful and yet a cabin home is supposed to exist for rest and relaxation.

If you are buying new furniture, give consideration to the newer so-called California style furniture, which retains the Spanish or Mission influence. It is now made by various manufacturers. It has simplicity and sturdiness, is not easily damaged, and does not need a great deal of care. It is perhaps the most distinctive kind of furniture for the purpose and, when set in an environment of rustic simplicity with gay fabrics and correct accessories, is admirably suited to informal living.

TRUNDLE BUNK ROLLS UNDER

If old furniture must be used, try the magic of paint. It is wonderful what may be accomplished with some cans of paint and brushes. Then cover the old seating pieces with some gay cretonne slip covers, use the same fabrics at the windows, and a cheerful, colorful result is obtained.

When refinishing old furniture try remodeling it to fit its new surroundings. Chest and chairs and such, dating from the early days of the century, are likely to have a lot of gingerbread decoration. By removing as much of this as possible and getting down to the simple basic lines of the piece much improvement may be made.

Before painting any piece previously coated with shellac or varnish go over it with varnish remover or use a hook scraper and steel wool, cleaning down to the bare wood. Apply a coat of flat white and, when dry, at least two coats of one of the quick-drying enamels. Go over each coat with very fine sandpaper or steel wool and brush off the resulting dust before applying the next coat.

If you are working with maple, walnut or cherry, the natural color of the wood is often more pleasing than a paint or stain. Remove all traces of enamel, stain or varnish and sand the surfaces smooth. Then apply a thin coat of clear shellac—orange if you prefer—and after sanding this once more polish with ordinary prepared wax.

SMALL TABLES

A Score and More of Cabin Ideas

Rustic furniture, of course, is attractive in most cabins, but it frequently takes considerable skill and ingenuity to make it comfortable.

Where considerable room is required to sleep weekend party guests, give a thought to furniture and fixtures that can be converted into comfortable beds on short notice. Studio couches provide lounging by day and sleeping by night. Double-deck bunks use a minimum of floor space and provide attractive and comfortable sleeping accommodations. Hinged wall beds that disappear under shelves and curtains or into closets are likewise popular.

1-INCH HOLES SPACED 4 INCHES APART and 1¼ INCHES BELOW LINE OF CUT
ROPE LACING FOR SEAT SUPPORT
FURNITURE WEBBING OVER ROPE SUPPORT FORMS GOOD UPHOLSTERY FOUNDATION

2-INCH SLABS
HALF-ROUND SPLIT-POLE CLEAT
HALVED JOINT WHERE TABLE LEGS CROSS
SPREAD OF LEGS AT BOTTOM EQUALS WIDTH OF TOP

BOX
WIRE SCREEN
FLASHING

SPONGE RUBBER CUSHION
½-INCH ROPE
LINOLEUM COVERED TOP

TWIST ROPE WITH STICK
WOOD BLOCK
BEND
WEDGE IN TENON TIGHTENS JOING WHEN DRIVEN UP
SLOPING SHOULDER
MORTISE & TENON JOINT

Guest Book

Mountain Cabin Pictures

A mountain cabin scarcely requires the conventional kind of pictures on the walls. However, here are two kinds that fit the cabin picture. Have some extra large enlargements made of photographs of your choicest scenic spots. Mount these and frame them with strips of cedar bark. Geological survey maps or the forest service maps of your vicinity, similarly framed, are an appropriate cabin decoration.

Metal Lined Closets

It is a good idea in every mountain cabin to provide one metal lined closet with floor space the size of a single bed mattress and high enough to store your entire supply of mattresses and bedding, as well as other things you do not wish to go into chipmunks’ and packrats’ warehouses. Tin or zinc is a satisfactory lining. One or two metal lined food storage compartments should also be provided in the cabin kitchen.

Starting the Fireplace Fire

A cupful (not more) of Diesel oil over the laid hearth fire just before lighting is a safe starter with no flare such as kerosene gives. It allows a successful immediate fire with no paper, less kindling, and greater warmth. Diesel oil is efficient and cheap, and the small quantity used for this purpose seems to make no obvious increase of soot. Its safety and cheapness can lead to many adaptations of it as a fire starter in camp or lodge.

If members of your family are not familiar with lighting such fires, warn them against tossing gasoline or kerosene on the flames. It is positively dangerous.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ever since the first man came down out of a tree and set up housekeeping in a cave, he has been interested in making his dwelling more comfortable and more beautiful. Naturally, the amount of material that has been written on the subject has been enormous, because man is also interested in telling his neighbors all about it. As a prospective cabin builder, undoubtedly you will want to read more fully on the subject of houses and methods of construction. The various books listed below should prove helpful. They are among the most recent works published, and should be readily obtainable from any good book dealer. If you are building a vacation home, you will find them a source of knowledge as well as inspiration.

_The Real Log Cabin_, by Chilson D. Aldrich. (Macmillan.)
_How to Build Log Cabins, Lodges & Bungalows_, Popular Science
Publishing Co.
_More House for Your Money_, by Elizabeth Gordon and Dorothy Ducas.
(Morrow.)
_Home Owner’s Handbook_, by C. B. Smith. (Housing Publications, Inc.,
N. Y.)
_The Householder’s Complete Handbook_, by Hawthorne Daniel. (Little,
Brown & Co.)
_First Aid to the Ailing House_, by Roger B. Whitman. (McGraw-Hill, N.
Y.)

The editor wishes to acknowledge the co-operation extended by the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association, Seattle; the Red River Lumber Co., Westwood, Calif.; and the California Redwood Association, San Francisco. Readers desiring additional data on cabin building may secure it by writing these organizations.

Government Bulletins

For the amateur builder, one of the best sources of concise, authoritative information is the series of bulletins issued by the Government Printing Office at Washington for the Department of Agriculture. They are called “Farmers’ Bulletins” because they are intended for use on farms, but the material they contain is applicable to the cabin builder’s needs, since conditions on a farm and out in the woods, as regards plumbing, sanitation, water supply, etc., are identical. If you want copies of these pamphlets, write to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., enclosing 5c for each one.

Sewage and Sewerage of Farm Homes Farmer’s Bulletin No. 1227
Farm Plumbing “ “ No. 1426
Farmstead Water Supply “ “ No. 1448
Painting on the Farm “ “ No. 1452
Protection of Log Cabins, etc., from “ “ No. 1582
Injurious Insects
Construction of Chimneys and Fireplaces “ “ No. 1649
The Use of Logs and Poles in Farm “ “ No. 1660
Construction

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.