Publisher Description

***Reprinted*** This book shows everything you need to know to achieve a DIY-standard retreat - the sort of holiday home you have always dreamed of. The authors describe each step in the process from identifying the land to deciding on and developing plans for a structure that suits their lifestyle and budget. Build them deep in the countryside, at the seaside or in your own back garden - wherever you like! Classic construction methods are covered, and are clearly illustrated in photographs and drawings: log cabin; pole-built and stick-built cabin; post-and-beam; stone; cordwood; Pyramid; A-frame; DIY kits; Many designs and purposes are covered: Classic woodland log cabin; Writer's retreat; Guest quarters; Lakeside retreat; Japanese moon-gazing cabin; Boathouse; Beach Hut; Mediterranean bolthole; Perfect self-build projects for a holiday home or weekend retreat-within the skills of any DIY enthusiast & materials from your local hardware. AUTHOR: David and Jeanie Stiles have written fifteen books on building projects and have published articles in many magazines and newspapers. They divide their time between New York City and East Hampton, N.Y. where they live in a barn they renovated themselves. For a total escape they retreat to a tiny, one-room cabin they built overlooking a pond in the Hudson Valley. 16 pages full colour 100 b/w

Author Biography

David Stiles is a designer/builder who, together with his wife, Jeanie Stiles, has written articles for publications such as Better Homes and Gardens and the New York Times and authored 15 books, including Sheds and The Treehouse Book (which won the ALA Notable Children's Book Award). The Stiles divide their time between New York City and East Hampton, New York.

Table of Contents

Foreword Introduction Chapter One: Cabin Planning Chapter Two: Types of Cabin Construction Pole Built Cabins Stick Built Cabins Post and Beam Cabins Stone Cabins Cordwood Cabins Wood Siding Chapter Three: Cabin Construction Hand Cart Site Preparation Foundations Windows and Doors Ladders and Stairs Insulation and Roofing Electricity Water Plumbing and Sanitary Systems Heating Chapter Four: Log Cabins Log Joints Cutting Your Own Logs Working with Logs Two-Bedroom Log Cabin Chapter Five: Cabin Designs Helen's Writing Cabin Pyramid Cabin A-Frame Cabin Pole Built Cabin Timber-Framed Guest Cabin Lakeside Cabin Japanese Moongazing Cabin Mediterranean Cabin Chapter Six: Outfitting a Cabin Classic Cabin Accessories Protecting Your Cabin Bibliography Sources Index Notes

Review

[The book will] lead the clumsiest carpenter through the necessary steps to build a cozy getaway.--Annie Stoltie "Adirondack Life" (10/15/2002 12:00:00 AM)
A primer for anyone with dreams of 'getting away from it all.'--Ted Hainworth "Saskatoon Star Phoenix" (7/21/2001 12:00:00 AM)
An invaluable resource ... step-by-step instructions starting with basic planning.--Stacie Gentile "Calgary Sun" (6/16/2001 12:00:00 AM)
Clear, practical book ... full-color photos help do-it-yourselfers realize their dreams.-- "Log Homes Illustrated" (11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM)
If you've ever thought of building a little retreat somewhere ... you will probably enjoy this book ... Cabins is geared to the modern homebuilder -- homes have to meet modern building codes, after all -- and examines a variety of building techniques.-- "New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal" (5/26/2001 12:00:00 AM)
The kind of book that stirs the imagination.-- "Lexington Herald-Leader" (6/3/2001 12:00:00 AM)
The Stiles ... show how to build a cabin that reflects the builder's lifestyle.-- "Library Journal" (9/1/2001 12:00:00 AM)
With this study of the what, when, where, and how of cabin building, anyone's yearning for the last great place can be satiated.--Patrick A. Smith "ForeWord" (10/1/2001 12:00:00 AM)
You can do it!... For tips read Cabins: A Guide to Building Your Own Nature Retreat.--Rebecca Sawyer-Fay "Cottage Living" (4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM)
You'll find not only the practical issues ... but also the inspiration to help select the cabin that is perfect.--Kandis Carper "Spokane Spokesman-Review" (5/25/2001 12:00:00 AM)

Review Quote

You'll find not only the practical issues ... but also the inspiration to help select the cabin that is perfect.

Introduction or Preface

Foreword by Don Metz, architect In North American culture, the cabin holds a unique place in our collective consciousness. Enshrined in the best traditions of grassrooted nostalgia, the cabin symbolizes those bedrock frontier virtues of self-reliance, sturdiness, simplicity, humility and ---by inference -- honesty. By its very lack of pretension, the cabin connotes a purity of life whose loss we yearn to recall. As a genre, it stands at the moral center of a particularly American ethos defined by a cast of characters as diverse as Abe Lincoln, Davy Crockett and Henry David Thoreau. During the colonial era, the cabin was home on much of the frontier, and is still remembered in folklore, song and verse as a safe and cozy haven. Today, the notion of the cabin as Home Sweet Home persists in literature and film. Whether in the mountains, on the prairie or by the lake, it remains a symbol of all that we value. Today, the cabin has become the place we get away to when the place we're in has worn us out, a retreat from anxiety, a place dedicated to renewal. From the moment we lift the latch, push open the door and inhale that smoky-creosote-camphor cabin scent, we are altered for the better. More than a home away from home, the cabin reminds us of how -- we like to think -- life used to be lived in simpler times. It provides us with an opportunity to be closer to nature, and closer still to one another. The cabin is where we go to replace the hum of technology with the buzzing of insects, where cyberspace is out of place, where a mouse still has two ears and four legs. The cabin is a simple, sacred place where food and drink always taste better, where music sounds brighter, where evenings with loved ones linger longer into pleasure, where sleep is deep and dawn is fresh with wonders we've elsewhere forgotten. Cabins seeks to address not only the practical issues involved in the design and building of a cabin, but also to encourage the impulse. Life is long, but need it be so hectic? Imagine: After a long drive into nightfall, you step out of your car onto familiar footing -- not asphalt, not concrete -- but the stuff of millennial forests and plains and shorelines, the earth itself. You stretch your tired body, and you know immediately that every traveled mile was worth it as long as the trip ended here. Within moments of your arrival, it seems as if a blanket of peacefulness has gently covered you. An owl calls from a distant treetop, the same hoot-hoot, hoot-hoooot you remember from the last time -- welcome back . You breathe the night in deeply and look up at the stars. How could you forget they could be so dazzlingly bright? And the pines, the fragrance -- the scent of sage or the salty air. You drag your duffel bag up onto the porch and reach for the key hidden in the abandoned wren's nest above the door. The lock has its eccentricities, but even in the dark, you know how to coax it open; after all you installed it yourself. When the groceries have been put away and the lamps are lit low, you light a fire. And as you sit back in that comfy, old chair and look into the lazily flickering flames, you can't begin to imagine what life would be like without the elemental pleasures of a cabin.

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