Cabin restoration project – Finishing the sauna interior, and a new direction for the project

Hey guys and gals. It’s been a while! Since the last installment of this series, I have finished renovating the interior of the sauna building, so I thought I’d give you an update on that, as well as fill you in on the new direction the project is taking.

Last time, I showed that the changing room floor was almost complete. I have since finished the floor, molding etc. and, with the help of the Woodsboy, furnished that tiny room with some items salvaged from the old farm house: a little rug, a cot, a small folding table and an upholstered chair. Normally, a changing room like this would only have a bench or some chairs, but until there is a larger cabin on the property, this is the way it will stay.

As for the sauna side of the building, I’m happy to say it no longer looks like this:

Unfortunately, the nasty rotten floor boards in that room weren’t the only problem with the sauna. Removing the heat-shielding panels from behind the old sauna stove also revealed extensive water (and ant) damage resulting from a leak in the chimney. So I removed all the rotten and damaged wood from that room and enlisted the help of more experienced fellows to help me get the room into shape. We installed new floor boards, new wall boards, special waterproof trim around the bottom of the walls and some profiling along the drainage channel in the floor to protect the wood from water damage.

Next came the most important item in the sauna: the stove! I received this second-hand stove for free, which I was very happy about! Heat-shielding panels were installed around the stove to protect the wall. As you can see, the stove features a hot-water tank which allows you to heat water for bathing.

The final step in finishing the sauna was to sand and treat the benches.

With this, the interior of the sauna building is finished. What’s left is to make new steps out front to replace the rotting ones and give the exterior a new coat of paint. I will also dig out some of the soil under the building and replace it with gravel for better water drainage.

And now: the new direction of the overall project! Originally, the plan was to renovate all or part of the old farm house for use as a cabin…

…and to set up a small, one-room milled-plank cabin kit nearby which could be used while the house was being repaired and then later serve as a guest house. Unfortunately, it turns out that the amount of money and time required to renovate the old house will simply not be available anytime soon, so I scrapped this plan. While thinking of alternatives, I took stock of the existing buildings at the farm and realized that there might be some potential in the building I always called “the barn” (it’s actually more of a storage building, but one of the rooms does have animal stalls).

Admittedly, it looks like the building is about to fall over, but the log walls are in good condition and the building does have a decent amount of floor space. So I had a professional contractor who specializes in log buildings come out to assess the situation and I told him that I’d like to convert the two rooms on the right into a two-room cabin with a loft (the room on the left is not part of the original structure and would be scrapped). He said it shouldn’t be a problem, so that’s the new plan!

On my last trip out to the farm, I was accompanied by my friend Alex of 62nd Parallel North, who helped me empty the storage building of the junk (and good stuff) that had been piled up in there over the decades. Once we got the stuff out, I was happy to see that the logs were in even better condition than I thought.

Soon I will return to the property and remove the roof of this building in preparation for the contractor to come and dismantle it and reassemble it in a better location. He’ll install new floors, a new loft, a new roof, remove part of the wall inside to connect the two rooms, put in a new door and windows and install a wood-burning stove, among other things. Funding for the project will come from the sale of timber recently harvested from the property. By the way, in case you’re wondering, the total floor space of the cabin, including the loft, will be about 30.5 m2 (330 sq ft).

Seeing as how it’s been over two months since my last post, I’m sure some of you have wondered about the status and future of my blog. I’m happy to say that I have no intention of quitting! As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been dealing with something major in my personal life, but I am moving past this and have lots of plans for future blog posts on bushcraft, homesteading, the cabin and more. Please do stay tuned. 🙂