The Trades

Back to the Cabin! So far, we've built everything on and inside of the Cabin with our own four hands – except for the concrete pillars on which the Cabin stands. Those were driven into the ground by Muffin Jim. What we don't dare to do with our own hands - additionally to the concrete pillars - are electricity and plumbing. Fortunately, we have both an electrician and a plumbing expert as our not-far-away-new-neighbors. After initial communication problems due to wrong phone numbers, we consult the two colleagues, and sooner than you think, we have electricity in the cabin and water pipes and a water connection. Fantastic.

Electrics

To make sure the electrician (Dillon, not Dillan!) knows where to put the individual outlets and light fixtures, we sat down again and created a detailed construction plan with all the necessary information. It looks like this:

As you can see, the Cabin consists of three areas: Bathroom, Main House, and Bedroom. Probably the most difficult part of planning the electrical system is to consider or predict the flow. This means how you will move through the room and therefore where you will need light switches, etc. "How" does not matter whether you float, run or do cartwheels, but rather from where to where you go, which areas you need lit along the way and where you should/would/could de-light them. For example, when you enter the cabin, there should be a light switch that turns on the lights in the main house. If you then move through the main house and go to the bathroom, there should be a way to turn the light off again near the bathroom. Sounds logical, right? Basically, it is. But the whole thing has to be well thought out, because you (we) don't want to have unnecessarily many light switches.

Plumbing

We also have energetic support for all questions concerning sewage. We had been trying for a long time to find a plumber who would help us to get the sewage out of the cabin and fresh water in beforehand. Al was warmly recommended to us from several parties. That is why we tried to contact him several times by phone and by message. Unsuccessfully. Only when we talked to our electrician about the fact that Al unfortunately did not answer our messages, we found out that we did not have his mobile phone number, but rather his landline. Of course, his landline number will not be answered during the day, because Al is usually on the road, and text messages do not reach it. Mystery solved and plumber found.

So after successfully contacting the plumber thanks to Dillon, we promptly met with Al on site shortly thereafter. There we discuss everything that needs to be discussed, and poof we get the info a few days later that this and that is already done. That's what makes it fun. As you can see in the plan above, the bathroom will be equipped with a shower, a toilet, a water tank and a washing machine connection. For the toilet, by the way, we have decided without further ado for a Composting Toilet . This will save us the expense of building a septic system, which would cost a spectacular $30,000 CAD, since we can connect the toilet to the existing septic system.

The Cabin Today

So, when we enter the construction site in mid-February, we find not only a fuse box and several sockets, but also supply and waste pipes. The toilet, by the way, was also already delivered by the manufacturer. It got a temporary accommodation in the garage from our very good friend Sabine, who resisted her brother's suggestion to take a test shit (Pardon my French!). Thanks for that. And thanks for everything else too!