Alright readers. Are you ready for another inspirational DIY adventure? It all starts in this humble little 700 sf cabin you see above in the sleepy little town of Midway Utah. Inspired, or just crazy, Calder and Starr were able to turn a lot of hard work into a fantastic modern meets rustic home. But that was just the beginning. Keep reading after the jump. I promise this is one story you are not going to want to miss.
Downstairs is a simple, but modern kitchen/living room with a nice island. I really like the contrast of the clean modern lines of the kitchen with the log walls. You can see from this picture too that the space is not huge. I'm pretty sure this is entire width of the house we are looking at.
Upstairs is the bedroom and bathroom. Again, I love the contrast of the white walls and wood. I also love how minimal and clutter free the room is. It looks like there is good storage built in on the sides too.
Calder didn't mention much about the work that went into the cabin, but from the next part of the story, I think it's safe to assume it was a lot of DIY labor.
So, what do you do when you have a 700 square foot home, and you are looking to expand your little family of two? Get an architect.
This is basically what they had to start with. You can see the cabin in the foreground, and in the back is a barn. It should be noted that the barn wasn't originally on the property. The entire thing was disassembled, moved to the property, and reassembled. Yeah, that's right. This family moves barns for fun in their spare time. Hardcore.
This is the plan that architect Todd Drennan came up with. Todd also has a modern home in Midway. The new modern structure actually connects with the original cabin, keeping a nice separate but together juxtaposition.
Once construction began I have a good feeling that a family that can move barns is willing to pitch in and do a lot of the construction themselves. This DIY spirit and some resourcefulness I think is one of the keys to keeping construction costs down on modern projects. I love the fact that Calder seems like the kind of guy that doesn't know what the word impossible means. Want an example? A two story home needs stairs right? Stairs need stair treads right? So what's the obvious thing to use for stair treads if you are a guy that moves barns. Why reclaimed wood from a bowling alley of course.
Another example you say? Sure. Here is my favorite. What do you clad a beautiful modern home like this with? Some nice stonework would be a great choice, but that would be crazy expensive right? Not if you collect all the stone from a old city building that was torn down and cut it down to the right dimensions yourself. Yeah, that's right. I said splitting your own stone. I didn't even know that was possible.
This is the building the stone came from.
After what must have been an incredible amount of stacking, moving, splitting, the stone was ready for the house. For all the details, and some fantastic pictures of the process, check out this post on their blog.
The end result?
Impressed doesn't seem to do justice to the way I feel.