The Cabin Within the Cabin, at Tangent Lodge

Hard to believe that with temps hovering around +85 degrees, winter, snow, and long cold spells are foremost on our minds this weekend. Mary commented the other day that we,re 11 weeks into this remodeling project. I reminded her that actually computes to about 11 days, as we only get one day per week to do any real work.

Our project on this visit is to do away with the nice wide open arch between the living room and kitchen. I'll be closing in the wall and installing a 32" wide door.

With today's "open floor plan" designs being the most popular, this may seem crazy, and counter to popular desires. Let me assure you we have one very critical thought in mind by making it possible to close off the kitchen area from the rest of the house.

Originally, this cabin was built with a 24'x24' foot print. It appears that in short order it was discovered that the space was too confining. Though the building was completely closed in, siding, insulation and wiring in place, they expanded one end by adding a 12'x24' addition. From the outside the give away is the vertical trim piece at the point where the addition meets the original structure. Likewise, inside the seam in the concrete floor shows where the addition slab meets up with the original floor.

This situation presents an interesting situation. Within the much smaller addition is the kitchen, bathroom and a small guest bedroom. In actuality a complete little cabin in itself that is full insulated. With all the plumbing located together, in a relatively small space, the cost of heating that critical area through -30 degree weather would be a fraction of heating the whole cabin. A big deal when you consider the building will be unoccupied at least 4 days out of the week.

Sure the water system could be drained and winterized removing the need for heat all together, but lets face it, what's the point of having a cabin if you can't use it whenever you want to.

With the smaller cabin within the cabin heated just below the comfort level, when we arrive during cold weather we can hangout there while the woodstove in the living room brings the house up to a toasty temperature.

To accomplish this transformation I filled in most of the archway with a studded, insulated, and sheet rocked wall. I chose the door more for looks than insulation value. A natural pine 4 panel interior pre-hung unit that was on sale for $65. OK, the low price was also a consideration when I was shopping.

To counteract the heat lose from this un-insulated door, during the winter months a panel of 2" Styrofoam insulation will be popped into the door jam before we leave for home. When we're gone it will take a minimum of heat maintain the critical portion of the building at a temperature high enough to prevent frozen plumbing.

Of course this does leave one big question. As the recently installed woodstove is the only current source of heat, how will the cabin within the cabin be heated? Baseboard electric heat, but that's next weekends project. Check back at Tangent Lodge and see how we do that.