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Home & Interior Design books:
Cabins: A Guide to Building Your Own Nature Retreat

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Authors David and Jeannie Stiles give readers all the information they need to build their own cabins -- whether it be as a wilderness retreat or a backyard studio. The authors describe each step in the process from buying land to obtaining services, from finding qualified construction help to deciding on and developing plans for a structure that suits their lifestyle and budget. Cabins is packed with detailed illustrations, plans and common-sense advice.

Chapters include classic construction methods: how to build a log cabin, pole-built and stick-built cabin, post-and-beam, stone, cordwood and kit cabins. Construction methods are clearly illustrated in photographs and drawings and the advantages of each are explained in detail. Foundations, windows, doors, insulation, roofing, installing utilities, water and sanitary systems and heating are all discussed.

Many designs are presented as inspiration and to help readers select the cabin that is perfect for them: homesteader log cabin, writing cabin, guest cabin, Japanese moon-gazing cabin, lakeside retreat, pyramid and A-frame, and hillside Mediterranean cabin. The authors include personal reminiscences from successful builders and cabin owners, and discuss furnishings and accessories that can help readers get the most enjoyment out of their newly built wilderness retreat.

Good & Workable -
Ive begun a mission to build a small cabin on some family property here in Oregon. Recently, Ive done a good deal of research and purchased 5 notable books on how to build a cabin/small dwelling.
Upon reviewing this material it looks like its well thought out, but is lacking in alot of depth. Gives a wonderful representation of what could be done, and what is possible (something which other books lack).
Out of these 5 books, Ive got two which will carry me to the end with great depth, and 3 that will be "reserves" for ideas. This is definitely the top of my reserve pile, and my first for pictures of ideas.

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Many good ideas and a few good laughs -
As others have noted, this is a useful book for generating ideas and getting the creative juices flowing. I bought it to obtain those features, and it did not disappoint me.

The Stiles are, apparently, a prolific couple on this and similar topics, and they certainly deserve credit for effective packaging and marketing. David Stiles has filled the book's pages with material--some good, some irrelevant, and some good for entertainment--but he certainly has filled it nonetheless. The layout and tone of this book is vaguely reminiscent of a copy of an early 1970s Mother Earth News. The reader's challenge is to extract the kernals of insight from the volumes of chaff. What the book lacks in detailed engineering and construction discussion and techniques it makes up for in peripheral and, in some cases, funny advice. Consider the detailed description of the electronic vehicle-arrival and gate-unlocking monitors--this in a book purported to find ways to get one in touch with mother nature and perhaps forego electricity entirely. Or the sketch plan for the garden-hose remedy against racoons infiltrating your metal trashcan. The advice is intriguing enough, but one suspects that a bit more discussion on well-installation or obtaining running water might be in order before turning to a technological solution involving the use of pressurized water for a racoon problem. Given the Stiles' ties to Manhattan, maybe the accepted security measures of their current environment don't seem quite as ridiculous or irrelevant as they probably do to anyone who actually lives in a rural area. Or consider their admonition against Coleman lanterns being "Scary and hard to light." Hmmm, I, too, have fears and I'm certainly not the most dexterous fellow, but I've learned that five minutes of hands-on practice can turn even the most hardcore urbanite into a safe and proficient Coleman-lantern lighter. Something tells me Mr. Stiles has not taken the time to do the same, and this casts a disconcerting pall over the value of much of his other advice. How much of it has actually been tried?

But this book is valuable for the focus it gives to architecture and perhaps encouraging one to pick up a tablet of graph paper and start sketching floorplans or facades; extract those ideas and use them as fodder for formulating your own. Read the rest with a grain of salt. For a more focused, pragmatic, and obviously tested perspective on cabin-building, get a copy of G. Wayne Fears' "How to Build Your Dream Cabin."

A lot of general information but not comprehensive. -
This book has been quite valuable to me as I plan my cottage in Canada. While it is not totally comprehensive, it does a very good job of explaining many of the relevant concepts of cabin planning, design and a fair idea of the building process. Some useful details concerning construction techniques are provided, as well.

Other reviewers have argued that much is left out--correct, given that the book only runs 240 pages. I think that those reviewers misunderstand the intent of the book: to give the reader ideas, not to hand-hold them through every single step of the process. For example, many of the building plans that are provided are lacking in some key details. So what? I intend to have an architect draw up my plans anyway.

At minimum, I know a heck of a lot more after reading the book than I did beforehand.

Terrific Informational Read - NOT Blueprints or Plans, Though -
I'm tending to agree with both sides here! And I think it's a great book. I have been reading building and cabin books for a year (we're building this Summer). This one is pretty great - a good way to inform yourself about options, the decisions you need to make, kinds of cabins, etc. Another reviewer writes as if I were going to go out and build my cabin based on the info in this book. Now that would be silly wouldn't it? I need architect drawn plans. So read this wonderful book, and go buy some plans. No, yt's not a how-to, and it shouldn't be used that way. But it's still a great book.

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Great book on Cabins -
We used the ideas in this book to add nice touches to our Mt. Rainier cabin rental. The photos are great and the projects well described. the ideas are very creative.