After getting divorced I bought a 20 X 28 foot cabin on a little lake in Central Minnesota. I bought a little backhoe and dumptruck and spent the summer working with my then 13 year old son and 15 year old daughter lifting it up, adding a basement and second floor loft. It has no attic (SIP panels), no sheetrock, no trim and no hidden wires or plumbing. The small lot size required me to leave one wall standing. As a remodel it was grandfathered in since new construction required a 75 foot setback from the lake and my cabin was only 26 feet from the shore.
That was almost 15 years ago and since then I have helped my son and daughter to renovate houses of their own. I didn’t have much of a budget and lived in the house during the whole project. It’s almost done but at 54 years old I have never lived in a finished house. I am a machinist and engineer so there is a lot of metal and mechanical elements in the house. Part of the second floor is made out of glass blocks, this was something I saw many years ago in “Fine Homebuilding”. My fireplace is a nod towards “Lego Blocks”, where I got may start in construction…
