What is the plan B if you can't build a cabin before snow falls? I've seen cabins built within a week, but with 10-15 people working. You two may not have enough manpower to work with heavy materials, and not enough experience to organize the work optimally. I also read that you plan to work for someone else during this time...
Could it be that a trailer instead of a cabin is a better solution, especially if you rent it? You'd need a good deal of money, and a year, to build a permanent house. I don't know what prices in TN might be, but in CA you probably need $200,000 to have just bare necessities - foundation, walls, roof, water, septic, and likely some driveway.
This is a standard problem with land - it costs so little exactly because you need to pour plenty of cash into it before it becomes usable. I know people who, instead of ordering the house built, decided to build one themselves. It took them at least 20 years to get to some semblance of completeness, and by then pieces of it started falling off. To find out what costs you will be facing you need to talk to a local architect (since you can't build anything anyway without plans prepared and signed by a licensed architect.) Also you'll need to research the soil at the lot because the foundation has to be built accordingly, and in some places you can't get a permit without such a research. You also need to have water investigated, because a well is probably your only source of water. Test the water sample in a lab for chemical and biological contaminants.
Another option, of course, is to just buy land with some house on it, already built. This will cost you more, but you take no risk on construction. This depends on getting a mortgage, which might be tough these days, considering that you will need a new job when 10% are unemployed...
Echoes my thinking exactly.
There are LOTS of foreclosures in TN, and many are owned by the USDA.
You could spend $30K getting power to a patch of land, performing perc tests, soil test for a foundation...... before you pour your first bucket of concrete. Easily. VERY easily.
I’d have to say....in the current environment, you can buy a home so darn close to what it would cost to build...that unless you had serious resources on the ground, in place, and experience building; it would be foolish to build.