Secluded Cabins & Homes (Many Images)

For those who are looking to get away from the cares of the World, you will find these cabins and houses very alluring. They all give you the feeling they would be a great place to get away from the crazy cities, and even from some small towns where too many people know too much about everyones business. Some just homes nestled a perfect out of the way place, some are elaborate cabins, and some are no bigger than a one room cabin. There is one or two old run down shacks no one lives in any more. But who knows.

Pictures can be deceiving however. I'm sure what looks like seclusion to us, could just be the angle the pictures was taken from. Anyway, if your looking to get away, or just want the feeling of getting away, these images should give you a good feeling that someone has gotten away, even if it's just for a weekend.

I also added in the house my wife and I owned when we lived in California before we moved to Idaho. It was after the fire that destroyed paradise. The house is still there, even if we left. Let me know if you can spot it. It's located outside of Chico CA in the Country. A few clues, we had some Redwoods in the yard and a creek I used to fly fish in about 20 yards from our front porch Web Hits

Awesome place. I’m sure the fact you built it with your sons makes it that much more special.

I also read what you wrote about the trespassers and your cure. Great work.

I now live in Eastern Idaho with no trees. About 50 Miles North of Boise. Only because my wife’s parents moved up here, and she wanted to be closer to them. I would have left CA anyway, our home was 10 miles as the bird, and fire, travels from Paradise CA. I would have moved to a more secluded place in Idaho if it were not for my wife’s wishes. but we do what we must.

So, my secluded years have ended. Just as well. My mind is more focused these days on my work for the Lord, but still ever so vigil.

There are a couple of houses near where we lived, but we all kept close touch and no one bothered us. My 2 shepherds dealt with most things. Between them the bobcats, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, dear, and bears now and then most people from the city area knew they had trouble if they came by uninvited.

As for the wooded areas, it depends upon the side of the house. The South side has probably 20 miles, which is towards the town of Paradise that was wiped out. The fire came within 10 miles from us. To the East would be up the hill towards Cohasset area which is 10 miles away. To the North which the side of the house you see, so behind me as I took the picture past the creek is about 3 acres, then it drops down gradually to the Northern San Joaquin Valley area. To the West about 10 Miles you have the Airport which is on the outskirts of Chico Ca.

The picture below was taken near the end of the Summer in 2018. Just a couple of Months before the Paradise fire. It's the back of the house. I had a garden area behind from where I took the picture with a slew of Grapevines that were ready to pluck the year we decided to get out of California. So the family we sold the place to is reaping is reaping my hard work on the grape vines I worked 5 years awaiting the fruit. Well, reaping everything I did.

The one below is the creek area I would walk up and down fly fishing. It is probably 30 feet behind from where I took the picture of the front of the house. I would be telling a lie if I said I was happier where I am now. Yet, it's just a matter of time before that place becomes fuel for a fire in CA . Anyone living outside of the towns in Ca are targets for the fires, because the state will not do what they must to stop them. At 64, I'm not sure I have the energy, nor desire to create up here what I did down there.

The picture of the creek was taken in February a few Months before we moved in 2019. It was the rainy Season. I never had to worry about flooding, because the topographical area had our house on higher ground. The whole world would have to flood for the house to ever be in danger. Come Summer, it was a low slow moving creek that was perfect for fly fishing.

I wax longingly for the place. Thus my desire to write about it. Well, memories are good things

With the computer-controlled cutting and treating technology, new methods of lagging and gasketing the logs, all of the available log profiles, and options you can purchase, you can buy a kit online, have it delivered to a perc-tested site, bring a crew in, the utility companies right behind, and have the fireplace blowing smoke in a matter of a few weeks. The biggest knock on a log home is still the financing and homeowner's insurance. For years I wanted a hand-peeled log home made out of cyprus or cedar with a Swedish cope profile, but as I've gotten older, I've broadened my tastes a bit, considering that I'd spend a lot of time in it. The one thing I won't compromise on is to have it in the hills back home somewhere. I'd take an A-frame with load-bearing open beams and not complain. But a prow front is out. I've never found them to be aesthetically pleasing, although your mileage may vary. And anyone who hangs sheetrock inside a log home is missing the whole point. I don't care if the interior is finished with T&G pine, I want all wood.

Yea, if you are going with a log home you would defeat the purpose to cover the walls.

I remember when I was a young man. I helped my brother build a rectory for a Catholic Church. It was to be the home of the Priest, with the basement area being a meeting room for the elders.

It was in Cloquet MN, which is like 10 Miles from Duluth. The average Winter temp is like 10 to 20 below in Jan and Feb. So they wanted a super duper insulated house that was, at the time, new technology. The plans my brother used were from a Swedish company that was building these homes in Sweden and Finland.

We built it with double exterior walls, and we put two layers of 3/4 inch plywood on the roof. The main frame was 2x4s, with sprayed insulation, but then we put up another wall made from 2x2s and the regular pink rolled out insulation to make for a great barrier from the cold.

Then we wrapped a new technology fiber type of plastic made by Dupont around the whole house, cut the areas out for the doors and windows. Then installed new technology double pain windows, with heavy duty fiber insulated entrance door. We ended up using like 20 or 30 cases of silicone caulking on the place to seal all possible places air could leak through. Including every nail used on the house was caulked with silicone dabbed onto the nail heads.

The house was so tightly sealed that if you farted you would smell it for a Month we figured. However, that is dangerous for many reasons. So, we ended up installing an air to air heat exchanger to keep the air purified.

I remember the day it was tested by the specialists who rated the level of the sealing to insure a proper rating for a super insulated house. CNN was even there to do a news report on the test of the house. This was in 1983 when CNN was still fairly decent.

After ensuring all the doors, and vents from restroom and kitchen were sealed closed on the outside. All vents used to emit gas, including the sewage vents on the roof had to be sealed off for the test.

Then they taped a huge plastic barrier on the front door. With an attachment to connect a massive type of vacuume to suck the air out of the house. As this machine sucked the air, the house would create such a massive vacuum, that a meter would register how much air would come into the house. The rating beat the required number by 200%..

I Must tell you, we were pretty proud of ourselves. It was figured they could heat the place in the Winter for less than $30.00 a Month back then off an electric heater we had installed. Like I said, we are talking Northern MN. near Lake Superior.

Now the reason I share this bit of my history. After the test was complete, the Church elders voted to have a wood fireplace installed down in the meeting room so they could enjoy the warmth and aesthetics of a fireplace.

They completely destroyed the whole idea off a super insulated home. No way you can seal a fireplace with a chimney to keep the place sealed enough for it to keep rated as a super insulated home. The need for a air to air heat exchanger was destroyed, and a complete waste of money.

It would be the same thing as adding sheet rock, wall paper, or paneling on the interior of a Log Home.

Why buy a log home?

Exactly. My ideal is a good variety of kiln-dried log, double T&G with the latest gaskets and a good external chinking compound with a little 'give' to it, to breathe. The kiln drying is going to help eliminate the checking in the wood, as it's already had the resins cooked down and the moisture sucked out of the wood. No log home is going to have a 100% airtight seal to it; no matter how dense the variety of wood it is, there is going to be some porosity to the grain. But that's OK, it's why God created urethane. *chuckle* Just give me a watertight roof, double-paned windows, a solid floor, a shower and flush toilet, and I'll take it from there. I subscribe to Log Home and Timber Frame magazine, and they've gotten so uptown and snotty over the years, they're not even the same publication anymore. They're catering to six figure incomes and trendy milennials. Everything has to be timber frame with shingles everywhere. What the hell ever happened to something simple like Honest Abe Log Homes, have they become so pedestrian now?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.