We are starting small, quite small, but really what much more do you need in a cabin. We just bought a rustic cabin today. We actually stayed up there this Saturday - Sunday to see if we liked the area (Mille Lacs) and to see if we wanted to buy this rustic cabin. It is a one-room cabin with electric that is only 12x18 in size. Outside there is a storage shed that has a kitchen set up in it with counters, fridge & microwave plus other small electric kitchen appliances. There is lots of outside deck (some boards we will need to replace right away). Inside is bunk beds, sleep sofa, cpl end tables, a coffee table, dresser and portable closet and a table with chairs and an AC. PLus a firefit and weeber charcoal grill outside too. It is carpeted and has an electric baseboard heater, but you can hook up a furnace in there, as there is a gas line running in/out that you can put propane tanks on.
The top picture is of the side with the door and you can see some of the decking. The deck run across in the side front door area and around the back side of the cabin, and across in front of the shed from the cabin.
This is the view of the lot with the cabin, shed and small metal shed (on the left) for wood. The decking does go out past the kitchen shed. As you can see there is plenty of parking in front to park the boat and a couple cars (our car is park, but it is further to the right & back, so out of the picture).
We only bought the cabin/sheds/and everything in them. The lot is rented seasonally & year round in a resort community. There is a heated bathhouse just a little ways down that is heated year round too. We will be renting it year round so that it can be used as a destination for ice fishing and year round fishing.
We plan to do a little work on it to replace deck boards and give it more curb appeal and fix the bottom of the door side (some exterior rot at the bottom but doesn't go through more than a 2x4) and hope to put in a couple more windows (there is only 2 windows right now) in the spring. We want to add one to the front and then another one on the door side.
The kids are very excited. There is a playset on the seasonal lot side and a BIG brand new playset over on the motel/resort side (the two sides are separated by a road, the motel/resort side is on the lake). We can use both. There is also a restaurant at the resort, as well as kids play area with video/book library in the office. There is also a boat ramp/ boat wash area/ & fish cleaning shack to use. As well as shuffle board, volleyball & tetherball and a fishing pier. The resort is right on Mille Lacs.
We bought it from friends who also own a little larger cabin a little closer. The hardly used this one so they wanted to part with it so they weren't paying the lot fees anymore and could use the money we paid to buy the cabin & sheds to fix up there other cabin which needs work.
We'll do a little redecorating inside to give it our own personal touch, but since it's small there isn't much to do. And we are thinking of rearranging the furniture a bit to change it up and possibly add in some other kind of either bunk or futon/bunk or murphy bed for a different sleeping and conversation area. The couch is fine to sit on and to sleep on as a couch, but the sleeper part is not at all. So we are figuring out what we want to do.
So, it's a starting point for a cabin and we don't have to wait until we are retired to have one. And it's still
kinda like camping, a little. But now we don't have to haul all our stuff with us. Just pack a suitcase and cooler and head on up. It is a 2 hour 50 minute drive to there from our house.
There are Sooooo many lakes up there we are excited to explore and 2 state parks within 5-10 miles of the cabin. One of them is huge and has lots of XXC ski trails and snow shoe trails, as well as a swimming beach & regular trails and sledding hill and warming house and boat launches. And there are lots of ATV and snowmobile trails there too. Next we'll have to get a 4-wheeler. :)
Hubby is pretty happy. Let him get a boat last summer, this summer we get a rustic cabin, maybe a 4-wheeler next summer. All the toys he's ever wanted. LOL!
