Ever wonder what motivates a person to go into an uncommon line of work – like building tiny cabins?

image from: http://www.kevinscabins.com/index.html

I love a good personal story behind an unusual shelter. Dwellings are all about people, after all. It’s easy to forget that fact in our modern fast-paced real estate world filled with assembly line, carbon copy McMansions.

So when I came across one of Kevin’s custom mini cabins on the Tiny House Blog a couple of weeks ago, I was intrigued.

I emailed Kevin to see if he might be interested in having some of his cabins featured on my website. He wrote me back with his personal story – the story of why he started building mini cabins in the first place. I found it compelling so [with Kevin's permission] I wanted to share it with you.

Below is Kevin’s story as told in his own words – and interspersed with photos of his work:

My story begins about twenty years ago. I’ve always dreamed of building my own home and raising a family. Neither one has happened …yet. 

I’ve been self employed most of my life and love being creative. My family came over from Norway to America before I was born. They had the American dream …buy a home with the white picket fence. I’ve aways been close with my family and especially my mother. She had a dream to own her own home and raise her family there. When I was in my early twenties it finally happened.

She told me she was going to try a bank loan. My father worked a lot and was away most of the time. With a lot of praying and persistence the loan went through. I was so excited for her. I took the next six months to build the house. I felt as if it was my home also and was not going to let her down. It wasn’t easy. The headaches and stress from building the home seemed endless. On Christmas eve we were finished and moved in.  I stayed for about a year then moved out. I always came back on weekends to help around the house.

image from: http://www.kevinscabins.com

At the same time I had purchased a five acre piece of property with money I had been saving for years.  I was hoping to build my own home on it some day. I had all the timbers and lumber cut by a saw mill for a timber frame home. All the mortis and tendon joints I made by hand which took me weeks to do.  I found out that the township where the property was did not give extensions on building permits. They wanted everything done and completed in six months. I was figuring on maybe two or three years to build my home. A little at a time as the money came in. I couldn’t do anything but wait and cover the timbers and lumber from the rain and snow. 

image from: http://www.kevinscabins.com/index.html

It took me years to save up enough money to try again but about five years ago my mom passed away. What a living hell!!  My father was upside down with all the bills which he never payed attention to when she was alive. So to keep the home from going into foreclosure I helped him financially. I put my dream on hold again.

We all chipped in, even my sister and her family moved in to help out. I guess you can say we were a little bit like the Amish. Three different generations living under one roof  helping one another to get through a tough time.

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