Beautiful Shed Cabin on Gambier Island B.C.

10x12 vacation cabin with deck

So I just found this small shed cabin project while surfing the internet today. I realize sometimes my posts are about projects that have been featured on other websites. I’m not really sure if my readers have seen them on other sites but I just blog about what I like and hope it interests you too. This Shed Cabin has been shown on Apartment Therapy and also Tiny House Blog (one of my favorites), check them both out. I couldn’t pass this one up since it’s a shed turned into a cabin like ours is. Also their deck is awesome and on my To Do List. If I was in Vancouver I’d totally get a little piece of land in the Canadian Gulf Islands, like they did here on Gambier Island. I’ve never been to this specific island but I can tell you other islands near the inside passage are amazing. In Washington State we have a smaller island group called the San Juan Islands. Being an avid on the cheap boater, I really dig islands and the idea of being secluded and off the grid.

Beautiful Shed Cabin on Gambier Island B.C.

Name: Tammy, John, Sam, Will, and Dobbs
Location: Gulf Islands, British Columbia
Size: 180 square feet
Years lived in: One (mostly on weekends)Before I get started with this tour, I cannot emphasize this enough: My husband and I are not rich and we are not particularly handy. Heck, we’re not even all that smart. This latter fact was probably the driver behind why two people with little money and even fewer skills would even attempt to build a cabin on an isolated island with no amenities. But armed with a hacked $25 shed plan and an incredibly generous friend with actual skills, we gave it a shot. Here’s how it turned out.

Stylishly simple cabin interior with will of translucent corregated roofing

Stylishly simple cabin interior with will of translucent corrugated roofing

The footprint is 10 by 12 feet. That’s right: 120 square feet. The sleeping loft is 6 by 12, making the grand total 180 square feet. The deck, which was added this past spring, is 10 by 10, and boy, does it make a difference. With both doors open, it feels luxuriously spacious, believe it or not. The materials cost – including salvaged windows and doors – was about $7,000.

Cabin Loft framing

Loft framing

View a slideshow of this cabin

To get started, I’ll answer the three questions we get asked most often:

So how big is it?
Before we added the deck, the footprint was 10 by 12 feet. That’s right: 120 square feet. The sleeping loft is 6 by 12 10, making the grand total 180 square feet. The deck, which we added this past spring, is 10 by 10, and boy, does it make a difference. With both doors open, it feels luxuriously spacious, believe it or not.

How much did it cost to build?
The materials cost – including salvaged windows and doors – was about $7,000. But there were a bunch of big expenses along the way. We realized we needed a truck on the island, so we spent $2,000 on an awesome orange 1990 Chevy Blazer. We don’t use it often, but when we need it, we really need it. The propane fridge was $2,500. We needed two barge trips to haul the truck and our supplies, so that was another $2,500. And we spent about $500 to rent a generator and a couple of power tools we didn’t own.

How long did it take?
All told, about two weeks of work for two guys: my husband, John, and our good friend Stefan, who brought a lot of skill and positive thinking to the whole project. And when I say two weeks of work, I’m talking about hardcore workdays. They started in right after breakfast and worked straight through till dusk. If the weather was good, they hooked spotlights up to the generator and worked till late at night.


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5 Responses

  1. cottage hunter says:

    Awesome!

  2. sola9986 says:

    Hi John, sorry about your loss. Our cabin is from Penny Pincher Barns but I’d look at countryplans.com for excellent scalable cabin plans. There is a large community of people that build from these plans and post pictures on the Country plans forums. I’d build a 12×16′ cabin with a single roof pitch if I were to do it again. Ours was way too complicated.

  3. John Bridge says:

    I have, just this august, had my cabin on the sunshine coast (thormanby island) burn down. This summer I dont have the time to commit to a full new cabin but this looks like a week or so project that would be realistic for an interim summer spot.
    Where could i find plans to such a simple quaint and beautiful shack?

  1. March 7, 2013

    […] who stay, it’s worth it to have more freedoms and a slower lifestyle. I featured another cabin on nearby Gambier Island a few years […]

  2. February 14, 2014

    […] who stay, it’s worth it to have more freedoms and a slower lifestyle. I featured another cabin on nearby Gambier Island a few years […]