Planning Off-Grid-Cabin Design in 3D

So I found my self nerding out learning Google Sketchup the other day. The goal was to figure out how best to orient the cabin on our small terrace of level land on our larger sloped property. The green terrain in the photo isn’t exactly right but it’s close enough from memory and about as good as I could draw it.

Check it out:

3d small cabin tiny house with deck and porches

cabin with outhouse

Here’s one (left) that shows the outhouse. This is the real position of the existing outhouse that came with the property. The previous owner installed a nice composting toilet in it. Actually it came with a video! That’s how “high tech” this thing is but I digress.

Below is a drawing of the cabin kit we ordered. It’s going to be an small totally off the grid cabin that uses rain water collection for water. It’s 200 square feet exactly plus a large loft that’s not counted as square footage. The basic dimensions are 12′ x 16′ with a 4′ x 8′ bump out added on. I was attracted to the 2 intersecting roof lines of this kit that I think makes it look a little less shed like 🙂


We wanted to avoid costly permits and other problems they entail by building small. A Micro-Cabin is what people are calling them these days and they seem to be getting popular if blogs like The Tiny House Blog are any indication. Also this is going to be a rustic cabin for us, not a 2nd home. It’s a place to sleep and hang out on rainy days. Most of the time we’ll be cooking outside and hanging outside. We are building near the Olympic National Rainforest so it does rain quite a bit. Hence my plan to add the covered porches. Weather can change really fast there and usually in a bad way.

Owls Clover Cabin Kit from Penny Pincher Barns

The plans come from Penny Pincher Barns also of Washington State. It’s called the Owl’s Clover I found them on the internet and they had a deal that worked for us. They sell the plans and all the materials delivered to your site for one low price. They have a lot of buildings to choose from and even several to get around local building requirements like this one. I don’t know if I would call it a kit since there is some cutting but everything is included…?? So maybe it is a cabin kit.

Here it is Photoshoped on top of our old yurt platform.

This is the view from the other side, taken standing in front of the outhouse. This log shelter we built, may have to be rebuilt… more on that later.


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