Quitting your job to build a cabin deep in the woods doesn’t leave you penniless.
At least that’s a message from Cabin, a new book by Patrick Hutchison, who left his dreary office job in Seattle for a life as a carpenter in the emerald forests of Washington state.
According to Hutchison, quitting as a copywriter to work with his hands didn’t make him a millionaire, but it didn’t make him into financial oblivion either.
“If you really want something, and you’re super committed to it, you just keep banging your head against the wall trying to figure it out,” Hutchison told DailyMail.com.
“Something will happen eventually.”
The book details how, in 2012, Hutchison bought a small dilapidated cabin in the mossy pine forests of the Cascade Mountains for $7,000, advertised on Craigslist.com by a local resident named Tony.
It was an “extra large dog house” measuring only 10 feet by 10 feet, infested with spiders and little more than a “dark, musty, disgusting hole” with a swampy driveway and no electricity or plumbing deep in the woods.
But Hutchison was looking for a way to quit copywriting and spend a weekend hanging out in the woods with friends, playing with power tools and drinking bourbon.
Their first cabin project was little more than a spider-infested cabin with no plumbing or electricity
The sunset views of the Cascade Mountains along the Skykomish River are breathtaking
Patrick Hutchison enlisted friends to turn his cabin dreams into a new lifestyle
He was joined by Bryan Schatz, a friend from California who also wanted to get out of his nine-to-five.
Other friends who drove into the woods for a weekend to saw, drill and then grill steaks as the sun set.
It cost about $20,000 to upgrade the rickety cabin, which eventually sold for $52,000 during the pandemic, when remote property values soared.
Considering the number of days you’ll be working in the woods, that may not be the best return on your investment.
But for Hutchison and Schatz, it was a chance to learn new skills and lay the groundwork for more complicated and lucrative cabin projects.
“Each project becomes a kind of stepping stone to the next,” Hutchison says.
“What we like most about him is making it, and not having it.”
The next project was a plot of land near the Skykomish River, purchased for $3,000 in 2018, where the friends built a cabin from scratch.
It was much harder than expected: waking up at 5 a.m. for long days of sliding around in the mud on the rolling land and driving long distances to get wood and tools.
Their projected budget for materials and tools ended up being more than doubled to $60,000, and it took many months longer to complete than planned.
This one was “more complete” and included a kitchen and bathroom, Hutchison says. It eventually sold for $115,000.
Hutchison was tired of his nine-to-five copywriting job in Seattle and wanted to work with his hands
Hutchison and his friends spent weekends working on the cabin, which is located in the mossy conifer forests of the Cascade Mountains.
He spent about $20,000 upgrading the rickety cabin and eventually sold it for $52,000 during the pandemic
Hutchison has written all about his hut-building experience in a book published this month
Hutchison’s cabin building partner Bryan Schatz enjoys breakfast on the deck of the newly renovated cabin
Their most ambitious project to date was building a cabin from scratch on a $20,000 plot of land
This hut is ‘more complete’ than their first attempt, with a large round window earning the name ‘the cyclops’
The materials to build the Cyclops were $100,000, but it sold this year for $320,000
Perhaps their greatest success to date was the third attempt, a more elaborate and sophisticated cabin called the ‘Cyclops’ because of its large round window.
The land cost $20,000 and the materials $100,000, but this year it sold for $320,000.
It has been featured on Cabin Porn, an enthusiast website, and the current owners rent it out for $136 a night on Airbnb.
The friends are now looking at plots and breeding plans for a fourth hut. Hutchison has land on the Olympic Peninsula that he wanted to develop.
They still have regular jobs, but use their newly acquired skills as carpenters and no longer have to toil in offices.
Hutchison builds elaborate backyard treehouses for the wealthy in the Pacific Northwest, Schatz makes furniture.
“This whole thing started because we weren’t happy working a nine-to-five desk,” Hutchison says.
‘We both now have jobs that we find much more satisfying. When I’m working, I have tools in my hand and I’m chopping wood and building things. That was the ultimate goal.”
He adds, “I feel incredibly lucky to have had that opportunity and made that decision.”