Erik Vestman and Nils Petter Löfstedt  build a secret home in Malmö, Sweden.

Thanks Luna Park for sharing this one.

We’ve done so much to the cabin I don’t even no where to start! Well, how about with the door. A few weeks back we built a whole front to seal the draft of the cabin. Even earlier we stumbled upon a stoop sale where we scored an Ikea tabletop for $10 that seemed more ideal as a door. Then just further up the way in Bed Stuy we bought the inner portion of an old mantle for $15. We put ‘em together and WAH-BAMM, a creepy Medieval feeling door.  We added two big hand-pulls that we got at the Connecticut farmhouse.  Because nothing in the cabin is really square we were left with a very uneven gap between the door and the existing frame.  But with some creatively cut 2x4’s, shims, and some awesome old tin molding scored from an apartment remodel on the lower east side, we were able to make a square, snug, and pretty looking door frame.  The door fits so snugly in fact we don’t even need any hardware to keep it shut tight, just a little shove.

Came up on a ton of molding being thrown out. Cut it up and sanded it down to begin the interior of the new front. Kind of feel like I live in a Parisian Anthropologie after seeing the window/molding combo. But you know what, I’m into it.

So we don’t have a designated “art night” but art night seems to be happening a lot over at the cabin. After dry walling the main room one wall has become the official studio for working on works on paper for wheat pasting. It seems that all this has triggered new plans for the cabin design. Which means I’ll start designing new ways to hang and hold 48” rolls of paper, areas for brushes, troughs for mixing wheat paste, and most importantly, a place for speakers so I can kick out some serious Beyonce and Lil’ Wayne. Here’s a few pics from the last art night and the work that went up by N.D’A, White Cocoa, and Overunder.

A flowerbed made from a police barricade; just what every cabin needs! So far I’m growing some hot peppers and a plant that’s a natural mosquito repellent. I’ve already forgot the name though. I blame my pickled green brain and my spray paint black thumb.

Spent the weekend with my lovely assistant White Chocolate putting in some dry wall and painting the place. We went for a KILZ white hoping to lighten up the dingy-factor. So far so good. 

I recently moved into a cabin built in the backyard of an East Williamsburg apartment. Rent is $150/month and the space is rustic, minimal, and eye-opening. I’ve lived in Brooklyn off-and-on since the summer of 2007 and have always been on a quest for cheaper alternatives to the bloated real-estate “situation”. And finally, I think I may have found it!

My first apartment was a remodeled 2-bd Bushwick apartment on Menahan. This was followed by a Bed Stuy Brownstone on Willoughby. Subsequent to living in Brooklyn I ping ponged to SF to tread in even further inflated prices.

Enough is enough!

In mid March I left SF for good and spent the next 2 months bicycling across Europe from Lisbon, Portugal to Copenhagen, Denmark. Traveling for such an extended period with minimal funds resulted in making home wherever my tired legs found refuge. To say the least, I was homeless and developing a new appreciation for my sleeping bag. Along the way I slept on Basque Sheephearders hillsides, eroded foundations, fields of bulls, under Walnut trees, beneath freeway underpasses, in a Spanish church, on the street, against an elevator, under a radio tower, beside the guardrail, amongst fields of Oranges, in East Berlin flats, and on a docked boat. All the change in “homes” opened my eyes to the concept of making a home. So when I was offered the opportunity to live in a handmade Cabin I jumped at it. 

Over the summer, fall, and winter I’ll use this tumblr as a depository for photos, home-improvement tips, construction ideas de jour, and more. I hope you enjoy the posts and feel free to leave your own building tips.