Explore and Explore: My Small Shack - reclaimed materials and windfallen trees

So I started building a shack three summers ago on my parents property. I had no previous building experience, and no real plan.

The logs were harvested from wind-fallen trees around the property. I bought some 2x4's to frame the skeleton of the structure, and some concrete blocks to prop the structure up off the ground

In hindsight I should have turned the roof beams on edge in order to maximize load-bearing capacity.

I finally returned home this summer, and decided to continue tinkering with the shack. I picked up a window and door for about five dollars each.

I was also lucky enough to get some scrap metal roofing from a family friend, who had just completed building her own log cabin. I randomly started infilling the walls with logs collected from around my parents eighteen acre property.

I found another wooden door and a lot of miscellaneous pieces of wood from a local scrap yard. The more you reuse, the more affordable making a structure like this can be. My mom and aunt decided to "spruce up my shack" by adding the colorful solar-powered "party" lights...

The shack also benefits from a large amount of evergreens being conveniently located on it's north side - somewhat sheltering it from prevailing winds.

I decided I wanted to add a look-out tower to the eastern side of my shack. There are a few local shipbuilders in the area who dump a lot of their scrap wood off on an old, rarely used, historic road. Luckily for me, most of the wood is still in great shape - the entire tower is built from that salvaged wood.

A pile of salvaged wood.

Some salvaged wire mesh and small concrete slabs from old lobster traps.

Close-up view of the first floor of the tower.

I used old tire rims to prop the ladder and tower posts up off the ground, to minimize water damage and rot.

I decided to spend some money and get a few packs of cedar shingles to cover the outer walls of the shack. In total it took three bundles, at twenty dollars per bundle. Normally you only expose five inches of the shingle, but I exposed six-and-a-half inches in order to stretch the shingles as much as possible. I was reluctant to put any more money into this thing, but I decided the functionality this provides would make it a worthy investment.

I secured some sturdy logs to the tower in order to increase its stability and strength.

While I was building the shack, my parents were working on an outhouse. I was able to use a lot of their scraps to start filling in around the windows.

By attaching these thin strips of wood to the back of the structure, it gave me a secure and level surface to attach the cedar shingles to. I used a staple gun to attach the shingles to the wood strips.

Using logs found around the property, I started building a front overhang. The front posts are propped off the ground with bricks.

I decided to cover the front overhang with a double layer of clear plastic - this provides shelter at the front of the shack, while still allowing light in.

In the woods beside the old historic road, there was also a large pile of old lobster traps. I salvaged a bunch of wire mesh from them, and used it to reinforce the plastic sheeting. The gap between plastic sheeting and metal roofing is covered by more scrap metal.

I decided the tower needed more secure ladders. Using a level and measuring tape, I marked along the logs at one-foot intervals where a notch would be cut for the step. After sawing along the markings, I notched out the small piece of wood with a hammer and chisel.

Lastly, I slid the steps into the notched out spaces, and secured them down with screws.

I painted the corner posts and bottom boards with fisherman paint I found in my parents basement. The cedar shingles should last untreated for decades, but the other wood isn't as hardy, and needs some added protection.

I also framed some of the wire mesh and used it as walls on the tower - it allows the wind to pass through the structure without shaking the whole thing.