What Matters Most

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What Matters Most   Dale Mulfinger lives in cabin world.  Amidst the lakes and forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin, he intimately knows about cabin life through owning his personal cabin and also by designing cabins for others.

“People generally pick a location [for their cabin] based on something they want to do there.  They may be trout fishermen, or they may be cross country skiers, or sailing people.  They’ll have some type of activity that draws them toward a particular location.  And once they’re drawn there, they’ll pick a very particular piece of land that has hills or trees associated with it…and, the specifics of that piece of land will really shape what the possibilities of the cabin can be.”

Mulfinger elaborates further, “We tend to go to remote cabin sites to enjoy an intimate friendship that we don’t often experience in our daily lives.”  Living the cabin life is an opportunity to enjoy each other’s camaraderie in a pristine location.  Cabins should be open-ended places that are easy to use and built for playful, relaxing comfort.

Dale reminds us that we’re not going to our local furniture store to furnish our cabin.  “I tend to call the style of this type of furniture ‘early attic.’  It’s those things that possibly went up into your attic for awhile or grandma’s attic for awhile, and then they were pulled out to go into the cabin.”

Cabins also become a place where you can “…recycle those windows and doors, kitchens cabinets and other things that are no longer beneficial to you in your place in the city but certainly can be used at your cabin.”  If you remodel your primary residence, then you can reuse products and materials at your cabin; it’s another way to practice green living.

“We all live a little bit differently.  We all have different sets of furniture and things we bring to the cabin.  We all have different needs in terms of how big a cabin should be and in terms of serving the people that we’re going to bring there with us.  So, all of that leads to a very personal interpretation of what size, shape and form a cabin is going to be right for you.”

Cabins give us a chance to get away from our normal routines.  We enjoy activities in the cabin that we don’t normally do in our primary residence.  Mulfinger continues, “I think it’s fun to step forward and do things that are a little unique, things that are possibly done only when you’re at your cabin.  Whether you’re cleaning fish or canning fruit or whatever you may be doing, it’s fun to do it at the cabin in a special way and make it something that others can participate in.”

No Single Best Way

From traditional to modern, cabins embrace a range of architectural styles.  “There are huge possibilities as to what we can build a cabin with today.  There are old systems that have been resurrected, such as loga and timber frame construction that are available to us.  There are also normative systems, which is building out of studs and rafters.  Or, you can build it out of SIP panels–structural insulated panels.”  Your personal taste, the local architecture and the knowledge of the local contractors will largely determine the method and style of construction.

There’s also an opportunity to hybrid a design combining elements of both traditional and modern styles.  There’s no single best way to build.  “What we have in our cabin in definitely a hybrid.  I think people would refer to it as a stick-built cabin but we expose a lot of the timbers in it so you get a bit of the timber look.  They [the timbers] are doing real work.  They’re not superflous.  They’re not just decoration.  They’re actually performing real structural tasks.  Some of the vertical columns are tree trunks so they add a whimsy and fun atmosphere to the place.”

Mulfinger also points out that the work of building a cabin doesn’t need to be accomplished in one summer.  Construction can be extended over several years.  “I think it’s a pretty common pattern, particularly for people who do it themselves that they build enough to make it habitable to begin with and then they gradually add to it.  Or, they might build the whole shell then gradually embellish the interior over time.  There are many possibilities for how you can invest over time at your cabin.”

It seems that most hideaways capture their unique appeal by assigning a cabin a distinctive name.  “Often times, you’ll give your cabin a name.  Or, if it’s your name, a family name that you’re going to put on it, you might extend that name to mean something.  So, it might be ‘Smith Haven’ or if your name might be Wood then it would be ‘Raven Wood.’  There might be some adaptation from your name to the name of this place that you think of going to for respite and retreat.”

Dale continues, “Naming not just your place is important but you might name rooms within your cabin.  In our case, our cabin has two bedrooms, one is called ‘The Maple Syrup Room’ and the other one is called ‘The Eagle’s Nest.’ ”

Building a Legacy

Cabins are also multi-generational and multi-family.  “The cabin I own currently, I share with another couple, not a relative just friends, and that has to do with the fact that our cabin is four hours from our home, and we’re not going to use it that much.  Therefore, it’s always beneficial to share those dollars with someone else and make sure that others have the opportunity to use it.

“Many cabins have been handed down so that a son and a daughter of an original owner now share that cabin and the grandchildren.  Sometimes that can be a problem out into the future as generations are no longer very close to one another.  They have a little thinking to put forth regarding how to see the future of the legacy of their cabin.

“I think a lot of having a cabin has to do with making sure it’s a place that really reflects the things that are important to you.  So, the cabin is a place where the art you hang on the wall often has a lot of meaning and it isn’t the kind of high art that you might think of hanging on the wall of your home in the city.  Somehow, in your home in the city, you often use art to create a sense of stature about yourself that demonstrates your learned knowledge of the art world.

“When you get to the cabin, something that Aunt Helen–some macarame she created–or Uncle Bob’s big fish that he caught, are all fair game to have up on your cabin wall.  So, I think the kind of art we have in a cabin is very different.  Each of those pieces of art tends to tell a story that is important to us, a story we want told in our cabin.”