Building a cabin

[mxracer317]

The wifey and me are looking to build a cabin that we can use to make family memories.

Ideally for me, it would be more mountainous and private area, and not a residential development.

We want the kids to be able to grow up and have their friends hang out over the weekends, and personally I would love if it was close to some great hunting units!

The struggle that I’m having is I don’t even know where to begin looking??

We are in Salt Lake and are looking to go further north and stay between Salt Lake and Idaho Falls.

If anyone knows northern Utah or southern Idaho that wants to chime in, that would be ideal.

Anyone else that has gone through a similar exercise that has some tips, that would be ultra appreciated!

 

[jeremys4]

Well how many acres of land off grid or on grid. Is it going to used year round or just summer threw hunting season. What luxuries can you live without.

 

[Wallydeuce]

Google is your friend here. "Cabins / land for sale near X".

I've both bought an old beat up cabin and fixed it up and also had one built. They each have their own challenges.

Just curious. Why north of Salt Lake? I would think there are far more opportunities south.

 

[mxracer317]

Google is your friend here. "Cabins / land for sale near X".

I've both bought an old beat up cabin and fixed it up and also had one built. They each have their own challenges.

Just curious. Why north of Salt Lake? I would think there are far more opportunities south.

Family lives in Idaho Falls. We might end up retiring there within 15-20 years, so want to have something within driving distance still should we move to IF.

 

[mxracer317]

Well how many acres of land off grid or on grid. Is it going to used year round or just summer threw hunting season. What luxuries can you live without.

Thinking off grid would be ideal, but either would be fine. I also would love enough land for at least 100 yards shooting range.

 

[choc dogs]

I know you said south of Idaho falls, but damn island park is cool.

 

[Lilhowie83]

I know you said south of Idaho falls, but damn island park is cool.

I was going to say this same thing. Or east of Ashton area too.

 

[Sawtooth]

I would make it within an hour and a half from where you live. Otherwise the short weekend trips are less appealing. I grew up in a family that has a mountain cabin an hour from our home. We spent at least thirty to forty days per year in that cabin and I have many fond memories to share with my family while in and around the cabin. My father-in-law bought a cabin six hours from his home and used it maybe two weeks per year. The running joke was that he would go there at least twice per year. Once to open it in the spring and then once to close it up in the winter. Both those trips were spent making repairs and upkeep. After ten years or so he sold it.

 

[Wallydeuce]

I know you said south of Idaho falls, but damn island park is cool.

Island Park is a 6 hour drive from Salt Lake. I had a place there and after year 2 of round trips of 12 hours, it got old. There was a study done sometime in the 1990's that showed any weekend getaway over 3 hours resulted in a drop in usage by like 70% after the first year. Unfortunately, I had my Island Park place in the early 80's.

 

[shrapnel]

You can make a ton of family memories with a good camp trailer. Owning a cabin is usually a better idea than it is in reality.

When I was a kid, we had a cabin near West Yellowstone, and I wouldn’t trade all the time we had there for anything. My mother taught at the University and we had the whole summer off from Memorial Day to Labor Day and I had the youth and times of Huckleberry Finn.

As great as it was, it was our only destination and the summer made it a second home and life. Weekends and short spells may not be what you might think when you make plans and take the time to continually head to the cabin.

A camp trailer, however, gives you the flexibility of any other place you may want to enjoy the outdoors. We do this now, with our grown children and grandchildren, utilizing mobility and plenty of different camps. Although the cabin is still in the family, we don’t go there for the reasons I stated before and look forward to the camping a trailer provides.

Consider your options, I have had both and because of the examples I mentioned, I would strongly suggest you check with your family to see what they may enjoy the most. There are benefits to both ways of recreating, one is not right or wrong, but could be better than the other.

 

[mxracer317]

I know you said south of Idaho falls, but damn island park is cool.

Super awesome. Just trying to keep it within 1.5 hours so we can use it weekly.

 

[mxracer317]

Thanks for all the great feedback thus far!

 

[TheTone]

My family had a ton of camp trailers, for the amount they paid for them they could have bought a really nice recreational property and have something and someplace to pass down. I think my parents look back at that and regret not going the property/cabin route

Island park is cool but overpriced and way, way too much seasonal traffic. It’s one of those places lived to death by big East idaho and Utah families IMO

 

[Lilhowie83]

Super awesome. Just trying to keep it within 1.5 hours so we can use it weekly.

If you want to stay within a 1.5 hours of Salt Lake, you might want to look into the Bear Lake area. But then when you move to IF you will be more than 1.5 hours.

 

[Sawtooth]

If you want to stay within a 1.5 hours of Salt Lake, you might want to look into the Bear Lake area. But then when you move to IF you will be more than 1.5 hours.

Do the cabin thing while your kids are young and they can help you with the maintenance, then sell in retirement and buy a nice RV to spoil the grandkids. My dad's favorite saying at our cabin was "work before pleasure" as I would run for the boat oars, he would reach for the rakes we used to rake the pine needles.

 

[choc dogs]

I'm of the trailer persuasion myself. We have about 4 every year weekend, long weekend, or week off destinations that we go to every year, then we try to find someplace we haven't been for more weekends during the summer. I try to make a familiar hunting trip yearly, and someplace I've never been.

I've got friends with cabins, that's where they normally go on the weekends, or long weekends. I'm glad I make the time to go explore sometimes.