All It Took Was $3,000 and a Bit of Imagination to Bring This See-Through Vermont Cabin to Life

The 100-square-foot, open-air cabin on Tanglebloom Flower Farm in Vermont didn’t begin its life as a potential short-term rental property. "We built the cabin for ourselves," explains Melissa Hessney Masters. Before she and her husband Mike settled in what would become their farm, they spent a summer traveling the U.S. and booking overnight stays in as many unique spaces as they could—tree houses, cabins, anything out of the ordinary. They quickly agreed that they wanted to construct something equally unique and charming on their own property.

"We built the cabin as a celebration," Masters says. "We’re rooted, we’re in place, we’re not living out of a truck, this is where we’re going to be."

They found a clearing in the woods on their property that would be suitable for their future construction. Then they had to decide what to design. "We learned about the Fern House," Masters explains, "which an architect named Robert Swinburne had built." The charming, compact structure seemed like the perfect project to tackle, and Swinburne was selling architectural plans to build Fern House—so the couple made the purchase.

"Then Mike realized that he didn’t know how to read architectural plans," Masters says. "So we had to start from scratch."

Going off-plan allowed both Masters to incorporate their own elements into the cabin. They added a porch and made space for a bed that could remain on the floor of the cabin instead of being raised and lowered from the ceiling as Swinburne had done. "It was just for us," Masters explains. "It was a one-minute walk away from the main house and farm property, but it felt like such a world away. We would go out there and joke how you would never know about all the work that was waiting for us, all the hustle-and-bustle of life, all of the demands. There was no cellphone reception. There was no Wi-Fi. It was bliss."

Michael already had experience on building crews, so he knew how to put the components of a cabin together. Melissa had design experience, so she knew how the cabin could be utilized. "I love the challenge of a small space. To me it’s invigorating and easier to work with than something large. How do we make it cozy, with everything you need and nothing that you don’t?"

The most important element of the design, according to Melissa, was to maintain the blurred boundary between indoors and outdoors. "A lot of guests describe it as being in a fairy tale," she says.

A few years after building the Tanglebloom cabin, Melissa and Mike decided it might be time to start opening it up to other guests. "We’d just had a baby," she says, "and our lives were very full." They weren’t using the cabin very often anymore, and their friends suggested putting it on Airbnb.

"I didn’t think anyone would ever pay us to stay here," she says, "but I thought, why not?" They advertised the cabin rental at $50 per night—and at that time they hadn’t built the outhouse or the shower facility, so guests had to come into their home to use the bathroom. However, the Tanglebloom cabin quickly became an extremely popular Airbnb. "It booked up so much that we had to close the calendar."

They paid attention to what people asked to borrow from their home—a cast-iron skillet, for example—and began providing those creature comforts as part of the rental. They purchased high-quality linens, built kitchen and bathroom facilities, and began to treat the Airbnb as something they could offer as a one-of-a-kind experience.

"When we first built the cabin for ourselves, I think we spent $3,000 on materials," Melissa explains. "It went up very quickly! The hardest part was getting the concrete footings in the ground, but it all came together in a couple of weekends and a couple evenings after work. Since then, with the improvements and the additions, the shower, the kitchen, the outhouse, the hot tub, and accounting for the increase in the cost of lumber, it’s probably $15,000 invested."

While much of the Tanglebloom cabin appears to embrace indoor/outdoor living, it is possible to make the cabin more private. There are curtains, for example, that can be pulled to enclose the living space. Melissa and her husband also work with guests to ensure they live in harmony with the local wildlife. "We tell everybody, no food inside," she says. "Really what we’re worried about is mice, squirrels, chipmunks trying to get in there." They practice Leave No Trace, bagging and storing trash so that it doesn’t leave a scent and advising guests to leave strong-smelling toiletries in their car when not in use.

"A bear has walked right past, a couple times," Melissa explains, "and people just marvel at it from bed. Turkeys go by every fall. Sometimes there’ll be a fox, you’ll see the eyes. Most wildlife, they just want food, so as long as you’re taking that element away, they’re not interested."

While this kind of cabin might not be for everyone, people who want to build their own tiny residences—whether they keep them for themselves or put them on Airbnb—may want to take Melissa’s advice: "First of all, go for it! Secondly, think through the location. I’m so glad that we did that, in terms of thinking about where the prevailing winds are coming from so that the rain isn’t blowing in."

It’s also worth thinking about what might happen to the cabin in the future, whether you’re adding curtains for privacy or building a shower facility so guests don’t have to bathe in your home. Melissa and Mike, for example, recently improved the roof of their cabin to keep the interior more comfortable during unusual weather. "We added these sides [to the roof] to prevent splashing, because we get these erratic storms now that we didn’t get ten years ago."

Starting with a simple design allows you to be flexible not only during the initial build, but also as you learn more about what you want and what you may need. "The structure and the design, that’s all very important, but think about the experience that you are creating," Melissa advises—and that applies whether you’re building a cabin for yourself or whether you’re hoping to build the next top vacation rental. 

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