Pinedale Modern Cabin

During the pandemic, my wife and I (both remote workers in infrastructure management and design, respectively), bought a 1930s forest service cabin that had been moved from the woods into the small mountain town of Pinedale, WY. Once there it spent several decades and survived many unplanned renovations as a single family home. When we got it, in certain places we counted no fewer than four different flooring surfaces stacked one atop another, 5 types of wood paneling (some faux some real), 6 different types of trim, and many other questionable decisions from previous owners.

At 900 sq ft, 2br and 1ba, and priced to move, it was our chance to try a budget renovation while we waited out the pandemic. We thought we'd go small and refinish some surfaces, slap on some paint, and see where we could get to aesthetically. Before we knew it we had removed all the wall surfaces, ceiling, kitchen, and bathroom on our way to a base we thought we could work with. We refinished the floors, drywalled in the bedrooms, drywalled the ceilings, replaced all fixtures, painted, installed a new kitchen and redid the shower/bath and vanity. Finally we tore out the chainlink fence wrapping the property and built our own cedar one.

To get it all renno'd and furnished well enough to live in and then serve as an airbnb after, we budgeted $40k. In the end, we spent $39,988 - not joking, we got that close. I chalk most of it up to luck. Since when comparing our estimates vs actuals on each line item we were frequently off the mark. That said, it all balanced out in the end. Not bad for a couple of newbies.