In November 2008 we checked out Brendan Ricci's 12x16 Mini-Barn cabin.... or what he affectionately refers to as "The Hut". Brendan is Special Projects Manager for SportingPulse, a sports team and event software developer in Victoria, Australia. He built "The Hut" just outside Croydon, Victoria about 30 KM east of Melbourne. We'll let Brendan guide you through his project....

Frame up, trusses ready to go

Trusses cut to size , ready to go.

First two trusses go up

Looking good, but actually had some problems. Even though I made everything in imperial measurements, the timber itself was all metric, of course. 90mm is the new 4". This small difference meant that the trusses that I made were around 3 inches to wide. I had to add an additional top plate and kick it out 1.5 inches on both sides. Something that I will have to remember on the 32ft barn, I fear I would have been out nearly a foot on it!

Putting on the wattle boards that I had ripped on the mill (see below)

Close-up of fixing the cladding. Seems to be doing well. Most have been on for 18 months now and look just as good as when put up.

Most of the cladding done on the outside, now for the inside.

After a bit of landscaping out the front.

Milling the silver wattle on the chainsaw mill.

Putting up the wind turbine. Hasn't actually turned out that well. Despite the winds being plentifiul, these chinese things seem to be unable to maintain a steady flow of power.

Adding the water tank. This 18000 litre tank filled up within a month and has rarely been less than 90% full since. This is a high rainfall area - 1300 mm (around 53" per year).

See, it does snow in Australia sometimes. Whilst pretty rare, we generally get snow about once per year up here. We actually had about 6-8 in overnight but I wasn't around to get the pictures.

Great views from the hut - this is Mt. St. Leonard (1020m), some 400m above the hut.

The hut from the site of the next (bigger) barn.

My youngest, Olivia, going upstairs to play!

The bathroom, complete with shower (out of view), laundry tub and chemical toilet. The girls are certainly far happier with this arrangement over a shovel!

Cast Iron stove/heater - has no trouble heating this little barn up. In fact, the kids report that it is usually too hot for them upstairs!

Still a bit of lining to be done upstairs but the kids have all the bedding organised and find it pretty cosy up there.

Small kitchen and lounge area downstairs.

The next project - the concrete slab is down and we should commence work on this one in the next couple of months. Have certainly learnt a lot out of the min-barn and will be able to put the knowledge to good use here.