Now, if I were a house, where would I go?

That likely was one of the biggest decisions that had to be made.  Where did I want the cabin to be?  Maybe more importantly, did I want it facing east, west, or another direction, what would keep it out of view from the highway and what would be the least amount of work in cutting down trees (and saving trees from being cut)?

In the end it came down to two obvious choices, either on the west side of the clearing where perhaps the extra trees that would have to come out would mean maybe I'd lose too much of a buffer from the neighbouring property and my porch would face east, or place it on the east side so that I could enjoy the afternoon sun on the porch.  The site on the east side was near a perfect match as it had been where most of the overburden had been pushed through when the laneway and the clearing had been made long ago and only four small trees needed to be sacrificed. 

Bringing power in, though, meant some added cost with this configuration.  The closest pole to the site would have meant cutting in a wide swath that would have exposed the cabin to the power corridor as well as to the radio tower on a small half acre up front that was deeded off from the original property.  While this would have saved some money, especially since it may have been able to be run off the same transformer (which might have resulted in my microwave oven being possessed by KJNP), I instead elected to run from the far pole bringing the service and meter as far as possible, and then going underground the rest of the way to the cabin.  The end result was worth it, though, and up until the time I moved the shed over by the power pole, even from the power corridor it wasn't obvious that anything was even back here with the exception of a pole and a meter that very well could have been installed for a home that never got built.