The unexpected bonus

Of properties that I considered, though never actually got to the point of seeing in person, only one had a liveable dwelling on it, and another supposedly had something really run down.  On the budget I was considering, what I had planned, and then of course actually putting money down on a cabin, I really did not expect to get a piece of land with a structure on it, and certainly not one that despite all appearances was actually rather sound.

While it certainly was in quite a state of disrepair, most of the windows broken out or cracked, two uncovered openings for stovepipes, two old camp cots, a rear door that appeared to have come from a camper with the window broken out, and junk strewn around, I could see a lot more to the 12 X 28 cabin than the realtor's suggestion to have the fire dept. burn it down.

I didn't do much else to the cabin at first other than to cover over the missing windows and the rear door, and at first chance I got I also put steel roofing over the existing rolled shingles on the main part of the building (the overhang already being steel).  But for some time it just remained a place to store extra that I didn't want in the new cabin or in the shed. 

The job of cleaning it out, ripping up the ancient torn linoleum, and most of the interior wall coverings happened later when I was far enough along with the new cabin that I had the time to do other things, and it resulted in big piles of materials to get rid of, including the old linoleum, ceiling tiles from the front room, and lots of fibreboard that fortunately could be torn and folded into easily manageable pieces.  The actual bones of the cabin were quite well, built out of full sixed rough cut lumber with diagonal bracing at the corners, but what wiring there was in the cabin was more than substandard (although there had not been electricity on the property before, this cabin was moved in from elsewhere) with very old two wire romex haphazardly pieced together in the walls with a simple covering of electrical tape.  The two interior walls were of a different sort of lumber altogether.  Darker milled lumber with rounded corners that suggested it could have been surplus army lumber from wall tents or the sort, and an inscription of one of those walls had the name of someone that was fairly local and the date of 1960.  Putting the clues together it's very likely the two interior walls were a later renovation of the building as there were also two blocked up doorways on the wall facing the overhang that suggested the original layout might have been two rooms instead of three.  From how the older doorways were situated, and the amount of low windows in the front room, along with some other ties I was able to make with the name found in the wall, I often wonder if it had not been the original cafe building from cathedral creeks or something similar (the party in question also had an airstrip not too far out of Tok as well).  Unfortunately I've never gotten past the speculation mode of what history the cabin might have had as I've never encountered anyone that had any better information than a neighbour that remembers seeing it coming down the highway, but has no idea where from.

Over the years I have worked on it, replacing the windows, flooring, decking under the overhang, constructed doors for the middle and back rooms, rewired the place, and a number of other things, but that project and most others more and more were put on the back burner when my mother needed more and more attention towards the last years of her life and didn't get much past the back room being brought up to an acceptable amount of finish.  Hopefully this year the other two rooms can be finished out as well as each just need some more attention and time to get them to that stage as well, and at that stage I can get the kitchenette set up in the front room.

It's a work in progress, but it's progress nonetheless.