While driving past an outpost of Hammond Lumber, Your Scribe was apprised of the fact that a "cabin package" is on sale there for $31,000.

That is the least expensive of about a score of models they offer.

The advertised model looks like the cabin that I had built, save for the fact that the Hammond unit appears to come with a stone fireplace.

I didn't include a fireplace, but later put in a Jotul stove.

Sometimes I wonder what I would have done differently in planning my cabin, which is 24 X 20 with a six-foot deep farmer's porch.

One thing I might have done differently was to drop the ceiling.

The cabin has a high cathedral ceiling, which is lovely to behold but famously inffective at holding in heat.

Thus when we get the stove going in the spring and fall, much of the heat is soon lost.

Perhaps I should have added more skylights.

I ordered one in the center of the roof, and am amazed at how much light it lets in. Had I known, I would have put in at least two.

And I would have handled the electricity differently.

The cabin is wired for basic electric - but it has no power source.

Right now I am trying to decide whether to put in a generator to supply light for several hours per day, or call up Central Maine Power and have them bring in lines from the road.

CMP would have to bring poles down about 100 yards, then I would have to get a team to string them another 50 yards to the cabin.

It sounds like the generator might be cheaper, especially since the power would only be used for several hours a day.

Though I sometimes think of what might have been, I am generally very happy with the way the project turned out.

It's miraculous, really.

All I did was cut out a photo of a cabin I liked from a magazine, and faxed it to my builder.

Burt followed the "plan," and the result is a fine three-season cabin.

It doesn't have electricity, but perhaps it soon will.

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