Elkhorn Mountain Cabin

Elkhorn Mountains
Elkhorn Ghost Town
Elkhorn Mountains side by side trails

Well, we finally did it. We took two years to build our dream cabin in the Elkhorn Mountains near Boulder, Montana. The land and another cabin built in the 30’s has been in my husband’s family for decades, and with the help of my sweet grandma, we were able to draw up an idea of a cabin on the back off a napkin (true story) and slowly make this dream a reality.

The first thing we had to do–even before excavating–was to tear down and rebuild a bridge over a river at the entrance of the property. This step alone deterred us from starting this project for years, because it seemed like such an undertaking that it was almost paralyzing. Finally, my husband got permission from the county to work on replacing the bridge, detailing how we would not affect the habitat and water system with our new design. Long story short, we were able to find a giant culvert to bury down into the stream, and filled the top in with road mix and secured it with rip rap rock so that it would be strong enough for firetrucks, propane trucks, well-rigs to drive over. Whew. I’m tired just reliving that.

After a successful rebuilt bridge, we were able to pick a flat spot to build. Only we didn’t realize what was under the earth below our feet…giant boulders that would make excavating much more difficult that we anticipated. With the help of an expert neighbor who just happens to excavate for a living, we were able to lay out the ground work for our cabin.

From a friend who literally framed the whole thing by himself…to amazing community members that came together to dig our septic, cut down trees, a roofer who didn’t show up, to a roofer who not only did our roof, wrapped the whole cabin in sheet metal AND built our stairs inside, we plugged away one. step. at. a. time. My sweet and incredibly talented father-in-law designed, crafted, painted and installed all of dream kitchen cabinets. Talk about a blessing…they’re my favorite part of the house.

We did all this without running water or power. Yes…that made it much, much more difficult. It’s totally off-grid, run on solar power, generator, batteries, and propane. But before all that, the man who did our tile had to get water from our creek, the electrician had to use his own power to design ours, and we all had to use an outhouse until we finally drilled our well. One does not realize how much they use power and running water until they do not have it. Even now, whenever I turn on a faucet or switch a light switch, I still smile, because I remember all the years we didn’t have either on our land.

I’ve never stuck (or even started) a project this big. It was such a risk for me (and I’m definitely not a risk-taker), but wow…it feels SO GOOD to finally see our dream come to life. There definitely were days that I was done. I wanted to quit so many times. All it took was reminding myself that good things take time, and this dream was no different.

Scroll to the end to see the pictures of this journey & all of the people it took to make it happen!