Earlier we saw some of Jacob's Incredible Forest cabins
but today we've traveled to another property in Olympia where we're about to see where it all began and
visit Jacob's very first Cabin in the Woods
Yo, Jacob. What's up man? Good to see you again, man. Good to see you dude.
Dude, it was a bit of an ordeal getting out here eh oh yeah, you mean from where we parked yeah
Yeah, I don't know if it's I always it sometimes it gets longer and longer
But it must be a hundred two hundred yards out here crossing a river
Using the hand trolley yeah, but it's cool right I knew it's amazing
This is exactly the kind of remote location where you would want to build a cabin like this
It was a blessing and a curse. I mean, I think that it's really beautiful to be out here away from
roads and away from everything but very difficult to kind of forge the path and
To bring all the materials that was also really difficult so you carried everything out here by head on the shoulders and me yeah
It was hard the river is crazy because it'll go from 4 feet wide to 30 feet wide so there were times when it was
not crossable
But mainly I had crossed over a fallen tree and post me living here someone put in a trolley and make it easier
But I still use the tree because it's still there this place is actually really special because this was your very first
Cabin wasn't it? this is where I started really
Working it out, and I mean, I just went for it. I jumped into it. It was made with 100% recycled materials and
Costs me about 800 bucks and getting all the materials together this place only cost you 800 bucks to build your must have been
really resourceful with your sourcing that's one where did it say the other would be like I was like a crow you know I was
just picking at the scraps that were outside job sites or my job sites that I was working on or friends job sites or
Some salvage stuff that I did actually have to buy like the metal roof was salvaged
But I sourced it through Craigslist, and I was a scavenger
That's what I'm looking for carrying so I was just like getting everything free that
I could as your very first build project though this still doesn't actually look like a super simple project
There's some quite complex geometry and everything that's going into this house as well, isn't there. It wasn't easy. I didn't pick just an easy
Cabin I wanted it to look different than things that I had seen and I also had this
Vision in my mind that I wanted to see it realized you know so in my mind. I wanted to see
A shed roof that went from a high point to a low point instead of a high wall to a low wall
So it was basically like a normal shed roof
That's just a single pitch, but then the roof rotated and the whole actual building kind of rotated
So it was more angular looking I suppose and I also wanted to be really really tall like I want to have
12-foot ceilings on the on the ground and then I also wanted to be able to do a substation up in the high point
so that shot it up to something like 18 feet and
It was only a 10 by 10 because in my mind
I thought that it had to be under a hundred square feet when the rule is actually 200 square feet
so I made it really tall and skinny and
That was complicated for sure and that was very much what?
went on to define something that's kind of become your style hasn't it these really unique and
intricate shapes that are actually going into the cabins that you build now yeah, I guess like everything I do is based on shape and
Based on like a theme almost like those little wings that kind of shoot out. I wanted it to have this sort of like witch's
hat look and then I started thinking well, that's not really which is Kevin looks more like a Manta Ray
That's maybe where I feel like it's more of a sculpture, and I can I want it to be different. You know cool man
Yeah, look at it. Let's go inside and have a look
Come in
Hey, wow, it's definitely very Sparse right now
Yes, I think part of the charm of this kind of sort of Rustic Cabin
And it doesn't need a lot of things to fill it and make it look right
I was a college student and I was trying to live this low-impact lifestyle, so this was way more
My kind of a cabin and when I did live here it was definitely closer to this where it's like candles
I didn't have a couch and I had pillows like the upstairs right now looks exactly like I did when I lived here pretty much
And what I loved about living out here was that there was just
Less of everything and when I started this is kind of when I started out on my own. I was really young carpenter
I didn't even know what I was doing. I didn't have tools, but I like it all bare bones, and I don't know school
Maybe it's just Nostalgia. That's why It means so much just being back in it
We kind of talked about this a little bit with your last cabins that we visited
but when you are building a cabin like this in the woods
maintaining that intimate connection with nature is so vital and keeping all of the area a bit more Sparse and then having
Features like this elongated window just really help bring the outside into this space
I mean yeah
That's the idea the windows like I want you to feel like you're inside one of the trees in that these are just the windows
From the inside of the tree that you're in to all the other trees that are around you if you look at those trees?
There's these lines in there, and you have the tree kind of being separated by these lines
but it continues up, and then if you go upstairs you see that same tree you're up in the top of the tree and
upstairs has some real big windows and a real big skylight and
the same sort of thing like I want you to feel like your
Tree house style like you're in the tree. All right, well should we have a look upstairs. No doubt
Man, this is just so cozy. It's a little bit like camping that's very much how it feels cool, and yeah
That's what it is
It's like a big wooden tent that you get to leave set up all the time in the middle of the woods
And that's one thing. I love about building is that you start in a place that humans haven't touched at all it's just
nature trees mud and you
start
sinking that shovel and
making a place to protect yourself from
the Elements and
It's not you against nature
But we need shelter and people have been doing it for Millennia. I think especially in today's Modern society
It's really easy to fall into that trap of thinking that we need so many of the things that we're just used to having
but for three years you
Successfully lived out here with no running water with no power and yet still managed to be a functioning member of society
Right what are your thoughts around that and what advice would you have for people who are?
Looking at taking the plunge into a simple cabin project
but it may be afraid of doing that if it means giving up some of the modern conveniences
One thing is that you don't have to think like oh my God. I'm never going to I'm not gonna shower for three years
It's kind of just
Looking elsewhere. There's also a creek, so in the summer
I swim a lot, and you know it's just like there are other ways of getting clean
And then I would say that there is to some extent yeah, you've got a roughing
but if you are willing to believe that the value is not
Just tangible you know the value and being a space like this and living in a space like this and living a more
Simplified Lifestyle the value is not tangible if you don't believe that then you might be like yeah
It's not worth it is it's more work. You definitely like I said hauling everything back here
Oh, that was a pain. You know those really hard, but right now especially
there's this insane joy that I feel from and I did that I really loved the
Adventure of this place. I love the this story of
The adventure that you had actually creating this I'm a little bit envious
Of the fact that you lived here because I would have loved a place like this when I was in university
But I loved as well the adventure that it still represents today like climbing up this
Ladder and coming up into this loft and being amongst these trees. It does it just makes me feel like a kid again
So thank you so much for sharing with us. Thanks for coming man. I really appreciate it
Jacob is a cabin builder who is now constructing these wonderful
Ornate sacred Geometric works of art in the forest
But coming here is so special because this is where it all began
this is where he got the courage to actually learn his craft and just
Experiment, and in the process he built himself a wonderful home that served him for three years and then that I am finding a lot
of inspiration