Popular Questions & Answers About Cabin Living

Last year I published this FAQ about our cabin, but since then we’ve gotten LOTS more questions about cabin life!

Here’s the most popular questions & their answers.

Have another question that’s not listed? I’d love to hear from you here.

1. Do you get cabin fever?

Yes! We definitely get cabin fever in the winter. The days can get very cold and very snowy. This past winter we had several -10 days in a row and also got snowed in a couple times.

Cabin fever is real during the winter, but we find ways to combat it: getting outside while we can, staying busy indoors, and finding new projects to do.

Even though the winters here are intense – they are still beautiful and full of things to do.

2. Why did you choose to move to a cabin?

We chose to move to a cabin because a few things aligned in our lives… We had always wanted to move to Jackson Hole and my husband was offered a job here. At the time, I was 7 months pregnant and liked the idea of raising our son in a new environment. We were living in Austin, TX and had lived in big cities all of our lives.

We wanted to move to the cabin for a slower, simpler pace of life and one that has more opportunities to spend time outdoors. This felt like the right place for our family and baby on the way.

3. What has been the hardest part of moving?

The hardest part of moving has been that most of our family & friends live back in Texas. We miss them! We haven’t been able to travel back to visit them yet but hope to start planning a trip soon.

4. How big is your cabin?

Our cabin is now 850 sqft! When we moved in it was 600 sqft (one room) and then when we had our son we added on a nursery, which as been a life-saver 🙂

5. What’s the best part of living in a log cabin?

The best part of living in a log cabin is that we get to experience so much of nature. Not only do we live close to the mountains, but we feel close to nature at the cabin. We spend as much time as we can outdoors.

Getting to experience the weather, wildlife, and landscape of Jackson Hole has been amazing.

6. What’s the best part of living in Jackson Hole, WY?

We LOVE living close to the mountains and national parks. Jackson is about 20 minutes from Grand Teton National Park and 1.5 hours from Yellowstone National Park.

8. Does the cabin feel ‘small’ with a baby?

Surprisingly, no. The cabin feels like the right size for our family of 3. I honestly think that it’s very convenient to be in a small space with a baby: it makes it easier to keep an eye on him!

The biggest challenge of being in the cabin with a baby is baby-proofing our space. We have a wood stove and a spiral iron staircase (both in the middle of the cabin). Our solution to keeping Troy away from these has been to put baby gates around them.

9. Does the cabin have A/C or heaters?

There’s no A/C and we have 2 built-in heaters. In the summer, there’s a few hot weeks where we turn all of our fans on and open the windows for a breeze. And in the winter, we primarily use our wood stove for heat.

10. How far are you from town?

About 20 – 30 minutes from the town of Jackson depending on traffic.

11. What’s the layout of your cabin?

We love the layout of our cabin. It’s proven to be super functional. We have a living/dining area, kitchen, and bathroom downstairs and then a loft for a bedroom upstairs.

This is all one open space, with a high ceiling that makes the cabin feel bigger than in is.12. Do you see many animals at the cabin?

So many! We get a lot of wildlife that comes by the cabin. At certain times of the year the animals are migrating and we see lots of elk and moose. Oftentimes they come through our backyard and stay to munch on some willows or trees!

There’s also foxes and coyotes that hunt daily around the cabin.

My favorite animal encounter was during our first winter on a very cold day when a moose sat in our yard all morning.

13. What type of cabin do you live in?

We live in a cabin that was built from a log cabin kit about 25 years ago. It was built by had and the owner added some custom features. The cabin is made entirely of pine logs and thankfully has running water and electricity!

To read more about cabin life, check out the series of blog posts here.

Many thanks to everyone who submitted a question for this and if you have a question that wasn’t answered let me know here!