Cabin

Hutchison, Patrick. Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman. New York: St. Martin's 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

 

I bought the cabin for $7,500 from a guy on Craigslist. He was a tugboat captain. His name was Tony. Here's why.* (*Footnote: Why I bought the cabin, not why Tony was a tugboat captain or why he was named Tony.)

Description:

Patrick Hutchison, author of Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman, at age 30, found himself in a frustrating rut. He had a decent job as a copy editor with decent pay and some interesting travel. But working in a cubicle under florescent lights, turning out copy that may never be read, he longed for something else

Years after leaving college with an intent to roam the earth telling the stories of beautiful lunatics, I was in an office creating email template to sell advertising to plumbers and wondering how I'd ended up here.

He thought that maybe if he could get away to the woods, to the environment he grew up, that would be a distraction and give him a purpose to his life that would somehow provided satisfaction.

 

Eventually, he found his answer while perusing Craigslist (during slow work hours) for cabins. There, among the pricey, fully-outfitted houses, he found a very brief note for a rustic cabin for sale 40 minutes away from his home in Seattle. Driving up that same day, he saw the "rustic" (i.e. dilapidated, falling-down) 10' x 12' structure that resembled "a big chicken coop" or kids' clubhouse. It was on an isolated road lined with abandoned buses and unoccupied cabins that were once meth houses and squatters' shelters. The cabin had no running water, electricity, heat, cell service, or Wi-Fi, but to Hutchison, it was his dream. 

Like any new parent with a hideous baby, my eyes glazed over the flaws. At that moment, I only saw what I wanted....I saw only potential, and I saw a version of myself that was capable of making it better. Not great, necessarily, but better....Most importantly, I felt the pull of something a bit bigger, a grand pursuit, a thing to dive into that was different and new and exciting.

One problem: he knew nothing about building, carpentry, or even power tools. The only time he had used an electric drill was to hang a painting, ending up making multiple holes in the wall, chipping plaster, and making a shambles of everything. With this cabin restoration, what could possible go wrong, or through some great luck actually succeed?

 

Undaunted, he bought the cottage immediately and began obsessively searching YouTube videos and any other source of info to find the best, cheapest tools, materials, cabin restoration techniques, outhouses, foundations, driveway drains, and everything else imaginable. With friends (who also knew nothing about tools or building but brought plenty of beer), on his very first weekend they somehow built an outhouse, fortified the broken deck, cut the front door so it could swing open over the leaning house (leaving a large enough gap at the bottom for birds could walk into the house, and rigged up a Coleman stove for heat and soup. These became his cottage staples, along with plenty of beer and whiskey.

 

All this happens in the first few pages of Cabin, so I'll leave the rest of this delightfully satisfying book to your imagination. But this narration is not just a laughable series of efforts by a hapless idiot. Hutchison is a serious, dedicated, albeit unskilled worker who figures things out on the fly, Yes, he make some (many) quirky mistakes along the way. But all the while, he enjoys the feeling of personal satisfaction he gains with building something with his own hands (and yes, some power tools), while experiencing the beauty and silence in a gorgeous section of forest.

[After buying his first tool, a power drill] Climbing into bed that night, I felt a glow that reminded me of Christmas nights growing up, falling asleep to the reality of new toys and the knowledge that the future held many, many days  of good times.

While the restoration of the cabin is the foundation of the book, this is also a stream-of-consciousness memoir of Hutchison's personal restoration journey to self-confidence through problem-solving of daunting tasks along with his deep love for the cabin itself, and what it represented in his life.   

At times, it felt like the cabin and I were partners in a sort of joint self-improvement project. When the cabin was all fixed up, maybe I would be too.

I don't often whole-heartily recommend a book to all First Sentence Readers, but Cabin is the exception. I hope that everyone reads this absorbing and delightful book. It is at once funny, thoughtful, energetic, foolish, emotional, and triumphant, all in the backdrop of a glorious forest setting full of hikes, trees, snow, stars, and quiet. There are times of rollicking, deep friendships as well as plenty of solitude for dreams and simply enjoying life in an isolated cottage of your own building. Highest recommendation for all readers.

With no one but the trees to judge us and a fistful of Band-Aids to keep everything in order, we'd pick up where we left off as kids, making forts, learning how to build things again.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Wallace, Don. The French House:An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village That Restored Them All.   

Author Marshall and his wife, Mindy, both budding writers living in New York City, fall in love with the small French island of Belle Ile off the coast of Brittany where the architecture has remained the same since the 1700s. Their "brand-new ruin" is an eyesore, but a piece of history that needs tender (i.e., specific and expensive) attention.  (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

The French House

Wallace, Don. The French House: An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village That Restored Them All. Napierville, IL: Sourcebooks. 2014. Print

First Sentences:

Bonjour et Bienvenue ---

There are a few things that have to be done immediately when you open the house. Please read ALL these points carefully.

First, however, apologies if the ocean was rough on the ferry ride over. We hope nobody got seasick. If somebody did, please check, and clean, the soles of their (not yours, I hope) shoes.

Description:

There are many books (e.g., Don't Stop the Carnival, A Year in Provence) that tell the dream and nightmare of people who discover a lovely destination, desire to live in said destination, purchase a run-down building, then suffer the pains of trying to make it into a livable home. All steps involve a lot of hair-pulling frustration, lackadaisical local builders, and angry words.

Well, here's a different version of that scenario. Don Wallace's  The French House: An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village That Restored Them All is full of
intelligence, wit, and humor, along with heart-felt respect for the locals and their tiny, historic town. The biggest problem Wallace faces is having the funds to even begin restoring a dilapidated house that, without major work in the first year, will be a heap of stones by the following summer.

Marshall and his wife, Mindy, both budding writers living in New York City, fall in love with the small French island of Belle Ile off the coast of Brittany. Through strict building restrictions, the architecture there has remained the same since the 1700s, untouched by tourist shops, fast food, and other amusements. Families have fished and farmed there for generations. Belle Ile even has deserted beaches with waves (and inconveniently cold water) that are a bonus for Hawaiian Mindy and surfer Don. What's not to love?

When an ancient house comes up for sale, Don and Mindy invest all of their tiny savings and future earnings to buy it. Sitting in the center of a tiny town, their "brand-new ruin" is an eyesore, but a piece of history that needs tender (i.e., specific and expensive) attention. Broken shudders, collapsed floors, horrendous roof, and a road that runs inches from their front door are shocking to these first-time owners, but they've signed the papers and the deed is done. Oh, and Mindy just discovered she is pregnant, another drain to their non-existent bank balance. They are naive, broke, and justifiably nervous about every decision.

And they learn that not just any rebuilding of the house will do. It must be a maison saine, one that makes sense in layout and utility. According to local custom, every house must make:

an orderly and attractive first impression, one not overcluttered or fussily decorated or unduly idiosyncratic....[It] had to look welcoming from the get-go -- to reflect its occupant's readiness to offer a seat, a cup of coffee, and a slice of buttery kouign amann to anyone who happened to stop by.

More illusive, their new house also has to a "moral" house. It has to "put the character and beauty of the village and island above any and all personal claims and architectural pretensions." Without a saine and moral house, the Wallaces will never be accepted by locals as people with respect for the traditional culture of Bell Ile.

Yes, they discover neighbors with unusual backgrounds, characteristics, and motivations for the house as well. Gwened who lives next door is arbitrator of everything to make sure if conforms to the proper Briton way of doing things. Madame Morgane on their other side, when first seen out the window working in her fields, "looks like Death dressed as a Girl Scout." Then there's the unknown driver of the phantom silver Porsche who is rumored to fly down the roads at high speeds late at night. Sarah Bernhardt once owned an ancient fortress on the island and enjoyed an eccentric life of:

shooting seabirds while lying in bed taking her morning coffee and receiving the Prince of Wales for a farewell-to-all-that night of love while en route to his coronation as king.

With jobs in New York City, the Wallaces are only able to visit their home for a month in summer, but what a wonderful month of belle temps Wallace describes. From surfing to walking to shopping in tiny fish stalls to cooking lovely local produce, parties, and of course writing and napping, the Wallace family and residents of Belle Ile live an envious life. Wallace and his family become part of this ancient organism, both absorbing and contributing to the Breton culture, bringing guacamole, surfing and baseball to the island for the first time.

Gradually the locals warm to les Americains. When the Wallaces returned to Belle Ile after an year's absence following the shock of 9/11 which occurred in their neighborhood, they were greeted at their door by their insurance man:

 M. Grancoeur stood in a coat and tie, cheeks freshly scraped, a profusion of Belle Il'e's glory in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

"Please," he said, "accept the condolences of France." 

This quiet action shows sympa, the underlying code of behavior on Belle Ile depicted throughout this wonderful book. Sympa is "an all-purpose word used frequently on Belle Ile, it meant to display tact and generosity." Yes, there are ancient buildings, lovely seascapes, rolling hills, and farmlands. But it is sympa that makes Bell Ile and The French House so compelling and memorable. The book continually renews one's faith in quality of people who strive to preserve a culturally rich life as well as their own individuality in a changing world that threatens their way of life.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Wouk, Herman. Don't Stop the Carnival

Delightfully funny novel of a New Yorker who decides to run away to a Caribbean island to start his life over as a hotel keeper. Unfortunately, everything about this plan and the hotel goes awry.

Mayle, Peter. A Year in Provence

The classic tale of the transformation of a ruined property and its owner.Referred to by Wallace's parents in The French House as the exemplary way to restore a French property and live a quality life (something they are shocked to see Wallace has not done). 

The Paris Architect

Belfoure, Charles. The Paris Architect. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks. 2013. Print

First Sentences:

Just as Lucien Bernard founded the corner at the Rue La Boetie, a man running from the opposite direction almost collided with him.

He came so close that Lucien could smell his cologne as he raced by.

Description:

The running man is immediately shot by Nazis soldiers simply because he was running in a suspicious way. His blood is lightly spattered on the coat of the narrator on his way to a job interview and potential building commission.

So begins The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure, immediately portraying the tension and random violence in Paris during the occupation by the Nazis. This scene and the novel are narrated by Lucien Bernard, a talented architect who, due to the current chaos in his city, can no longer find commissions to design new buildings. 

But an opportunity arises. He is asked by Auguste Manet, a wealthy Parisian industrialist, to create an ingenious hiding place in an apartment for a Jewish man fleeing the Nazis. This hiding place must be clever enough to be undetectable by probing Nazis. Lucien knows that any Jew caught hiding would be shot immediately, along with the person hiding the Jew, the creator of the hiding place, and anyone else in the apartment building. To Lucien, Manet is "asking me to commit suicide." 

But Manet sweetens the deal. His factory, now under Nazi control to produce weapons, needs to be undergo a major expansion under some lucky architect's design and direction. Hint, hint.

So Lucien faces several conflicting decisions. Should he create a hiding place for an unknown Jew which could result in many deaths including his own? But with this project comes a chance to design a major factory expansion which would feature his talents and be standing long after the war is over. Then again, this factory would create weapons to kill Frenchmen and other allied soldiers. But on the other hand, good money paid to the factory's architect along with other perks. 

Lucien takes the commission and succeeds with both the hiding place and factory design. But the triumph of this "one-time" deal soon brings another request from Manet to design another hiding place along with a promise for another major factory expansion commission.

To further complicate Lucien's life, his mistress is also the lover of the Gestapo officer leading the search for the wealthy Jews Lucien and Manet are hiding. Herr Schlegal will stop at nothing to discover these Jews: terrorism, interrogation, torture, and random murders under his direction strike fear into the Parisian citizenry and Lucien as well. 

Can Lucien stop himself creating the hiding places and therefore lose the other major projects? Can he give up the luxuries of a car, black market food, clothes, and more provided by Manet and the grateful Jews he hides? What happens when he realizes that real lives are at stake, that his work is not simply a mental challenge to create clever buildings and hiding places?

The Paris Architect is a nail-biting story of everyday people facing lives of constant tensions and dangerous conditions. They walk the delicate balance between collaboration with the Nazis and working to assist Jews they never have met and have no respect for. Author Belfoure skillfully depicts their struggles with moral, ethical, monetary, and egotistical factors which hinder their ability to decide. And, of course, permeating every decision is the nervous awareness of the consequences each character (and many other people) might reap for their actions.  

Happy reading. 



Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Williams, Eric. The Wooden Horse

Historical account of an escape from a World War II prisoner of war camp. As thrilling as The Great Escape for the tension in planning, building the tunnel, and then surviving the escape. A forgotten book that should be revived by anyone interested in bravery, cleverness, perseverance, and audacity.