Building a house or even a small addition can be a surprisingly monumental and expensive endeavor.
Putting up a shed or a modest cabin using a simple kit, however, can be much easier and cheaper.
That’s according to Chad Taylor, owner of Coast Cabins and Sheds of Marysville, a booming business that’s helped deliver 500 wooden sheds and more than 300 cabins to Northwest residents in recent years.
Though building contractors constructed most of the cabins, especially those with lofts, stairways and more complex features, homeowners built most of the sheds on their own.
“It’s a one- or two-day job, tops,” said Taylor, 34, who has been in business for four years. “It’s a weekend-warrior project.”
To demonstrate the simplicity of his shed and cabin kits, Taylor will be at the Everett Home and Garden Show this weekend with a 1 1/2-story, 14-by-14-foot cabin with a 6-foot covered porch. He’ll also feature a free-standing potting shed. Professional landscaping and solar panels will add finishing touches to his temporary indoor homestead.
“It’s going to be pretty darn cool,” said Taylor, who attends almost every regional trade and home show with a cabin or shed. “Home shows are great.”
Coast Cabins customers have used such simple structures for many purposes, including play houses, waterside retreats, hobby shops, art studios, home offices, even espresso stands.
On Camano Island, Mario and Irene Capristo, 79 and 77, use their 12-by-26-foot space as a hobby area and an escape from their small home.
Mario Capristo, who is an avid sewing buff, uses the cabin for quilting, using his computer and watching TV. It’s completely carpeted, wired and plumbed.
“I just finished making drapes for it,” he said of the structure, built over four days in October. “I have a washing machine in there.”
When it’s time for lunch, his wife gives him a call from the main house.
“It’s like a little hideaway,” she said. “It’s someplace different. You can walk back and forth. It’s very cozy.”
Taylor, who lives in a log home on Lake Bosworth near Granite Falls, said his sheds and cabins, which start at $3,300 for a basic 8-by-10-footer, have grown in popularity as some cities and counties have increased the size of secondary structures residents can build without a permit.
Taylor imports Canadian white spruce from the Prince George, B.C., area and has it milled into tongue-and-groove boards in Lake Stevens. His employees then customize the lumber into kits at his 6,800-square-foot warehouse in Marysville.
Customers can tailor sheds to their exact needs by adding windows, skylights, doors, lofts, rooms, metal or composite roofs, insulation, finishing kits and even composting toilets.
“You design it,” Taylor said. “There’s a million different ways.”
Each structure’s interlocking boards fit together much like Lincoln logs.
Taylor provides a customized instruction manual. His structures can be built on concrete slabs, or they can rest on 4-by-6 pressure treated skids or pier blocks to remain more portable.
Irene Capristo said she and her husband enjoyed working with Taylor and the contractors who built their cabin for about $16,000.
“Chad and his people were just real good to work with,” she said. “We enjoyed them tremendously.”
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Coast Cabins and Sheds
3707 124th St. NE, Unit 3, Marysville; 360-659-6500; www.coastcabins.net
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