Little Desert Cabin

I've had a couple people ask me about the little desert cabin we have listed on Airbnb. Well, you don't have to twist my arm too hard... I enjoy talking about it. But make yourself comfortable, it's going to be a long, strange post!

My wife and I bought the cabin (or what was left of the cabin) on five acres about six years ago, spent a couple years fixing it up, and then tried to figure out what to do with it. Both the property and the cabin were such a huge mess, we didn't think much beyond just cleaning and fixing. We never had a goal of renting it out, probably because we never thought the property would be remotely nice enough to rent out!

Built sometime in the 1950's as a homestead cabin (meaning you get the 5 acres for free if you "improve" the property by building a simple structure on it), this cabin had seen better days. It had no indoor plumbing, the ceiling was caved in, windows broken, etc., etc. There was an extremely crude outhouse with a pit toilet in the back yard. Yuck. A realtor friend of mine had bought it to fix up, decided it was too big of a project, and called me one day to ask if I was interested. Since it's property line is adjacent to our desert home, my wife and I were very interested. And it was priced to sell. A real bargain. Or was it?? Once we started working on it, I really started to wonder about the bargain part and what we had gotten ourselves into!

There were two brothers living here for many years prior to my realtor friend buying it, and evidently one of them enjoyed a drink on a regular occasion. Any and every occasion! There was a huge collection of empty wine and whisky bottles all over the property.

Evidently the brothers didn't have any regular trash collection and just used their 5 acres as a trash dump. There was trash like this all over the lot. Some of it was buried and still rises to the surface from time to time.

There was an old trailer left on the property. In bad condition, but a possible fixer-upper?? Anyway, kind of cool looking and definitely some potential.

Oh, and a couple of these old water tanks were on the property. If you don't have access to city water, you either have to drill a well or have water delivered (and stored in these tanks). There are still many properties in the high desert that rely on wells or delivered water, although this area now has city water.

Fast forward a year or so after buying the place. We've spent who knows how many hours fixing it up, and still a long way to go!

August 2013. New windows, doors, roof, electrical. Most of the interior walls and cabinets have been ripped out (and thrown in the front yard). I would later break it down and throw it in a dumpster. This is how we spent many of our weekends!

My Mom was curious to see how we were spending our weekends, so we brought her out for a visit. My wife in the background is trying to remove all the crazy fencing that was all over this property!

I need to mention Charles, my hired hand. He was my roofer, plumber, drywaller, electrician, framer. A handyman who could do it all, and worked with me start to finish on the project. Things never would have been completed without him!

Fast forward to late 2015... before and after photo... the cabin is done!! The old gross outhouse has been removed. We've installed a septic tank. There's no room in the original homestead cabin for a bathroom, so here's our solution.

Build another cabin! This way, we maintain the integrity and the old homestead vibe (vs. adding on to the original). So now we have a "sleeping" cabin and a "bathroom" cabin. Kind of funky, and a pain if you have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but my guests seem to like the novelty of it!

And what to do with those old water tanks??

How about we build a platform and get a crane to place them on top? It would be just like the vintage water tanks that are elevated to take advantage of gravity flow. Heck, we could even name the property "Twin Tanks"!

Which is what we ended up doing. I've always liked the name Twin Tanks, because it also happens to be one of my favorite hiking areas in Joshua Tree National Park.

And what about the old trailer, you ask??

The trailer sits next to the tanks in the back yard. It's got electrical and plumbing, but still needs a lot of work with interior finishing (floors, walls, ceiling). These days, I'd rather be hiking, so not much progress being made on the trailer. Since the above photo was taken we've added a deck adjacent to the trailer.

Photo credit: Twin Tanks guest A. Newmark

The back yard: Trailer with deck, fire pit area, and water tank platform. It's a great place to relax and enjoy the desert!

Twin Tanks as it looks today. Under dark skies, as viewed from Sullivan Road (aka, "Bootlegger's Highway!").

The view' inside the "sleeping" cabin. My wife did a great job decorating, including finding old license plates, furniture and paintings at local thrift stores.

View inside the "bathroom" cabin. Rustic, simple, but functional!

A guest enjoying some quiet desert solitude out on the patio.

Twin Tanks sunrise

We even have an old flatbed GMC pickup as yard art and a fun photo prop...

...which my granddaughter Lilly likes to take out for a spin from time to time!

Thanks for sticking with me on this long post. Our little desert cabins have been on Airbnb for about 3 1/2 years with hundreds of guests. I'm still amazed that people like it as much as they do! For more photos and details of Twin Tanks Desert Homestead Cabins, here's the Airbnb link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9810259

Linking with Skywatch Friday.
Thanks for stopping by!!