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One thing that always seems to be missing from these videos (in general, because there are many of them) is step 0: how do you go about acquiring the land and t

• emteycz 6y ago
  European countries often have minimums on what has to be allowed by the government. In my country (Czechia), a 25 square meters house without basement can be built on suitable land with only notifying the government, no approvals needed.
  • drra 6y ago
    In Poland it's 35 square meters of footprint of a single storey building as long as the land is designated as buildable or recreational. But it has to conform to a plethora of local zoning laws making it kind of tricky. Once you fall out of notification only proces it can take a long time to receive a permit.
  • intricatedetail 6y ago
    What about trees? In some countries even if you own the land you cannot cut the trees without permission and you'd have to put every cut tree back - which means buying a similar grown tree and paying for moving it. This can easily cost millions.
  • madaxe_again 6y ago
    Yeah, here in our corner of Portugal it’s 100m2, any purpose, no permits required. We’ve just built a 45m2 log cabin, entirely manually.
• cpach 6y ago
  In Sweden, to acquire land you can contact a landowner, or a broker. For available land, see e.g. https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?by=price&housing_form_groups%5B%5D=plots&order=asc&preferred_sorting=true https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?by=price&housing_form_groups%... The building codes are administrated by the municipalities. To find out more, one would visit the website of the municipality where one would like to build the house. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_of_Swed...
  • hnarn 6y ago
    The point of my comment was not to ask how to do it, it was an observation that these presumably important steps are almost never mentioned in these types of videos.
• kaffekaka 6y ago
  It says here - in swedish - that it is on property that his family owns. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/han-bygger-en-timmerstuga-helt-sjalv https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/han-bygger-en-...
  • pp19dd 6y ago
    'He lives in the forests north of Sala on the family land.'
  • hnarn 6y ago
    That's fine, but it doesn't give any information on all the other questions around what needs to be done before you start hammering away on your log cabin.
• honkdaddy 6y ago
  I think it really depends on the country/province. Here in Ontario, it's pretty common to find little hunting shacks or small cabins out in Crown land. My understanding is all you need is written permission from the MNR, permission which understandably depends a lot on what you're building. Interestingly, if you're First Nations, those laws don't apply to you and you can essentially build whatever you like on Crown Land, provided you can make the case it relates to your cultural heritage.
  • ficklepickle 6y ago
    In BC, we just discovered a small abandoned village in the woods[0]. It was not far from Vancouver. It was used by Japanese avoiding internment during WW2. There are many places where you could build and live the rest of your life without seeing another human (all on crown land) if you are so inclined. I don't hate society quite that much yet, but I'm keeping it in my back pocket. 0 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hidden-japanese-settlement-found-forests-british-columbia-180973028/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hidden-japanese-se...
• Grustaf 6y ago
  Buying an acre of forest in Northern Sweden is not expensive, less than $2k. Even close to Stockholm it's not much more than that, so it's really not a relevant concern if you are willing to spend a year building your own house. As to building codes, they are very strict in zoned areas, possibly the strictest in the world, but it's much more relaxed in rural areas. Plus even in zoned areas you can always build a 30 m2 supplemental building. Plus a 15 m2 shed. > considered too boring Would you really find it interesting to watch the process of him signing the contract to acquire the land? I can't think of anything less exciting than that.
  • ike77 6y ago
    I'm pretty sure you'd find an audience, even for an accounting competition reality show. Too bad Netflix hasn't yet produced one
    • Grustaf 6y ago
      Could be. But it’s probably not the same audience as the wilderness/survival/woodworking audience!
    • AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
      Given an identical set of financial information, who can produce a 1040 with the lowest tax liability/highest refund!
    • saalweachter 6y ago
      It doesn't quite go into "watching someone sign the paperwork" levels of detail, but money/permitting problems are frequently at least 5 minutes of each "Grand Designs" episode. My favorite was where someone built a house in the middle of a block, in previously unused land between the houses, and had to get permission from 17 separate future neighbors to tear down and rebuild the back walls of their gardens while digging the foundations of their house.
  • Cullinet 6y ago
    I have no idea how true this is, but my friend who claimed to have verified his research most thoroughly and was hell bent on attempting this against everyone's advice for he wasn't the outdoors man by any means, asserted the entirely legal possibility of building a cabin north of the arctic circle in Sweden and providing you could self sustain yourself out there for five consecutive winters the law would fairly automatically give you citizenship. I thought to put this here just because it's such a romantic notion regardless and I'd love it to be true, but I fear my dear friend was never less than a true romantic soul himself and it may have been a genius line with the ladies fed up with London living...
• lqet 6y ago
  > If you're felling a large amount of trees in a forest, at the bare minimum you need the blessing of the land owner (if that isn't you). Great memories: I spend an entire summer building a primitive "log cabin" from young trees as a kid with a few friends in the forest behind my parent's house. After the cabin was nearly finished, we were chased one day by a group of adults (apparently the owners of the forest) and hid a few hours deep in the woods. We only returned the next spring, when we finished the roof. I remember how proud we were when we cycled to the hardware store one day and bought a cheap lock for the cabin door. We lost interest the next year, of course, but the cabin remained intact for years. The local kindergarten used to go there for a few years.
  • varjag 6y ago
    What an endearing form of inverse squatting :)
  • cmpb 6y ago
    I have similar memories of building shanties and lean-tos and things with my brother behind our house in the woods. I had always assumed it was my grandfather's land, but I only discovered recently that the logging company owns it. Not that they would care - they can't use it because it's protected due to the riparian habitat. It sounds like our productions were a lot less involved than your "log cabin" though. Mostly just switches and young hollies tied together with briar vines to form a roof, occasionally with walls (built of the same materials).
• whalesalad 6y ago
  Your entire comment is stipulated on the idea that it is hard to acquire land/permission. What big city do you live in? In many parts of world it is pretty easy to acquire land out in the middle of nowhere and basically do whatever the hell you want on it.
  • hnarn 6y ago
    I never said it's "hard", I said it's glanced over, i.e. never mentioned in these types of videos despite it being (I assume) something that requires a not insignificant amount of time. And no, I don't expect it to be described in excruciating detail, I'm just saying it's usually not mentioned at all.
  • Johnythree 6y ago
    In most of Australia, land which was previously zoned as "rural living" has secretly been rezoned as "Farming" which means you cannot build a house if it is less than 100 acres. And you sure as hell cannot build without the design being approved. And then unless you can get a "Certificate of Occupancy" you can't live there.
• fogihujy 6y ago
  About 70% of Sweden is covered with forests, so acquiring some land covered by trees should be fairly trivial assuming one has the money for it. An article about this particular young builder mentions he built it on land owned by his family[1]. I'm not entirely sure about Swedish regulations in regards to building permits, but based on a quick Internet search it looks like one may or may not require a permit, based on the location, size and purpose of the the log cabin, and as a rule of thumb one should check with the local authorities before starting construction. The Swedish rules seem to be more lax when the building is to be located in sparsely populated areas. If it's anything like the rules in Finland there's probably a bunch of environmental and building codes that needs to be adhered to, but on the other hand this is a traditional build so it might be perfectly possible that he just needed to submit the plans and get someone to approve them. [1]: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/han-bygger-en-timmerstuga-helt-sjalv https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/han-bygger-en-...
  • toxik 6y ago
    Specifically, Swedish building codes don't apply to small constructions, hence the rise of the friggebod: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friggebod https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friggebod > In Sweden, a friggebod is a small house which can be built without any planning permission on a land lot with a single-family or a duplex house. It is named after Birgit Friggebo, who was the Minister for Housing in 1979 when the new type of building was allowed. The word is a portmanteau of Friggebo and bod, the Swedish word for shed.
    • fogihujy 6y ago
      Yeah, the rules are similar in Finland (hardly surprising since the Nordic countries often try to harmonize laws), but there are specific requirements for buildings if one intends to live there permanently -- i.e. if you're building a shed in the yard then you might not require a permit, but you might need one if you build a small cottage and intend to live in it. Regardless, it's usually a matter of documenting that the new building adheres to various standards.
    • gerikson 6y ago
• monkeynotes 6y ago
  If you own land in the backwoods of rural Canada I doubt anyone who cares would know you've built the cabin. If there is no plumbing, power, road etc. and the cabin is under 500sq/ft and you have logging rights I can't imagine anyone has jurisdiction to oppose. Unincorporated land, no environmental impact, ownership of the property. I can't see a problem.
  • hnarn 6y ago
    > no environmental impact How do you know if you don't bother to look it up? Many countries have national parks and entire areas where any "modification" to nature is illegal.
    • monkeynotes 6y ago
      To my knowledge you cannot own national park land in Canada. I should have said "minimal environmental impact", but yes it's probably something you should look into to make sure you aren't close to water courses or disturbing some kind of nesting area. By and large though, building a small cabin with no services in the woods is going to by definition have minimal environmental footprint if you follow common sense and do a little research.
• intricatedetail 6y ago
  In some countries if you fell a tree without permission, you have to put the equivalent tree back. Such operation could easily cost million euro to restore the forest.
  • swader999 6y ago
    A seedling costs about a dollar to grow, fifty cents to plant.
    • hnarn 6y ago
      The value of a seedling is not equivalent to the value of a tree.
      • swader999 6y ago
        Indeed, but five plus three does equal eight.
    • intricatedetail 6y ago
      The tree must be the same appearance, so this can take decades to grow and then you have to transport it without damaging its roots and then you have 50% chance it will not die. If it fails to grow you have to repeat it until it is brought to a state before cutting.
      • swader999 6y ago
        Trees make pine cones that beget other trees. Thinning a young forest is a step that is sometimes needed. Seedlings are replanted into the harvested land directly so this risk of death due to root shock isn't really an issue unless the seedlings are intentionally abused.
        • intricatedetail 6y ago
          But if you cut a mature tree it needs to be replaced with a tree of similar age, not a seedling. That's the whole point why it can be a so expensive mistake.
• burlesona 6y ago
  Just FWIW in much of the rural US you are largely exempt from building codes if you are building your own primary residence. The logic being that if you built it and you live in it and it kills you, well, you only have yourself to blame. This doesn’t apply for many town and city locations, though, as there are often local zoning controls that make you build cookie cutter garbage. But the smaller and and less regulated the area, the more likely you’re allowed to build what you want so long as you do it yourself and don’t sell it to anyone else.
  • hnarn 6y ago
    Ok, but does being exempt from building codes mean you have the freedom to fell trees in the forest and build a house with them? What if you sell the lumber? Presumably the land is owned by someone, regardless of how remote it is. If you own the land and you're exempt from building codes, are you allowed to fell any amount of tress without regulation? How do you know that the area you're in is not protected?
    • devenson 6y ago
      You must own the land. Generally if they haven't adopted building codes, there aren't many other constraints. But you have to research them via the city, county, and state websites. Fancy counties usually have GIS systems you can access with all sorts protected area delineated.
      • hnarn 6y ago
        My point being that since this is not an insignificant amount of work, it's odd that it's so often omitted. I've seen many videos like this but I've never seen it mentioned at all.
        • ForHackernews 6y ago
          It's not odd at at all, it makes perfect sense: These videos are about a fantasy of self-reliance and retreat from modern society. Purchasing land, getting building permits, etc. are not part of the fantasy, so they are never going to feature in the video. It's like saying "these videos of hot bikini models oddly omit all the dieting and exercise"
• Dirlewanger 6y ago
  The kid's family is also most likely loaded, otherwise he wouldn't have so much free time on his hands to dedicate to doing something like this.
• kuerbel 6y ago
  Definitely not possible in Germany just like that, there was / is a person who tried it (Marc Freuke, he was on TV quite often so I feel comfortable sharing his name) and got sued by the municipality. Building code here is already vicious, development plans are just as bad. You are not at all allowed to built on basically everything that is deemed "outside"/outskirts, there are some exceptions but a Jurte or Tipi or cabin is usually out of the way. Even if you own the land. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that but that is the gist of it. In essence, you will have a hard time trying to do this.
• Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  Obviously the hard initial stuff is missing from these sorts of videos, because that isn’t glamorous. Content creators want to start from the things that will attract people's attention. It is similar to how, for example, there are many videos for how to travel the world by bike and how you can budget for it daily, but extremely few of those videos explain that cyclists typically have to work really hard in some boring normal job for a while to save up that budget for their travels, and then the process of buying all the necessary gear can be long and frustrating as one has to compare various websites and wait for things to arrive by post. Who wants to watch that?
• hindsightbias 6y ago
  You can do anything you want in most rural CA counties (even Sonoma and Napa) as long as it's 120 sqft or less, no permanent foundation, electric or water. I personally found his series a bit painful to watch as he's doing it all the hard way (which is his point).
• jrochkind1 6y ago
  In most of the United States, you need no permit whatsoever to fell trees on private property. Yes, including clear-cutting your forest and selling it for lumber. This is not a good thing though. Exceptions apply in some localities, please check before cutting down all your trees.
  • wing-_-nuts 6y ago
    >This is not a good thing though. Serious question. Why does the government have any business telling me what I can and cannot do with my own property if it does not impact others? I'm not saying i support clearcutting, from a purely environmental and aesthetic point of view, but I really disagree with government or any other associations telling me what I can do with my own property.
    • lotsofpulp 6y ago
      It doesn’t, but it usually does impact others. Whether or not you think it’s sufficient for government intervention is obviously political, whether it be maintaining a neighborhood’s design to prop up resale value and keep out riff raft via HOA, or not letting people cut down trees for environmental or even aesthetic reasons, etc. Almost everything we do impacts others though, in some way.
      • wing-_-nuts 6y ago
        Ah, you might have guessed I lean decidedly libertarian on the topic :^). I'm certainly with some things (esp pollution, or destruction of other's property), but I have precisely no interest in catering to someone's 'property values' or aesthetics. I'm usually ok with reasonable stuff like adhering to city codes, but I would never by a detached home with an HOA.
    • jrochkind1 6y ago
      Because the presence of trees effects others. In an urban/suburban area they effect temperature, air quality, and rainwater runoff, among other things. In a rural area in bulk, they effect air quality and carbon capture. Also erosion and water run-off. Clear-cutting a forest completely changes the local ecology, and not for the better, in a way that is irreversible. We all need trees, and they take many years to grow to maturity. they should not be cut down en masse capriciously. And to do so effects others.
• cgh 6y ago
  You are right, I have noticed this especially with the tiny house people. They build the house to save money and then park it somewhere. But where? Almost inevitably, it's family land, like a farm or something. Other posters have noted this but Canada is almost unique because of its vast forested wilderness and sparse population. If you wanted to buy a parcel of forest somewhere and build a cabin, it wouldn't be a particularly expensive undertaking, so long as it's well away from an expensive urban area like eg the Lower Mainland of BC.
• jandrese 6y ago
  If you are remote enough it is unlikely that anybody will ever bother you. No civil servant, no matter how dedicated, is going to hike 100km through dense wild forest to deliver a fine. The only time you're in danger with the law is when some logging company buys the rights to the land where your cabin happens to be and you're in the way of the clearcutting. But if you're far enough from any roads even this is extremely unlikely.