The cabin was built in May 2010 for my parents, to have somewhere for them to stay when they came to visit. It was purchased as a self-assemble log cabin kit and delivered on a pallet. In preparation I had laid a concrete pad for it to sit on. With the help from my parents and Emma ( my volunteer at the time) we began constructing the Lego style building using the A4 sheet of instructions as our guide.

The wood came untreated, as I had thought it would save money to treat it ourselves. This was a big mistake. Not only did it cost us the same amount in wood preservatives, as it would have cost to have it done in the factory, but also the amount of time it took to paint each individual plank , slowing the building process considerably.

Due to the building being 19 square metres, it came under the requirements for planning permissions (20 sq m + needs to have permissions).

I wanted my parents to have their own space and independence. This was not only for them, but myself as well. Getting two kids up in the morning and off to school, was a juggling act as itself, without adding extra bodies to the equation.

The interior of the cabin was turned into a studio apartment with fully equipped and functioning kitchen, dining table and chairs, sofa-bed and wardrobe. At the back of the cabin, a bathroom was built. To keep 'with-in code', it was built separately but adjacent to cabin, with access to the bathroom made by cutting a door way in the back wall, (using a chainsaw!). Taking my parents needs into consideration; access to a (wee only) toilet in the night and their own shower was essential. During the day they can use the compost toilet.

The electricity was supplied via two 80 watt photovoltaic cells and a leisure battery.

Butane gas powered my old caravan fridge and the small 8 LTR water heater.

Water was supplied to the cabin by a small compression pump attached to a 1'000 LTR IBC which was filled with water collected in my van (and another IBC) from a neighbour.

As a suggestion from a friend for me to generating a little extra income, in August 2012, I started to rent the cabin as a holiday accommodation using the holiday letting platform Airbnb.

It was cheap and basic but most guests loved it even when it ran out of power or water.

Of course there were others that just saw the price and didn't read the description, who although disappointed at first (or shocked that it wasn't a hotel), soon got into it.

It was a big learning curve and I found out a lot about what people liked about the farm and a lot about myself. Accepting their feed back was a valuable lesson.

By January 2013, I had made some big changes to the cabin. In the previous months I had connected to the community well for a mains water supply and between October and December 2012 we had constructed (but not finished) the new Japanese bath-house. With the newly installed and upgraded 3 kW Outback solar system, we would be able to run the house and the cabin together. These installations allowed me a bit of security and freed up some valuable time. I did not have to worry if we did not have sun for a few day or if my guests were high water users, which before had meant constant water collection runs in the van.

I could also start to increase the nightly rate to stay in the cabin.

All was going well, until... In August 2014 the Catalan government put a clamp down on non-registered 'Casa Rurals', country homes that are rented out for holiday lets. As I was unregistered, I unlisted the cabin from Airbnb and started the process of getting my tourist registration number. My only problem was none of the building on my property were legal, which was part of the requirements.