(#8) Cabin Chronicles: Bathroom Addition and Tiny Home Layouts
We made it through our very first rental season and came out the other side with Superhost status, glowing guest reviews, and a beautiful blue kitchen. Now what?
This off-season, we're setting our sights on two big renovation projects:
1. Bathroom Addition: Turn the dry cabin into a studio plus bath.
From the beginning, we loved this dry cabin. Tucked behind the old ranger hut, it had high ceilings, clean finishes, and a cozy but airy feel that made the space feel inviting as soon as you walked in.
It was a perfect studio retreat, except for one major issue. It didn’t have plumbing.
The former owners had built it as a true dry cabin, meaning it had no running water. Instead, guests would walk to the second bathroom in the main house. (Fun fact: The former owners gave the main house bathroom its own exterior door for this purpose, which we now get to explain every time a guest wonders why the bathroom opens to the outside.)
We knew from the start that if we were going to do this, we wanted the cabin to stand on its own. We weren’t necessarily picky about where the bathroom would go or how it would be added on; we just knew we wanted the cabin to be fully functional.
So, this is our first goal of the off-season. We’re adding a bathroom addition onto the dry cabin!
We already dug trenches and laid new pipes for sewer and water, meaning now it’s time to actually build. We set ourselves what felt like an ambitious but doable deadline to start our second rental season in May with both units up and running.
💡 Our cabins are located in Gardiner, MT, less than one mile from Yellowstone’s North Entrance. The main rental season for our town is May through October. Everything outside of that is what we’re considering the off-season for renovation purposes.
Before: Exterior
Before: Interior
Adding a Bathroom onto a Dry Cabin
Here’s our plan:
Bathroom: We’re adding a full bathroom off the front left of the cabin, with a shower, toilet, vanity, linen closet, and small laundry nook. The entire layout was designed around one of our top property priorities: preserving an active wildlife game trail that runs through the cabins.
For some context, we bought in Gardiner because it’s right next to Yellowstone’s North Entrance. This area is one of the best areas in the entire world for wildlife watching, which is one of our favorite hobbies. When we realized elk and deer often wander through our yard along a game trail, we didn’t want to block their path and kept that in mind when making building decisions.
Instead of expanding forward and sharing a wall with the third cabin (which would have been easier and cheaper), we adjusted our design to allow the deer and elk their usual path. You’ll see what we mean in the picture below.
Kitchenette: In the cabin’s main living area, we added a small kitchenette and air conditioning to make the space more comfortable and functional. To do this, we’re removing an old wood stove that was incredibly charming, but not practical for renters.
Studio Interior: Once we began the renovation, we realized there was some smoke damage from the wood stove, so we’re tearing out a little bit more than we expected by taking the walls down to the studs. While there, we’re adding insulation to make this a four-season space, lowering the ceiling to improve heat retention, and removing the board-and-batten. The old entry door is becoming the new bathroom door, so we’re adding a new exterior entrance.
Exterior: With the new entrance door, we’re adding a small front porch. We’re also adding a back door and juliette balcony. (The back balcony will be located at the back left of the photo below.) Since the deer and elk often walk the hill behind the cabin, we imagined this private porch would be special for morning wildlife watching.
Bathroom Addition: Our hand-drawn plans!
The concrete on the right is the retaining wall + back wall of the third cabin.
2. Break ground on the Red Fox Retreat
The other foundation on the property, the one that’s just big enough for a tiny home? It’s getting some love this off-season, too! Gone is the caution tape around a giant hole 🙌 as the Red Fox Retreat, our third cabin, is officially underway.
Between Cabin 2’s bathroom addition and ongoing main house upgrades, we won’t get this entire cabin built this off-season, but we are starting. We’re framing the first walls, picking out siding, discussing kitchen layouts, and deciding what exactly we want this cabin to be.
Here’s our plan:
Design & Layout: After sketching and resketching (and then doing that ten more times), we landed on a layout that gives us almost everything we’re looking for.
It’ll be a two-story unit. The living area, kitchen, and bathroom will be on the first floor. A spiral staircase will take you upstairs to the bedroom.
Off the upstairs bedroom will be this cabin’s showstopper: a second-story deck that looks directly into Yellowstone National Park! Pop a scope up there, and we’ll be able to look for wolves without ever leaving the cabin!!! (Seriously, we’ve heard wolves from the property, and one of Yellowstone’s wolf packs has been spotted on the hills across from us. We 100% plan on spending hours up there with a scope!)
Heading back inside, a queen bed will sit beneath a window that frames the town’s most iconic mountain, Electric Peak. Downstairs, the galley-style full kitchen will run along one wall, with a long countertop that doubles as a breakfast nook or remote office.
Why This Layout: We want all of the amenities of a larger space, but have a limited footprint to work with. We’re doing our best to maximize the space while working with the building's original dimensions.
In this cabin, we want to fit an oven, a full-size fridge, a dishwasher, counterspace that can serve as a workspace or an eating area, and a full bathroom. We’re even hoping to fit a sleeper sofa in the small living area so people can squeeze in a few more loved ones if they really want to.
As for the exterior decisions, it’s really important to us that each cabin has a special spot of its own. It’s the front porch of the main house, which overlooks Electric Peak. It’s the back deck of Cabin 2, which sits along our active wildlife game trail. We’re hoping it will be this second-story deck on Cabin 3, overlooking Yellowstone National Park itself.
Style: Jon’s favorite animal is the wolf, so he named Cabin 2: The Wolf’s Den. We’re picking out paint colors and furnishings using that theme, including a dark gray accent wall, black fixtures, and a cool-toned aesthetic.
My favorite animal is the Red Fox, so I named Cabin 3: The Red Fox Retreat. I’m using this as inspiration for paint, siding, and design fixtures. I’m envisioning Earth tones, soft textures, and warm colors. Like the perfect place to curl up with a book in the winter. That’s my vision.
💡 Once complete, we’re calling the property "The Cozy Yellowstone Compound.” Our vision is to host larger groups, extended families, and friends or couples traveling together. We hope you'll love staying together on one property, while having the privacy that comes with different buildings and spaces!
Goodbye orange snow guard!!!!
The beginning of the Red Fox Rereat
More Things Happening Behind The Scenes
We’re making some behind-the-scenes upgrades this off-season, too. We’re working to help everything run a little more smoothly for our next rental season.
That looks like lining up additional help and strengthening our cleaner network after last season’s mid-summer scramble. We’re also building in a little more breathing room wherever we can by shifting to a two-night minimum and bundling the cabins together, while continuing to offer the main house on its own.
We’re also updating our welcome guides, improving our Yellowstone Travel Guide, making better house notes, and implementing the lessons and feedback we received last season. The goal is to help next year’s guests settle in faster and enjoy more of what they’re here for. We’re getting better at knowing what really matters to guests, and what doesn’t, and that’s exciting!
A Look Ahead at Season ✌️
We don’t know it yet, but we're about to dive headfirst into our most challenging few months yet.
That’s saying something because, in the last year alone, we made $12,000 worth of electrical updates, renovated the kitchen in the main house (in between guest stays), renovated the unfinished bathroom and laundry room in the main house, made a ton of cosmetic upgrades, demolished a building, poured two new foundations, brought sewer and water to the dry cabin, rebuilt a retaining wall, and filled in a cesspool we didn’t know was sitting under our front yard.
… All while hosting 30+ groups during our very first rental season.
Despite the whirlwind of Year 1, the next few months are going to be even wilder. Last season should have taught us that nothing here goes according to plan and every project takes longer than you expect.
Still, this off-season is about to blow all of that out of the water.
Keep Reading: (#9) Cabin Chronicles: The Part Where You Get Tired
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