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The good thing about building an off-grid cabin by hand, with no power tools, is that the tools you do use turn out to be fairly cheap and easy to find. These are the only tools we’ve needed to build the cabin so far, and they’ll be useful to have for projects going forward, too.

All of these items can be found at any hardware store. Approximate prices are included for reference.

Tool List

Site Clearing

  • Work gloves ($5)

  • Rake with curved, thick tines ($20)

  • Machete ($15)

  • Saw (like the Christmas tree kind) ($10)

Foundation

  • Shovel ($15)

  • Ten-gallon bucket ($5)

  • Level ($5)

Construction

  • 1 lb hammer ($10)

  • Hand saw ($15)

  • Two sawhorses ($40)

  • Tape measure ($5)

  • Safety goggles ($10)

  • Safety mask ($5)

  • Hearing protection ($15) — hammering is loud

  • Carpenter’s square ($10)

  • Ladder ($120) — don’t be tempted to cheap out on this

  • Caulk gun ($10)

  • Electric staple gun ($60)

  • Scissors ($5)

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