Outdoor Kitchen and Storage Build!

You might not be surprised to hear that it is a challenge for our family of seven to live in a small camp trailer. Things are TIGHT! To make it worse, it has been very rainy so far this summer. Don’t get me wrong, we like the rain. It’s one of the reasons this area attracted us. But we’re still figuring out how to deal with it! We aren’t used to so much rain! We set up a pop up canopy just outside the door of the trailer and set up a little outdoor kitchen. We also set up a covered composting toilet area as I’ve mentioned. Well, our pop up shade was destroyed by a quick but intense storm that moved through here. We had another one and set it up after we moved to our new campsite. It was nice but it is old and well used. It has holes in the canopy and just doesn’t keep us very dry. It also collects water around the edges, sags, and then the weight of the water after a heavy rain bent the frame and it just doesn’t work nearly as well as it used to.

Lastly, and probably our biggest struggle right now is storage space. We really need a space where we can keep things dry and protected from the elements. We bought a few cheap totes that we were keeping some basic sealed pantry items in that were stored under the table, but we need more! We want a space where we can set up some shelving and keep some of our pots, pans, and other such items on. We have cast iron and that really needs to stay dry or it gets rusty. If we can get a dry space that is covered where we can bring out some of our things, and set up a better kitchen area then we’ll also be able to access the things in our enclosed trailer more easily. That will be a big game changer for us.

To solve these problems we’ve built a large canopy that extends out from the front door of our camper. Our camper came with a very large, heavy duty tarp. We explored a few different designs and ended up with a gable style roof with a wood frame covered by this large tarp. Tarps can be tricky but we hope that if we keep it stretched well then the water will run off of it and it won’t blow around in the wind. We also have plans to put in a rainwater catchment system in place but that will come a bit later.

The frame is made with cedar logs from our property. We harvested mostly trees that had been pushed over a few years ago, cut the branches all off, and went to work. It is kind of a mix between timber frame, pole barn, and log cabin style building. We have taken elements from each style and put them all together. If I were doing a fully enclosed, rigid structure with a real roof, I would certainly do it differently but it works for what it is for.

Since the skid steer you see in the background STILL isn’t working, we had to get creative to move these large logs. Yes, that is an appliance dolly that we are using! That thing has been so useful!!! We got one from Harbor Freight and I have zero regrets!

First we took vertical poles and buried them several feet into the ground. We are lucky that we actually have some good top soil on our land, but just under that top soil is the classic Ozark rocky soil that we keep hearing about. A few of the holes took a lot of work and rock breaking to get deep enough. This structure is 22’x18’. We used a ridge beam in the center to span the 18 feet. We considered putting up a support pole in the middle but my son suggested using large corner braces. I liked that idea and we moved forward with that. Originally we tied the tarp so that the sides were straight down, however, we’ve learned that we can get it tighter, and the water drains off better and keeps things dryer if we actually angle the sides out a little bit more. It also gives us a little more storage space. When we get really heavy rain, there are a few places where the rain starts to pool up and we have to push the tarp up to get it to fully drain but I think with some adjustments, we can get that fixed. Another issue we have is the small rain gutters on the trailer overflowing. The water that falls on the trailer still runs down to the sides and the rain gutters just can’t handle much water at once so water flows down the side of the trailer between it and the awning even though the awning overhangs the trailer a little bit.

Mary and the girls were down at the creek and my oldest son was on the other ladder so I asked my younger son to take a picture of me on a ladder that was in the back of the truck. He didn’t quite understand what I wanted. It was the only way we could both get high enough to install the ridge beam. It was a challenge but it wasn’t too bad.

We used elements from timber framing, pole barn framing, and log cabin style building.

After getting the frame all together we just did some finishing touches to smooth the logs where the tarp would be in contact and then we used webbing to pull the tarp over. Then the biggest challenge was getting it staked down tight because the weather turned and started pouring rain again!

Despite the small issues with it, so far it has made our lives so much better! We have a large space that gives us shade, and shelter from rain. In the last several weeks we have experienced a lot of rain, and some very harsh sunny days with high heat. The awning has plenty of air flow so it is nice under there during hot sunny days. We have an outdoor kitchen, an actual table set up for eating (not just a picnic table!) a place to store kitchen items, tools, and we even have our shower set up out there since it can be inside or outside. I was trying to hurry to get it done and there were some stressful moments, but in the end it was a fun build and I love to see it whenever we come back to camp!

We have also set up drinking water storage inside. We have a wood frame that holds two, 55 gallon water barrels. We use one to get water from a neighbor, and then we transfer that water into the lower barrel and use that. We still have wash water in a separate, IBC container that just lives in the back of the truck. Our next step in our water situation is to get a well drilled and set up a rainwater collection system for wash water. We considered developing our spring but I think we’ve decided that a well would serve us better and be less likely to be contaminated.

Another step we’ve taken is to get our refrigerator out of the storage trailer and get it set up under the awning. We’ve been using the refrigerator in the camper and it just doesn’t work all that well. It’s too small for our family, and the temperatures fluctuate quite a bit and things tend to go bad quickly. We haven’t finished that project and we still have some problems to solve there so I’ll probably write a separate post about that later.