Hutchison, a 30 something, does for the crafts involved in resuscitating a falling down cabin in the woods, what Bill Bryson did for the Appalachian Trail—provide a thousand laughs while narrating a good yarn.

Ten years out of college and with his writing career on hold, Hutchison found himself working as a copywright editor for a marketing company, a job that provided a good salary, benefits, and all without heavy lifting.  It was also deadly boring and led to his questioning what it was that he was doing and was going to do in the future.  The answer, surprisingly turned up in a Craigslist offering of a cottage 2 hours southeast of Seattle that was on the market for $7500.  Despite all the practical details (It was on an appropriately named road, Wit’s End that periodically flooded or was closed by mudslides.  There was no clear deed on the land or the cottage.  The driveway was a swamp. There was no electricity, plumbing, water source, cell phone coverage, internet, etc. The deck was absent its decking.  And on and on), he bought it after negotiating the price down by exactly nothing.

Enter Hutchison the carpenter, plumber, excavator, roofer, floor guy, etc.  Only problem was that he had none of those skills and sadly, most of his friends who lent a hand didn’t either.  But what fun they had building an outhouse, decking the deck, installing a kitchen with a cooktop, sink (5 gallon water container as the source and a pail under the drain for the outflow), putting on a new roof, grading the driveway’s tons of gravel.  Hutchison turned out to be a fierce learner about the various trades and skills (thank you, You Tube) and after two years of weekends and occasional longer stays, the cabin was a functional, attractive, and comfortable place. So, he sold it, quit his day job as a marketer, bought another lot on Wit’s End, and with his buddy Bryan, went into business as contractors building cabins and selling them to make a living.

This is a fine story from many angles, but the fun that kept me turning the pages was the author’s finely tuned sense of irony, sarcasm, metaphor, and humor.  I smiled; I chuckled; I laughed out loud—a pleasant and much-needed distraction from the daily news.  At the end of the day, Hutchison’s project and the book that chronicles it was really about a bigger issue.  As he writes, “At times, it felt like the cabin and I were partners in a sort of joint self-improvement project.  When the cabin was all fixed up, maybe I would be too”.  That appears to be what happened.

A fun, fine book.