Imagine washing your hands in a bathroom you built yourself, after spending the entire day wielding power tools beneath the Texan sun.
If you’ve been drooling all over our photos on Twitter or FOMO-ing whenever you read our newsletter, then this is the time to get your boots on the ground and your hands on a hand saw at Neighborhood Zero – Cabin’s first neighborhood and the OG home of the Cabin community.
From October 10 – 14 and 17 – 21, you can be 1 of 6 builders to help our builder-in-chief Charlie Frise raise a barn bathhouse on Neighborhood Zero.
Ready to apply? Here’s the form. Not interested this time, but curious about future build weeks? Get on our newsletter. Want to learn more? Keep reading.
What to expect from Build Week
As a Build Week participant you get free food, housing, and a crash course on how to build a bathhouse.
You’ll live on the property for the duration of the build. You’ll be hanging out with Charlie, our resident longhorns, and the other coliving residents on the property. After a sweaty day of work, you’ll have a warm bed, good friends, and all the convenience of home.
Food is provided. We’ll have a host onsite who will do grocery runs for the team. Folks will pair up or volunteer themselves to cook group dinners for the crew. You’re free to raid the fridge and pantry for breakfast and lunch.
In exchange, we ask that you work for at least 4 full days and get yourself to and from Neighborhood Zero (45 minutes outside of Austin).
You don’t have to know how to drive a trencher or know the difference between a table saw and a chainsaw (although having used power tools in the past would be helpful!). In fact, we love introducing people to the world of DIY. If you’re eager to build and learn a thing or two about construction, then we want you.
Build Week schedule
You can sign up for either session or both.
Each day, the crew begins working around 9:00 AM. Around 12:30 – 1:00 PM the team will break for lunch for an hour, then go back to work until 5:00 or 6:00 PM.
You can join the build and take breaks whenever you like. Most folks work at least 4 full days.
Session 1: October 10 – 14, 2022
Session 2: October 17 – 21, 2022
Session 1 (Oct 10 – 14)
Monday – Foundation. Dig 6 holes, placing a wooden post in them and filling them with concrete
Tuesday - Deck Build. Build the floor frame of the entire bathhouse.
Wednesday - Infrastructure and subfloor. Run pipes to below where the toilets, showers, and sinks will be. Install a subfloor on top of the floor frame.
Thursday - Raise walls. Build walls out of 2x4s and lift them into place.
Friday - Raising walls & Plumbing. Continue to build walls. Begin to run water lines within the walls.
Session 2 (Oct 17 – 21)
Monday – Window install, housewrap. Install windows, wrap the building with a water resistant barrier, and continue plumbing.
Tuesday - Roof framing and siding. 2 teams: One team works on framing the roof while the other puts siding on the walls
Wednesday - Roof sheathing and siding. 2 teams: One team works on sheathing the roof while the other puts siding on the walls.
Thursday - Roofing and Insulation. 2 teams: One places roofing underlayment on the roof and begins to add metal roofing. The other adds insulation to walls
Friday - Roofing and Insulation. 2 teams: Continue to build walls. Begin to run water lines within the walls.
What you’ll be building
So far, our build teams have put up a pergola and firepit, a sauna, and now ... we're building a bathhouse!
Okay, okay, we’re not building a Roman bathhouse. But we do want to build a house with bathrooms in the middle of our property.
Charlie’s working on a couple of shedrooms this fall so more folks can live on the property, but there's no public bathroom for the visitors who drive by Neighborhood Zero or for those living in the shedrooms.
So we need hands to help him build a large outhouse for them.
The bathhouse's showers will also add to our outdoor spa complex on the property.
Finally, if you’re curious to see Neighborhood Zero or learn more about the project itself, check out this video:
Join Build Week
Build Weeks are hot items amongst the Cabin community. You learn new skills in an intensely physical setting. You spend time IRL with people that you enjoy hanging out with online. You bond quickly with these people because you’re all working towards a purpose you choose for yourselves.
In other words, each day spent working in a Cabin construction zone is a welcome respite for a city-dweller or a tech worker who spends most of her time in front of a computer. Plus, learning the steps, following the plans, and getting your hands on wood and stone — these will leave you with a sense that you can build and learn anything.
No wonder so many people sign up for a single Build Week and end up staying for both. 😉
Session 1: October 10 – 14, 2022
Session 2: October 17 – 21, 2022
If you’ve been itching to make a pilgrimage out to the mythical Neighborhood Zero and etch your name into Cabin lore, this is it. As multiple Build Week participant, David/speakease says:
“Making a pilgrimage somewhere and doing hard labor with a group just brings people together.”
Ready to sign up? Apply for Build Week here.
Not interested this time but curious about future build weeks? Get on our newsletter to make sure you get notified of the next one!
