Jamaica Cottage Shop

Hand-crafted cottages and sheds created by Vermont artisans in the post-and-beam tradition.
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Andrew Glover

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Father’s Day ideas from Jamaica Cottage Shop

“The Joy of Sheds” written by Frank Hopkinson

Via Amazon
“A humorous miscellany chronicling man’s need for a small space all his own

A collection of shed facts, shed humor, shed features, shed design, shed maintenance, and more, this witty book covers every aspect of the shed experience. Inventor Trevor Baylis thought up the clockwork radio in a shed, George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion in one, and Dylan Thomas would compose poetry in his. However, the average male does not tend to devote his shed to poetry. Along with a chapter on how to customize one’s shed into an exotic creation—”Pimp Your Shed,” there are plenty of shed facts, such as that almost a fifth of men have had an accident in a shed, making it the single most dangerous place in the home after the kitchen. Another chapter covers the typical items stored in sheds, and “The Genus Shed” places the shed in the Linnaean order of buildings. There are also shed stories from around the world, and a look at sheds in literature (Cold Comfort Farm and Lady Chatterly’s Lover), the movies, and music.”

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Cabin Kings Partners with Jamaica Cottage Shop to Showcase Sugar Shack

16x20 Sugar Shack Exterior
Upgrade to a functional cupola if you are using this building to make Maple Syrup.

SOUTH LONDONDERRY, Vt., March 17, 2015 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Cabin Kings of the popular National Geographic reality TV program, “Building Wild,” have joined forces with Jamaica Cottage Shop to build one of their 20 x 30 rough cut timber frame cabin kits – also known as the sugar shack. The show is expected to air on April 7.

“Building Wild” is hosted by Paulie DiMeo and Pat “Tuffy” Bakaitis, affectionately known as the Cabin Kings, who take the concept of building man caves to places no man has gone before.

Jamaica Cottage Shop will supply them with a cabin kit that has traditional mortise and tenon joinery making the post and beam house plan extremely durable.

The sugar shack is based on the design of a traditional New England cabin that is still used today to boil maple syrup. It can be used as a working sugar house, workshop and even a man cave. The Cabin Kings will showcase how it can meet multiple needs.
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“We’re excited about the opportunity to partner with the Cabin Kings on this project,” Domenic Mangano, owner, Jamaica Cottage Shop, says. “And, while it’s not the first show we have appeared on, it’s the first one with the National Geographic network.”

Other shows that Jamaica Cottage Shop have appeared on include the FYI Network for “Tiny House Nation” and the DIY Network. “Building Wild” will be their third reality TV appearance.

For a full schedule of the “Building Wild” series: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/building-wild/.

For more information about Jamaica Cottage Shop: http://www.JamaicaCottageShop.com/.

About Jamaica Cottage Shop, Inc.:
In business for 20 years, The “Jamaica Cottage Shop” name derives from the tiny New England town of Jamaica, Vermont where the company had its humble beginnings in 1995. Today, the company is based in Londonderry and produces a full line of outdoor storage shed kits, tiny houses, outhouses and green living cabins. Hand-crafted by Vermont artisans, these buildings are as durable as they are attractive and are built in the post and beam tradition.

– Photo for media: Send2Press.com/wire/images/15-0313-16x20sugarshack-300dpi.jpg .
– Photo Caption: 20 x 30 Vermont Cottage (Sugar Shack).

News issued by: Jamaica Cottage Shop, Inc.

Jamaica Cottage Shop, Inc.

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8x16 Tiny House on a Trailer

If you don’t live in New England, you might never have even heard of this extra season. I spent the first 50+ years of my life “enjoying” the pros and cons of this short time, where it falls in between winter & spring. It’s a curious time of t-shirt days, often snowy nights, and rushing rivers. The earth smells amazing as it starts to awaken, and the sun is strong enough to coax the very first signs that spring is coming – laying bare south slopes, rocky outcroppings and widening the circle of grass and earth around tree bases. As the temperatures swing wildly about, hundreds of miles of back dirt roads become impassable if you have anything with a lower ride then a 4 wheel drive ½ ton pick up, and even driveways become only passable with your wellies. I remember once, in the 80s, getting stuck so bad during mud season, that I had to leave my vintage Land Rover stuck were it was for a full week, while the mud became less impossible to work in. I never tried driving “in” as we used to call it, in April again.
Out of curiosity, I went to wiki to see if it was even a “thing”.

Mud season is a period in northern New England in late winter/early spring when dirt paths such as roads and hiking trails become muddy from melting snow and rain.[1]

Mud season occurs only in places where the ground freezes deeply in winter, is covered by snow, and thaws in spring. Dirt roads and paths become muddy because the deeply frozen ground thaws from the surface down as the air temperature warms above freezing. The snow melts but the frozen lower layers of ground prevent water from percolating into the soil so the surface layers of soil become saturated with water and turn to mud.

That sort of explains it. You have to experience it for real, to fully appreciate its diversity. At least it is recognized as a real season.

Mud season is also is a time of some serious planning about tiny homes for New England summers. Those long winter months were great for the dreaming part, mud season is for the actual planning part. Summer is so close, you can almost touch it, but there is still spring before summer, so there is time for plans to become reality.

Most mud seasons for me, were spent planning another adventure. Traveling was always high on the list – these days, I would be thinking about these road legal glamping (Urban Dictionary defined as glamorous camping. When you’re glamping in a tiny house for travel, there’s no tent to pitch, no sleeping bag to unroll, and no fire to build. Jamaica Cottage Shop has the edge on these structures, of course, since they are where one can buy a tiny house on wheels.

Road legal prefab tiny house on wheels being built this week at Jamaica Cottage Shops 70,000 sq. ft . factory

In my opinion, these custom buildings on trailers define an intention that hasn’t been seen since Airstream was a thing.

Look forward to more information on this new wave of exciting tiny houses for travel. Jamaica Cottage Shop is in mud season mode with extended hours (Monday-Friday 9-5pm, Saturday 9-4pm, Sundays by chance or appointment) a toll free number (1-866-297-3760) of in house staff (including a design team, client care team, and tech support team) while the factory is also open for touring the facility and seeing some of this new work as it becomes available.
My guess is that Jamaica Cottage Shop will not only soon be where to buy tiny houses on wheels regularly, but will have the kits and plans so you can make them too.

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I wondered how many companies make sugar shack buildings. A quick google search didn’t answer my question. Is there really only one company selling a comprehensive selection of this classic building? Seems so.

Jamaica Cottage Shop, in picturesque Southern Vermont, has quietly been building an extensive inventory of homesteading buildings for 20 plus years now. The sugar shacks they have available, are no exception. I counted no less than eight sizes for their Do It Yourself building plans (which are available for the modest price of only $50), eleven sizes for their prefabricated kits (with a multitude of options available) which, by the way, are shipped free (What? FREE?) (yes indeed.). Eleven sizes for fully assembled buildings (with a similar amazing shipping plan), and looked at a number of wonderful pics that showed custom sugar house design is something they also do on a regular basis too.

10x16 Sugar Shack - Custom Exterior, post and beam shed plans
Jamaica Cottage Shop’s 10’ x 16’ Sugar Shack with optional overhang
12x16 Custom Sugar Shack - Exterior, post and beam shed plans
Jamaica Cottage Shop’s 12’ x 16’ Sugar House from a prefabricated kit. This design was customized with a sliding barn door and a built-in woodbin for firewood storage.
assembly-of-cupola-post-and-beam-sugar-shack-part, prefab shed kits
A working cupola being built at Jamaica Cottage Shops 70,000 sq.ft factory

Clearly the sugaring industry is thriving and well.

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The Maple Sugar Book by the well known pioneering New Englanders

Maple Sugar Book by Helen and Scott Nearing

Helen & Scott Nearing

From their famous “Good Life” series

“Maple sugaring was an important source of cash for the Nearings, as it continues to be for many New England farmers today. This book is filled with a history of sugaring from Native American to modern times, with practical tips on how to sap trees, process sap, and market syrup. In an age of microchips and software that are obsolete before you can install them, maple sugaring is a process that’s stood the test of time. Fifty years after its original publication in 1950, The Maple Sugar Book is as relevant as ever to the homestead or small-scale commercial practitioner.”

“Chelsea Green publishing (White River Junction, Vermont) is pleased to honor their example by publishing a new edition of The Maple Sugar Book, complete with a new section of never-before-published photos of the Nearings working on the sugaring operation, and an essay by local Greg Joly (Jamaica, Vermont) relating the story behind the book and placing the Nearings’ work in the context of their neighborhood and today’s maple industry.”

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I seriously procrastinated writing this article, because I wasn’t sure I knew how to tell everyone that such a mundane thing like (insert yawn here) roofing shingle options, might actually be better then you imagined. The more I hemmed, and then hawed, and then hemmed some more…I started to think about how maybe this story wasn’t in the telling, but more in the showing.

(Because who is really going to listen to me if I tell about the pros of, you know, shingles).

So, here’s a few tiny house roofing examples that I think are extremely attractive…

For the quintessential Fairy Tale of cottage living there is….

Vermont quarried slate shingles (this might be the prototype for my gingerbread house next Christmas)

8x12 Customized Dollhouse - Exterior, diy shed kit
Jamaica Cottage Shops 8’ x 12’ playhouse. Wooden playhouses with slate roofing are storybook prettiness, personified. This building was also customized with horizontal siding, decorative shutters and white and evergreen paint.
8x12 Dollhouse - Custom Exterior, do it yourself shed kits
Jamaica Cottage Shops  8’ x 12’ playhouse. Another model featuring a slate roof and horizontal siding.

If I didn’t already have my eye on the cutest little greenhouse imaginable, this smart looking “Saltbox”, with cedar shake roofing, and clear poly stain with the dark red opening true lite windows, would be my number one choice.

8x12 Saltbox - Exterior, prefab shed kits
Jamaica Cottage Shops 8’ x 12’ “Saltbox”
post-and-beam-custom-gazebo-with-asphalt-shingles, shed kits
Old fashioned custom gazebos with large plain black asphalt shingles are well suited to the curving edges of the roof-line and crisp white of the structure.
Church Street - Exterior, prefab shed kits
The quiet little “Church Street” garden shed. Sturdy and plain, with clean lines, Jamaica Cottage Shops garden sheds look wonderful with fresh paint and the Rainbow Red asphalt shingles.
Church Street - Custom Exterior, wood shed kit
Another “Church Street”.

Even though this building isn’t surrounded by summery landscaping, (which is all we really want to see this time of year),  I still wanted to show this example – it’s beautiful paint choices and rustic surroundings are pulled together by this more old fashioned style of roofing. (Makes me want to camp out in there.)

If you are thinking about a building in the cottage living lifestyle, Domenic (the creator of this tiny house company), has certainly made it simpler to determine the specifics. Jamaica Cottage Shop’s easy to maneuver website has hundreds of shingle options, tiny house roofing examples and ideas. They have a very large lookbook of pics on their facebook page, and more, on their Pinterest boards.  If you still aren’t sure what to choose, and would like some advice on how to make the best fit, he recommends, “Send a picture of the existing property and buildings to match so we can review the architecture”. Of course Jamaica Cottage Shop also has an in-house design team available every day during the week, just for you.