Benn Berkeley next to his caravan – SWNS

What would you prefer to live in, a trailer or a log cabin? An out-of-work English filmmaker picked the latter over the former by way of his own two hands and a few tons of lumber.

Benn Berkeley lost all his work prospects as a freelance filmmaker in 2020 due to business closures and other restrictions arising in the wake of the pandemic’s arrival in Great Britain.

In August 2020, his brother took over a farm that had a static trailer and asked Berkeley if he wanted it.

Berkeley leaped at the opportunity despite admitting it was a “fixer-upper” and started working on gutting out the trailer in September all on his own.

“I had zero experience in building and DIY but there was an opportunity to do it up and live in it so I jumped in head first,” he told English news media outlet SWNS. “Everything we learned was through YouTube, it was a really amazing and empowering experience.”

He upended only about $13,000 (£10,000) in savings to finish the project, doing everything apart from the electrics and plumbing himself.

credit – Benn Berkeley, via SWNS

“It’s 44ft by 10ft. We had to support one of the walls as it was caving in—the first job was to make it safe,” he remembered. “We changed the windows and then we realized there was a damp issue so we ripped all of the walls out. From there we had free reign to do what we wanted, originally it was two bedrooms with a bathroom and kitchen.”

“All of that went, we now have a double bedroom, bathroom, corridor, and open plan living and kitchen space.”

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Berkeley said he was shocked how much of a resource YouTube proved to be, from basic to technical skills, and from installing retaining walls to planning and building a kitchen, remarking that “it was all there for me.”

Since moving into the cabin, Berkeley has taken the place off-grid. He heats his home with a wood stove, uses gas bottles for his oven, and his electricity comes from solar panels on the farm.

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“It is a very simple lifestyle which I think we have lost,” he said. “I can govern myself a lot more, I am not pressed into working a certain amount of hours a week as I know my outgoings each month.”

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