Got a Bag of Pennies? Spend It All on Ultra-Rustic Sauble Pre-Fab Shepherd’s Hut

Ever heard of a shepherd’s hut? Well, until recently, I hadn’t. Now that I have, I'm bent on bringing you the news. Why? Simple. Shepherd's huts seem to be some of the most affordable and essential mobile home structures I've run across in a very long time.

Imagine for a moment, a very large room, sometimes suitable for entire families. Now take that room, put a roof on it, a door, some windows, and a steel frame with cast iron wheels, and you’ve got yourself a shepherd’s hut. Most manufacturers tend to follow this simple layout.

One team bent on making some pretty awesome huts is Gute, a Canadian mobile home manufacturer that just so happens to dabble in these rustic and seemingly ancient builds. To understand why this team focuses so much attention on these homes, it should help to know that Gute is composed of designers, master wood craftsmen, and passionate builders; a family “excited” by the very work they do.

One of their works is the Sauble hut, a bare-minimum construction that’s offered completely empty in order for you to transform it into the space you want and need. Or, if you don’t like putting in the work, I'm sure Gute is open to any and all suggestions in making the perfect getaway home for you, after all, it’s in their interest ($$) to do so.

As it stands, the Sauble follows the classic shepherd’s hut design and with that, quite an affordable construction. For a mere $16,675 Canadian ($13,006 U.S. at current exchange rates), this mobile home cruises in as one of the most affordable around, especially when you consider that the hut is 7.5 feet (2.28 meters) wide, and 12 feet (3.66 meters) long.

Overall, the construction is completed using raw unfinished pine on the outside, giving you unlimited options to unleash your creativity upon the shell, maybe even treating it eventually to extend the life of the wood. Interior walls are completed using solid pine boards too, again, left unfinished.

Don’t start thinking that just two walls of wooden boards are all you’ll get, it’s not. The fact of the matter is that the Sauble does include a fully insulated floor, walls, ceiling, and three thermal-paned windows. Based on previous Gute constructions, it’s possible that this insulation is for year-round use.

One important aspect of such a construction is the roof. For this hut, the manufacturer offers a choice of either a red cedar shake construction, or a machine painted steel roof that even includes a 40-year warranty on the finish.

Moving to the interior of the Sauble, it seems that for this price you do receive just any empty space. Personally, I wouldn’t mind as I’m the sort of person that likes to personalize their life. Even if it is bare, with a few thousand bucks, you could easily adapt a portable toilet to the hut, an exterior shower, maybe even some solar charging capabilities, a definite bedding system, and away you go, ready with a summer ready home. But, as I mentioned earlier, most mobile home manufacturers are always eager to throw in more goods to get you walking away smiling.

If I had $13,000, the Sauble hut would definitely be something that I’d consider if ever looking into acquiring a mobile home. Why? Just look at it! It literally will give you the same feeling that our great, great, grandparents may have felt before all the hustle and bustle of city life changed everything. After all, it’s why folks go camping, is it not?