My wife and I have secured funding, and are finally moving ahead with our plans to build ourselves a house. Well, it isn’t a house so much as a large cabin. For the next few years we will use it for a vacation spot, a getaway for the weekends, but then when we both retire we plan on living out here. The property is just overlooking a lake, in the middle of a forest, with the nearest neighbor over two miles away. We want it to be perfect, though, so we are fussing over the designs to make sure everything is right. One of our biggest concerns is the heating and cooling system, because this area tends to get very brutal winters. On the hottest of days, we can always open the doors and let in some fresh air if the air conditioning stops working for us. The winters are a different story, and if we get trapped out here with no heating during a bad storm, we could be in trouble. We decided that the best course of action would be to have great insulation to trap in the heating, and also keep a couple of backups around. Nothing in life is foolproof, so why not keep a couple of spare space heaters around just in case? If all else fails and there is no source of power to keep us warm, then a fireplace is another good idea. A fireplace is a nice thing to have regardless, but it also gives us a foolproof source of heating in the future.