Fish house question....

[Sandmannd]

I love my portable and enjoy fishing out of it a lot. I would like to have a perm to put on on a local lake or maybe even Mille Lacs. What is an in expensive way to build a house. I was trying to think of one you could pull by hand and maybe assemble on the lake, then take apart and take off the lake at the end of the year. Or would it be better to build on skids and keep it on Mille Lacs? What are the costs on some of these?

[Glockwinger]

I have a house on Mille Lacs that I purchased about 7 years ago. It was trashed inside, but the frame and windows were good. I put a new door on it, new heater, cleaned it up, repainted the exterior and was only into it for about $1500 initial money. Now don't get me wrong, I have put a bunch of money into creature comforts and updates since! I also replaced the roof last year. I probably have around $3000 into it by now. I guess my point is that you can find old used ones for under a grand on skids on Mille Lacs if you are willing to do some work on them. Hope that helps...

[love to hunt]

A very economical way to go hard sided is to purchase a shell wheel house and finish the inside yourself over the summer.

You can watch the sales for insulation, paneling, and shop for the amenities and get some pretty good deals. hsolist is also an excellent source for your stuff.

Then you also have an option for comfort to other lakes or perhaps the pout fest

[JigginIsLife]

i know last year somone posted some pictuers about a modular ice house i looked pretty sweet and connected on th ice with some big I bolts and stuff. cant find the post now, but hopefully that person will read this post, and they will put some pics up for you.

[minnbowhunter]

Sandman, Building one with takedown walls is ok, but I think it would take several trips to pull it out by hand. I built my first perm. that way and pulled it out in one trip with all the sections piled on my snowmobile trailer behind the 4-wheeler. My only problem was I used 2x10's for the runners to pull it around on the ice and after blocking it up my floor was almost a foot off the ice. I bought pvc tubes to slide in the holes but it was still a pain and hard to keep the holes from freezing up. If you build one try to keep the floor as close to the ice as posssible. My wheelhouse drops down to within a couple inches of the ice. I really never have to bank it unless it's really windy and cold. I friend of mine just built a new perm. and he used steel studing and spray foam isulation. Very light and warm. storage in the off season has to be taken into consideration.

[mshs1]

Back in the early days 50's and 60's a lot of houses were modular- I built one out of a Green Giant corn sign that I scrounged. Had to drive on the lake because it was to cumbersome to pull the units and with snow like this year it may take weeks to pull. The house was not strong enough for a resort owner to DARE pull. It was adequately built(cheap) but not over built(sturdy). With new fangled ATV's and sleds you can pull more, but you still need some sort of sled system. I believe there are a lot of houses needing rehab on Mille lacs that would serve you well and give you a good start on a sturdy house that can be pulled without rattling apart. This forum has units for sale from time to time.I suspect there may be houses on Mille lacs that will have for sale signs on them as people get the desire to upgrade.Just like homes our home looks OK then we compare it to the neighbor and off we go-- I went with a house on Mille Lacs this year --pay the dead storage fee for summer and have the resort do the pulling

[Sandmannd]

I was thinking of getting a fixer upper on Mille Lacs, but also, just curious if there is a cheap way to make a semi-portable one for a local lake that I can pull out on the lake by hand and leave it.

[looneyducer]

Quote:

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just curious if there is a cheap way to make a semi-portable one for a local lake that I can pull out on the lake by hand and leave it.

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I've seen some people using the old-school plywood and blue tarp portables this way. I don't know if they ice anchor them or if just banking them in will keep them from blowing away, but you can tow them by hand (not easily), they are relatively cheap if you build them yourself, and best of all, they don't take up too much storage space in the off season.