Backcountry A-Frame: Modern Cabin Plans for a Rustic Mountain Retreat

Building a modern cabin doesn't have to start from scratch. For Janice, the dream of creating a mountain retreat came to life through DEN's A-Frame house plans. Using professionally designed cabin plans gave her the confidence to tackle the challenges of a remote build, while still customizing the details to fit her vision. The result is a striking, Scandinavian-inspired A-Frame tucked into the Colorado forest — proof that modern cabin plans can balance style, functionality, and affordability.

This project is more than just a cabin — it's a case study in how A-Frame floor plans can simplify the path from inspiration to construction. By starting with pre-designed A-Frame plans, Janice avoided many of the cost and time pitfalls that come with fully custom architecture. From structural efficiency to interior layout, the plans streamlined the process while leaving room for personal touches, making her Backcountry A-Frame a standout in today's crowded short-term rental market.

Whether you're interested in a cozy getaway, an Airbnb A-Frame rental, or exploring modern rustic cabin design trends, this interview highlights how the right cabin plans can transform raw land into a profitable and inspiring retreat. Along the way, Janice shares insights into working with contractors, adapting to local requirements, and the real costs of building an A-Frame in the mountains.

View Backcountry A-Frame's Instagram here, and their Airbnb page here.

All photos in this post were captured and edited by @exploreyourbrand.

Meet Janice, Who Built Her Dream A-Frame Using DEN Cabin Plans

Mike: Let's start with some basic context. Who are you? Where are you in the world? And which DEN design did you build?

Janice: My name is Janice Stitzer, and I'm located just outside of Denver, Colorado. I built a DEN A-Frame house back in 2022 — it was completed right after COVID.

Janice: We all felt that need to get away to remote outdoors. When I first saw the DEN A-Frame plan, it was in Dwell Magazine, and I immediately was just gobsmacked. I was like, 'I have to have this. How do I get it?' That's ultimately not the one that I built, but it really just lit a fire of this dream to have something just out in the remote backcountry of Colorado. So that's how it all started.

Building an A-Frame House in Colorado: Timeline, Financing & Challenges

Mike: That's amazing. You're also coming at this with some unique experience because you are a general contractor and a developer. Is that right?

Janice: Yes. Right now we're developing a little more of a smaller hospitality resort. But even though we have building experience, we built this about two and a half hours away from where we live. And even with that, we still hired a general contractor in the area.

That's a crucial piece — you have to pay someone local who understands that market and who has access and their own network. That was really instrumental in getting this done in a timely basis. Even through COVID, it was difficult. We couldn't build through certain seasons of winter, and so the timing aspect — just building within a reasonable timeline to finish — was instrumental in getting to the finish line of launching it as a short-term rental, and even just getting it done so that we could refinance it.

We paid out of pocket for this to be built — we didn't want to go to the bank, we did have access to funds, with the intention to finance it after the fact.

Sourcing Materials for an A-Frame Cabin

Mike: Just for clarity's sake, were you acting as the general contractor on the project, or approaching it more as a first-time builder?

Janice: My husband is actually a third-generation contractor. His father is still in construction — commercial construction. My husband grew up doing all the things on a job site. So he was very familiar with the processes of building. Where we fit into the construction process was that we sourced everything.

We didn't have to be handheld through the process. A lot of times when you do work with a general contractor, they hold your hand through the selection of materials and all of that. We came to him with everything already picked out. So that's kind of a little bit of the speed of construction — it was just like, 'we've made the decision. We are easy people to work with.'

Benefits of Using Pre-Designed A-Frame Cabin Plans

Mike: So you do some mentorship with our mutual friend, Rob from Robuilt, right? To help people understand the complexities and challenges of building. And before we started the interview, you were remarking on how pre-designed plans from DEN really help to paint a path. What do you think the benefits were for your project of selecting a DEN plan in the first place?

Janice: Right. One of the hardest aspects is to figure out a floor plan — and not just the floor plan that works and flows, but you have to look at the elevations. And it all has to come together aesthetically. Design wise, not just the floor plan, because if you're looking at a floor plan, it's just this two-dimensional thing and it looks great on paper, but the windows play a big part in what a home ultimately looks like. And DEN Outdoors plans — they tend to be so just on point with everything. You add in the renderings, you get a holistic feel of what the end product is going to look like. Conceptually that's hard for a lot of people to visualize.

That's really why I use DEN Outdoors for my floor plan. We've all seen the 70s A-Frames and they're using standard windows — that's what makes them dark and dreary. But when you have something that has such spectacular renderings, you feel like you can envision yourself in that space. I hate to say it's almost a waste of time to go totally custom, but having a floor plan from DEN that has something completely deliverable — you can see everything from the floor plan to the 3D renderings — that cuts down on so much time planning and designing.

If you're going custom, you're going to be sitting down with an architect, trying to piece together different aspects of different things that you like from different homes. If you're already talking about six months to permitting, and that's pretty fast, you're talking about at least six months trying to plan and design. And that's where the expense of architectural soft costs will start — hourly. And then you're going to try to conceptualize this in your mind, 'how is this going to look?'

Mike: Right. And I think like, in my experience, we encounter some customers that can barely even read a floor plan, let alone a set of construction documents. So it's like you have the risk of a client not even understanding the common language of design and architects. That's also why three-dimensional representations are so beneficial — they help to depict space in a way that people can actually understand.

Janice: And I think you could still make it yours, right? We bought the A-Frame house plan and we did make a couple of changes. We changed where the entry was and we added a bathroom, but it wasn't a heavy lift. It's like, 'let's mirror this bump-out on the other side to make a second floor bathroom.' It's not hard to reimagine DEN's plans when it's already pretty well thought out.

Customizing DEN A-Frame Floor Plans for Local Codes

Mike: Yeah, that makes sense. How did having a set of plans help you establish a good relationship with the general contractor you hired?

Janice: It was pretty quick. At that time you guys didn't offer CADs, but it was pretty quick and painless. Here's what this floor plan is, here's what we want to change, and then we were basically off to the races. We sent it off to mechanical and structural. We're in Colorado, so we have snow loads here — that was a little bit different to deal with. I know that's not something every jurisdiction will have to deal with.

But again, it's the speed of being able to get to the permitting process. We didn't have to make a lot of extra changes to the floor plan to get to where we wanted to be. We just wanted an extra bathroom, really.

Personal Experience Staying in a Modern A-Frame Cabin

Mike: Yeah. Well, that's cool. So you mentioned that you're running this as a short-term rental, but certainly you've stayed in the building yourself?

Janice: Of course!

Mike: What's been your longest stretch of stay in this particular house, and what's your favorite room or space?

Janice: I don't get to spend a lot of time there because we have a teenager in very competitive volleyball and another 10-year-old who keeps us very busy. But every time I pull up, it's always what I imagined and what I would feel like when I saw that Dwell write-up. It's like you just breathe this sigh of like, 'oh yeah, I remember this is why I wanted this.' I feel like this is what I want everybody to experience.

Janice: We do get people who are like, 'oh, I want to build a DEN!' and they want to experience an A-Frame in person. And I think it's just something that — because it's not something that people live in — you don't come across A-Frames for full-time living.

Mike: Right. It's like, where do you even hang the art? You know?

Janice: Yeah. It was actually featured last summer in 5280 magazine, which is — in Colorado — one of the home magazines. I'm like, 'see, they're not dumb. People love them!'

Mike: That's awesome. What vindication!

Mike: When you're inside the building, what's your favorite part of the design?

Janice: Hands down, for me it's our back elevation. That expanse of windows.

Janice: That makes the biggest difference with any design. If you're ever building anything, never buy off the shelf. There's something about large windows that make a space. Yes, we paid a lot for windows, but it's so worth it. There's something very intangible about good design. In our business we call it glazing. And if you have a large window within a great living space, that's what gives you that feeling when you walk into the space.

Janice: And if it's a short-term rental as well, it's an intangible feeling. There's ROI with good design.

Backcountry A-Frame Guest Reviews: Nature, Seclusion, and Design

Mike: You've been running this as a short-term rental for a few years now. What have your guests been saying about the property experience?

Janice: It's kind of all encompassing — just being in the middle of nature. We're located between Silverthorne, where all the ski resorts are, and Steamboat, and so they're both about 45 minutes away. We're not really in a well-visited tourism area — and that's kind of by design. That's how we envisioned it: to get away from it all. What we find is that we have more couples than anything. Not really families, just couples wanting to get away, wanting to reconnect or just unplug.

And I think it just gives it to them. The wall of windows, the loft where they sleep — when you wake up and you're looking out to just the forest, it's just an amazing feeling. That's the expectation, and we deliver on that expectation.

How Site Selection Shapes A-Frame House Plans

Mike: Nice. And I'm looking at your Instagram account right now — that view is amazing.

Janice: Yeah, and that's, you know, part of when you buy land, you have to walk the land. We lucked out on this piece of land because there was a pretty flat spot to build, and then you have to envision how you're going to situate the home. We essentially made the back elevation the main character — the forest.

We do have neighbors, but the funny thing is people do want remoteness, and then they feel a little bit safer to see that there are people close by. Everybody has about five or six acres within this small development. But again — knowing where you're going to be situated is pretty much key.

How Smart Land Buying and DEN House Plans Can Create Infinite Returns

Mike: What an incredible piece of property. If you don't mind sharing — how's it going from a short-term rental investment perspective? Are you guys cashflow positive?

Janice: We are cashflow positive.

Mike: Tell us a little bit about your short-term rental journey.

Janice: I come from a finance background, a real estate background. Buying the land — I will always tell anybody who asks this — is going to be the most important piece of the puzzle. Your infrastructure costs could eat up a lot of your budget that you didn't intend on ever putting into a project.

When we bought this land, it was actually two parcels combined. The same owner owned both parcels and for some reason nobody really knew it. I immediately saw: 'okay, this is reasonably priced and if anything, I could sell off one parcel,' which is what I did. So then my land basis was relatively inexpensive. In analyzing my build costs and understanding the market comparables, we built and were able to cash out refinance and put a little over $30,000 into our pockets.

"We are in it for nothing. I got all of my money back and then some. So it's infinite returns — if I have short-term rental income covering my mortgage, I'm cash flowing infinitely." — Janice

Janice: From a short-term rental standpoint, at the time we were trying to get our Certificate of Occupancy and rates were going up on a daily basis. We closed at around 5.75%, and we were like, 'oh my gosh.' But looking back at it today going, 'okay, 5.75% — that's pretty darn good.'

That's why the speed of construction is really crucial. Like once you start, the saying is: when the airplane takes off, you have to land it.

Mike: Yeah. That's cool. Maybe only one question remains — if you had a friend or a mentee who wanted to build a DEN, what advice would you give them?

Janice: Not to sound like a commercial, but I honestly refer everybody to DEN Outdoors. I still get people DM-ing me asking about 'what should my floor plan look like?' I'm like, 'you don't want to reinvent the wheel. You can use DEN as a jumping off point.'

Building a home can be a very stressful process. And if you have to add in more decisions on top, you will be so decision-fatigued if you're starting from scratch. What DEN delivers is a very tangible piece to a dream. You can buy the plans and you can sit on it until you find the piece of land. Because really, residential is probably one of the easier lifts in building. You can find land almost anywhere, and unless you're in some commercial district, by right, you can build a home. They can't stop you from building a residential structure most of the time.

"If you already have this tangible dream in DEN Outdoors' plans, all you have to do is then go look for the dream land." — Janice

Janice: We're building seven micro cabins in Salida, Colorado — it's called 'Frontcountry Modern Lodging.' It's more accessible; you pull off to the side and you're close to dining, a ski resort, hiking, 14ers. So it's basically a base camp for anyone who loves the outdoors.

Mike: Awesome. So Frontcountry is launching this summer. On behalf of the whole team at DEN, thanks so much for spending some time with me today, Janice. The Backcountry A-Frame looks incredible. Well done on the project.

Janice: Well, I have to thank you for it because if it wasn't for you it would never have come to fruition. So yeah, we go way back.