Comfort Cabin: Kamaria x Mike

 

Hey folks! Back in the fall I had a lovely conversation with Kamaria, who owns and operates a short term rental business - Comfort Cabins - based around a DEN A-Frame Weekender design. Join us as we chat about Kamaria's journey building with DEN, and how her STR business has been going so far. 

If you'd like to check out Kamaria's DEN's IG, you can find it here: @comfortcabinsatx.

You can find Kamaria's Airbnb page here.

1. Meet Kamaria + Why She Chose the Weekender

Mike: Let's do some like basic setup stuff, right?

Why don't you tell us who you are, which DEN design you built and where you built it. 

Kamaria: So my name's Kamaria. I'm from Austin, Texas, and I decided to build the [A-Frame] Weekender for a two to four person getaway, just outside San Antonio in Bandera, Texas. Day to day, I work as an engineer, but this is kind of like my side hustle.

Mike: Awesome. 

Kamaria: You would say it's like every millennial needs a side hustle. 

Mike: Hell yeah, of course. Of course. I need to figure out what my new side hustle is, because DEN was my side hustle while I worked for WeWork, and it then became my full-time gig. 

Kamaria: That's the dream. 

Mike: True, true.

Kamaria: You're living it! 

Mike: So for everyone watching also, Kamaria and I have already met, we had a DEN meetup in Austin about a year ago. So we're reunited at last to check in on the project. So cool.

So the Weekender, the weekender is an A-frame. What made you choose an A-frame over some of our other designs?

Kamaria: I wanted something that was unique. Not saying that the other ones don't stand out, but I feel like an A-frame is a really nice, unique but also classic design. 'Cause it's been around for a while. It's not like it's brand new, but it's kind of like making its full circle moment right now. I like that it's small, it's compact, it gets to the point and it's perfect for a couple.

I mean, I eventually would like to use the cabin, for my personal gain as well, to be able to just kind of get away. And I felt like that was a good size. Wasn't too big. Wasn't too small. 

2. Design Philosophy + Choosing DEN

Mike: Nice, nice. So the design spoke to you, the sizing spoke to you, you're like, 'I can rent this, I can use it'.

Yeah, like checked all the boxes. 

Kamaria: Yeah, I checked all the boxes. 

And I like the kind of Scandinavian look of it all. It's really nice. It's very clean cut looking. I like that. 

Mike: So let's just jump into this. So you built a place instead of buying a place. Why? 

Kamaria: Because I wanted to be able to make my own decisions with it.

I wanted to be creative about it. I didn't just wanna buy a place, stick some furniture in there, and then... 'hoo-rah'. I kind of wanted to have the creative freedom, I think that's one of the funnest parts about building from scratch: you get to choose all the finishes.

I didn't have an interior designer, so I designed everything on my own, the furniture, the finishes, everything. So it gave me a lot of flexibility and creative freedom to bring something to life. I've never done that before, so it was really exciting. And fulfilling. It was very fulfilling.

Mike: That's awesome. That's awesome to hear. I mean, [I] imagine there's not too many a-frames of that size, up for sale also in Texas. 

Kamaria: No. 

Mike: No. So you've got a unique asset, to say the least at this point.

We met a year ago. Presumably you've known about the company for a little bit longer than that. I mean, your project was already underway when we first met, right? 

Kamaria: Yeah. 

Mike: And curious, like just to hear how you found DEN initially, right? Like what was it about DEN that really attracted you to what we were doing, right?

And, yeah. Like you mentioned like some aspects of the designs, like being clean and compact. But like what about our company and our designs really caught your eye and made you decide to move forward? 

Kamaria: Well this isn't my first go round in real estate, so I'd previously worked with an architect before.

So, looking online and not having to go through that process of working one-on-one with the designer, like there's already set plans that I could follow. That was a really big win for me. And also like the cost effectiveness of it all versus going to an architect and then they have to design it from scratch and it's obviously a lot more, and you guys have multiple plans so I think that was... that was really nice too, because I found myself looking through and I already know what to look for in terms of like, if building wise it's gonna work or not. You can look online and see a lot of different floor plans and sometimes you just look at it and you're like, 'that doesn't make any sense'.

You know, like the way they design it, type of thing. So it was nice to see that it was well thought out and like well designed. Without having to go to an architect. 

3. The Build Process + Creative Freedom

Mike: You know, it is not easy to run a business. But I would say that my favorite moments are these, you know? Just like, piggybacking off of your enthusiasm and like the fulfillment that you've had in doing this project, it's truly an honor.

And it's so funny too, 'cause like I was like just on the phone with another customer and he told me that his architect wanted to charge him $22,000 to recreate one of our A-Frame designs. And he was just like, 'wow, that is like at a way, way higher price than I could have even imagined'.

I think a lot of our customers encounter that in the market today, right? If you go to a traditional design firm, it's really expensive. And you also have to like go through the process of meeting them, making sure that there's fit, right?

I think one of the really great benefits of DEN is you don't have to take a meeting unless you want to, right? 

Kamaria: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: And you can just browse a catalog and like really align to a design that speaks to you, that's the right size, right?

That's the right level of investment for the project. And then just buy it, and like be off to the races. 

Kamaria: Yeah. Yeah. And I like that over time you guys added that little estimator at the bottom. I don't know if it's still at the bottom anymore of the page. But like you said, like you can look at a plan that speaks to you and be like, 'okay, can I realistically build this in my budget'.

And you have like that pre-estimator or whatever. That's really nice. So it's very helpful. 

Mike: Nice. Yeah. So you more or less like self-built this or GC'ed it yourself, is that right? 

Kamaria: No. So I ended up having two different contractors. One of 'em fell through, like midway through the project, but... Yeah, I ended up just getting a general contractor to finish everything out.

I am not very good at building homes. Physically. Me. 

Mike: Maybe the next one, we'll build ourselves, right. 

Kamaria: I don't think I have any muscle for that. 

Mike: So you worked with general contractors on this project, right? So like having bought the plans, like aligned to the partners that you used to execute the project.

And now like you're operating this Airbnb that's now about a month old. Like what's been the best part of the whole building adventure for you? 

Kamaria: Well, like I said, the best part of the building adventure for me is just being able to be creative about it. Like I think that was like one of the funnest things for me is picking out the color of the roof, what color tile I'm gonna use, what backsplash, those types of things.

I think those really over time started to pull it all together because you have this idea of what you think it's gonna look like or what you want it to look like, but it's so spread out in different little pieces. But over time, they slowly come together to become one piece of art. I really liked that. That was really, that was the best part for me.

Mike: Nice. Nice. 

Kamaria: Yeah. 

Mike: Our team spends a lot of time detailing the plans, right? What about like our plan packages made certain things easier or potentially harder for you? 

Kamaria: Easier wise, I would say that telling a contractor that you wanna swap things out. Like, let's say, instead of metal siding, I wanna do Board and Batten or something like that. Your plans are easy enough for them to figure it out and be like, 'okay, it's an easy swap' type of thing.

It's not like, 'well, I don't understand how I'm gonna get it over here and do that'. So, you know, like one of the things that we ended up doing to the place was adding the loft addition. Which I didn't even think about in the beginning, but the contractor was kinda like, 'oh yeah, you get more square footage and you'd have enough height. And I mean, these are really tall ceilings', things like that. 

I think the plans made it pretty easy for them to just kind be able to pivot when needed. So, that was pretty good. I don't think we really ran into a lot of issues. The only issue that we ran into was - I think it's because of something that I added though.

Since it was gonna be an Airbnb, I wanted to add laundry in there. And because of the pitch of the roof, where we were going to put it, it wasn't enough height for like a double stack or anything like that, so we had to creatively find a way to use like a small two in one and try to fit it in like a small area.

So, those types of things... But I mean, that has nothing to do with the plans. That was just an addition that I did. 

4. Custom Tweaks + Airbnb Launch

Mike: That's cool. Which brings me actually to my next question, right? Did you stick to the original DEN plan or did you throw in some of your ideas, some of your own ideas?

And if so, you just mentioned this like laundry area that you included. What other tweaks did you make to the design? 

Kamaria: Let's see. So tweaks to the design. We did the in-unit laundry, we changed the pocket door and we did barn sliding doors instead. So that was a pretty interesting and cool switch.

We did that. And we did the loft addition. And since we did the loft addition, we had to add a ladder to access it. And then since we added the loft addition, we were able to add like a scuttle for like water heater where we could put water heater, put the router and all that stuff for the internet.

I think I added a EV charger, so we added that as well. 

Mike: That's a sweet amenity. 

Kamaria: Yeah. I wanted to eventually switch over to electric vehicles, so that was kind of... for me. So that way, since it's so far away, when I finally do get my electric vehicle, I'll have a place to charge. So that was kind of selfish on my part, but you know, I have had people come that have had Teslas, so they've been able to charge too. So they enjoy that amenity. 

Mike: Nice, nice. That's cool. So, you know, the project has been live on Airbnb for about like a month now, right? 

Kamaria: Yeah, a full month. 

Mike: Nice. How's that going, in terms of rentals and occupancy?

Kamaria: Occupancy? I'd say it's about a quarter of the time. I only get occupied basically on the weekends. Sometimes it bleeds into beginning of the week. Like some people may book a four night stay or something like that and do like Thursday to Monday or something like that, but it's typically around only the weekends.

But everybody has said like it's a beautiful place and it's very peaceful. So yeah, all of my reviews are, I just had a guest checkout today and she told me how peaceful and beautiful it was, and her husband really enjoyed it. They were there for four nights. Amazing. 

Mike: Amazing. Just a month into it.

Like that's, that's pretty high praise. Well done. 

Kamaria: Yeah. Yeah. I was like, 'wow!' For my first time, you know, it's like, it's really nice to hear. Like all that hard work, I've been doing it for two years now, of trying to get it built and get it up and running and stuff like that.

And for the first month of people that stay, like everybody, like rants and raves about the same thing. So it's, it's pretty good. 

Mike: Oh, amazing. Amazing. 

Kamaria: Yeah. 

Mike: I've got the million dollar question for you: in month one, where you cashflow positive? 

Kamaria: Yes! 

Mike: Oh, amazing. Amazing. 

Kamaria: Yeah. Woo! 

Mike: Well done! That's so cool.

And yeah, as of today, we've added you to our national network of customer built showrooms. So hopefully being on that list also will throw some more bookings in your direction. 

Kamaria: Yeah, that'll be great. We're already... I count it as being booked out because even though it's not 100% every day, it's like every weekend and that's like what I would imagine, but pretty much booked out for October now, so now the bookings are starting to roll out for November, so. 

Mike: Oh wow.

Kamaria: We're pretty much done. Yeah. For this month. 

Mike: That's amazing! To have like an entire month's runway, already figured out. 

Kamaria: Yeah. 

Mike: Sick! 

Kamaria: Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty nice. It took off a lot faster than I thought it would! I'm not gonna lie. 

Mike: That is amazing. I'm so happy for you.

So I'm just gonna run through a couple more questions and if, you know, for some reason we get cut off, I just wanna say thanks, again.

And it was great to see you and we'll we'll follow up with you soon over email. But let's just keep going, right? 

Kamaria: Mm-hmm. 

5. Advice, Lessons, and Reflections

Mike: So, if a friend of yours was thinking about building their own DEN, what would you tell them? Any words of wisdom? 

Kamaria: Any words of wisdom? I'd definitely tell them... I'd tell them, you know, what is it that they're looking for? Because you know, I guess if it was my friend, let's say that they had a kid or something like that, I would definitely say like, 'do a two bedroom type of thing'. Or if it's just they don't have a kid, then do a one bedroom.

But for sure I would say do a DEN. 'Cause it's very easy to follow. Some of my friends are handy, so they would be able to. Like my best friend, he would be able to build one from scratch if he really wanted to, you know. He would be able to figure it out and I would definitely tell him to do that, to save a little bit of cash if he could, but yeah.

Mike: Awesome. Awesome. 

So if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the whole process of building something, what would it be?

Kamaria: The process of building something? That's a good question.

The cost. No, I'm just kidding. [chuckles]

Mike: I mean, that's a great answer, quite frankly! 

Kamaria: Is that a legitimate answer? 

Mike: Definitely, definitely! I mean like, and the follow up question to that is like, how did the DEN plans help you control cost, right? And help you choose materials? 

Kamaria: It helped me [with] a) the size. 'Cause one thing that I did figure out the hard way is no matter how tiny the home, there is a base cost built in, if you will. Like every house needs electrical, every house needs like septic or sewer or water or AC. And no matter the size of the house, you still have to... it doesn't scale accordingly. The price.

So, you know, that's one thing that I would definitely say to keep in mind, even if the home is tiny, that doesn't mean tiny cost, it still needs a foundation. All the things that would go. Whereas if you went bigger, it'd spread out the cost over the price per square foot. But I mean, you're still gonna have to end up paying for those things. So yeah, that's one thing I would say to keep in mind. 

Mike: Yeah, that's a good point. I think on that, you know, a lot of smaller builds actually have a higher price per square foot.

You know, like a 200 amp panel is a 200 amp panel, whether you put it in like a tiny house or you put it in a larger home, right? 

Last question. We've got about a minute left. So what's something cool or unexpected you've discovered about yourself or your new place since you finished building it?

Kamaria: Something cool or unexpected that I've noticed about myself... is kind of proving to myself that I can adapt to change more than I thought I would be able to. 'Cause it's a stressful ride, but you know. I was able to pivot and problem solve and figure out more than I thought I'd be able to. I thought I was just gonna have like a mental meltdown, but I didn't.

So yeah, that's one thing I would say. You get to see how resilient you truly are, 'cause building something from scratch, will test you. 

Dealing with builders and things, will test you. 

Mike: On that note...

You know, when I was building my first cabin, someone gave me the best advice, which was that the cabin would be done for a lot longer than it took to build and to have patience.

Kamaria: Yeah. 

Mike: Yeah. So Kamaria, listen, this call is about to end. I'm gonna say thank you again from me and the entire team at DEN. Really, really great job on the build.