Budget Breakdown: An Oregon Designer Turns a Quonset Hut Into a Guesthouse for $345K

"I always take on a bit too much," says Marie Saldivar, which, it quickly becomes apparent, feels like an understatement. Speaking from inside a guest suite she recently added to her property in Sisters, Oregon, Marie explains how she’s balancing a full-time job selling real estate and managing her new prefab homebuilding company, Steel Hut, all after having her first child just three weeks ago.

But keeping busy with creative projects is how Marie and her husband, Kurtis, like it. The couple purchased the property in 2021, a 10-acre plot tucked against Deschutes National Forest, and moved into an existing cabin there. "We’re both very passionate about living in natural environments and having as few neighbors as possible," Marie says. "Kurtis is an avid outdoorsman and I’m an art and design lover." Before long, they fixed their eyes on an undeveloped corner of the site and built a deceptively spare Quonset hut–style guest suite that conceals a warm interior.

Marie, who, among her other talents, is also a licensed contractor, and Kurtis designed and built the suite themselves, starting with a metal shell from SteelMasters Builders, a steel kit manufacturer. "We love to work with our hands," says Marie. Having customized two Quonset huts before, the couple had the confidence to try out new ideas with this one, like adding a lofted bedroom that would better utilize the structure’s height.