A Beautiful Box Bed

 

This beautiful box bed is in a Gypsy Caravan or Vardo.

Details of Cordwood Constuction.

Remember that this house is built with a post and beam frame.  A square cord wood house, may be subject to racking in high winds.  The post and beam help with diagonal stability.  Round and oval houses would be less likely to catch the wind that way. 

My Sister's Bathroom

My brother-in-law and my niece built this in a few days to be the main bathroom of their cordwood house.  The gas fired toilet was a disaster.  The composting toilet did not work properly in the cold.  So, this is just a very cute shed on the property.  It would make a lovely retreat or spare bedroom.  It is actually large enough to be a tiny house.

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the concrete pads as in the shed below. 

No need to be too fussy with this tiny a structure.

Notice too, the brackets supporting the roof overhang on the front.  These could just as well be extensions of the ridge pole and top plates, perhaps decoratively carved or chamfered.

There are no windows in the sides so that privacy could be maintained as a bath, but they could easily be framed for windows and/or a glass door for more light inside.

 

 

A Small Shed or Cottage in Maine

 

 

 

 

 

Take a look at a post on You Tube called  Thoreauvian Simple Living.

Though this shed, near my sister's house in far northern Maine is even larger than the house in the video, it is not as high.  Still, at about 12 by 16, or more, it has plenty of space for a small habitation, summer cottage or studio.  Notice that it is on pads, just concrete disks actually.  As long as there is sheet metal underneath to keep vermin out and insulation, this is perfectly acceptable.  The only other caution is that it must be on virgin, well packed soil, or on ledge.  Digging below the frost line is always a good idea, so that frost will not heave unevenly and twist your house out of shape, but for this tiny house, with no plaster or plaster board inside, the risk is minimal, and correctable.   Fragile but ridgid materials will crack with any movement, but tongue and groove boards will move with the foundation slightly.  Just re-level the foundation, and it will slide back in place with only minor complaints.

Don't Rush. Don't Be Excessively Cheap

Cutting corners may seem like a good way to save money at first glance.  Certainly there are plenty of ways to cut corners effectively.  Go to yard sales and thrift shops to buy linens and buy linen dish towels to make curtains etc..  Pre cut so no sewing, spring loaded rods...very easy and cheap.
Old linens that have no special appeal because of antique value can just be worn out cloth...this means you will buy over and over again.
Just an example that came to mind.
When you build, do not build with the first and cheapest materials that come to mind.  If you find a lot of boards free on craigslist for instance, they may look like your wall sheathing...a real gift...but in time those boards will not give you the diagonal stability you need.  You will never be able to use sheet rock if you do not have that stability.  You can, of course, run sheet metal diagonals in your walls under the boards, but there is another expense and time.  Just bite the bullet, and use plywood or some other sheet product and do the job right the first time.
Deke Diedrickson has a lot of great shelters built with salvaged materials and corrugated translucent panels, but you simply cannot have quite that mindset with a permanent building.  Buy windows that are not  all worn out, or be choosy when recycled materials are offered.....why be in the position of having to redo your work.  If you come across a nice stained glass panel....that is a different story.
This sometimes means that construction will not be as fast as you would like.  Saving up for materials takes some time.  Finding just the right salvage will take more time.
You need to be patient and critical of bargains.  Think long and hard about purchases and construction methods.  It does not always help to be too quick and too cheap.  

Borderland State Park in Massachusetts

These are photos of the stone cottage located on the grounds of Borderland State Park in Easton Massachusetts.  The stones are rather large for normal construction, but I would be willing to bet that the construction went fast.  All of the stone is local granite.

The walls average at least 14 inches thick.  The right hand chimney and the large fireplace on the left are a little too much.  This would work well with a large central chimney and fireplace, but the two are very wasteful of materials given the efficiency of modern stoves.  The main building is approximately 24 by 32 feet.  The thickness of the walls and the size of the central chimney still make this a pretty small house.  The square footage would be helped with a loft area.

 

Notice the pseudo arch above the door.  The wedges of stone keep the weight of the roof and stone from pressing down on the door frame.

A Move is Planned

I am soon to move from Massachusetts to far northern Maine.  I have become used to a certain planting zone where I have been able to grow all of the things that were in my grandmother's garden in Medford, Massachusetts. 
I actually plan to move to Italy for a part of the year and to Maine for the rest. 
The trouble with both of these options is that Maine is very cold.. Zone 3-4 where I plan to move... and Italy...for the most part is in zone 8-9 with a wicked hot and dry spell in the summer.  I will likely end up in the mountains, as the low lands are just too expensive for me.  The mountains have the distinction of having nearly as hot a dry spell in the summer, but then they have cold and snow in the winter.  I just can't seem to win.
Italy has a history of large plants in containers.  It is not unusual to see olive trees, pomegranate, lemon, orange and other trees in large containers in the gardens and on terraces.  They have the luxury of watering this micro ball of soil in the summer, and if the winter is cold, they can wheel the whole tree into an Orangerie.  Orangeries were pretty common in France as well and are becoming more common in England. 
I began a post about screen porches elsewhere in the blog, which I will complete when a blip in image uploads is solved.  Now, I will have to post about glassed in or convertible porches to bring plants inside.  I think that in these days of high fuel costs, and the sheer work of wood fired heating, that a greenhouse could be impractical in the far north.  If you have unlimited funds or a real desire to cut wood from your land, dry it, split it and burn it, day and night through the winter...then please disregard that statement. Therefore, I propose a roofed and glassed in porch, either at ground level on a slab or gravel base, or on a raised floor porch with a full foundation like any other room in a house.


An orangerie, for the common man, is simply a room with lots of windows, with a place to stand the trees in their pots.  A greenhouse would qualify, but they were often large rooms with a good sized entrance door and plenty of large windows, often high and arched.
Orangeries or conservatories were a common sight in the 18th and 19th centuries, in even fairly humble houses.  Palaces and large country houses almost always had one.  A family could have citrus fruit all year long in England and northern France if they had one of these...of course a staff of fifty gardeners helped as well.
There are a number of things what will help with the success of a room like this.  Masonry floors or gravel floors, especially very dark colored ones, help to absorb heat from even weak sunshine. 
Large containers like water barrels...painted black especially, absorb heat and radiate it out again.




Please stay tuned as I explore these options.