Housing

Someday when we get enough money I want my own property. I told my husband I don't care if the property has a house on it or not. As long as we have the property the rest will come in time. I actually prefer the raw property. The reason for my preference is that we will then be able to set up our homestead the way it will work best and not have to work around someone else's design. The is most especially true with a house. When building a new house we can take advantage of site design to incorporate more energy efficiency.

Any house we build will have to be oriented to the south with large roof overhangs allowing us to capitalize on passive solar gain in the winter. A wind block planted to the north will cut down on northern winds, while deciduous tree plantings to the south and large roof overhangs will block the hot summer sun. I would love to have a big masonry stove in the center of the house to provide heat. Wood stoves and fireplaces located on an outside wall loose heat to the outside more than a stove located in the center of the house. The kitchen should be located in the north of the house so that cooking in the wintertime will also help provide heat to that side of the house. Bedrooms can also be located on the north side because most of the time spent in a bedroom is spent in bed under warm blankets. The "living" area should be located on the south side.

I haven't decided on what we should build a house out of. Contemporary houses are built cheaply. I don't like the cookie cutter designs, nor the blah factor associated with them. I want something distinctive and original. I love the idea of a log home. When the time comes I believe this is the type of home I would prefer. I don't want one of those massive modern designs though. I know I want a walk out basement, a main floor, and an upstairs. But I don't want tons and tons of windows. Less windows on the north side allow less cold air into the house. The southern side however needs more windows to take advantage of passive solar. By putting in extra windows there, we would gain passive solar heat, but we would also save on lighting because who needs lighting when the natural light can flow right into the room and the rooms on the southern side would be the ones we used most often? The problems I can see with a log home is the cost. We would have to buy a kit and pay to have it erected. That's a lot of money. The upside is the house would last for a long time as long as we took care of it.

Now the method of building that has really caught my eye is cordwood. I've done a lot of research on this type of house and from what I understand anyone can do it. You use soft woods cut into firewood lengths. I've seen pictures of some of these houses and they look like stone houses. These houses are also known for lasting a long time. The plus for these houses is you can potentially find everything you need to build it right on your property. It's labor intensive, but cheap when compared to any other building method. I would love to see the inside of one of these houses because I am worried about it being dark on the inside and I also worry about the bug factor! I suppose it would be just like a log home to some extent, but I am afraid the spiders would love it and I just don't get along with spiders! There are places one can go to learn this type of building. There are also numerous books on the subject. Before I go to the extent of shelling money out for these resources though I would want to see one of these houses in person to really make sure I would like it.

Cob is another house type that I would be interested in. I've seen pictures and these houses have the distinctive originality that I am looking for. Although all the resources I've read say these houses are fine in snowy areas, I have problems believing that the snow wouldn't cause some significant damage. If I had the property I could experiment with it and see how well it holds up.

Earth sheltered houses are supposed to be great when it comes to heating and cooling, but I just don't think I would like the feeling of living underground. All the resources say these houses don't have to be dark, damp, basement-type dwellings, but I just can't imagine being underground all the time and not having those problems. I know of a house, a real pretty one too, that was built into the side of a hill. The house is quite old and really has been neglected so maybe it is not a fair comparison, but trees grew on the top of the house and their roots bore into the ceiling. Yeah that kind of worries me!

I know there are other types of houses out there. Some people have made houses out of train cars and semi trailers, but I am not quite that imaginative! I just want a house that is energy efficient, cheap to build, and looks appealing; is that too much to ask?