The Real House

Work continues on the Real House. I had it in my mind to get most of the work done a few months ago, but life doesn't often work that way.

That's OK though, we keep plugging along.

It is not a palace by any means at 850 square feet, but it will be a huge step up for people who have been living in an 8 x 12 Micro House. Eight times bigger.

The final plumbing of fixtures, the kitchen counter (still looking for just the right tile) and the finishing of the bathroom need to be done before we can move in.

Oh, and a little drywall here and there.

And we still have a tarp for roofing.

The tin is here,

but the roof is not ready for it. The weather has not cooperated with our schedule yet. But the tarps are not leaking.

We've finished laying the flooring. I put down radiant barrier under all the flooring and the difference in heat retention in the house is dramatic. I did this as an experiment on the Art Shack and found it to be a true success.

 

 I have nearly finished the slate hearth, so the downstairs can be heated soon with my Craig's List wood stove.

 

We have been shoving this stove from room to room so we can work around it for 3 years. Not an easy thing to do, since it weighs 375 pounds.

Our "Black Friday" purchased appliances finally arrived 2 months late because of a Longshoreman strike.

Lots still to be done really. But this is the fun part of doing a house. We finally get to see all our plans and scrounged materials go in place. I am sooo excited!

The Smoke House

2009

If you have been following the Reluctant Homesteaders for a while, you know that a rundown, falling down building doesn't scare me. Take the Hay House for instance. The only thing that was holding it up when we started working on it was a 4x4 I had shoved under a truss the year before.

In the end we saved a piece of family history and gained a hay barn that would hold 8 ton of hay with room to spare. We used a lot of salvaged materials and elbow grease and saved ourselves a lot of money in the process.

Then there was the Micro Guest House, The Art Shack. Which had only a little history as an 8' x 12' granary but I got it in my head to use it for housing. Now it's one sweet place to stay and hang out and cost very little per square foot which came out to about $5500.00 for 388 sf. which comes to $14 a square foot. That includes the whole shebang, all materials and the hired help.

There is an old and proper house on the property that we are working on to get it habitable but that is taking a lot more money and time, so I keep myself sane and happy by doing these little projects on the side.

I won't lie, they tend to turn into bigger projects than I think they will be, but the results are so gratifying, I can't help doing another one. Enter: The Smoke House, circa 1900.

2009

2009

 

2010

As a child I heard the tales of it's many uses before I was born. It was originally a Smoke House for the Homestead, where meats would be preserved. It served that function until freezers came to be available. My family could not afford one, but we had a "locker", which was a small rented space in a walk-in freezer room, at a small store in town.

When my dad was about 12, the house they were living in on the Homestead caught fire from the cook stove chimney and the only thing they got out with were their lives, the clothes on their backs and the wringer washer on the front porch, which my grandfather kicked off the porch and it rolled down the hill as they ran for their lives.

That winter the neighbors gave what little they could spare and my grandparents and their 5 children lived in an old army tent and this Smoke House until spring came. By then, enough money could be saved and favors called in to bring a portable sawmill up and cut the timber on the Homestead into lumber enough to build a small house. They built that house with the help of friends, neighbors and family in 3 days, and the family moved in, grateful for a space bigger and warmer than this 10x12 building. So that's how it got it's window holes.

Just in my own lifetime this building has had many uses. Chicken house, granary, hay shed, tack room and fort. It has been falling down for as long as I have been alive. When I was a teenager I did my best to patch it together and keep laying hens in it. But I was no carpenter.

2011

And it continued to settle into the ground, but never fell over.

2013

The first thing I want to say is that all the structural work was done by our friend and carpenter Hank. Three years ago Hank cut a deal with me. He would use another outbuilding for storage and when he got the time he would save the Smoke House from falling down.

One day last October he suddenly showed up and started the project. He had a lot of fun doing it, I think. For him it was one of those simple and fast projects.

2014

Of course, when he got to this point I couldn't stop myself. I suddenly wanted to make it a "Bunk House", to which he laughed and started to dig into the project details.

Mouse proof was the first criteria.

Safety was the second.

I wanted a place for friends to "camp" without worrying about the rain or having to sleep on the ground. And so that's the direction we have gone.

More to come in the near future.

Revisiting The Chicken Tractor Debate

Our Cuckoo Marans' aren't "tractoring" like originally planned. Instead they are set loose to forage every day. Then they're locked up every night for their safety.

When Buck and I co designed and built our "chicken tractor" we were embarking on an experiment. We have had lots of chicken pens and lots of chickens over the years but they were always egg layers in permanent houses. Since we are in transition here at the Homestead, we needed a temporary solution to house our layers but we didn't want it to be wasted effort. What we decided was that we would build the pen we wanted for our future meat chickens and keep our layers in it until we get the hen house ready. We'd read a lot about Chicken Tractors for raising "grass fed" meat chickens and decided to try one out.

We built the house section out of 1"x 2" lumber and tin so it would be light and could be moved easily. We built the run part of it in 4 panels, out of 2"x4" lumber with pressure treated for the ground contacting areas.  We built what we felt was a minimum size for a dozen laying hens (5.3sf per bird) or 24 (2.6sf) meat birds because we were planning on moving it around often to keep the hens in fresh grass.
But despite our intentions, our tractor barely tractored anywhere. By the time we moved it 3 times we had discovered a few good things and a few not-so-good things.

It became very clear early in the process

The Outdoor Kitchen

Remember that old rusty sink I pulled out of the woods?

 And that apartment sized, propane stove I bought and repaired?

 Well, I painted and reinforced the inside of the sink.

 Then I plumbed some water to it.

 And put up a mirror for shaving and stuff.

Then I filled the back gap in the porch with an old panel from a sliding glass door to reduce the windchill.

 I put up some shelves and art. Remember it's called the "Art Shack"!

Then I screwed an old rusty commercial cookie sheet to the wall to protect the wood from any grease and flames.

It's a pretty tiny space to cook in, but it works just fine because of the layout.

 And I don't need a vent fan. Even when I fry bacon.

My new outdoor kitchen, just outside my door!