Persimmon Glen

Small homes seem to be a current fad for people that are wanting to make less of a carbon footprint and who are making the decision to downsize and have a simpler life.

You can find a wide array of websites on the subject, but what surprises me most is the amount of money people are putting into building or buying a tiny house and the large amount of money they put into living a green lifestyle. They are the ones that seem to be getting the most attention in the media. I even heard that Oprah is getting on the bandwagon and is spotlighting a couple in Florida that have a green home and lifestyle. I checked out their website and they have a wonderful place with loads of money sunk into it. It 'only' cost them $150,000 to build their house and that's because they had friends help them. The article for her Magazine will be titled "Back to Basics" embracing the 'less is more' philosophy. I'm not knocking Oprah, and I'm all for making people more aware of getting back to basics, but my idea of that and the media's ideas seem to be at odds with one another.

Sure, if you have lots of money, you can up and decide to do anything you want. It can cost you a lot of money to provide yourself with the 'less is more' philosophy.

I for one would like to see some media attention given to the unsung heroes of genuine back to basics living who make do on very small incomes and must build their dream one paycheck at a time, taking years to achieve what they want. In my eyes, that's real back to basics and and a 'less is more' mindset.

Maybe we don't get attention because we're considered throwbacks to the old hippie movement from the seventies where people left their old city lifestyles and took up Scott & Helen Nearings' mantle of the back to land movement.

Maybe it's because a lot of us are considered poor and poor people don't make good copy.

I started on my quest out of necessity. I wanted my own piece of land and a home without a huge mortgage. Making do with what you've got is my mantra.

I've lived here for nine months so far, and the going has been rough at times. I only had one income, and that's gone by the wayside since I was laid off at the end of October.

Sometimes I feel a tremendous amount of impatience, because there are so many things I want to do here and I want it all at once. But I have managed to accomplish quite a little bit in the time I've been here, especially considering I don't have any help.

It doesn't always take money to do things to your place.  A lot of it is simply sweat equity.  Clearing brush, cutting wood, raking leaves, gathering cobble stones from the river for a walkway, building a decorative fence from tree limbs and twigs.  Most of what I have done around here required very little money at all.

I built a porch around the house out of sawmill lumber and I am siding it with the same sawmill lumber which costs about .50 a linear foot.  I bought windows at yard sales and have two of them installed. They cost me $1 each. I found some beautiful handmade 8' french doors at a 'junk' shop for $75,  those will go in my bedroom when I get that added on.  I have most of my lumber for my addition and for a large woodshed sitting in a pile to dry. That cost $650.

I love bark siding and will put it at the top of the gable on the house, but to buy it from a manufacturer costs $6 a sq ft, so I had plenty of it laying around from cutting down trees.  It's currently laid out flat to dry and I will use that instead. Cost is zero.

I admire ingenuity and making do with what you've got much more than having a credit card at Lowes or a big mortgage at the bank.

To that end here are some links and some websites to some especially ingenious people who have made the best with what they've got.

And here's a salute to all those  people with handmade homes who may or may not have computers or the internet to show them off!

One of my favorite books: 

  Handmade Houses, a Guide to the Woodbutchers Art

Some unique homes:

Magazines:

 The Mother Earth News for many articles on alternative building ideas , and also Back Home  Magazine for useful information on sustainable living.

I admire any type of Alternative building methods, but I'm definitely a person who thinks 'outside the box'

First Day is a very clever way of building a stick home 

 Enjoy!