I just found this thread right before I am preparing to leave work today. What I don't answer today, I will try to get to tomorrow.
I live in Southeast Tennessee. I was approached by the elderly neighbor couple early this year. They have no children or grandchildren. Initially they wanted to leave us their 22 acre farm when they passed with several agreements made and I pay them a set amount of money each month. Sadly the man died as the papers were being drawn up and it is likely we will only end up with 5-10 acres. This will be enough to sustain us however, so we are not going to fret over it.
We began checking into costd for septic permits, utility lines, and on and one, wells and such and it was going to cost us almost $12,000 just to get the chosen site ready to begin a home. I had always had a dream ofa one room home with no electric or plumbing. Not because I think the world is coming to an end really, but just because I wanted to live that way. It is no secret the world is headed for bad times, but my heart just was pulled to the old ways of things and so me and my fiance' decided, hey...live the dream for awhile. If we cannot do it, we go back on the grid, if we can...yay for us.
So I talked to Jimmy and I told him what I wanted in a house. EVERYONE said there was no way to build us a house for less than $10,000. I was shocked as I was thinking $5000 sounded better. So we began.
We chose the site up on the back hill. We searched for salvagable items for a home. Me (46), my fiance (35), my youngest daughter (27), Jimmy (71) and my 3 year old grandson set out to build us a home. We had never built anything before (except for Jimmy). We had no electric, so we nailed everythign by hand, sawed all the wood with a chainsaw and hand saw. It was interestingm exciting, tiring and a learning experience. Sadly Jimmy found out he had cancer 3 weeks into the project. Terminal cancer. We were so clueless when he went into the hospital and somehow managed to figure out how to get a roof on and move in. Jimmy got to sit inside the house oen time before he died just a few weeks later. We built the home in a month, well...to a livable level in a month and moved in. We finsihed the walls, insulation, porch and more after we moved into the home. We currently have a little over $5000 in the home, we only like the inside walls and siding on the outside.
We are completely off the grid. We have no electricity at ALL. We use oil lamps for light, we cook on a propane grill outside and a propane stove at times. We heat with wood and got the heater off of Freecyle. We cut all our own wood. I wash clothes by hand. We can and dry all of our food and are now in the process of building the root cellar. Future plans are a Spring House, smokehouse, small barn, workshop, muscadine vineyard, large garden, pigs for meat, we already have chickens. We forage for some foods and I get several deer a year to process for our meat.
As for water, I designed the house in my head to be as self sufficient and able to utilize the seasons and weather to our advantage. Most windows are in the east and west side. Few in the north and south side. During the summer, with the home facing west and the porch on with a roof, we get a good breeze flowing through and it stays cool. In the winter it stays warm. I also wanted to roof to provide us with all the water we needed. It is a total slant style roof, the home is 28'x28'. We have a gutter in the back with 2 downspouts. We collect the water in containers, several have spigots on them. 1/2 inch of water gives us over 200 gallons. 200 gallons will last us a month is used wisely. It is just me and my fiance' living there with our grandson there 9 hours a day and the other 2 grandkids stay some on weekends. We carry water in for the dishes, heat it as needed for baths inside in the winter and during the summer we take baths just off the back porch. I do all laundyr by hand and recycle water as much as possible.
I will see what pics I can find and post them in another post.
I access the internet at work before and after work when I wait on my daughter to pick me up on the way home. We have one solar lamp we use for the outhouse and it works well. We have no TV, music or anything like that. I quilt, read, write, paint, crochet when I have time. Most of our time is spent working on the house and getting ready for winter.
I live in Southeast Tennessee. I was approached by the elderly neighbor couple early this year. They have no children or grandchildren. Initially they wanted to leave us their 22 acre farm when they passed with several agreements made and I pay them a set amount of money each month. Sadly the man died as the papers were being drawn up and it is likely we will only end up with 5-10 acres. This will be enough to sustain us however, so we are not going to fret over it.
We began checking into costd for septic permits, utility lines, and on and one, wells and such and it was going to cost us almost $12,000 just to get the chosen site ready to begin a home. I had always had a dream ofa one room home with no electric or plumbing. Not because I think the world is coming to an end really, but just because I wanted to live that way. It is no secret the world is headed for bad times, but my heart just was pulled to the old ways of things and so me and my fiance' decided, hey...live the dream for awhile. If we cannot do it, we go back on the grid, if we can...yay for us.
So I talked to Jimmy and I told him what I wanted in a house. EVERYONE said there was no way to build us a house for less than $10,000. I was shocked as I was thinking $5000 sounded better. So we began.
We chose the site up on the back hill. We searched for salvagable items for a home. Me (46), my fiance (35), my youngest daughter (27), Jimmy (71) and my 3 year old grandson set out to build us a home. We had never built anything before (except for Jimmy). We had no electric, so we nailed everythign by hand, sawed all the wood with a chainsaw and hand saw. It was interestingm exciting, tiring and a learning experience. Sadly Jimmy found out he had cancer 3 weeks into the project. Terminal cancer. We were so clueless when he went into the hospital and somehow managed to figure out how to get a roof on and move in. Jimmy got to sit inside the house oen time before he died just a few weeks later. We built the home in a month, well...to a livable level in a month and moved in. We finsihed the walls, insulation, porch and more after we moved into the home. We currently have a little over $5000 in the home, we only like the inside walls and siding on the outside.
We are completely off the grid. We have no electricity at ALL. We use oil lamps for light, we cook on a propane grill outside and a propane stove at times. We heat with wood and got the heater off of Freecyle. We cut all our own wood. I wash clothes by hand. We can and dry all of our food and are now in the process of building the root cellar. Future plans are a Spring House, smokehouse, small barn, workshop, muscadine vineyard, large garden, pigs for meat, we already have chickens. We forage for some foods and I get several deer a year to process for our meat.
As for water, I designed the house in my head to be as self sufficient and able to utilize the seasons and weather to our advantage. Most windows are in the east and west side. Few in the north and south side. During the summer, with the home facing west and the porch on with a roof, we get a good breeze flowing through and it stays cool. In the winter it stays warm. I also wanted to roof to provide us with all the water we needed. It is a total slant style roof, the home is 28'x28'. We have a gutter in the back with 2 downspouts. We collect the water in containers, several have spigots on them. 1/2 inch of water gives us over 200 gallons. 200 gallons will last us a month is used wisely. It is just me and my fiance' living there with our grandson there 9 hours a day and the other 2 grandkids stay some on weekends. We carry water in for the dishes, heat it as needed for baths inside in the winter and during the summer we take baths just off the back porch. I do all laundyr by hand and recycle water as much as possible.
I will see what pics I can find and post them in another post.
I access the internet at work before and after work when I wait on my daughter to pick me up on the way home. We have one solar lamp we use for the outhouse and it works well. We have no TV, music or anything like that. I quilt, read, write, paint, crochet when I have time. Most of our time is spent working on the house and getting ready for winter.
