A Mortgage-Free, Owner-Built Cordwood Castle

(Page 7 of 7)

July/August 1984
By Richard Flatau 
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To make. each section of 4' X 8' siding, I took a sheet of 1/2" CDX plywood (el 3-ply, $7-a-sheet stuff) and tacked chicken wire to its surface. Then-I simply nailed and glued 2"-thick cedar rounds of various diameters (left over from my house building. cuttings) to the board and filled between the logs with a thick layer of sawdust/cement/lime mortar. I figure the cost of each panel to be about $10, which is a bargain considering that the work is not labor-in tensive. To carry the theme of the house through to the inside as well, I covered the interior or greenhouse walls with the same Nor way pine used in the bedrooms and parts of the living room. All told, using a good many recycled materials, our "cordwood" addition came to $1,665 in out-of-pocket expenses. Considering that it provides us with an extended living area, a place to grow veggies early and late in the season, and a "heat bank" in the form of the absorber floor and the true cord wood masonry corner wall, we think it's a worthwhile investment in our future.

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