The Self-sufficient Homestead
(Page 2 of 4)
We built a three-story Victorian-style home totaling about 2,500 square feet. Except for some help with the drywall and the lifting of a few of the longer walls, Mary and I built our home entirely with our own hands. All the stone and timber used in our house came from our property, which saved us a lot of money but required many hours of hard labor. We built the 24-inch-thick basement walls with 350 tons of hand-quarried limestone blocks that we wrestled out of the ground with pry bars, broke into pieces with stone hammers and then put back together into a foundation wall resting on smooth bedrock 7 feet below soil level. The basement floor is the bedrock itself, and it still shows scratch marks from the advance of the last glacier about 10,000 years ago. The stone basement alone gobbled up the labor of two-and-a-half building seasons — totaling 2,500 hours.
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The house’s wood frame is a hybrid structure of 2-by-6 stud-frame walls, for the exterior and the roof, and exposed posts and beams, visible everywhere indoors. We chose this method of construction because it meant that the timbers we used for the interior could go up piece by piece, and just the two of us could build the house. An entirely timber-framed house would have required a crane or a massive construction crew. Including the timberwork, it took us more than three months to build the frame and shingle the roof.
This house matches our vision of what our home should be. Over the years, I’ve spent quite a bit of time studying passive solar home designs, but I’ve never seen a solar home that satisfied my need for traditional good looks. So, we built the Victorian-style house we had dreamed of and insulated like crazy. To help meet our energy needs, we also use our forest as a giant solar collector: We usually heat with wood that we cut from blow-downs and beaver-felled trees. This year, we’re using a pellet stove, burning pellets made from sawmill waste.
The build-it-yourself process is slow, but the work is satisfying. The easy pace allows time to make optimal decisions about details that would have to be decided in a day or two on any contractor-built project. You also have time to earn money while you go.
Earning an Income
When Mary and I came to Manitoulin Island, we knew we would have to work hard if we were going to make it financially. We repaired miles of cedar rail fences that surrounded our fields, opening the property for grazing. We planted a market garden, and I cultivated opportunities to build furniture and do carpentry work: I’ve made traditional solid-wood furniture, and I’ve also built kitchens. Mary began working at a small hospital about 30 minutes from our home. All in all, our approach more than paid the bills, but it was very different from the way we earn money today.
