An Under-$10,000 Ozarks Home

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Unfortunately, I soon found that property in the area is usually sold in larger parcels—20 acres and up. I wanted to buy direct from the owner to avoid a realtor's fee, but couldn't find anyone offering small acreage. And realtors showed little interest in a customer with only $2,500 to spend (the one who sold me my property made only $125). Moreover, when I did find small tracts for sale, the price per acre was often significantly higher than I'd hoped. Persistence paid off, though, and within eight weeks of our arrival we were the proud owners of five acres of oak-hickory forest on the southwest slope of a hill eight miles from town. The price: $2,500.

THE SHED

During January and February, working about 25 to 30 hours a week and using only hand tools (there was no power on the property), I tackled my first building project: a combination workshop and storage shed. Much of my time was spent cutting and nailing frozen, green wood—not a pleasant task, but well worth the effort. The shed provided us with a place in which to work, sleep, and store our belongings—and, perhaps more important, gave me the carpentry experience I needed to build our home. The outbuilding is a simple 12' X 20' pole barn, with a single-pitch metal roof—13' tall at the high end and 9' at the low—and a 100-square-foot storage loft. I nailed 1 X 8 siding horizontally for bracing and used pea gravel for the floor. Total cost: less than $700.

THE HOUSE DESIGN

I spent a good part of the winter reading every house-building book I could find. They all suggested spending a lot of time making detailed plans before beginning to build, so I read, drew up numerous designs, read more, changed designs, and so on until my head was spinning. The possibilities seemed limitless. Finally, I put all the books aside and let the house take shape in my imagination. Over a period of days (and wakeful nights) I built the entire house in my mind, piece by piece, from foundation to chimney. At last, I had a design—the hardest part was over. All that remained was to execute the plan and put the pieces together.

FOUNDATION AND ROOT CELLAR

I decided to use post-and-beam construction for the house, just as I had for the shed, because of its simplicity, low cost, and resistance to tornadoes and earthquakes (both of which are known to frequent this area). A post-and-beam house is solidly tied together, from the bottom of its foundation poles 4' in the ground all the way up to its rafters.

Since the poles establish the position of the roof and all exterior walls, I put much time and care into setting them plumb and square. Once I had their positions laid out, I dug a 4'-deep, 18"-diameter hole for each post and poured a 6" concrete pad in each cavity. Then I trimmed the poles to length, notched their tops to accept the upstairs 4 X 10 floor girders and 4 X 8 floor beams (which rest upon the girders at 5' intervals), and set the uprights in place.

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