PAGE 1 of 4

The Simplest House of All

- The Dacha Series

By Mark Stephen Chenail

One of the first concerns of new homesteaders is to provide themselves with some sort of shelter.  We have all heard the advice that it’s best to live on your land for a year before you build a permanent house, but most of us don’t care to camp out for a year and many of us don’t find a trailer a viable or attractive solution to the housing question. 

Admit it, we all feel that nesting instinct as soon as we set foot on our raw land and immediately start to look around for a suitable home-site.  The tool box calls to us with a Siren Song and we can’t pass a lumberyard without going in, “just to see what’s on special".  But many homesteaders lament their lack of building and design skills and are afraid of messing things up.  Actually it’s not their lack of skills that’s the problem, it’s that they are thinking too big, too soon.  The solution is to think small and simple.  You don’t really need a full bathroom and all those plumbing skills. 

Our ancestors made do with an outhouse or a potty chair and  you can still get quite reasonably clean with a bowl and pitcher.  You don’t have to have granite countertops and a refrigerator and that Italian farm sink.  A tin dishpan and a tea kettle of hot water will wash the dishes and the food tastes just as good prepared on a plain pine table top.  And there is nothing cozier than a built in cupboard bed, piled with quilts, and a view out the window on a crisp clear November morning.  So, just as an exercise in building, let’s see what the basic necessities should be and how we can most simply accommodate them. 

First of all, I’m going to make a few assumptions.  I’m going to assume you have some source of water.  It might be a creek or spring or a fully functioning well, or you might have a generous neighbor like I do, that allows you to come over, once a day,  to fill your three, five-gallon gas cans.  You would be surprised how far that 15 gallons will go, if you’re careful and sensible about its use, particularly if you have to tote it home, uphill, on a blistering hot day in August.  The second thing you will really want to have is some form of power. 

I can hear you purists already clucking your tongues and I know how our ancestors made do with a hammer and saw and a good axe…blah blah blah….And that’s fine, if you are 21, built like a Greek God, and have all the time in the world.  But many of us aren’t in the prime of youth and the main idea is to build something quickly to get ourselves settled in, so we can tackle more important jobs.  Building and remodeling is considered one of the most stressful events a couple can endure.  Imagine how much more stressful it will be when you are trying to cut a sheet of plywood with a handsaw  in the middle of the woods and the sweat is pouring down your face and the plywood keeps moving.  You will NOT be whispering sweet nothings in your dear one’s ear.   So, do yourself a favor, swallow your purist pride and get some electricity.  I was blessed with an existing pole and hookup and I have never regretted my early relationship with the local power co-op.  If permanent power isn’t a possibility, then rent, buy, or borrow a generator for the week or two that you will be working on this first shelter.  Trust me it’s worth every penny.  End of lecture.

THE BARE NECESSITIES

Lets make a list of the essential activities and necessities that your little house will need: 

1)     A PLACE TO SLEEP AND RELAX.  A separate bedroom is nice, but it’s a luxury.  A good comfortable bed in the corner is more than sufficient.  Our first bed in Missouri was a 4x8 platform of plywood and 2x4s, nailed up in a corner and supported by one 4x4 post.  It was just big enough for a full sized mattress.  With plenty of quilts,  we were warm as toast in the winter and in the summer time, we slept cool as cucumbers by opening the window over the bed and leaving the front door open. Cross ventilation is your friend and it doesn’t cost a penny.  And that bed piled high with cushions will do double duty as a sofa during the day.  A rod and some curtains around the bed will ensure a bit of privacy and add to the winter warmth as well.  Add a little shelf for your glasses,  the alarm clock and a good book or two and you’re snug as a bug.

2)     A PLACE TO PREPARE AND STORE FOOD.   A separate kitchen is nice but, again, not a necessity.  What you do want is a solid, comfortable, flat surface to work on that is handy to the stove.  This can be as simple as a wide board shelf on heavy duty metal brackets or a plain old kitchen table.  The table is a good idea, as it can do double duty for dining, but let me urge you to invest in a few old kitchen cabinets. Used kitchen cabinets aren’t hard to come by and even a few new ones are not all that expensive, if you buy them unfinished.  A six-foot sink counter will do the trick.  Adding a couple of uppers or a few open shelves will give you a basic kitchen.  Remember to have some drawers for all those little kitchen things.  You can get a used stainless sink for a couple bucks and it’s easy enough to set it in the counter and run a drain out through the wall or floor, or just let it drain into a slop bucket.  You can also make do with a couple of dish pans.  Give yourself some closed food storage as well. Two or three old upper cabinets stacked on top of one another in a corner make an excellent pantry.

3)     COOKING AND HEATING.  You will need a stove of course. If you don’t have power, than it will have to be propane or more likely a wood stove, that will do double duty as a heat source.  Suit yourself.  But if you do have power, there is nothing like a real range with an oven. At least get a microwave, a good electric skillet and crockpot, a coffee maker and a toaster.  Anyone who made it through four years of college in a dorm room knows how much cooking you can do with these five basic electric appliances.  Yes, I’m aware the Ingalls family didn’t have a crock pot, but the idea is to provide decent food with a minimum of trouble in that first homestead.  You have better things to do, than spend three hours cooking a meal, when you barely have a roof over your head.  At the end of a day shingling the barn  in the rain, a hot crockpot meal is going to taste mighty good at suppertime.       

      4)     CLOTHES STORAGE.  I don’t have much use for closets, particularly in a tiny shelter, where square footage is at a premium. You probably won’t have brought your Chanel evening gowns or your Versace suits, so you really don’t need hanging space. A better and simpler solution is to store your clothing in drawers or bins built in under the  bed.  Face it, your wardrobe is going to be fairly simple and sturdy and wont need careful storage.  If you can’t manage under-bed storage, invest in a good chest of drawers or chest on chest.  They provide plenty of storage and take up a minimum of floor space. And stay away from chests or trunks.  Invariably what you want will be at the bottom of the chest and the flat top will attract all kinds of stuff that has to be moved before you can open the chest and start hunting for your wooly socks. A good chest of drawers is a godsend. Why do you think so many came west on the back of a covered wagon?               

CONTINUED     1    2   3   4   Next >

Custom Search