| We live in a mobile home in a small town, but once the warm weather hits we escape to the cottage, which is 3.5 hours away. It's on a quiet farm-road; not much vehicle traffic but lots of cows! I built this myself from May-November 1994 and May-October 1995. I hired someone to pour the cement floor and put on the roof; otherwise, I did the rest of the work myself. I slept in one tent and cooked my meals in another. This construction method is called stackwall or cordwood. The walls are 12" thick, with a 4" outside mortar wall (sand, lime, cement), a 4" airspace filled with wood shavings and lime (insulation and bug-repellent) and a 4" inside mortar wall. I got the idea from Harrowsmith magazine, and took a weekend course in Plattsburg NY to learn how to construct the building. As long as you don't factor in your own time, a building like this costs a LOT less to construct than a regular building. And it's very, very quiet inside. In fact, I recorded my first cd here, "Medieval Cottage Songs". To listen to my compositions or purchase a cd, go to CDBaby.com. Compositions from all three of my albums can be purchased through there and most on-line downloading services (iTunes, Napster, Weed, etc.) Also, the guitars I use were all made by myself. |
