There’s more to update you on “out on the land,” but there were a few projects for the house and garage/shop that were equally important to our living small. We made a few changes to the house itself.
Our rough little farm house is just under 900 square feet, which is about 200 square feet more than I wanted. Our goal was to live small – literally – in 700 square feet or less and to use as little in the way of firewood, propane and electricity as possible. But even with almost 900 square feet the space is poorly laid out. I guess we need to remember that this house was built in 1939 and that families lived differently then.
The living room is as large as most 1500 – 1800 square feet homes would have and, while that’s very open and comfy, it means that there’s only one closet in the entire house and the washer and dryer hookups were located in the already tiny kitchen. I knew that the washer and dryer needed a new home but I also needed to carve out a heated and well protected space to grow the organic microgreens that I sell at farmer’s markets.
That meant that one of the largest (and most costly) projects had to be building in the sketchy open back porch. That was our first project for the house and here’s a few “progress report” photos (click on a photo for larger image).
Also, when we bought the property the house was heated with a kerosene heater. We knew that we eventually wanted to have a Rocket Mass Heater built when we could afford it. Rocket Mass Heaters are amazing! We could heat our home with branches and twigs that we picked up on the property and we figured that – at most – we would go through a couple of cords of firewood a year in addition to our “found” wood. Our wood stove, even as efficient as it is, will use a lot more firewood than that.
But, you gotta do what you can do, in stages that you can afford. The Rocket Mass Heater is our long term goal. Our short term goal was to get rid of the kerosene heater and install a wood stove in the living room. We bought a Buck stove that exceeds EPA requirements. It’s a tiny little thing but it really puts out the heat! The only drawback is that it uses really short wood and getting firewood delivered that’s cut in 11″ lengths has been a problem. But we’ve figured out how to work around that.
We sold the kerosene heater and installed a new propane heater in the newly built in back porch to help heat the kitchen and to provide heat for the microgreens when needed. We don’t use much propane at all since the house is so small and the woodstove is so efficient. And Thomas and Smokey love lounging in front of the stove. Tough life, right?
Get info about this Buck Stove here.
