Dan and Jessi P. built every hairy footed hobbit-fanciers dream home. A 16 sided cordwood home (in Wisconsin,) complete with post and beam framework, living roof, masonry stove/heater/bake oven, stained concrete floor and a round, green hobbit door.
The work is artistic, attractive and very nicely done. The bottle end and cordwood walls are artistic, attractive and very well done. The nasturiums on the floor add a touch of whimsy.
Here is a quote from Jessi’s blog.
“We’re proceeding apace with the walls, which look so lovely when they’re done – from a distance they look like stone. Labor intensive and messy, but beautiful. We also have the framework for the round green door done. So we’re looking hobbity!”
Jessi ends her emails with the following quote:
Not all who wander are lost. J.R.R.Tolkien
Here is another quote from Jessi.
Subject: Cordwood House
Hi Richard – glad you like the looks of our place! All told, if you count the tree cutting/peeling summer, it took us about 5 years, but the actual cordwood stuff we squeezed into about two and half months – we started in October and laid up the last bit of wall the second week in December two years ago with the aid of much tarping and space heaters . It’s sixteen sided on a floating slab. The logs are 18 inches with loose fill insulation in the cavity. They are a mix of hemlock, spruce, and red pine which we took for the most part off the property. Our masonry heater was done by Gimme Shelter Construction over by you and then faced by a local mason, Wayne Kostka. Don was partially right in his comment – even on the coldest days this winter we were comfy with two fires a day, and it has stayed cool enough this summer that we haven’t bothered to move the window air con over from our old house. The roof is 6-8 inches of dirt over an Enkadrain drainage layer. Sedum we put in last fall has spread nicely and we put in another couple pounds of cuttings this summer, so in a few years when we’ve worn out the weeds it should be a nice low maintenance roof. All the rain we’ve had this year has given it a good test
To Jessi & Dan:
Kudos, congrats and thank you for sharing your wonderful cordwood home.
Richard Flatau
Cordwood Construction Building School
flato@aol.com
715-212-2870 715-536-3195
http://www.daycreek.com/dc/html/dcrflatau3.htm
