In 2004, my wife and I decided to purchase 20 acres in rural Kansas about 45 minutes away from our suburban home in Overland Park, Kansas. With a daughter close to graduating from high school, we thought the best way to transition to the country might be to build a small cottage that would serve as my home office. I sat down and made a list of requirements for the office and decided it might be wise to add a small kitchenette and second floor sleeping loft just in case we wanted to spend the weekends at the farm.

Exterior of the cottage after roofing

After a good deal of research, I settled on a set of plans called the “Weekend Warrior” by Robinson Residential. Using those plans as a guide, I expanded the footprint of the cottage by three feet and added a full second floor sleeping loft.

Shows "stock" one story plan that we modified

Having just built a small pond on the front side of our property, we decided to set the cottage about fifteen feet from its edge. This would provide an excellent view of the wildlife while maximizing passive solar gain as well. The final grade for the cottage would be about three feet higher than the surrounding grade to allow for proper drainage. We then poured a 16ft x 28ft concrete slab as the foundation for our little building.

Ductwork in second floor loft

We chose to frame the cottage using 2 x 6 wooden studs as this would allow for additional insulation in the exterior walls. We caulked and sealed the base plates and any exterior openings and then had wet-sprayed cellulose insulation blown into the wall and attic cavities. Cellulose insulation is made from recycled newspaper, cardboard, and cotton which has been treated with boric acid as a fire retardant. The exterior of the cottage was finished using lap siding by SmartSide which is warranted against rot for 25 years.

Wet-blown Cellulose Insulation

We had been purchasing high quality Pella windows from our local home improvement stores “returned window” section several months before construction started. These were windows that had been custom ordered and for whatever reason either not picked up or were the wrong size. This saved us a huge amount of money and allowed us to have the highest quality windows for a fraction of the normal retail price. To increase energy efficiency, we minimized the glass on the west and north sides of the cottage. Small awning windows set high on the north wall of the cottage allowed for cross ventilation and natural lighting while at the same time conserving valuable interior wall space. The large twin patio doors on the east side of the cottage made for easy access to the covered deck and opened the small footprint to the outdoors.

Kitchen and stairway

The first floor of the cottage contains the dining area, kitchenette, pantry closest, bathroom, and bedroom. Accessed by a set of ladder stairs, the second floor loft is one large open area with nine foot ceilings. Two skylights help keep the area filled with light and provide excellent summertime ventilation. A small utility closet on the second floor contains the hot water tank and HVAC system.

Dining area

We chose to keep the interior finish of the cottage very simple. We painted the concrete floor and used cedar boards to trim the windows and doors. The doors are all painted a cinnamon red which adds to the playful nature of the design. We even built a treehouse-like windup bucket that the kids use to haul up snacks and drinks. The kitchenette has a full size sink, and several maple kitchen cabinets. A cabinet mounted microwave, large toaster oven, full size refrigerator and chest freezer, all allow us to easily store and prepare meals. The use of an electric fry pan replaces what dishes would normally be cooked on a stove top. In addition to the small number of kitchen cabinets, a small pantry closet, roll around stainless steel cabinets provide loads of storage.

Bathroom pedestal sink

The bathroom includes a corner style shower with full size pedestal sink and toilet.

The downstairs bedroom measures approximately 12ft x 12ft and has a small closet.

Cedar bunk beds I built for the kids

As it turned out, we had to delay building our permanent house, so we decided to move our family of four into the cottage. At approximately 800 square feet, it’s less than 2,000 square feet smaller than our city home, but we were amazed how well it functioned. Since we never intended to live in this little house for extended periods of time, we didn’t include a laundry room. In hindsight, I should have added a small closet that could have been used for a stackable washer/dryer unit. Other than that however, the cottage functions very well and I can’t think of anything else I would change.

Shows the detail of the front deck

People are always shocked when we tell them where we live. Such a small home set on 20 acres does resemble a kid’s playhouse but we assure them we do in fact live quite comfortably in our “Little House on the Prairie”.

Statistics:

Year built: 2006
Land: 20 acres
Construction: Wood framing on concrete slab foundation
Size: 16 ft x 28 ft, approximately 800 square feet of living area including second floor loft
Utilities: All electric (with whole-house backup generator), rural water, septic system
Cost: Owner built for approximately $50,000 not including the land

Resources:

Robinson Residential: http://www.robinsonplans.com
Pella Windows & Doors: http://www.pella.com
SmartSide: http://lpcorp.com
Sherwin Willams: http://www.sherwin-williams.com
Cellulose Insulation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_insulation
Generac Power Systems: http://www.generac.com

Contact Information:

Jerry Hambley
Website: http://www.lemonscorner.com
Email: letters@lemonscorner.com

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A few people have asked me why I love my little house so much. I’m sure I’ll continue adding to this list, but for now, here’s a quick response. What follows is in no particular order.

I love our neighbors. They’re warm, funny, and welcoming. I’m enjoying getting to know them better.

I love how the kittens learned to climb the loft ladder in less than 24 hours and how Elaina looks like a little sumo wrestler as she goes up toward the loft, throwing one leg over at a time, with her belly swinging below. On the other hand, Christie is a little ninja. She’s light, quick, and silent as she slinks up and down the ladder steps.

I love watching the bike commuters ride by our house every morning. Logan and I sit in the window nook and watch them zip by, all bundled up and ready to face the day.

I love how the afternoon light spills through the French doors and how the sun casts a glow onto the orange leaves, making them sparkle.

I love sitting on our tiny front porch, watching the kittens take their first steps into the natural world.

I love being inside on a clear, crisp fall day, while still feeling like I’m outside. I’m glad we opted to go with the French doors because it opens up the house and makes it feel a whole lot bigger.

I love how much love went into the design and building process. Dee and Katy are amazing and I’m grateful for their help.

I love that our stuff actually fits in this space. I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to fit, but we have plenty of room and more.

I love sitting in the loft in the evening. Compared to our old apartment, it’s so quiet in this neighborhood. I love listening to the trains go by and how the cats immediately start purring when I climb the loft ladder.

I love our new composting toilet that Dee made us, especially since it says “Hercules Power: High Explosives Dangerous” on the front.

I love the woodsy smell of the pine interior.

I love being able to walk a few blocks to a cute, little coffee shop and write in the morning. I probably won’t be there everyday, but it’s a fun spot to hang out, especially if I want to get out of the house.

I love exploring my new neighborhood by bike and by foot.

What do you love?

If now is the time to infuse a little beauty and wonder into your life, join Courtney Carver and I for a lovely course, Create Space. For $21 you’ll receive 3 weeks of materials, awesome homework assignments, a live webinar and email feedback.

You can intentionally add beauty to your life with a simple shift of focus. Make lovely a priority. Don’t let stuff, obligations, responsibilities, stress, debt, worry or unease force you to put your life on hold. Sign up by March 19th and look forward to your lovely life. And don’t forget to check out our website.

Photo Credits Tammy Strobel

I don’t have any photo credits so if any of our photo researchers can find out anything about this photo please let me know and I will post it on the blog.

Kerri and her husband Dale live in a small 480 square foot house. The house is located in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains on Bull Shoals Lake. They built the little house as a retreat but it’s now their full-time home.

You can view Kerri’s blog at Living Large In Our Little House and read the complete article in Mother Earth News.

Photo credit to Kevin Pieper and Mother Earth News.

The temperatures are dipping and the weather forecasters are predicting frosts – if you haven’t see them already – and it’s time to start cranking up the heat again.

For those of us who live in smaller sized homes and have access to wood to feed the wood burning stoves, though, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief, as we won’t be paying the high electricity bills for the air conditioning of summer.

When we built our Little House, we intended on using it primarily in the summer, so we didn’t go to the expense of installing a central air system, as we figured we could use a window air unit and a wood-burning stove in the winter – along with space heaters. I did want a beautiful rock fireplace, but given we ended up living in The Little House full time, I’m glad we went for efficiency, rather than beauty.

For four years of using The Little House as a weekend retreat and mainly over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we never used the wood-burning stove. Even during the first year we lived here full time, we only used a space heater, as the place is so well insulated, it used relatively little energy. As well, having just moved and the transferring of jobs didn’t allow my husband the time to cut wood.

All of that changed last year during the terrible ice storm that struck Arkansas and cut its way south. We suddenly found ourselves without electricity for a full 8 days. We fired up the stove and used it for not only heat, but to cook on as well.

By this time – since my husband had been laid off from his new job after being there just a year – I was all about saving money and I was watching the electricity we used. I noticed when the electricity came back on, how fast that meter added up the units we were using when we had the electric space heater on. We decided then to use the wood-burning stove as our only source of heat.

It’s worked for us (with the exception of not yet figuring out how to regulate it so it doesn’t run us out sometimes).

Here’s some tips that have worked for us in converting from an electric space heater to the wood burning stove:

• If you’re just installing a wood burner, make sure you choose a good, quality efficient unit. My husband complained at the time we built The Little House that we could have had a whole central heating/air unit installed for what we spent on the wood burning stove and the installation. He’s glad we did that now.
• Make sure you check with codes in your area, or the manufacturer’s recommendation for installation space away from walls. We had to install so many feet of tile on the wall and floor around out unit.
• Hire a certified installer. I’m not sure our construction manager did and last year we had to secure and level the stove before we could even use it as they also didn’t bolt it to the tile properly.
• Take into consideration if you will really save money by using a wood-burning stove. I understand a cord of wood can run somewhere between $200-$300 now, depending on the area in which you live. We have access to all of the wood we need due to a few storms that have unfortunately, toppled some of our biggest trees. Our only cost comes in the form of chain saw blades and a lot of sweat.
• Wood burns dirtier than fuel, so the consideration of the effect on the environment was a concern for me. However, given we are not off of the grid, and obtain our power from the electric company, which gets it from a nuclear plant hundreds of miles to the south, we figured using a wood burning stove couldn’t be worse.
• Also take into consideration the time spent maintaining the stove. Of course, the ashes have to be taken out daily and the glass has to also be scraped and cleaned at least daily. Between working our jobs and other home projects, we have to make time to cut and split the wood and load, stoke and maintain the fire during the winter. This wasn’t a problem for us last winter when my husband was laid off, but now that I’m the one working from home, the responsibility falls on me and I’ll have to fit that into my daily routine. Also, if someone wasn’t home during the day, I doubt I would trust leaving a fire burning.
• If you’re using an existing stove, I can’t stress enough the importance of having the stovepipe (or flue in the case of a fireplace) inspected and cleaned annually by a certified specialist. We didn’t do this in the bigger home we sold and when it was inspected before being sold we were told we had a flue fire and didn’t know it. We were lucky the whole house didn’t burn due to that damage.

I would be interested to read your stories about wood burners, or wood burners in comparison to pellet burning units.