Stef Hoff

Everything's easier together. Please let me know if you are in or around the finger lakes region and also interested in buying land.

Is anyone else here in Western New York. I've recently moved to Rochester and I'm looking for small acreage on which to build a tiny house/tiny homestead. What might be some good areas for such a goal?

John F Dean wrote:Given your location, my #1 concern would be zoning and building codes.   Given those clear, I would go for it.

If, you are seriously thinking of a homestead, consider the alternative of keeping a valuable outbuilding and installing a basic shell home.

Thanks for the reply, John. Would you mind expanding on that second thought about a shell home?

There's this lot for sale near me. 6 1/2 acres, nothing on it but a new-ish 24x30 garage with electricity. Got me thinking, why not just live in the garage? I'm in NY.

Is it unfeasible to retrofit this garage with good enough insulation for the brutal winters? What could be done about insulating the foundation?

What else would I need to consider? Putting aside installing water, waste handling, etc., what else would I need to do to make this comfortable to live in?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/821-Kendall-Rd-Churchville-NY-14428/299273870_zpid/

Thanks, John. I have a follow up question/thoughts. I want to build a small house (~700-800 sq ft), not a tiny house (~400 sq ft?). Structurally, I am confident I could build a decent tiny house, but not a small house (I have built small sheds). Can I reduce the problem to building two conjoined tiny houses, that do not structurally depend on each other? My thinking is kind of goofy.

I could build one tiny house one year, and the addition a year later or so.

John C Daley wrote:OK, I am fortunate I seem to have picked up knowledge growing up and built and read about things.

I think its possible to self learn slowly even using small sticks in an apartment.
I would make a list of what I wanted to achieve, work out the subject matters and then looking for You tube videos on each suject.
IE build a shed 4 ft x 4ft with a wooden floor and a skillion roof.
   Foundations- post in ground
                         - Floor bearers
                         - floor joists
                         - flooring material
  Walls - assembling wall frame
            - lining walls outside

        etc etc

I'm stuck in an apartment again, but I want to get hands-on building experience. One day, I want to build a small, NOT tiny, house on our own land.

House Goal:

700 square feet

Frame: Post and beam or perhaps roundwood. But not traditional joinery.

(Non-structural) straw bale walls

Rubble trench foundation

Earthen floor

Rectangular shape not necessary

I am mostly concerned with learning the framing and all the structural parts of building, not so much the wall in-fill and floor (not to say that these things are trivial).

Questions:
So, given these details, what kind of class should I look for?
Should I do one of those week-long tiny house classes? They are keen on natural building techniques.
Should I take a more vocational conventional construction course over several months?
Are there classes out there that focus on post and beam? (I'm having trouble finding them)
What other options are there?

I'm in Western New York, by the way. The closer a class is, the better, of course. Thank you for your wisdom.

Google is failing me, so turning to Permies. Do you guys know of any natural builders near or around Rochester, NY? I am moving there temporarily, and I am hoping to find a place to practice natural building.

I am planning to build a circular house with a reciprocal roof and roundwood.

Current Plan:
- The diameter of the circle is 24 feet.
- 12 posts evenly spaced around this circle.
- 12 main rafters, one over each post join
- 9" thick posts, 9' tall
- 6" thick rafters, about 18-19 feet long. 3' of each rafter is for the eave

In Tony Wrench's book, he adds an inner post under each main rafter (picture from the book attached).

With the above dimensions, is this way overkill, or well worth doing? And what is the best size of this inner circle to take as much of the roof weight as possible? Put another way: At what point along a main rafter should the inner post go?

I would love to be an apprentice for a natural builder. Does anyone know of any natural builders around Southeast Tennessee (I'm near Chattanooga) who would consider taking on an apprentice? They do not have to do exclusively natural building.
I want to learn skills that I will use in my own life while earning a modest pay if possible.

The problem:

I would like to start construction on a straw bale house this year, but the site has no water! My local well companies are backed up with work and it could take a year before I get a well installed, not to mention around $15K. Obviously, I'll need a lot of water for construction, especially for the wall plaster.

Possible Solution?:

Dig a pond. Collect rainwater. Pump the water to the building site.
Attached is a cartoon of the site's layout. The house site is about 10' up on soil. Down the way is a clearing that often floods and is all rocky clay. It retains water extremely well.
I am in Southeast Tennessee, and a Google search tells me I get an average of about 55" of rainfall per year. Just a surface area of 10'x10' should yield 200 to 300 gallons per months. So a 10'x10' pond just a few feet deep would definitely hold all that.

Questions:
Is this a reasonable solution?
How much water should I have on hand for straw bale construction?
For the pump, how many gallons per minute do I need to make plaster mixing reasonably easy?
How much gas can I expect to go through running the pump?

Please tell me what you think and what you would do!