Ed and Julie McAllen built a gorgeous cordwood home near Galesville, Wisconsin by the Black River. They built it for $23,000 because they recycled, scrounged and did most of the construction themselves. The following article is used with the permission of the editors at New Pioneer Magazine.
Ed and Julie lived in an old cabin while they built their dream home. By looking around for bargains and throw-outs, they were able to build a home for the price of a modest new car.
Bottle ends and special log ends are placed in the walls that detail the families journey to home ownership. There are deer antlers for coat hooks, a bottle end Big Dipper and deer mounts on the walls. With cordwood, there is never a problem finding a place to pound a nail.
Ed and Julie built a root cellar for storing their home canned food. They have access to the Black River and acres and acres of public land.
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Should you wish to learn how to build a cordwood cottage, cabin or home, please visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org While you are there, click on the pictures, read the brief articles, check out the latest workshops and newsletter and if you are interested click on the Online Bookstore to see all the cordwood literature available in print and ebook format.
If you have questions that aren’t answered on the website you can email me at richardflatau@gmail.com
Readers have requested a brief bio, so here goes:
Richard & Becky Flatau built their mortgage-free cordwood home in 1979 in Merrill, Wisconsin. Since then, they have written books, conducted workshops, facilitated the 2005, 2011 and 2015 Cordwood Conferences and provided consultation for thousands of cordwood builders. Cordwood Construction: Best Practices DVD, Cordwood Construction Best Practices (print) and Cordwood Conference Papers 2015 are the newest publications available from their online cordwood bookstore. www.cordwoodconstruction.org
Here is a picture of the Cordwood Workshop Video cover, featuring the Cordwood Education Center.
For more information on Cordwood Construction, click on the picture or visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org Below is the 30 item Video menu.
