Tom & Mary Barchacky built this beautiful cottage garden shed in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  The entire building was made with recycled materials.  For example: the shake shingles were repurposed from a garage.  The large front window came from a dumpster in an alley in Milwaukee.Barchacky cottage garden shed 4The Eastern Red Cedar cordwood infill was destined to become firewood and was donated by a arborist neighbor.  The front door was nicely handcrafted from materials lying about the Barchacky garage. Barchacky Garden Cottage by Richard Flatau 2The green side door came from a second hand building store.  The timbers were reclaimed from an old barn. Barchacky Garden Cottage by Richard Flatau 1This lovely cottage garden shed was inspired by the D. Stiles book Sheds.  The Barchacky’s spent an afternoon at an open house at our cordwood home in Merrill. Then we communicated through phone and email. Barchacky GARDEN COTTAGE door hand madeThe red center of Eastern Red Cedar is very attractive and smells like a hope chest. Barchacky GARDEN COTTAGE 5 small pixI asked the editor of Backhome Magazine if he would like to have an article about this DIY project.  The rest, as they say, is history!  Barchacky Cover of Backhome 102 600 pixels.jpg

This became one of the most popular articles in Backhome’s history and has been used extensively in their advertising.

Barchacky Truss derrick.jpg

This is a close up of the truss derrick they built to place the hand-made trusses on the top sill plates.

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.Cordwood Construction Best Practices Front_Cover_-_CC_Best_Practices small pixelsIf 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 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

For more information on Cordwood Construction, click on the picture or visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org