Cordwood Dream Home Shines Brightly in Virginia

 

Winona and Donnie share details about their wonderful cordwood creation in Virginia.  This is both a work of art and a cordwood home built using Best Practices. 

Since the house site is in the 100 yr flood zone we had to raise it onto a crawlspace. This presented another challenge as cordwood is a very heavy
building method weighing 500 pounds per lineal foot.

When a man with 40 years experience in the building trades sets out to build his dream retirement home he doesn’t just build an average house.
No, he looks for a type of construction that can show all his skills. That was where my fiance, Donnie Chittum, was 5 years ago, when he and I
started talking about building a house together. That was when I introduced him to cordwood construction. Intrigued by a new, to him, style
of construction, Donnie spent the next two years learning about the nuts and bolts of cordwood. 

The diamond-shaped bottle wall is beautiful to look at and adds a wonderful light to the room. (Bottom) These large clear bottles make for a bright and inviting entrance. 

Eastern red cedar is the gold standard for cordwood building, it is also easy to find where we live, in fact, it’s also considered a weed tree. So when a friend asked us to
help him clear out a back pasture, full of cedar, in exchange for the logs, we jumped at the chance. Over that summer we harvested 14 ton truck-loads of logs, skinned most of
them, set aside the straightest for the post and beam framework.  Then we began the process of cutting and splitting the logs into cordwood. We
ended up with far more than was needed to build the exterior walls of our 1,200 sq ft cabin.

Also, the largest logs were milled into boards to use in framing the window and door boxes. Both Donnie and I wanted as much natural light in the house as possible so
we spent the next winter making bottle logs. Bottle logs are, in Donnie’s words, ‘a poor man’s stained glass’. Being made of two bottles with one, or
both, cut, to be the thickness of the wall when turned with the bottoms facing away from each other. The ends are all you see and they let in lots
of light and add color to the cordwood. A glass atrium appealed to both of us, but that takes a lot of bottles, we spent months raiding local recycling
centers for gallon jugs. But I have to say, it was worth it.
Also, with a house this small storage is a must. So Donnie made a one-of-a-kind spiral staircase to access the attic space over the kitchen and
bedroom. It was all made with hand-milled cedar.  It is a work of art by itself.

The wall in the back of this picture is a stone wall and the vintage wood cook stove will sit in front of it.  The stone will provide fire protection. 

The tile floor leads to the bathroom area. 

Post framework, diagonal bracing, double doors with magnificent bottle end light catchers. The drywall will also add some lighter color to the interior. 

All told this house has been a true story of the old saying that ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

When you live in the country a screen porch is a wonderful thing.  

 

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 pixels

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  2005, 2011 & 2015 Cordwood Conferences, and provided consultation for cordwood builders.  Cordwood Construction: Best Practices DVD (2018),  Cordwood Construction Best Practices 2020 (print & ebook), and Cordwood Conference Papers 2015 are the newest publications available from their Online Cordwood Bookstore.   www.cordwoodconstruction.org

The Cordwood Workshop DVD is like taking a workshop in your living room.

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