How I Built Our Cordwood/Stackwall Cottage - Part 2 of 2

[PUFFTHEMAGICMARMOT]

Nice work on house, and vids, and music. I'm trying to do this myself, and I am dealing with the land purchase phase- a real pain in the ass. I want to build a couple of round houses and a hexagonal tower out of grey fieldstone, which in CO is kind of a misnomer, in that the rocks come from the mountains...

[anyonefindAMERICA]

Nice homestead!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

@anyonefindAMERICA Thanks!

[gilbertooreste]

beautiful work !! 5*

[GeraldBoyClassical]

@gilbertooreste Thankyou!

[Hydromama1]

Awesome yall I cant wait to build our own thanks so much!! 10stars **********

[GeraldBoyClassical]

@Hydromama1 Thankyou. All the best!

[sandfordhilldave1]

Awesome! 5* n favourited n shared. Very inspirational.

Thanks for posting

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks for sharing!! Glad you enjoyed it.

Gerald

[TikiTerrace]

Incredible!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thankyou. It looks like an interesting restaurant you have there.

[DoctorsWife56]

Congrats on a very pretty place!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks Donna.

[nitabearmitchell]

Beautiful and inspiring. we just bought land and will start in January. Still deciding if we want round or a rectangle. how do you like living in a round house?

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Currently, it's our cottage. Some day we plan to move there. A round building has a completely different vibe than a rectangular one. It's a bit disconcerting at first, being in a room with no corners. But somehow more relaxing.

[snowfloatn]

Yeah Buddy! Good job Gerald Boy! That is proud! Beautiful music to accompany your awesome project. You inspire me!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks, snowfloatn! Glad you enjoyed the music, they're my own compositions. Do you have plans to build your own project?

[oropuropersempre]

i enjoyed the video .. thanks for sharing your experience with us.. and good music too!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thank you, oropuropersempre - sorry I took so long to comment, don't know how I missed this! Glad you enjoyed my musical compositions as well as the video.

[breezebro]

How much do you want for that cat?

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Sorry, not available at any price! lol

[8superrocky1]

love it .

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thankyou!

[MatthewFlynn]

Excellent video and accompaning music. If you had a tractor, could you have put the round bale on the roof and unrolled it in place? I am in the planning stages right now and didn't know if there was a reason that I should not leave mine knitted together.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Hi Mathew. Yes I could have. Make sure your walls are completely sealed as any insect in the hay will try to go into the building.

[ohgoshnonamesleft]

What an awesome video with heaps of info!

Well done, I hope it is everything you ever dreamed of as you worked so hard to create it!!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks, OhGoshNoNamesLeft. (Love that name!) It is indeed worth all the hard work that went into it. It's our escape, our place of serenity where we go to renew ourselves before going back to the rat race.

[eddiequest2]

I am awed, exhilerated, and humbled. This place you have made, as is the music you played, is simply beautiful.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Hi, eddiequest2, somehow missed that you'd commented on both my videos. I'm glad you enjoyed the music; if you're interested, my cds are available through CDBaby as well as through download sites like iTunes, Napster, etc. Just search for Gerald Boy. Thanks again for taking the time to view and comment.

[offyou123]

Thank you so much, I,m sure I will need all the help I can get when I start to build My house. I plan to start in the spring getting the site ready. Robert

[offyou123]

Hi , you did a real nice job, it,s my dream to build one for myself to live in .

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks, offyou123. That's our dream too, is to some day move there and live in this wonderful building. They're a lot of work to build, but definitely worth it. If you ever want any information or advice on how to build stackwall, let me know!

Gerald

[odin422]

so cool.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks!!

[KingBeeINC]

love it. perfect. how did you do with getting the go-ahead from the building inspector? i know that can be a pain with "alternative" construction.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Wasn't a problem as there are a few stackwall stuctures in the area.

[camomule]

Bravo! Great job playing...and PLAYING! I wanna cordhome when I "grow up!" ;-)

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Go for it!!

Gerald

[OnlynameIcouldpick]

Was wondering what a ball park cost to build something like that would be. Not trying to pry, just want to know if I have enough frogskins to pull it off!!!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Hi,

It cost approximately $20,000 back in the early '90's. If you have carpenter ants in your area, I don't recommend the grass roof. See my videos about replacing the roof because of carpenter ant infestation. : ( They're in the playlist on my channel's home page.

[Miyanovich]

Gerald,

Thank you for sharing. As a singer/songwriter and green builder who is considering cordwood construction, I have to say your youtube page is right up my alley. I will continue to visit. Thank you for having your music play as well. Fantastic my friend!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Your most welcome.

Take care,

Gerald

[GraemeBerke]

Is the roof still performing well?

Funny, but, I just scrolled down and you answered my question already. Are you a mind reader aswell?

Kidding, G.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Hi Graeme

Sorry, somehow missed replying to your comment! As you know by the comments you read, we had to replace the roof. If you're interested in the details, there are six (!) videos showing the process. I've got all the cottage videos in a playlist on my channel's home page.

Gerald

[Garrulous123]

The steps were very well documented. I really appreciated the detail. Thank you!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

You are very welcome!

Gerald

[heyteach2]

I really enjoyed this!!! It was very interesting to watch and I enjoyed the little jokes too!

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Not sure if you're aware, there is another video of how the cottage was built, plus three about what the cottage looks like inside and out, and six about how we had to replace the roof. If you go to my channel, I've set up a playlist of them all.

Gerald

[grinninggnome]

Those were two very lovely videos set to some wonderful music. Be blessed.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thank you so much for your kind words.

Gerald

[forgeblast]

How do you heat the house?

[GeraldBoyClassical]

We use a small 'Regency' wood stove; and sometimes two portable radiant electric oil heaters just to take the chill out.Very easy to heat!

Regards

Gerald

[GeraldBoyClassical]

By the way - I've just set up a Playlist that has all of our cottage videos in it. You might be interested in checking that out. One of the videos shows the interior of the cottage.

[NotaTrollTravlin]

sorry to hear about the roof, I would have loved to see the wild flowers on it

Nota

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Yeah, Nota, we were really disappointed to have to go with a non-living roof. Just couldn't afford to have carpenter ants eat through it and have to replace the entire roof right down to the beams. It was bad enough as it was, having to replace all the layers on top. : (  I don't know if you saw, but I posted six videos documenting the roof replacement.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Oh - and I've got three videos that are a walk-around of the cottage exterior and interior that you might enjoy.

[NotaTrollTravlin]

not yet, I cant even remember how I came a crossed you. - you have to have made a comment on somebody that subs to me.

Nota

[mariner40]

Awesome Gerald! Where did you learn how to do this and what part of the country/world are you in? Your sense of architecture totally matches that place.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Hi Mariner40,

I learned from Rob Roy's "complete book of Cordwood Masonry Housebuilding". The cottage is in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

Cheers,

Gerald Boy

[la1880]

Wow you are so multi-talented my dear!

Have a nice weekend! Love to your lovely wife!

Natasha

xoxo

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks, Natasha. And a Happy New Year to you!

Gerald

[ickycan]

Thank you very cool

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Thanks ickycan!

[Spartreeman]

Thanks Gerald for the show....my heartrate is slow and easy!

Very soothing to watch and listen and think about future projects.......AAAAAHHHHHHH!! :-)

It must be great to sleep in, very quiet and snug??

Have you been there for a good Ottawa Valley snow storm?

Any problems to date?

[GeraldBoyClassical]

Yes, it's very, very quiet. When it's pouring rain, we don't even know it unless we look outside. And it's a beautiful place in an Ottawa Valley snow storm. : )

[Zarbod]

Gerald, that's amazing! Do you mow your roof or just let it go wild? I'm thinking about building a quiggly hole with a low roof covered with grass. Looks like a great house. I'll have to write down the tech specs for the roof covering.

[GeraldBoyClassical]

I just let it go wild. One year we planted wild flowers, but it eventually turned mostly to weeds and moss. Unfortunately, I ended up having to remove the roof right down to the plastic covering and replace all the sod and composted hay with crushed stone. I had an infestation of carpenter ants. They made their homes in the insulation, fortunately, and not in the wood of the roof itself.