Rich and I were playing around with the idea of creating a temporary shelter while we work on the corn crib. The main goal in this is to maintain friendly relations with my parents by getting out of their house ASAP. We love each other dearly, but we can also drive each other crazy. At least we know this going into the project. So with that in mind our first goal is to be able to live on our own (safely) on the property starting next winter.

We know that the proceeds from the sale of our house won’t cover the initial costs of getting the corn crib dried in to support us. The other option? Build a simple structure with just the basics for survival to get us through. I’ve been researching options for several days. Here are the results of my research:

• Yurt? Not hardy enough and too expensive
• Deltec? Too expensive
• Dome? Doesn’t fit the site and too expensive.
• Premade Cabin? Not environmentally friendly and too expensive
• Quanset hut? Right price, but hard to insulate and not terribly aesthetically pleasing
• Site built stick frame cabin? Still a slight possibility
• Cob Cottage? Our favorite at the moment.

Notice a theme here? When on a limited budget and paying cash cost is a major concern and we can’t afford to pay for the convenience of a pre-built kit.

So why even bother with a temporary shelter? We know that the corn crib will be an awesome home, but realize that we will have a need to a separate office/guest house. If we can reuse this structure for that purpose then we have killed two birds with one stone. Even though we aren’t putting our initial funds directly into the corn crib, it will still go toward the common goal.

Our solution? Cob! Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. When moistened, combined and formed into walls makes an incredibly strong, durable, and inexpensive structure. With simple site soil testing you can create your own mix with materials on site. The walls can be load bearing or be infill in a post and beam structure. Another interesting feature of cob building is how free form and sculptural the home can be.

Cob buildings have been built in England for hundreds of years and many are still standing today!

Check out http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cob.htm for more info on cob building.

Another good source of info is the book Building Green by Clarke Snell which details building earth based structures.

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We just signed a contract on the Colorado house! We didn’t get quite the asking price we wanted, but in this market, who does? Assuming the time line goes as planned we will be pulling a U-Haul to Omaha on the weekend of April 13th.

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Okay, we didn’t really stomp any weasels. Not sure if Iowa even has any weasels. However, we did find that our RV oven that had been stored in the machine shed was converted into a nest for some creature. Just an example of city folk coming to the country.


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Well, I guess we neglected to tell everyone that we were taking a spring break trip to the farm. Sorry, won’t happen again. We did tell the Offenburgers and they immediately offered us a place to stay.

Tuesday March 13^th

We arrived in at the farm on Tuesday and unloaded a bunch of stuff into the machine shed. Mostly stuff that we had in our yard in Colorado. The weather was amazing with a high of 72 degrees! Luckily we had also loaded up a few plastic chairs and did a bit of sunbathing. We were also able to open up some of the ladder in the corn crib to get into the middle bin.

Mason and I thought it would be fun to take the GPS receiver and track the property line. We knew it would be muddy because of the recent blizzard and then warm weather. We got our mud boots on and prepared to set off. Everything was going fine until we got to the west side of the barn. We had made it fine through the plowed areas on the south side on the property. It was slow going to make sure we didn’t lose our shoes, but we made it. We had no idea just how muddy a thoroughly wet, plowed field in spring can be!

After we turned the southwest corner marker we started sinking quicker and deeper. Soon I realized that this was going to take a while. Then I realized, that we weren’t going to make it to the next marker on this particular course. I stashed my GPS receiver in my shirts. “We’ll finish this in the summer.” I told Mason and began looking for escape routes.

By this time Mason had lost a sock and a boot to the mud and his morale was quickly slipping. I finally decided to have him ditch all boots and socks and make a run for the side of the barn where there was a small strip of grass. It’s amazing how well you sink in boots! He walked right across and starting bawling that he didn’t want to leave his boots. Using a bit of brute strength and lots of wiggling, I freed the boots and tossed them to him. In order to get my boots and myself out I had to put my hands in the mud and pull at an angle. I finally made it over to the grass and we trekked back to the truck to attempt to clean up.

That evening we went over to the Offenburger’s for food, conversation, sleep and a well needed shower.

Wednesday March 14^th

Wonderful sleep and a lazy morning in the country. We got off to a relaxed start, but got ready for a busy day. Our first stop was the People’s Trust and Savings in Rippey. I finally got to meet Melissa Berry who was our angel at the bank. She was the one who made our land loan a go.

Next stop was lunch and errands in Jefferson. We had lunch at Breadeaux pizza on the town square. We really like the Uptown Cafe, but it can be a pretty smoky place. Cigarette smoke has some strange effects on Rich and sometimes he’ll brave for their awesome biscuits and gravy, but not today, he was coming down a with a cold.

We found that the courthouse in Jefferson is an amazingly beautiful, well preserved jewel. It was such a pleasure to see such a beautiful old building well kept and still used for its original purpose. We got our official Iowa license plates for the truck and stopped by the County Sanitarian’s office. We left a message about getting our well tested and also asked a few questions. We wanted to find out what kind of building permits we might need. The answer. . . none (except septic and well)! “In town you do, but not out in the country.” We were shocked to say the least. We didn’t realize that Jefferson itself wasn’t “out in the country.”

Still reeling from the shock of no building permits, we walked to the other side of the square to visit Judy Von Ahsen at Marso-Peckumn Real Estate. Judy was the real estate agent that helped make our dream a reality. We chatted for quite a while. Rich and Mason had met Judy once before the land was purchased, but I never had. Mason charmed her with his math skills and we discussed our plans for the corn crib.

After a short nap at the Super 8, we headed back over to the Offenburger’s for a last minute reception. Guess what? Folks in Iowa show up ON TIME!! People being late is one of my pet peeves. I think I may have found my mecca. Despite being a “7-ish come and go” affair, most everyone showed up at or near 7pm. Around 20 people in all joined at the Offenburger house to snack on “Cooper Crackers”, Angel Food Cake with Strawberries, and brownies (yum!) and meet us. We got to chat with quite a few of our neighbors.

We learned a ton about life in Iowa, life on a farm, and the history of our place from our new neighbors. I’ll detail all that in another blog entry (stay tuned. . .) and on the “about the farm” page soon. We had a fabulous time and had never met such a wonderfully, friendly group of people. I’m also not sure that I’ve ever received so many dinner invitations at once. Lol! I just hope I’m not too shy to call when we get back into town.

Thursday March 15^th

Our last day in Iowa for this trip. We met Carla Offenburger at the farm in the morning so she could take a few family pictures for their site. After Carla left, we spent the next couple of hours raking old hay out of the barn. We got about 2/3 of it cleared out. The floor was still good in most places. So far we have only found one rotten floor board. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the rest of it. Now we’re off back to Omaha and then Colorado.

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Here’s a little tour of our preliminary plans for the corn crib. First a few words about scale. When we first saw pictures of the corn crib it looked pretty small. Maybe enough to build a little guest studio. However, when you stand next to it, the size is incredible. It’s foot print is about 31′ x 26′ which is about 806 square feet. From the ground it is about 28 feet to the peak of the roof. That does NOT include the height of the cupola. We haven’t been able to get close enough to measure the cupola yet.

Remember!! You can click on the picture to view it full size!

The bottom floor will serve several purposes. The south facing side will be a greenhouse. The middle area will be an entryway and workshop area. I hate to call it a garage since we haven’t and probably won’t ever park a vehicle in there. The north third will be our mechanical and laundry area. Stairs on the east side will take you up into the main living area.

On the main living floor (which is technically the second floor) we will have my office, the living room, the kitchen, Mason’s room and a full bathroom. Again for scale, Mason’s room (before the closet is put in) will be 16 feet long by 8 feet deep.

The kitchen will have an island with an eating bar since we decided not to have an actual dining room. We will also have a very large pantry area along the north wall of the kitchen.

The living room configuration will probably change a bit as the plans do not show room for a wood stove.

We are going to try to put as many windows as possible on the west wall of the living room since we don’t plan to put any dormers in the roof.

As far as for the ceiling height on this floor, there will be an eight foot ceiling from the edge of the island all the way into Mason’s room. The office and living area will be completely open to the cupola. It probably won’t be a direct line of sight to the middle of the cupola, but you will be able to see that it is there. Plus it will be very useful for ventilation.

The third floor will have the master bedroom and bath along with seating for our home theater. We haven’t decided on access for this floor yet. We would love to have stairs, however, if we can’t get them to fit, then we’ll just have a library ladder. Our bath probably won’t be a full bath, but will at least have a shower, toilet, and sink. More than we have to ourselves now! The seating area will overlook the windows on the west wall and the living room. We will also hang a projection screen on the wall above the windows that we can roll down to watch movies.

While this floor plan doesn’t take into account a few of the things we would really like to have in our “dream home”, it is a definite step up in size for us. The things we are sacrificing in order to have such a unique home?

1. A large master bath with a big bathtub.
2. A completely separate office for Rich.
3. A separate kitchen for canning and homebrewing.
4. A guest room.

These were all things that aren’t necessary, but would eventually be nice if we decide to build a separate house.

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