How to build a small comfortable home for a young family

Motive

It all started when my husband and I decided to become parents. By that time, we had a plot of 15 acres near Chelyabinsk, kindly provided by the village administration. An open field with a picturesque forest on one side, and a view of residential buildings on the other. Later, a new microdistrict of several streets will grow here, but in 2013 we were alone in an open field.

Wandering around rented apartments with an unborn child was wildness for us, but there was no savings for a full-fledged cottage yet. After much deliberation, it was decided to build a small house with an area of ​​36 square meters. In the future, the house could be expanded or left for a comfortable bath.

Layout

All winter we puffed over the layout, crumpled paper in bundles flew into the trash can.
And finally, 36 meters were divided into a living room, an 8-meter kitchen, a corridor and a shared bathroom. An environmentally friendly tree was unconditionally chosen as a material, or rather a pine bar with a cross section of 150 mm, because the house was built primarily for a healthy and happy childhood of the future baby.

Directly construction

On May 1, 2013, work began on the excavation of the shallow foundation and the installation of the formwork. It took about three weeks to fill the foundation and lay the plinth.

It was decided to build the house from the foundation to the roof with our own hands out of economy and in order to know for sure all the weaknesses of the future home.

In June, work began on the construction of the walls: the timber was laid with jute and fastened to nails for reliability.

By the end of June, the roof was erected, the floor and ceiling were installed and insulated, doors and windows were inserted. It was necessary to insulate the house from the outside (we live in the Urals) and sheathe it with siding. This work was also carried out independently, but due to lack of experience and painstaking work, they lost a whole month.

At this time, work was in full swing inside the house: they glued the ceiling tiles, putty the seams, painted the walls. Autumn brought us the drilling of a well, the installation of a metal stove, the distribution of heating, the installation of a sewerage system with a cesspool.

Home stretch

On the first of December, under the beautiful fabulous snow, my newborn son and I moved to a new house, to a new happy life, where there were three of us.

conclusions

Having lived in this house for about five years, I can safely draw the following conclusions:
1. A log house shrinks for two to three years. Due to temperature changes, the timber shrank and cracked. In this regard, the plaster from the drywall seams fell out and every year it was necessary to carry out cosmetic repairs.

2. If there is no experience or there is a time frame, it is better to entrust siding to professionals.

3. The issue of planning must be approached as responsibly as possible.

4. Most importantly, you don't need to be afraid of difficulties! After all, to overcome difficulties means to prove that they did not exist at all. Do you agree?