14 DAY TRIAL // A Welsh hillside is the place where Simon Dale, a 32-year-old with no experience in carpentry or architecture, decided to build a sustainable, low-budget home for his family.
Despite denying any inspiration from Bilbo Baggins’ home in The Shire, the Dale family could easily excite any Lord of the Rings fan.
Dale and his father in law used just a chainsaw, a hammer and 1-inch chisel to build the house. It took them just four months and some £3,000/$4,700/€3,500 to get it done, and the end result is quite impressive.
“Being your own have-a-go architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass-produced box designed for maximum profit and the convenience of the construction industry,” Dale said. “Building from natural materials does away with producers’ profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.”
After digging into the hillside, Dale came up with the timber frame and then the roof, enabling the family to stay sheltered while he continued work.
“Some past experience, lots of reading and self-belief gave us the courage of our conviction that we wanted to build our own home in natural surroundings. There were times of stress and exhaustion, but definitely no regrets and plenty of satisfaction,” the wife says.
The ‘hobbit-house’ comes with separate kitchen, living and bedroom space, and features a a compost toilet, a refrigerator cooled by air from underneath the building itself and a set of solar panels for power.
“These sort of low cost, natural buildings have a place not only in their own sustainability, but also in their potential to provide affordable housing which allows people access to land and the opportunity to lead more simple, sustainable lives,” Dale continues.