Solar power, captured rainwater and a wood stove is how we lived last year while building our forever home.
I wrote about our leaving the corporate world to live internationally before moving back to a farm in the Virginia Appalachians previously here..
Giving up everything for the simple life. Part I
Giving up everything for the simple life. Part II
Giving up everything for the simple life. Part III
Now I want to show you what it was like living in a barn/shed for a year with temps ranging from -5 F to 95 F.
We moved into the barn in February straight off the plane from living in Guatemala. I had some wood stacked up and that was it. First thing I did to help hold in the heat was to cover the ceiling with plastic. It made a huge difference. We found we could keep the barn about 40 degrees above the outside temps which is pretty good for an unfinished barn. But when it drops to zero that means we could barely keep it above freezing inside. However due to the tin roof, if it was a very sunny day, we could easily have the barn at 65 degrees F from the sun heating it. We still had to replace the toilet twice as it froze and busted.
In the summer it was frequently over 90 F in the barn! During those days we would spend our time at the creek in the shade. I also installed a 12v radiator fan in the ceiling to suck out the hot air. It was a big help.
My wife made the barn a cozy place. We used a tarp to make a patio and she hung candle chandeliers and did her best to make it feel like home. However, patio furniture is not very comfortable for living on. Also sleeping on an air mattress for a year can be trying.
Why....
We thought about getting a camper and living in it, but decided the money could be better spent by building a barn and using it as an RV while building our home.
How...
We have nearly 1000 wattts of solar power with 4 tractor batteries for storage. This provided lights, music, gizmo charging and on sunny mornings we could use the electric coffee maker. Eventually we even got internet access.
We did install a bathroom and shower using rainwater captured from the roof and a propane hot water heater. That felt like living the high Life to take a hot shower in the freezing winter.
Our most important and heavily used tool is the wood stove. It provides our warmth, our cooking and dries our clothes. We cooked every meal on it for a year except when we used our rocket stove.
Water system...
We used the gutters to direct rain water into barrels. One barrel was setup to keep a large tank in the basement of the barn filled via a float valve. The water pump was a 12v RV style pressure pump. It worked great.
For drinking water we filled jugs at our spring and carried them to the barn.
There were some hardships, but we really loved our time living in the barn. However, we had our house to look forward too. I'm not sure I could make it long term like this. Well, at least not without insulation to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer. One thing is for sure, we will not be taking anything for granted in our house. I will always remember what it's like to not have running water and electricity or be warm on cold nights. I think we took much more from our time in the barn than we ever thought.